Can psychedelics become the new family affair?
Before being labelled as “magic” Psilocybin Mushrooms are considered as “sacred” by the Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico. Nahuatl language the word Teonanacatl, literally means “The flesh of God”. The consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms as sacred still survives in a few small villages as a ritual.
In 1953, American banker, Robert Gordon Wasson with a passion for mycology, was among the first to discover the continuance of the ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms among the Mazatecs. On his journey of exploration in Mexico, Wasso met the world-renowned healer and the Shaman, Maria Sabina. Very quickly, touring Mexico in search of Maria Sabina became an initiatory journey for any follower of the psychedelic trend in the ’50s including figures as diverse as John Lennon, Jim Harrison, Aldous Huxley and Walt Disney.
Other traces show that the use of mushrooms dates back to even earlier times as more than 200 “stone mushrooms” found in Chiapas and Guatemala in Quiché and Mam lands. Some date more than 3,000 years ago.
Mexico’s Zapotec indigenous tribe uses hallucinogenic mushrooms as a ritual to initiate children around the age of 5 to celebrate the passage of infancy to childhood. Another fascinating tradition is from the indigenous people of the Mazatec tribe, where many members of the same family eat the mushrooms together; father, mother, children, uncles, and aunts all participate in the transformation of their minds as they elevate consciousness onto a higher state.
The ancient indigenous wisdom and the rituals around Psilocybin Mushrooms give us hope that maybe, Psilocybin can be the agent in solving a lot of the dysfunctional family dynamics in the civilised western world.
As the pandemic keeps on pressing, need for urgent transformation is increasing. I cannot help but to think that maybe pandemic is the manifestation of the cosmic consciousness conspiring to create a new way being as a collective. Maybe it’s an initiation to “reset” our body and mind, transcend the toxic wiring of the unconscious and open ourselves to grasp the bigger picture. Maybe it’s an initiation to grow in humility and let go of the destructive beliefs of separation. Maybe it’s an initiation to finally respect and reconnect to the sacred plant medicines, and develop a sustainable new world. Little do we know that Psychedelics may be the most potent ally we will have as species that would play a role in initiating humanity in this passage of pre-covid to the post-covid realm.
Mush Love
