• Monthly Columns

    As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)

    Entheogen Influence Across Time and Culture When a baby draws its first breath, somehow its lungs already know how to extract oxygen from the air, and exchange it for carbon dioxide. It already knows how to transfer oxygen to the blood, where red blood cells already know how to use that oxygen. When a seed first sprouts, its roots already know how to absorb water and minerals from the soil, it already knows how to use sunlight to synthesize food for energy. The mystery of life, of consciousness. DNA encoded with information since the very first cell magickally appeared on earth. Ancient wisdom and adaptation, present at the dawn of…

  • Reviews

    Book Review – Herbs of the Southern Shaman by Steve Andrews

    Book Review Herbs of the Southern Shaman by Steve Andrews 152 Pages Herbs of the Southern Shaman is Steve Andrew’s follow-up to Herbs of the Northern Shaman and makes an excellent companion to it. This is a well-researched overview guide to entheogenic plants which grow in the Southern Hemisphere. It is a small book, 152 pages, that contains a wealth of information about more than 50 “teacher” plants we commonly associate with altered consciousness, like peyote and ayahuasca, and those we are more likely to find in the kitchen, like nutmeg. There is a bit of overlap with the Herbs of the Northern Shaman that Andrews references, as plants like…

  • Reviews

    Book Review – The Ayahuasca Test Pilot’s Handbook by Chris Kilham

    Book ReviewThe Ayahuasca Test Pilot’s Handbookby Chris Kilham230 Pages “The Ayahuasca Test Pilot’s Handbook” by Chris Kilham is a small but information-packed book perfectly sized for travel and guidance. While the Ayahuasca experience is clearly immense and varied, Kilham focuses on traditional use and the rituals surrounding Ayahuascero shamanism, and creates a book that tells you just about everything that you’ll need to know if you’re planning to travel to Iquitos (or a nearby region) for an Ayahuasca ceremony.  What this book won’t tell you is how to make your own brew, how to dose, where to source ingredients, or much else that would help you prepare Ayahuasca at home;…

  • Monthly Columns

    Plant Spirit Medicine in Shamanic Practice

    What’s in the Brew? Scientist: Mescaline. Shaman: God.   Shamans…believe that the information given to us… by other teacher plants or in non-ordinary states such as dreams and meditations is as valid (or more so) than that received from ordinary perception and thought. Furthermore, such information is given to us to be used in daily life not to be ignored, denied, or seen as lacking in merit or purpose. To deny our dreams, after all, is to deny a large part of our human and spiritual experience. Thus, for San Pedro shamans, the visions and insights gained from the plant are there to inform our everyday behavior in the ‘real world’…