Kathleen Harrison describes her experiences with Salvia Divinorum and modern day Mazatec Shamans. Valuable information in these videos include: descriptions of Salvia Divinorum's natural habitat, Mazatec reverence, traditions of shamanic use, and respect for the goddess.
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Transcript
Part 1
[0:03; this first part has a lot of gibberish because she is mumbling]
And then there's been much talk lately about Salvia Divinorum, oh for a few years now, but right now, as of about two weeks ago, it's up again as a big topic in the U.S. Um, due to be scheduled, schedule one I hear, um that was rumored a long time ago, and it was rescheduled to be made illegal, the compound, Salvinorin I believe, but um not the plant.
Modern America we have wild teenagers photographing themselves, going crazy and doing really dangerous things after smoking and using salvia in different ways. And then they photograph themselves and put it on YouTube and so everybody can see it. So that's gotten to Washington D.C. and now we're going to have this plant illegal, too.
And so, this is a um, I imagine everyone here has heard of this, but this only grows in the Mazatec region of Mexico, nowhere else in the world, this species, and it ranges from doing nothing, in some peoples' experience, to doing everything, and many people have just plain weird experiences with it, not good, some people have bad experiences, and a lot of weird, that's what you hear most often, but I feel strongly that's because it's not done in the right way, and so I will tell you what I've learned from the Mazatecs who are the only people who have a tradition of using it. The only people on the planet, ever, who have a tradition of using it, as far as we know.
[1:36]
Um, there's the size that it can grow to. That's a dose. In their world, that also happens to be 39 pairs of leaves, which, if you've chewed fresh salvia, which is the way that they do it, that's a lot of leaves to chew. And uh, but no doubt about it is a real experience, and for me it has been a stunningly beautiful experience. Um, so I'm just gonna give you my heartfelt advice really quick, please pass it on, it's uh, she's female. Ojas de la pastora, that's her name there, ska pastora, in Mazatec. Pastora is the shepherdess, or she who watches over, a little different than Mary, um, and uh, a little more on the edge, a little more wild.
And the plant grows in little glades in the woods where it's moist and filtered light, doesn't grow in people's gardens, or they don't grow it in gardens, they grow it off the trail so that people, strangers walking by won't see it, it won't pollute it, keep it clean, keep her clean, always refer to her as 'her.' And I try to do that, too. And she's very shy. She's very powerful, but she's very shy. They compare her to the deer, who'll come to the edge of the glen, the garden, and then if you make a noise or move quickly, or startle, then, and go away.
[3:10]
And um, they also compare themselves to the deer. Um, their people. And uh, and they say that she likes to be cool and moist, the plant likes to be, the goddess in her likes to be cool and moist. So, when I have informed them, I waited years to try and tell them this, but that the plant had made it to the United States and that people were drying the leaves and smoking them, they were just appalled people were drying the leaves 'cuz she wouldn't like that at all. And they were doubly appalled that people were smoking the leaves.
[3:50]
They said that first of all, that won't work, that will just really offend her, she won't show up, whatever you're getting it's not her. And it's really bad Karma, basically, and they don't use the word Karma, but it's the kind of thing that they don't do, is offense to deities, they call that an offense to a deity. And um, that, uh, you have to honor her by letting her grow in a way that she wants to grow, nurturing her, and protecting her, and then when you pick her leaves, saying thank you, putting them on your alter, um, after a few hours on the alter they wilt a little bit and you can roll them up and make kind of like a, it's kind of like a large salad rolled into a cigar, is how I see it.
[4:39]
And you just... In the dark, pitch dark, um, with somebody watching you, they sit, the first time they gave it to me and the second time, they sat very very close to me on either side, all three of us in chairs facing the alter in pitch black, but with their knees almost touching mine, and I thought, "We've done mushrooms together before, you know, they don't always sit this close to me." Um, but later on I understood why.
[5:04]
And um, and that you have to ask as always in any, in any ceremony, ask you know, for your intention. State who you are, and and uh, and ask that she come. And say what it is that you need help with. And then there's this kind of murmuring prayer that you return to, over and over, whatever language, it doesn't matter, uh, over and over, what you're asking for, to keep your eye on the ball, you know, to keep your mind on what it is your there for, you've actually come asking for a gift, asking for help, asking for a favor, and so you're not just there for a good time to see what will happen, you are actually there asking for something. And that's what she can bring to you, if everything else is right. You're not to have had sex for three days before or three days after, um, you are to eat every last bit of it, even after you think that you've had enough, keep on eating it, if he's given you this dose, or this is the dose that you've been given, then, then you eat that all.
End part 1.
Part 2