Greetings fellow travelers!
Long time lurker here, (seriously a L O N G time), but I never felt I had much to contribute to the grand scheme of things, so I simply enjoyed soaking up information over the years, from the shadows.
Well, the times, they are a changing.
As I traverse the third decade of my existence and look back;
at my care free pre-teen youth, at my never ending quest for legal and illegal intoxication/altered states as a teen / well into my 20's, and at the journey for personal growth, inner-peace, and personal understanding that I find myself currently in; I am starting to see and understand with greater clarity, which elements of each of those sections of my life engaged me the most, and led to the most real feelings of contentedness, and a feeling of true inner euphoria.
Without going to far down my own personal rabbit hole, I have began to realize that I have long had a passion for plants and botany, even before I understood any fraction of it.
Going back to being a very young kid, playing out in the fertile fields where I grew up, collecting unique plants and bringing them back to our "forts", "dissecting" them, and usually finding some tender little inner part of the plant that was determined to be the "food" of the plant, and would eat it. It is a wonder that as a young child I didn't poison myself!
Fast forward to the intoxication seeking teen segment of my life, and I was doing much the same thing, but my interest had shifted to wild psychedelic mushrooms, and smoking random wildflowers, investigating and trying every "legal high" I could, and attempting to discover my own. Once again, I was very lucky not to have killed myself consuming poorly identified plants and fungi.
In my 20's, I focused more and more on rare and unusual chemicals, and not so much on my long standing passion for botany, in fact at this point, I never really associated botany with enjoyment itself, it was always just a means to get intoxicated/altered.
Well at this point, I have kind of come full circle.
I now realize that, deep in my core, few things make my feel as happy and content, as learning about, tending to, and using / learning from, the many amazing medicinal and psychoactive plants that are all around us, and their traditional uses.
I am in the process of building up my own little ethnobotanical garden, a goal I have long dreamed about.
As I write this, I look to my left, and see 6 beautiful little
Desmanthus illinoensis sprouts that just showed themselves this week.
Off to the side of that is 10 of the notoriously difficult to germinate
Banisteriopsis muricata seeds, with their little wings reaching above the surface of the soil, but no signs of life
yet.
Another glance around, and I am looking at a couple of beautiful, happy "Wasson" strain
Salvia divinorum plants that are ready for transplanting to a bigger pot, and a handful of "Blosser" strain cuttings attempting to shoot out some roots in cups of water.
A little further over in the corner, and we have the hardy "non-bitter"variety of
Calea zacatechichi, a recent arrival that is rebounding from it's dark journey in a USPS box, showing lots of new growth at all nodes!
In front of that is a tray of
Ipomoea violacea seedlings, rapidly growing and needing to be replanted, they ultimately will find a home outside in lots of sun.
In addition to all these wonderful allies, I have some "Catnip",
Nepeta cataria, and some "Broad Leaf Sage",
Salvia officinalis, sprouts happily growing bigger every day.
As soon as I get a little more time, the next round of germination and planting will happen, which is set to include (seeds ready to go);
Acacia Acuminata spp. Burkittii - Sandhill Wattle
Acacia Simplicifolia (Simplex)
Peganum harmala - Syrian Rue
Psychotria viridis - Chacruna
Silene capensis - African Dream Root
Heimia Myrtifolia - Aztec Sun Opener
Heimia Salicifolia - Aztec Sun OpenerI am really looking forward to landscaping my yard with Acacia's, Bundleflower's, and Syrian Rue, all of which should absolutely thrive where I am.
Spending time with my little humble garden is probably one of my most enjoyable activities, and I cannot wait to learn the lessons that these allies have to teach.
I suppose I have rambled long enough!
If you have bothered to read through all this, you may have realized that I have not really touched on the topic of my experiences with DMT itself, simply put, I have not had the opportunity to learn it's ways yet, but that will be changing in the near future.
Thanks for reading, I hope to be a positive contributing member to the amazing pool of knowledge that bursts at the seams of this site!
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
Carl Sagan