Nature as Medicine
Nature as healer offers the most potent medicine there is. I have felt the medicine in profound ways that continue to ease my soul and support living a purposeful and soulful life. I share a series of short stories about intimate encounters with mother nature, in her many forms, to share the medicine I have received and continue to receive.
Climbing Trees
I look up and down, at her great height and admire how firmly she stands holding out many open arms. I move in and admire the fascinating lines that form the rough skin that shields her; dry and earth-scented. She stands rooted and I in her shade. She enjoys the way I look closely at the crevices on her trunk as I search for her face, her faces. I notice all the creatures that coexist on the surface and hidden crevices of her body.
She invites me on her shoulders; I reach for a sturdy branch, pressing my weight on her solid earth-made arms. I climb, as I trust, I feel safe in her branches. She is sturdy and takes pride in feeling the wonder that escapes me when I see from her perspective, high on her branches she is my faithful friend.
Guatemala
The land of my ancestors, the birth home that calls my father and mother back to her, Guatemala calls me to her. I move upon her terrain to know her intimately and experience her wild and unbound nature. I travel through the unpaved gravel roads, deep into her mountains, her jungle is green and lush, I search for her treasures. She takes me to portals into other realms, her dark cave, great green mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and coastal waters, el poso vivo, known to swallow what falls into the crystal-clear water. I walk to the top of the great Mayan pyramids in Tikal where I see the vast green jungle all around me and the open sky above. Deep in my bones, I know that I am in a sacred place, forever transformed.
The trees are crying
I lay on a large boulder as I set my intention with the plant medicine I invite into my body. It is close to sunset and the air is cool and crisp as I look around the mountain. I am receptive and feel the trees summon me to climb them, as I did long ago when I was a child. It feels natural to use my four limbs in an animal way, I hug the branch I sit on as I rest my head. The sun is setting, it is the last light and the ground beneath begins to move and darkness becomes freighting. I feel the need to crawl up the hill to return back to the paved surface to shelter, I ask my partner for support.
Once sheltered, there is nothing I can do but close my eyes and surrender to the images that flood my mind's eye. I see countless symbols, images of a white light that offers a soothing peace. I see a white path that leads to a Mayan pyramid, surrounded by darkness. I see great trees with ancient faces, eyes opening and closing, the veins of the trees move me into the earth and I feel how intimately connected I am to the land. I am struck with sorrow, “the trees are crying,” I say to my partner as I weep along with them. The medicine continues to communicate through images, through an enhanced perception that calls me to remember and surrender any effort to be in control.
Sana, Sana, colita de rana: Kambo
I sit on the floor in an open circle, surrounded by friends as the Kambo facilitator opens the ceremony. I watch the facilitator burn three small circles in a line on the skin of my inner right ankle and place the frog medicine on my burnt skin with a small stick. I close my eyes to breathe and begin to feel my heartbeat quicken and heat begin to rise in my body. I am flooded with overwhelming sensations that there is no escaping, any resistance brings more discomfort, my body aches and I fight a strong urge to collapse. I concentrate on breathing, on the smell of burning sage, the chanting, the rattling, and the drumming sounds coming from the Kambo facilitator, they ease my being. I feel myself begin to drift away as I concentrate on the white light in my mind's eye, my body droops down, no longer being able to support my own weight, the facilitator supports me attentively chanting and invoking sacred sounds as I ground into my body. My body is ready to release, deep from my gut I purge uncontrollably all the water I drank as part of the ceremony. Foul scented yellow and green vile come out of me, along with deep grunting sounds, there is no resisting, no hiding, only releasing what the medicine is clearing from my body. With nothing left to purge, I rest on a blanket and pillow on the floor and continue to honor the space for my friends.
End of 2020
Deep in the desert, I sit on hill of dry desert sand facing an open and vast land. The sun is setting and the clouds are moving towards the sun as he calls the clouds to him. The sun’s last peek is out of sight behind the far of dessert mountain, but its lights paint the clouds, that move like waves, a luminous orange-magenta. In the horizon, in a strip of cloud less sky, I see the tribal patterns perceived by ancient eyes, the stories of tribes. The clouds transform into horses running into the pink and blue sunset sky, the entire sky above me is alive with glorious light, I am overwhelmed with awe. The dessert floor supports me and I am full of gratitude as my heart prays. It's no ordinary sunset, it’s the end of 2020 and the beginning of a new phase.
Limpia
I sing in the moonlight as I cut a white rose and a handful of sage leaves from the garden of my parents' home. I gather fresh basil, a ose quartz, amethyst and moon stone crystal, along with Geranium and Millingtonia essential oil and mint, lavender, chamomile tea bags in a basket. I fill the tub with hot water as I invite healing into the space and thank the herbs, crystals and oils for their healing properties as I drop them into the steaming water. I lite two candles, burn incense and listen to curandera music. I slowly move into the hot water, allowing my body to adjust to the heat. Once fully emerged I lay my head back and begin to sing along to the chants of the songs that call me to remember my soul's purpose. The vapors of the medicine steam, opening my pours and seeping into my skin, as the room becomes dense with humidity. I feel my chest, and notice an urge to escape the discomfort of the heat, as my tiered body aches I bring myself to surrender. My soul reminds me of what I am called into this world to do, to heal and to love.
Integration
In 2013, I spent a month with my father and grandmother traveling all over Guatemala, an experience that activated the spiritual journey that led me to seek alternative medicine. The experiences I have with plant medicine in the form of psilocybin served as a means to expand my conscious awareness thereby shatter limiting paradigms and reactivate awareness and connection to the natural world. Dorsen, Palamar & Shedlin note that the use of plant medicine offers healing when it used in a ceremonial manner, compared to recreational use, as it considers a proper setting, preparation, diet, a stated intention, community support, a facilitator/guide and integration of the experience into everyday life (2019). Similarly, the Kambo ceremony allowed me to reclaim my body, witness its ability to cleanse and release toxicity, as well as experience my resiliency and strength. “Kambo healing involves core transpersonal principles of eco-psychology and eco-therapy that engage the transformative potency of nature in the form of the jungle frog’s venom and produces personal transformation and self-actualization through the intrinsic meanings provided by purging and intensified relations with nature” (Hesselink & Winkelman, 2019).
The experience with the plant medicine induced and activated alerted states that provoked my mind and body; however, the integration of the experience is continued reverence for nature medicine, by continuously and consciously engaging the body, imagination and a sense of wonder. Recognizing that a sunset is a sacred cycle of the natural world, death and rebirth, wisdom known to indigenous people that are intimately connected to the land. Engaging in symbolic rituals in communion with natures elements support spiritual healing, energetic cleansing and the soul retrieval process (Buenflor, 2019). The call is to engage the body and regain childlike splendor, using the limbs to run, climb, dance, laugh, shout, sing and cry. Full of imagination and wonder, aware that the world is alive and intuitively animate the world. A tree is a breathing being, soulful and sentient, after all, mother nature is devotedly present, and sustains all who call upon her.
References
Buenaflor, E. (2019). Curanderismo Soul Retrieval: ancient shamanic wisdom to restore the sacred energy of the soul. Bear & Company. Rochester, Vermont.
Dorsen, C., Palamar, J., & Shedlin, M. G. (2019). Ceremonial “Plant Medicine” use and its relationship to recreational drug use: an exploratory study. Addiction Research & Theory, 27(2), 68–75. https://doi-org.pgi.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/16066359.2018.1455187
Keppel Hesselink, J. M., & Winkelman, M. (2019). Vaccination with Kambo against bad influences: Processes of symbolic healing and ecotherapy. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 51(1), 28–48.
