Ceremonies With Plants of Power 

Every year, thousands of foreigners travel to places like South America to participate in ceremonies with plants of power like Ayahuasca and San Pedro. While visionary ceremonies like these have helped countless people, an unexpected result of the popularity of these ceremonies is that to the layperson, the shaman’s role has been conflated to that of a ceremonial guide. Furthermore, the financial gain associated with performing these ceremonies has resulted in local medicine men and women focusing only on these ceremonies at the cost of studying other techniques, further reducing overall knowledge within the field.

While I am familiar with performing these ceremonies, I do not work with these medicines in the United States; the legal landscape right now is far too fraught. Additionally, there are countless other ceremonies involving plants of power that do not require patients to drink visionary medicines with strong physiological effects. In fact, these ceremonies do not require the patient to take anything at all. One does not need to have their mind blown in order to receive healing.

So, what do these alternative ceremonies look like? Well, in order to explain, I should first try to explain how a shaman’s training works. Shamans of the Amazonian tradition undertake what is universally known as a dieta, a rigorous regimen that combines extreme dietary restrictions and the frequent imbibing of a specific teacher plant over the course of weeks or months. During this apprenticeship, the shaman develops a connection with the plant that culminates in the practitioner receiving knowledge from the plant on how to heal others. Most importantly, the shaman learns how to invoke the plant whenever it is needed. In other words, from that day on, they no longer need to be on a dieta deep in the forest, nor do they need to have taken the medicine. They could be in a small office space in Brooklyn and have the spirit of the plant appear before them, ready to help heal their patient! Good shamans study many different plants during their apprenticeship, with each one bringing something to the table. We have plants that specialize in things like bringing clarity, opening up the heart, combating sorcery, deep cleaning the body, helping with bone and tendon issues, and many more!

And so, I perform ceremonies with plants of power in three stages. The first stage is the invocation of the plant itself, which is accomplished through song. The second stage is the treatment of the patient. And the final stage involves closing the space and thanking the plant for its presence.

If you would like to learn more, Contact me.