I have journeyed with several psychedelic plant spirits in my lifetime and in a multitude of ways - from my naive first dance on a college art class trip to Amsterdam, trying “magic mushrooms” at just 18 years old and having a sudden deeper understanding of colour, shape and composition that seemed more educational than two years of art school, to baking our own weed brownies and having profound identical thoughts and deep belly laughs with Felcity while in a 2 man tent set up in the living room of our flat, to smoking DMT bought from the dark net which gave me the insight of viewing my body as an eco-system comprised of autonomous individual microscopic creatures that I ( as Joe - the thinking part of this body) have little to no control over, to a much more mature and respectful ceremonial journeys held by shamans with ayahuasca which have aided massively in my healing journey, specifically around depression and my masculine bloodline.
The overriding thought that has driven these journeys into the psychedelic magic of plant medicine has always been “If there is something available to me via these plants that is not currently available to me now, then I must see it.” For me, it is always an adventure into the unknown, which requires a certain level of curiosity, bravery and willingness to be “out of control”. I’ve always thought “I’d hate to go to the grave not experiencing it all.”
So today I wish to share with you a short tale from a mushroom journey that changed my life forever (and to be honest, there have been a fair few of these life-changing experiences via plants that have changed everything from my relationships to my health, to my work).
It was New Year's Eve at a friend's house, 6 of us ( 3 couples ) planned on journeying together around the big open fire of the friend’s cosy living room in a respectful, revered ceremonial and celebratory way. In a room bathed in candlelight and incense, we called in spirit guides, asked for protection, and made offerings, as we set our intentions for the journey, writing our messages of gratitude and discussing our New Year resolutions around the fire. We were set to have a beautiful communal night as friends. What transpired was something more unexpected. As the mushrooms kicked in I found it increasingly disorienting to be in a room with other people, around the conversations and the lights. There was a deep knowing that I needed peace, darkness and privacy for this journey. So I did just that, taking myself to a spare bedroom where I lay on the floor in the dark. I knew I needed to be “undistracted” to be able to go deep with the medicine.
It wasn’t long before I found myself wriggling on the floor like a serpent, bending and flexing in intuitive ways, finding knots and tension trapped in the body. Each knot was like a trapped emotion, thought or feeling. It wasn’t long until I felt the presence of a feminine energy, which soon revealed herself as a Serpent-like-Goddess!
She showed me all the ways the power of femininity had been banished from the male psyche for thousands of years thanks to religion and patriarchy. How so much of our “feminine” expression had been demonised, from emotions to sexuality to creativity to magic. She was showing me all the ways I was blocking myself from truly being connected with my own feminine energies through fear and conditioning. The tightness in my muscles and joints was representing unprocessed emotions, stunted expressions and denied experiences. What soon became apparent was so much of this “unfelt” or “unprocessed” stuff was because I was scared of my more “feminine” attributes, and it was taking its toll on my body. This was a truly liberating experience that showed me this was far beyond my own personal journey or that of my ancestral bloodline, but something that exists in society as a whole.
This realisation transformed so much for me, not only did I now see working my 9-5 as an old paradigm rigid masculine approach, but also more importantly that I could help men feel safe to connect to their emotions, express themselves more honestly and break down the stigma that being in touch with your feelings, thoughts, dreams and desires is not something we should shun, but in fact, we should celebrate and encourage. Connecting deeper to my feminine has allowed me to step away from the over-analytical and over-controlling rigid masculine thought processes I once had, and allowed me to be more intuitive and connected to my spirituality. This has revolutionized how I support people in my coaching, as I call on spirit for guidance and support, seeing myself as a channel for healing energies, rather than a “fixer” or “therapist” with the answers.
I am now a true believer that any of my physical aches, pains and illnesses are my bodies way of communicating to me that I have things unprocessed and stored within my energetic being in need of my attention. Often using intuitive somatic movement to help reveal to my mind what is in need of healing. I plan to work with plant medicine for the rest of my life, with the intention of journeying only once or twice a year, as I believe otherwise they can become used as a crutch or an escaping mechanism on our healing journeys. Also, because integration time is essential for the insights to become tangible in life. I will always only ever use them in sacred ceremony, and only ever either with Felicity or a Shaman present.
- If you are interested in connecting with and working with Joe (as a coach, combining NLP with shamanic practices to journey deep into the psyche) - he has a special offer of a 6-session journey for £600 (saving £120)
Here's the link to book:
Or you can book in for a free connection call! Please email hello@ookushana.com
We also have a guest workshop on Wednesday with two plant medicine facilitators, if you would like to learn more about Ayahuasca and their healing retreats...
