The Importance of Plant Medicine Ceremony Integration and Integration from Transitions in Life to Improve and Bring Forth Your Wildest Dreams and Imagination.
What is integration?
My definition: unifying the parts of oneself to create a whole being. Integration is not only a word but a verb, an act. The act of integrating requires participation from oneself.
Why is integration essential for every transition in our life?
Integration is an act that applies to every transition in life, not only a process that occurs when one has embarked on plant medicine and it’s a vital practice of every human life. Dreams, visions, and hopes coalesce together as time ebbs, demanding the moments of challenge to be integrated into the whole of one’s life.
As you age, there are infinite opportunities to weave together the dreams of young with the dreams of old. The underlying task is to not lose the hope and joy we had as innocent beings.
The transitional periods of life provide lessons that merge with the whole. One must be continuously striving for a unified essence to glean the lessons learned from challenges. Like a sacred pilgrimage to acquire vision and perspective, accepting of the present situation as an opportunity to discover a higher understanding.
December is a time to consider integration as you reflect on the year, your lessons, the challenges, the celebrations, and more. The point is to bring the past year into your whole being so that next year in January, you begin with an integrated body, mind, and soul rather than regret or intentions to be different.
I have found over the years that resolutions are not integrations. Rather than claiming a practice to make you different, one should integrate the lessons learned, while using those as fuel for moving forward. The integration process doesn’t occur overnight and requires compassion, patience, and intensive consistent reflection on daily actions.
A daily ritual is a cornerstone for the necessary changes for a new version of your soul. According to the Gregorian Calendar, I consistently remind myself that New Year’s Eve is but only one new year beginning. Throughout the year, there are other natural cyclical rhythms that denote change; therefore, a New Year can begin at multiple points in a Gregorian year.
Allow the natural rhythms within you to dictate the movements and opportunities for integration and reflection when moving through your transitions.
What is Plant Medicine?
In this article’s context, plant medicine focuses on the healing one derives from plant material. Several categories of plant medicine denote the different qualities of plants.
In herbalism, the focus is on all herbs that can provide certain actions to work with a human for specific needs—assisting with everything from a particular disease, to integrating life experiences, or dealing with mental health imbalance.
In sacred ceremonies that contain entheogens, there is a psychoactive component involved in plant medicine. The entheogens are typically what’s considered as plant medicine in our modern culture. However, in my experience, the weaving of the psychedelic and mundane are one and the same.
What is Plant Medicine Ceremony Preparation and Integration?
Preparing for sacred plant medicine experiences is as meaningful as the journey itself. The commonplace herbs, food choices, personal choices, and physical environment play a role in the preparation stage. In my experience with holding space and working with those preparing for sacred plant medicines, once a person decides to go into the ceremony, the journey begins.
In our current culture, we are taught to believe that we are not as sensitive as we are. The subtleties of life are present, you are in tune, but sometimes we are taught to ignore the signs. The preparation stage is the time to cleanse the body, mind, and spirit to open the gateway of the extraordinary into our worlds.
Everyday herbs are vital for this time of preparation and require guidance as you must avoid some herbs before joining a plant medicine ceremony. The number one herb to avoid is St. John’s Wort.
Integration after a ceremony is more than sharing your experience. These moments of sharing circles are significant; however, the integration goes far beyond the group talk method implemented. Integration involves unifying the visions, messages, and epiphanies into your day-to-day. Guidance during this step can make a difference after the psychedelic experience.
A personal Plant Medicine Experience:
The image overwhelms me during my first experience with Mother Ayahuasca. I look to the left, and there is a beautiful woman, bright eyes and full of knowledge, grey hair pulled back in a braid, Eagle feathers fan me from my toes to my head. I know this woman; she is I, older and wiser. There is a rush and surge of water felt throughout my whole body.
I began to melt into my body, becoming one with my Mother in her womb. I am surrounded by the uterus’ warmth and amniotic fluid—my first home in this lifetime. I flip and begin the descent into the cold air. As I’m born, I land into my physical body. Sitting up, I touch the ground and feel the sorrow of my life; tears flow, and sobs come in a way that I haven’t allowed for years. I tap into the Earth for support and see the mycelium network of trash created by our existence and begin to cry more. Ayahuasca tells me, “Stop crying for me, I adapt, cry for yourself and get strong because I task you with being my voice.” Surprised, I respond, “How am I to do that?” The words echo clear, “I will show you the way. Integrate.”
Three years go by, and now, through my integration techniques, I understand a portion of that message; my role is assisting others in their integration. My entire life coalesces in my work through psychedelic experiences, sacred plant ceremonies, learning herbalism, and understanding trauma, anger, pain, and anxiety. I’m ready to share with the world the gifts the natural world provides.
As I stated, integration is more than a talking circle; this is beyond the sacred plant ceremonies. Integration is integral and vital for a holistic life, to live the way you desire. The herbs know the path, and I’ve been given a glimpse into how to utilize their healing for integrating all of life’s transitions. Here is another article I wrote on an experience I integrated in the past.
My offering:
I am offering an Ask April each month. I will choose a question asked by one of you to share monthly. If this blog has brought up any questions please reply. Or book a free consultation
I’m also teaching Herbs As Teachers mid-January and enrollment is open