I am on the receiving end of a quantity of unenhanced leaf and would like some experienced recommendations on how to quid., as well as any general advice for one who is relatively inexperienced on the practical use of sd.

Apparently, they have been stored in an airtight container but unrefrigerated for about a year.

How badly would this affect the psychoactivity?

Also in order to try to "feel my way up" how would you, dear experienced reader, do so? I'm a 46 year old, 130 lb human, and want to make it into full immersion onto salvia d-space. But slowly.

I've had the most-and only- legitamally terrifying psychedelic trip on S.D., so have a trembling respect for it. It is however, an intriguing and potentially extremely useful tool, in my inexperienced opinion.

There are little details you can change up but I copied and pasted this from a book I wrote about a year ago. It includes some suggestions for making the experience more ceremonial which you can leave out or add to if you like. Feel free to ask questions :

Salvia Quidding, Alcohol Extraction and Cold-Pressed Tea

Salvia Divinorum, the diviner’s sage, is an incredibly misunderstood plant medicine in modern culture. Common usage includes extracting Salvinorum A, the active ingredient, and putting a concentrated form onto other leaves, then smoking the concentrated extract. In traditional Mazatec usage, the herb is never ever smoked, and is never used in a concentrated form, because smoking the plant is considered a disrespectful taboo. Whether smoking the plant is disrespectful or effective or not can be up to you to decide for yourself, but here, we will explore the methods of quidding and making tea or simple alcohol extractions of Salvia. If you do try smoking, I recommend the plain leaves rather than the extract that is commonly sold (or at least use a weaker extract). (read the “Other Entheogens” chapter for more information on this plant)

All of these methods are for oral consumption. Orally ingested salvia compared to smoked Salvia is a much different experience. Smoked, the experience starts right away, lasts about 10 minutes only, is very intense and often scary or uncomfortable physically, and is usually confusing or easily forgotten. It is hard to bring back insight and lessons, and if you do bring back some memories, you may need to interpret them. Oral Salvia on the other hand comes on slow and gently, lasts about an hour or longer, and spirit communication is often very easy and natural. Memory retention is usually easier and more complete, and there is often less need to interpret messages, as communicating with salvia in this way is much easier. Oral ingestion isn’t as strong though, so there is some technique involved with getting to the deeper levels of the experience sometimes.

Quidding is the most traditional way of ingesting Salvia. A quid is a bundle of leaves you roll into a cigar like shape to suck on under your tongue. You can do this with fresh or dried leaves, however, dried leaves should be prepped first with a little water to make them soft again (just soak them in a tiny bit of water for 3-5 minutes). A mini-dose should use about 1-2 grams, while a full dose should be 2-5 grams (I recommend the beginner starts with 3 grams of leaves). The leaves
do not taste too bad, but are slightly bitter, so if you like, you can add a little honey to the quid for flavor.

Perform your opening ceremony, and ask Salvia to bless the leaves. Set your intention – Salvia will often only speak to you when you start the conversation (ask nothing, and you will likely hear nothing). The leaves should be pressed together, and then placed under the tongue. Here, they should be occasionally chewed, mostly sucked on, and the liquid should be held under the tongue for a while, and then very slowly swallowed. Salvia enters the body most effectively under the tongue, and even more so in the back of the throat, so it helps if you sit with your head tilted slightly up and back (feel the liquid sit in the back of your throat as you slowly swallow it). Mastering this technique unlocks much of Salvias secrets. After about 15-30 minutes, you can either spit out the leaves, or swallow them, and then sit or lie back and get comfortable! The medicine usually starts working around 10-15 minutes in (while you are still chewing), and will peak at around the 20-40 minute mark. It stays at the peak for 30-60 minutes before it winds down.

After you spit out or swallow the leaves, lie back and get comfortable. You should have your eyes closed, and be sitting as still as possible (like you are meditating). The room should be dark, and this medicine usually works better in complete silence when possible. You have to meet this spirit half way by quidding properly and also lying still and quiet. If you can lie still and quiet, you will be rewarded with easy and deep communication which can lead to insight and healing.

The technique for ingesting the alcohol extraction and cold-pressed tea is the same (holding in the mouth, and then lying still/quiet), but the preparation of the medicine is slightly different. After you prepare your medicine, follow the same ritual instructions as above.

For alcohol extractions, you can buy already made tinctures online if you want, or make your own. You can do more thorough alcohol extractions, but I will share the simplest one I know. First, get an empty bottle or jar, and stuff it full with as many leaves as possible. Then pour your alcohol of choice over the leaves (Tequila is traditional, but feel free to use vodka or rum as well), and shake the bottle up. Let this mixture sit for 15 minutes to a day or longer. If you use the extracted powder, you can dissolve the powder straight into the alcohol without steeping it and drink. Before you hold this liquid in your mouth, you may want to water it down with some water, because holding strong alcohol in your mouth for that long can sometimes cause irritation or burning if it isn’t watered down first. Remember to especially hold the liquid in the back of your throat and gargle it a little bit before you swallow. Do the whole dose at once, or slowly sip it (you can even add a little lemonade for flavor if you like). This extraction works great, because the alcohol allows the Salvia to cross cell-membranes more easily, and therefore get into your body quicker.

For a cold-pressed tea, start by either making a paste from the leaves with water in a mortar and pestle (this is the more involved alchemical route), or blend your leaves with water for the quicker route. If you make the paste, add more water to it after wards. Put the leaf and water mixture into a French-press, and after it has sat 5-15 minutes, strain out the leaves. Your drink is now ready! Cold water is recommended for this, as heating the water makes a more bitter tea with Salvia. Drink this the same way as with the alcohol extraction – hold it in the back of your throat while you gargle a little bit, and swish it around good. Sip it slow, and judge your dose as the feelings slowly come on while sipping. If you like, feel free to mix in mint or lemonade for flavor. Chamomile also works well.

Caution: Mixing Salvia with any other plant makes the effects of both much much stronger, and sometimes turns the whole experience into a Salvia experience. She is a powerful spirit and can sometimes dominate the experience (which isn’t necessarily bad).

travsha covered the oral ROA question beautifully

As for the question of potency due to the storage, it should not be a problem. Air tight container (and assuming dried leaf, of course ) and unrefrigerated is absolutely fine. I have had leaf that is over a decade old, stored in an air tight container at room temperature (also in darkness) that did not lose potency in any noticeable way. I think the most important factor would be light as salvinorin A is pretty sensitive to UV exposure.

Thanks, meta for that info- just what I need to know
I'm not sure how they were store, but I think it was probably in a plastic bag.

I've only skimmed over the contents of your response travsha, but it's exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

The statement about smoking extracts as being offensive to the spirit of the plant struck me. I tend to eschew a lot of that kind of thing- while not writing it off either, not at all- but salvia definitely responded in such a manner.

I had been reduced to nothing but awareness- conscious of nothing but just being conscious- and confronted by a screaming sunflower shaped mandala, and surrounded by unseen entities taunting me with the phrase "is this what you want?" in infinite overlapping loops while my reality was reconstructed sliver by sliver I the sunflower through what seemed only mercy by this Lord of Salvia Space.

Very very punishing male force, and I know salvia is considered feminine in nature, so maybe a construct of my own. Perhaps dealing with cultural shame over drug use and consciousness change, or a plant spirit warning me sternly but mercifully to proceed with respect and caution, either way it was very valuable to me.

Salvia also has this curious long-lasting anxiolytic affect for me. No if it's just because I have a sense of calm after having survive something so incredibly traumatic or if there is some physiological effects going on, but it's something that I forward to engaging with. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

No problem! Your leaf is most likely fine. Salvia is pretty hardy when dried and stored in a jar or plastic bag. Just keep it away from sunlight

The extracts can certainly be harsh if you dive right in. Plain leaf is way more forgiving when smoked. I do understand why it's tradition to use it orally and to stay away from smoking it. It's very gentle and more "accepting" when you quid or make a cold-pressed tea, or juice the fresh leaf. Sort of along the same lines as smoked/vaped DMT and Ayahuasca/Pharma. More time to navigate the space, gentler, has a strong healing vibe when done orally.

I've been wanting to try this.

Well shoot, have yet to receive the leaves, so this experimentation has been delayed. Will post updates...

That alcohol extractions seems wonderful!
What i may plan to do is soak 100g of salvia dried leaf in 1l of about 80 proof tequila (1cl/g is a correct ratio, or can i reduce alcohol content further?). Let that sit for a month, than strain the liquid.
The ingestion dose would be 3cl of salvia tequila watered down a notch with a drop of peppermint essential oil (helps absorption apparently and the taste would be smashing!). Let sit and swirl in mouth for 15min, gargle, swallow, voilà !
Does this seem like an effective method to get the best out of a salvia experience ?