Would you take ancestral medicine (yagé, kambo, yopo... ) with a non native person as your guide?

in Natural Medicine4 years ago

Natural Medicine has a wonderful challenge going on at the moment, created so that we can all get to know one another better, by answering some of the questions posted by some of the wonderful members. I choose the following question because it is something that I feel very strongly about.

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Would you take ancestral medicine (yagé, kambo, yopo... ) with a non native person as your guide?

I already shared with you all, about my love for knowledge about different countries and different cultures from when I was younger. How I would spend hours in my local library devouring all the books that were available. I remember the first time I read about shaman's and how most culture's have their own shaman's down through the ages.

<>bI was fascinated with their relationship and connection to the natural world and their knowledge of all the local flora and fauna. Indeed it is this relationship that makes them such wonderful healers. They knew/know exactly what gifts from mother nature are needed in order to help the people in their tribe/community, a timeless wisdom that is passed down to them through their ancestors and guides. Be they in living form or from the spirit world.

Shaman's have always been respected within their community and that respect is well earned. I really believe that Shaman's are chosen, that it is a calling that they have answered and that it is not something that you can become, just because it appeals to you. It really upsets me to see so many people advertising courses to become a Shaman, I find this so disrespectful!

As I got older I read more about the many ways in which a shaman can heal others. I have always been fascinated about the amazon, and so it was that I heard about Yage and Ayahuasca. They are both from the same plant but they are prepared differently. From my understanding, it is the Shaman that takes the plant on behalf of the person that is seeking healing.

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The Shaman would grow and tend to this plant and the relationship that they have with it, is integral to the insight that they receive and the overall healing experience. Their is a strong relationship there, an interwoven relationship, between the plant and the shaman. Something I would never hope to understand, but one that I respect and because of that, I would never take it.

I do not believe it is my place to do so and I also find it very disrespectful. I know that their are a lot of people who take part in Ayahuasca ceremonies all over the world. And it saddens me that the plant travels great distances and is consumed so far away from it's origins and mostly away from the person who has tended to it as it grew.

Call me sentimental if you like or even down right weird. But these plants and medicine's are powerful, and I do not like the idea of taking a part of some one else's culture to fit my needs. Yes I know we are all from one world and we are all the same, but we have made so many different indigenous people suffer and now we wish to take a part of their culture away from them, to take it as our own. I really do not believe it is ours to take, just like any tree that is cut down in a far off country and shipped overseas to feed our need's.

We have so many amazing local plants that heal us, we all come from a rich earth based culture, we have no need to take from others!


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About 15 years ago I was gifted a woman's spiritual empowerment magazine. ( How I wish I still had it and that I could remember what it was called). Within it, was some of the most amazing articles I have ever read, all written from women around the world. One of those articles, really made a huge impact on me, it was written by an Native America Women. She wrote about how her tribe were tortured and killed. How the children were stolen and displaced and how it almost destroyed her people. But even worst than that, was the fact that so many people involved in the new age movement, were trying to take her culture now. This is all that we have left, she said and we have fought so hard to hold on to it and now people are coming and taking our traditions and calling them their own!

She called out for those people to connect with their own traditions, to connect with their own spirituality so that her and her people could keep they only thing that was left for them!

I cried reading that article and I felt guilty, because their traditions are so amazing and ever so tempting. But they are not ours to take. We all need to reconnect with the earth, to find ways to release and rebirth. It is a journey that awaits us all. part of that is connecting with your heritage, with the spirit of your land and your people and once we embrace that then we can move forward with a better understanding of what it means to be whole.

So no I would never take any of those plants, or frog medicine. I would instead connect with what is within me and with the plants that I grew up around, that are native to the land that I live on. So that I can create a relationship with them, connect with them ans experience true healing!

I understand if many don't agree with me, that is fine. I answered this from my heart, from my experience and from my beliefs, because this is what feels right to me and that is what guide's me, my inner knowing.

Please check out the amazing Natural Medicine challenge, it has so many wonderful questions and I would love to know some more about you all. I know I will definitely be answering some more of them.

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 4 years ago  

Everyone has their own belief, their own way of healing and spiritual journey. No one can judge anyone by how they think or believe about their own healing methods, as long as you don't hurt anyone, that's fine. Everything that is good for you is welcome and all bad energy must be thrown out. I like that you are honest with yourself and with others and that is to be admired. Thank you for this wonderful story. It is an honor to read you.

 4 years ago  

Thanks so much for your wonderful comment and feedback x

 4 years ago  

I loved this post, a testament to your respect and love for other cultures. The wellness 'industry' and the guru syndrome certainly likes to steal from where it can in the name of 'authenticity', and it isn't always. Saying that, many also do this with great respect and care - from what I hear from friends, there's a beautiful South American guy that holds aya ceremonies in the forest here, but I dont know enough about it to comment. I totally feel uncomfortable with the rape and pillage of other cultures and how people try to get some kind of enlightenment by looking to cultures not their own, and foregoing years of ancestral teachings and study, and the bigger branches of the tree that are ignored, as you say. A really, really important post.

I guess my issue is as an Australian, second gen European, non Christian - I HAVE no ancestry to draw on, no traditions I identify with. The indigenous plants here are not my own and I dont identify with them nor know how to use them, though that's an ongoing journey of discovery too (although of course they fill my heartspace in many ways - how could the flush of yellow of wattle in the Spring not fill your heart with joy?). I have a native garden, but I also identify with the plants of Europe, Asia and the Americas - beautiful plants that I learn so much from and that are part of my healing journey. If I dont have these, what do I have? I have no Gods or Goddesses in my life, except for the ones I look to from other cultures that guide me on my way.

We all need to reconnect with the earth, to find ways to release and rebirth. It is a journey that awaits us all. part of that is connecting with your heritage, with the spirit of your land and your people and once we embrace that then we can move forward with a better understanding of what it means to be whole.

I connect to the spirit of the land in my own way, but am yet to connect with the indigenous experience here. It's more difficult to do that than you think, but it's an ongoing enquiry for sure. 'Your people' is fraught here, in Australia, for white people. And if you're a European in Australia, how does 'your heritage' line up with the land you're on? So it's complex.

So no I would never take any of those plants, or frog medicine. I would instead connect with what is within me and with the plants that I grew up around, that are native to the land that I live on. So that I can create a relationship with them, connect with them ans experience true healing!

I love this so much, and don't get me wrong, I DO connect to this land in deep ways, but there's other plants too I must draw on, from my European heritage, even though that land is so far away. I wouldn't do any kind of ceremony from a native culture if the person leading was 'non native' - although that's getting into complex territory too!

It's such a great question, and thanks for answering it and opening up a really interesting point of discussion - it could have been an Abundance Tribe or Ecotrain question for sure!!!

I was having these same thoughts myself. How do we, of such mixed ancestry and living far from our ancestors, know where our identity truly lies any more? Do we try to connect with the land we currently live in or do we bring our roots with us? I can see why we look to other cultures and their healing and medicines, especially considering so much of our European knowledge has been lost to us as well. Invasions across Europe saw to that. Christianity buried a lot of the old ways.

x Mini

 4 years ago  

I do understand how complex it can be, for me it was easier as I come from Ireland and connect so much wit the plants that grow there. It is a little different here in Spain and I have to learn about the plants that grow here and connect with them. But it is not that far from Ireland and I can only talk from my personal experience.
I think ultimately we all hold the divine within, the goddess, she is a part of us no matter where we are. As a woman we are all on a journey to reconnect with her, to access our power. Everything we need spiritually is within us, but at times we need to assistance of plants to help guide us and heal us. I am still learning it all. You are a goddess to me @riverflows and your connection to nature is what matters the most as that is what it is all about, celebrating and honouring that connection in whatever way feels right to you xxxxx

 4 years ago  

Gosh you humble me so much with your comments. You are such an amazing goddess yourself I bow down to your wisdoms and strength!!! All I seem to do is organise shit, haha. Much love. Always, always acting in honour of this beautiful Earth of ours xx That's all that matters.

Food for thought indeed. Often each country has an equivalent medicine, so we shouldn't need to use that from distant lands, however, much of the European shamanic knowledge has been lost through Christianity. So do many even know how to use European plants any more?

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 4 years ago  

That knowledge is out there, it takes time to connect with it, but most importantly is to reconnect with nature. To be in the wilderness and let the plants communicate with you xx

I like your post, nice post.

 4 years ago  

thank you x