• With contributions from Christopher Bache, Zoe Helene, Dennis McKenna, Martina Hoffmann, The Dank Duchess, Jamie Wheal, Grandmother Maria Alice, and others
• Explores the immense healing intelligence of nature, the wisdom of ancient Indigenous prophecies and shamanic practices, the importance of the Divine Feminine for environmental regeneration, and the crucial role of psychedelic and entheogenic plants in initiating transformations of consciousness
Exploring the way forward for humanity in the face of unprecedented crisis, more than 25 contributors show how the wisdom of Indigenous peoples and the power of psychedelics can help us enact the radical shift in consciousness necessary to navigate the collapse of the old world order and the birth of a new consciousness.
We hear from psychedelic visionaries Christopher Bache, Zoe Helene, Wade Davis, Chris Kilham, Laurel Sugden, and others on the promise of psychedelic medicines for spiritual and healing work. We learn about Indigenous stories to support our transformation from Native American leader Solana Booth, ancestral memory from Grandmother Maria Alice Campos Freire, cannabis's role in world building from Minelli Eustàcio-Costa, the ritual roots of talking plants from Michael Stuart Ani, and alchemy across the arc of time from shaman Ya'Acov Darling Khan. We also hear from cannabis grower The Dank Duchess; Tyson Yunkaporta, Australian Aboriginal artist and scholar; visionary artist Martina Hoffmann; activist Duane Elgin; Kohenet Rachel Kann, ordained Jewish priestess and ceremonialist; and several other wise leaders for our time.
Throughout these profound essays we are reminded of the immense healing intelligence of our plant allies, of the wisdom of shamanic practices, of the importance of the Divine Feminine for environmental regeneration, and of the crucial role of entheogenic plants in initiating transformations of consciousness and healing our world's collective disconnection from Spirit. Stephen Gray is a teacher and writer on spiritual subjects and sacramental medicines. He has worked extensively with Tibetan Buddhism, the Native American Church, and with entheogenic medicines. He is also a conference and workshop organizer, leader, and speaker. The editor of Cannabis and Spirituality, he lives in Vancouver. INTRODUCTION
Embracing an Essential Vision
Stephen Gray
The potent adjective extraordinary barely rises to the task of describing the unprecedented and almost overwhelming challenges facing humanity at this time. Visionaries-including contributors to this book-have sensed that hundreds of thousands of years of collective and individual history, struggle, and karma are coalescing right now. Cynics may dismiss this recognition as magical thinking-a "my-generation" delusion. Others may downplay the urgency of the moment. Still others turn away in denial and cling to chimeras and false, even dangerous, promises and premises. But the signs are clear for those willing to look and to listen.
Mystics, explorers of deep psychonautic realms, intuitives, the long-held prophecies of multiple Indigenous/traditional tribes and societies around the planet, and the clearly evident and observable developments of increasingly rapid climate change, madcap materialism, and gross economic and social inequality and imbalance all point to an inescapable truth: the longstanding dominant mindset of spiritual disconnect that has cast its shadow over the human enterprise has run its course and is no longer viable or sustainable. The flatland days of continuing as we have been are all but over.
Until very recently we've had wiggle room. This endlessly generous planet has been giving us everything that keeps us alive second by second, year after year, and generation upon generation. She has allowed the great majority of us to grievously misunderstand our true nature as interwoven, interdependent participants in a vast, liv
