THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL #4

FREE WILL AND KARMA 

Karma, Free Will and Impermanence are created as a default around the soul.

IMPERMANENCE

”The day we die, the wind comes to take away out footprints. The wind makes dust to cover up the marks left while walking. For otherwise it would seem as if we were still living. Therefore, the wind is he who comes to blow away our footprints.” Southern Bushman Proverb

Impermanence is the seminal challenge we need to recognize when negotiating Free Will and our Karma. All we take with us when we die and cross the veil between the worlds are our experiences and our karma. Some live irresponsibly as if there is no tomorrow, fully believing that we only live once. They immerse themselves in sensory pleasures and the material pursuits required to fulfill them, imagining that there is no reckoning when they get to the other side of the veil between the worlds or even if there is another side.

The three deadly sins of karma - Ego (the self-cherishing of the persona,) Desirous Attachment and Judgment have no hold over them. Judgment of others who have more than they do gives them impetus for gaining more "stuff," power, prestige, fame and the material favors that accompany these attributes. Some wear greed as a badge of honor.

 

"Know not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you."  John Donne

 

Once we cross over the veil we will all face a spiritual tribunal who judge our skillfulness or unskillfulness navigating samsara (the relentless cycle of birth and rebirth) and the challenges as well as the gifts of being in a sensory body. The consequences of disobeying the laws of spirit are immutable. Karma is not negotiable - one's lawyer cannot help us there. Spiritual laws differ and are stricter than those on the earth plane. They are binding whether we know about them, believe in them, understand them or not. Being ignorant of them is no excuse. That is one of the reasons why the Ancestors teach ... With all your strength get knowledge.

 

Everyone can ultimately achieve the spiritual perfection for which we are created. This can take many life times because of free will.

However

Free will is always neutral, motivated and catalyzed by desire. 

You cannot say, the devil made me do it.

 

Free will is the cosmic law. We are free to screw up our karma as much as we choose - or take heed of ancient wisdoms. 

 

Merit on a judgmental level is the balancing of evil and good deeds. Merit is the credit we receive on the side of good.

 

Consequences are neither reward nor punishment, they are simply consequences - natural cause and effect - always inescapable.

 

Karmic laws are similar to the laws of gravity. If you jump out of a building you are going down, not up.

 

The results of cause and effect are often not immediate because that would influence free will. God wants us to do things for the right reasons, not out of fear or shame and because of what may result but out of love and justice.

 

 The Creator does not want us to do things because of the fear of hell and damnation. We must have right intention. Fear driven, good intentions are better than negative intentions but may still have a karmic consequence or be karmically neutral. Acts of kindness must be done for their own sake.

Disobeying karmic laws will earn us yet another life time. If we operate karmically at a higher level we have the potential of inheriting a Causal vibration where we no longer our bound to the cycle of death and rebirth. 

 

Everything is foreseen but free will is given.

 

Because of free will nothing is preordained but it is foreseen by the Creator. 

 

"A net is spread out for the living, free will is given, everything is on loan (impermanent) and all is preparation for a grand celebration." Rev. Akiva

 

The net is the net of samsara, cause and effect and being bound to the cycle of reincarnation that challenge us being in a sentient body. 

If we prevail there will be a great celebration.

We are always free to change course. If we were not, there would be none of the tension required for our victory and fulfillment. There can be no growth without conflict and everything is a test. The light or dark, good or bad, sacred or profane, positive and negative are all necessary and part of the conundrum of life. We are meant to coexist but not assimilate the dark. The only way to overcome evil is with good.

 

Remember that good prevails by being what it is, not by dispossessing, defeating or winning but simply being more and more of what it is.

 

If you would dispel the darkness, seek the sacred.

 

What you resist with persist, what you defeat, defeats you, what you destroy destroys you, what you sanctify, sanctifies you.  

 

The myriad of polarities facing us in life are a template for spiritual perfection. The Supreme Being does not micromanage and does not judge. S/He loves us all - karma is the judge and everyone is capable of being redeemed.

With right understanding and action we can create the conditions for transgressions to become merits.

 Those that have reached rock bottom can still emerge like the Phoenix out of the fire and will be regarded very favorably from above. They will usually be more powerful spiritually than others that may have had lesser challenges.

 

"...what counts is to restrain the blaze in the hours of desire and let it flow into the hours of prayer and service." The Talmud

We can think of this journey as enlisting in the "spiritual" special forces. Our karma is at stake - not our life - but certainly, future life times. It usually gets harder rather than easier as we progress. Everyone is welcome to enlist and each of us has the potential to succeed. The rules are simple but difficult.

 

Once we pass over, most of us will go to one of the multiple vibrations in the Astral realm where we lose free will. Our karma is cut in stone but can be redeemed in certain circumstance by forgiveness by the living. Unfinished business is best resolved with forgiveness before someone departs. However, skeletons in the closet can still be released after death by those skilled in spiritual work through special rituals. Forgiveness, if sincere, will erase that particular karmic sin and make for a better reincarnation.

Below is a summary of the basic karmic requirements which is a subject for a future blog. There is no judgment day as such on the other side. The process is done lovingly, where we are shown the errors of our ways, but the consequences are immutable. 

 

To correct injustice and help heal the planet.

To do no harm.

To fulfill one’s destiny.

To subordinate Ego to the Higher Self, Monkey Mind to Spacious Mind, our Evil Inclination to our Good Inclination (Shadow.)

To love all Four of the Beings of Nature, not only the Talking Beings.

To be in joy and have gratitude.

The figure below summarizes the polarities that have to be balanced. We could add to this the challenge of subordinating our tricksters to our spirit guides as well as the subconscious imprints of our bad karma from past lives to the good karma of the same. Being subconscious, the only way to do this is with spiritual knowledge and a diligent spiritual practice. Past life regressions could be helpful or startling and unsupportive to our inner being - we have all done bad things before and have already paid the karmic price. Sometimes it's best to look ahead - guilt inhibits our spiritual transformation.

 

 

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL #3

MORE ABOUT THE SENSES

The senses are there for us to enjoy - but responsibly.

The soul’s essence should lodge comfortably in the body.

 

From the sound of my sighing,

 has my essence (soul) cleaved onto my flesh (body).

 

The “sound of sighing" is when we achieve equanimity and we feel at one with both our Self (Soul) and our body. This is why the Ancestors stress the power of sensory, active meditations.

 

The soul yearns to do the Creator’s will and clings to the body when all is well.
A body caught up in cravings and attached to sentient pleasures distances the soul.
The soul withdraws causing illness.
The body’s attachment needs to be broken so the soul (essence,) can return to the body. 

High vibrational sound is a powerful way to bring the soul back into the body.

 

Soul sickness or even loss occurs when the soul, which is pure, separates from the body due to one reveling irresponsibly in sensual pleasures (sex, drugs and rock and roll ...) This can also occur from guilt, shame and humiliation as a result of severe abuse early or late in life. Other factors include severe grief from loss of health, work or a loved one, a lack of meaning in one's human existence, isolation, addiction, burnout, illness, trauma, as well as spiritual diseases such as intrusive spirits, energetic pollution and sorcery.

The soul - made in the image of the Divine - is pure and whole. When faced with these toxic challenges the soul may separate from the body. Soul sickness or worse, soul loss is sickness in a body deprived of its soul's purpose. 

 

“The soul by reason of lust, had become an accomplice in her own captivity.” Plato

 

Plato is mistaken according to the Ancestors. The ego, monkey mind and the shadow can alienate the Soul. The soul is not an accomplice, She is pure and does not lust, She just checks out.

The soul is unified – it does not become split itself - but can split or detach from the body.  

Some spiritual thinkers describe the soul as being broken (or even split.) It is the Ego, Monkey Mind and the Evil Inclination or Shadow that are responsible for overwhelming Big or Spacious Mind and our inclination to do good, 

hence subordinating - resulting in Soul Sickness

or more rarely totally discarding the Higher Self or soul 

 - Soul Loss (e.g. Mexican cartels, radical Islam etc.)

“To know the real Self to be one’s own is the greatest attainment. To know wrongly the non-self, such as the ego to be the Self is no attainment at all. One therefore should renounce this perception of taking the non-self for the Self.”
     Sri Sankara Charya

THE HEART AND LOVE

An open, loving heart is the gateway to the soul. Of all the chakras, the heart chakra, is the most challenging one to open.

 

“To awaken the heart is to awaken the dormant soul.” M. Gandhi

 

When the heart is muffled the soul shrinks.

 

Guarded heart or gracious heart? Protective self (ego) or expansive Self? Dutifully committed or passionately empty?

 

The soul’s language is learned by listening with the heart. It has many sounds including that of silence. Its eloquence is universal.

 

The rational mind often gets in the way of what the heart must embrace in order to coax the soul to open.

 

Our soul is made for joy and the more we truly love the more we will experience it and become its very essence.

 

Among all who possess great wisdom only those, act wisely who act from love. If study and prayer do not serve justice and compassion they are but a conceit and a hollow sound.

 

You will come from doubt to belief,

from belief to understanding,

from understanding to knowing,

from knowing to feeling (being heart-felt)

This is the way.

 

If one studies the "fallen gurus," priests or others claiming spiritual purity and knowledge we can see that they usually had profound knowledge, understanding and wisdom of spiritual principles but little heart. Possibly they began with a heart that was pure but then became corrupted by power, position, persona, and greed. 

Many of these gurus abused their students financially, mentally, physically and sexually (their female devotees) using autocratic techniques and dogma as in; "I only can lead you to the truth!" They abandoned the heart chakra and lost  "feeling." This has dire karmic consequences for these spiritual perpetrators  - more will be expected from them when they reconcile on the other side of the veil between worlds.

The heart chakra is one of the most challenging of the chakras to open and an easy one to close. Once they became reattached to the third power chakra, ego and shadow, temptation and power made them lose the way. Many probably knew what they were doing but the enticements were overwhelming.

 

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...” Sir John Dalberg-Acton

 

We are also now seeing this all around us. There are more autocratic governments in the world today than democratic ones. Power is compelling and alluring whether political, financial or even spiritual.

It is astonishing and tragic that more and more leaders in the world today are power hungry and abandon their sacred mission of service to their people. Some of the less diabolical ones, when they do a measure of good, delude their followers by saying the means justifies the end. This will never hold on "judgment day." Sadly, the world suffers in the interim, the innocent suffer and the powerful prosper.

 

Given full power, greed becomes an enslaver of the greedy - fear becomes first a bully, then a torturer and then a killer.

 

Osho Rajneesh  the fallen guru who took us residence in central Oregon did not fall short of even trying to murder his opponents outside the ashram.

 THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL #2

DESTINY

Destiny is vital to the soul's purpose.

 

“The souls of people on their way to earth-life pass through a room full of lights.

Each takes a taper, often only a spark to guide it in the dim country of this world.

But some souls by rare fortune are detained longer and have time to grasp a handful of tapers which they weave into a torch. These are the torchbearers of humanity – its poets, seers and saints who lead and lift the race out of darkness towards the light. They are the law givers and saviors, the light bringers, way showers and truth tellers and without them humanity would lose its way in the dark.” Plato

 

The taper that Plato refers to may be our mission, purpose, destiny, archetype or core/signature strength (Seligman.) Those who are gifted with many tapers are fortunate but it is important to realize that whichever we are given

only one of those is our prime "taper." 

One's other talents should serve the one. 

There are those who are given many gifts and it can be confusing which to choose for one's focus. Moreover, 

to whom much is given much is expected.

Their way will be more difficult and demanding unless they choose to squander it - in which case tricksters will support them in wavering.

We are all given a destiny cup to fill. Some have an easier time since their cup is smaller. Those with huge cups may try to be 

a jack of all trades and master of none 

- gratifying - but not fulfilling in terms of our karmic requirement.

No matter how small the Creator's gift ...

"In every person there is something precious which is in no-one else. And so we should honor each for what is hidden within them for what only they have." The Talmud

 

“Despise no human and consider nothing impossible, for there is no person who does not have his hour and there is nothing that does not have its place.” Talmud

 

We are made in the image of the Divine. 

As above, so below, as without so within - as below so above, as within so without …

 

“All the talents of God  
are within you.
 How could this be  
otherwise when your soul is derived from His
genes!” Hafiz

 

Our destiny is our life's work. We are here to help others and the planet with it.

 

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” W. Churchill

 

“…Each soul makes Two agreements upon entering the world. The first binds the individual to a distinct destiny that becomes the soul’s great project in life. 

The second entangles each person in the limitations of fate and responsibilities for family and community. 

While all second agreements can be renegotiated, the first is non-negotiable.”  Michael Meade

 

The second agreement Meade talks about is usually linked to survival and ego. Fate is the cards we are dealt in life which depend somewhat on our karmic profile which may determine our current rebirth. It is said that our Zip code can determine our fate but we should not let it. 

We are meant to rise above our fate in order to find that unique destiny  we were given by the Infinite One. This gift is designed to enable us to help heal the planet and correct injustice in our own unique way. 

One of the key questions in the divinations I do for others is:

What is my destiny? 

Or alternatively the divination bones may say, 

"you are not in line with your destiny."

“Be who you is, ’cause if you ain’t who you is, you is who you ain’t.”Inscription on a tomb stone in Arizona

Finding one's destiny is not an easy task. 

The search for one's destiny is the search of one's life, stick to the scent, stay on the spoor.

 

 THE SENSES

 We are Sentient Beings!

The soul's conversation is not of the mind. It is best heard with the senses. 

The soul's fulfillment is through the experience of the senses.

 

One of the gifts we are given when we are reborn is to be in a sentient body. When we die we lose this gift. Across the veil between worlds sensation can be imagined but no longer experienced. We are meant to enjoy and savor the senses while we are here, but responsibly. 

We will also be accountable to the extent that we did not enjoy those opportunities. 

Buddhists say that they are true hedonists because the Buddhist path is a joyful one. Buddhist practitioners strive to increase their compassion and alleviate the suffering of others which is a template for being happy. They also pray to inherit a next lifetime where they can continue their spiritual journey at a higher level or better still inherit the Pure Land of the enlightened and do not have to reincarnate. 

If one is confused about where to go, Karma yoga (service to others) is always an option.

 

From my flesh shall I behold God.
The route to God is through our senses.

  

Our soul is made for joy and the more we truly love the more we will experience it and become its very essence.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL #1

 

In this blog we will cover some critical aspects comprising and surrounding the soul. Considering the complexities and the mystery of the soul or Higher Self, I will describe these to the best of my limited abilities haven been given help from the Ancestors. 

The main themes in this blog are...

THE SOUL AND ITS BREATH ARE PURE

 

THE SOUL AND DESTINY

 

THE SENSES AND THE SOUL

 

THE HEART, LOVE AND THE SOUL

 

KARMA

 

THE FIVE LEVELS OF THE SOUL AND PATANJALI'S FIVE SHEATHS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 

“The soul emanates from the Infinite One, … descends through the worlds leaving a root in each of the worlds, until it is clothed in a physical body. Thus, there are five levels of the soul or levels of God -consciousness, corresponding to the various planes of reality.

Unity, Intellect, Mind, Energy and the Physical. Kabbalah

These five levels will be discussed later according to Kabbalah, the Ancestors and also Patanjali, the great Yogi.

 

Everyone will ultimately achieve the spiritual perfection for which we are created. This may take many lifetimes because of free will.

 

The search for the Soul, the Self, the True or real Self is at the core of human motivation whether we know it or not or whether we believe it or try to achieve it or not. 

We could also call the soul our Buddha or our Christ-like Self or that part of us made in the image of the Divine. 

The Creator does not micromanage and there are many polarities designed in a mysterious way in the soul's architecture that we need to master in order to allow us to reach this stage of "perfection." 

 

"Kabir says, friend, there are very few who find the way."

 

The gates are wide but few will enter.

 

The fallacy of perfection is in thinking there is a point of such completeness beyond which there is no place to go, improve, strive for. 

This differs from excellence which is achievable, always desirable and often necessary but in varying degrees for varying tasks and purposes.

 

One could also call "perfection" a certain level of excellence because spiritual perfection is a state of impossibility. 

Hence the Ancestors prefer the word "Becoming" to that of Self-Realization or Enlightenment which may assume a fixed point - there is always another level of vibration to realize above the one that we have attained. 

However, once a certain level of excellence is fulfilled, we are no longer required to continue on the journey of "samsara," the continuous cycle of death, reincarnation, mundane existence and suffering from ongoing rebirth.

 

"Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.” S. Kierkegaard

 

In spite of this we are told to savor each moment of existence between the polarities of light and dark, good and evil, the sacred and the profane, positive and negative. They are all part of the conundrum that gives us the qualities required to test our resilience on the road to Becoming. 

Buddhism states that "all is suffering" and the Buddhist path teaches us not only how to help ourselves but also to help others with this suffering. 

This, with our God given destiny, is a vital part of the soul's journey - to help heal the planet and the Four Beings of Nature.

 

“ Before the soul enters this world, it is conducted through all the worlds. Last of all it is show the first light which when the world was created illuminated all things and which God removed when humans became corrupt. Why is the soul shown this light? So, from that hour on it may yearn to attain the light and approach it rung by rung. (those on the Tree of Life) The Talmud

 

This divine light may be the same light that those who have had a Near Death Experience encounter. This light appears to embrace them in the Creator's love. Most who have had a N.D.E. are never the same. In a sense they may be yearning to attain this light again by doing service to others.

 

The four "Worlds of Manifestation" in Kabbalah also correspond to the Four Trees of Life through which the multiverse was created. 

Emanation - in the beginning was the Word – the intention.

Creation - the design, the plan. 

Formation - the elements required to assemble the mystery of the universe and multiverse. 

Actualization - the universe coming into being. 

If we think of anything that we create ourselves, it also follows these four stages. For instance, an architect designing a building.

 

Emanation begins in the imagination. Imagination is soul work. The Wild Beings of nature do not have this capacity.

 

To think like God is to think with imagination.

Whatever cannot be imagined, cannot be fulfilled.

 

THE SOUL AND THE BREATH ARE PURE

 

“The soul is pure …” Rev Nachman

 

BREATH

The Creator “breathed” humanity into existence

 

Source of my power, the breath you have given me, the breath you have given me is pure.

 

Flame of the Infinite One is the Soul Breath of the human.

The life breath, is the Flame of the Infinite One, searching through the chambers of our core.

 

“…What is God? The breath inside the breath.” Kabir

 

 The Four Directions and the Four Winds 

 

A river arose out of Eden forming Four Rivers and Four Winds which animate all of creation. The Zohar

 

The Four Winds or Breaths of the Infinite one.

The Zohar maintains that the Breath of the Creator is constantly animating all of creation - the Still Beings, the Growing or Sprouting Beings, the Wild (and the domesticated) Beings and the Talking Beings. 

Water is life which is also vital for our animation. The Four Sacred rivers that arose out of Eden are thought to have been the Tigris, Euphrates, the Nile and the Ganges. 

80% of our cells contain water. Water has been found by researchers to have consciousness, memory and resonance. 

All the other Beings are doing exactly what they we were intended to do by their Creator except for most of us - Talking Beings. 

Our souls' architecture appears to have the unique burden of transcendence through which we all have the potential to attain liberation. We all need to act on it. The time is now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT SOUTHERN AFRICAN WISDOMS HAVE TO OFFER THE WEST #13

“Drugs (and sacred mind altering plants) allow us to taste the beyond but do not make us masters of the transcendental.”
Sri Satyananda

I thought that I would devote the last blog of the series to my personal ideas on entheogens. My disclaimer is that I am not an expert but maybe that enables me to have a broader view of the subject especially in the light of my sangoma training. Entheogens (sacred mind altering plants used in ceremony) are not part of sangoma initiation so I am going outside of the title of the blog. 

They are, however, a powerful tool for shamans that use them especially in North and South America.

In Southern Africa using entheogens for divination or healing is extremely rare today. There are very few mind altering plants in Southern Africa that are safe. Certain plants were used previously but the method of preparation has been lost in time. Otherwise they are extremely dangerous. 

The Native American, Chumash of California's central coast used Datura in the past but this too can be lethal and the details of its safe use have also disappeared.

In Gabon, Iboga which contains Ibogaine, is used effectively by shamans but this plant does not exist in the south. Iboga is extremely powerful, as its South American counterpart, Ayahuasca. Both have been used successfully in the treatment of drug addiction. It seems as if the plant allows one to "see exactly" who they have become in such a drastic way as to make remission possible.

 

The use of mind altering plants are now becoming main stream in the West. Mind altering plants have become popular especially since they are non addicting. This was not true for musicians using drugs to increase their creativity and which had serious and often fatal consequences. A few have now used Ayahuasca and crafted songs out of the experience.

Entheogens should always be used in sacred space with the right set and setting, the "right" folks attending and a competent shaman or guide. This is not always the case. There is mastery required in facilitating the process. Some participants may be bringing heavy personal baggage to the ceremony. Since the "Field' is now open negative energy can effect others in the group. Moreover, if the Field is unprotected, tricksters can potentially pollute the sacred space. Competent shamans  know how to manage the demons inside the ones partaking and also outside of them resident in the Field. Deciding on who to go to for the experience should be like looking for a neurosurgeon to correct an ailment. One should do one's homework before embarking on this "trip."

Although I had two Ayahuasca experiences in 1987 in Peru's Amazon, and I found them enlightening I chose to go the sangoma way for initiation as a sangoma in Swaziland, South Africa in 2000. 

For myself I found the experiences rewarding but a little like going up in a helicopter to the top of a high peak with a broad view of the landscape that would have been impossible otherwise. I experienced things that I could never see in my prior yoga practice or in meditation a few of which were clairvoyant. I confirmed that many of the phenomena I had read in yoga and other texts were true and now could be true for me too. I felt I had been privileged to experience them and they were real even if I would never see them again until I left the planet and crossed over the veil between the worlds. I also had a near death experience and no longer fear death. No longer fearing death can be a vital part of the encounter.

Everyone's experience with these plants will be unique to themselves and often also to their culture and even religion.

In sangoma tradition connection to the spirit world is achieved during initiation through drumming and dancing. Entheogens are not used. The word Sangoma (Zulu for the equivalent of a shaman) comes from the word Ngoma which means a drum. It is the drum and the dance that call the attention of one's guides during initiation and bring them home to the sangoma in trance, divination or dreams. Sangomas (also called Nyangas) use "possession," bones and dreams for diagnosis and rituals using sacred plants for treatment of the condition/s. The bones are like a psycho-spiritual C.T. scan and in experienced hands should be about 80% accurate.

A few words on sacred geometry which can be found in some of these  plants of power.

“Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round and … the earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. The wind in its great power whirls. Birds make their nests in circle, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing.” 
Black Elk

Some shapes and designs of themselves lend themselves more easily and align more truly to a natural connection, for instance, the circle and the spiral. Their very form speaks to essence in creation.
 

There are other shapes and designs that represent sacred geometry apart from the circle and the spiral.

If one looks carefully at the design in certain entheogens we can see the symbol of a hexagon which is also the symbol of the heart chakra. The hexagon represents sacred geometry which we can see throughout the ages.

These entheogens can open the heart chakra. This principle also can be extrapolated to the Law of Similars.

 If something resembles the other, it can affect the other. 

Cross section of San Pedro cactus which contains mescaline - many plants are hexagonal in their shape.

The affect of mescaline is similar to that of psilocybin in magic mushrooms and tends to be gentle. 

The FDA has now cleared psilocybin for use in selected patients and for research. 

The F.D.A. are way behind what is now evolving in popular culture.

Stanislav Grof was using LSD in his experiments in the 60's with amazingly beneficial results until its use became illegal.

Cross section of Ayahuasca which contains D.M.T. demonstrating the hexagon - if one connects the dots.

Ayahuasca grows as a liana often spiraling much like the Sun and Moon main channels of the chakra system or like the Caduceus. 

Hermes who carried the Caduceus was the Messenger of the gods (the master of the Field...) 

It can open the heart chakra and balance the Sun and Moon channels to allow Kundalini energy to move up the spine and open the Third Eye. The Sun channel expands, is hot, red in color and represents the masculine energy. The Moon channel contacts, is blue in color and represents the feminine energy. This sacred geometry can also be seen as the perfect combination of masculine and faminine during the mating of two snakes.

Even in Peyote used by the Native Americans in ceremony - one can see a semblance of a hexagon in the grooves. 

The hexagon's symbol of the heart chakra signifies that it can help us open this most challenging chakra. These are examples of sacred geometry in the plant kingdom. The Ancestors affirm that like all the Beings of Nature the Growing Beings have a profound consciousness that we can tap into.

In spite of the transformational power resident in entheogens and their use there are certain concerns regarding their being used unethically. When I did ceremony in the jungle in 1987 it was free. If one wanted to, one could give a donation. 

There is nothing wrong with charging for facilitating the experience but to be in compliance with the sacred power of the plant and the Field any exchange of energy should not be abused. Ideally one should have another source of income and not have to rely on the financial rewards of the plant spirit to be in complete compliance with spirit. 

Union do Vegetal in Brazil is an Ayahuasca church whose ministers receive no payment. The translation of União do Vegetal is, Union of the Plants. 

“A mere glimpse of reality can be mistaken for complete realization.” Gampopa

There are some who after several experiences portray themselves as "shamans" without having had formal training which can take many years. Furthermore, they may not have an intimate relationship with the plant and may not even know what it looks like in the wild or how best to prepare it. The more attention and intention one gives to the details, the more the power of the medicine and the more the Field responds. The plants I believe if possible are best imbibed in their own ecosystem rather than being prepared and used remote from it.

Regarding Ayahuasca, the vision vine of the Amazon, the Icaro or sacred song which is sung throughout the ritual is key to the effect of the plant as is the Chacruna additive which activates the D.M.T. The Icaro comes to the Ayahuascero shaman out of initiation from the spirit world or some believe from the plant itself. The Icaro drives the experience.  

Yes, the facilitator can sing someone else's Icaro but singing or playing Western music will not be the same. The plants requires a certain simple but profound vibration that comes from spirit.

Even though entheogens (Ayahuasca, San Pedro cactus, Peyote) can lead to transcendental experiences, as Westerners we have to be very careful and respectful when using them. They should only be taken in sacred space with an experienced shaman, guide, therapist or mentor who can protect the participants and the sacred space. 

The use of entheogens continues to increase amongst Westerners.

To paraphrase Huston Smith about his own experiences with enthreogens, that once

one has opened the door one does not have to keep on knocking. 

The inner work still needs to be done after the door has opened. 

There are other lesser well known entheogens apart from the ones discussed . In the Americas indigenous peoples depend on these entheogens for healing and wholeness whereas we Westerners may want to consider ourselves occasional visitors to this powerful experience.

 When we have a special request, the Rolling Stones remind us that

 

"You dont always get what you want but if you try you might get what you need."