My friend, Azure, has been working closely now with the Mazatecan elder, Natalia Martinez, featured in the documentary film The Little Saints by Oliver Quintanilla.

Natalia utilizes the traditional Mazatec altar as the focus during the velada, encouraging the participants to maintain their focus on the candles/images there and advises them to avoid "falling in" to the trance, but rather to maintain their intention on invoking the sacred as a focus of the work with the mushroom.

The typical Western approach, where one closes one's eyes and listens to music to guide the experience, Natalia calls the "lazy approach" and indicates it does not allow for the full potential of the mushroom to be manifested. For those training with her, she offers a dinner plate full of derrumbes (Ps. caerulescens) and encourages one to maintain awareness throughout the experience. This is a necessary training of attention which enables one to learn the art of directing the experience and working with what the mushroom presents to the undistracted mind. Natalia has been doing this work, up to three times weekly, for the past 40 years. She has an incredible energy for an 87-year-old woman. During the veladas, she will hold the hands of participants and transmits a strong healing energy. We have much to learn from the Mazatec elders.

The derrumbes are preferred by the Mazatecs because they are strong. They will use other species when they cannot find the derrumbes, but insist that they are not strong enough for deep healing work. The derrumbes also carry a heat into the body that has healing effects unique to them. That being said, we have recently been working with the pajaritos (Ps. mexicana) fruits and find them very clear and deep at 2 to 3 dried grams. Taking them once a week results in a set of experiences, each of which builds upon the previous. There is a spirit in the mushroom, The Little Saints (los Santos Niños) which has much to say. Having worked with them now for over 40 years, I am really happy to have connected with the traditional way of using them and am committed to following this path for the remainder of my life. I cannot see doing them in any other way

The act of focusing on images that carry the energy of the sacred makes a very big difference in how the experience opens up. The Little Saints become something that one takes into ones body for healing and transformative purposes. Utilizing it in this traditional manner, we believe it would qualify as a sacred plant tradition that would be protected under the Religious Freedom Act. The ultimate goal would be to test this in the courts and open the door to personal use protected by the constitution. This seems a more sane way to approach it, in my experience, than trying to medicalize it as a "drug" given by a mental health professional, which, frankly, even the thought of doing it this way I find aversive.

To further explore the differences in the traditional species, we are working wih 4 species traditionally used in Huatla and collected there by Azure, including Ps. mexicana (pajaritos), Ps. cubensis (San Isidro), Ps. caerulescens (derrumbes) and Ps. zapotecorum (also known as a derrumbe). Each species has its own signature and we are determined to map these characteristics out through extensive personal exploration. The Mazatec approach, of oourse, is to eat them often, taking them into the body, to fully experience their salutary and healing effects. I will continue this practice until my last breath goes out.

I've attended a traditional Mazatec mushroom ceremony in Huautla. The setting was quite christianized, with statues of Jesus and saints, and the curandera sang songs in both Mazatec and Spanish. I didn't know about the different types they used. It wasn't exactly the season for mushrooms and I don't know what type I was served, but it was fresh mushrooms. They were served with cacao beans and I didn't quite get what the purpose of the cacao was.