Maestro Hamilton Souther: Plant Medicine, Sorcery, Shamanigans, and Liberation from Trauma

For me, the word “maestro” brings to mind a conductor of a symphony orchestra. In the plant medicine setting, a maestro does something similar: orchestrate the journey, paying attention to everything that is happening in the space, including working with spirits, singing to the spirits of the plants (icaros), and creating sanctuary, within with everything you might experience is self-harmonizing, self-grounding, self-orienting, self-healing, and self- . This is not exclusive of the “bad” stuff that might arise in a ceremony. Those “bad spirits” can be brought into sanctuary for healing, too.

Hamilton Southern has lived in the Peruvian Amazon for two decades, and it took him 14 years of intensive training to get to a place where he felt he could fully accept his role as a facilitator of plant medicine visionary experiences.

While listening to this conversation, it’s important to remember that the medicine - whether it be ayahuasca, Hauchuma/San Pedro, cannabis, or psilocybin mushrooms - is not providing the cure. These medicines simply invoke an invitation for you to become liberated from whatever is holding you back. All of the “good” and “bad” stuff that comes up in these visionary experiences are a part of you.

Are you willing to lean in to accept the possibility of healing?

Read Hamilton’s books. Visit BlueMorpho.org for his retreats and online course. You’ll find community, education, support, compassion, and new ways of looking at the world. Tell them Nathan Riley sent you.

00:12:20 - Assuaging the fears and apprehensions of those who have heard horror stories about ayahuasca and unethical practices in this space.

00:20:29 - When things get scary in sanctuary, you can invoke “sanctuary”. The primary tenets: 1) time is infinite, space is eternal; 2) source is in through and all around us; and 3) everything within sanctuary is self-healing, self-harmonizing, self-orienting, self-grounding, and self-balancing. Bring the darkness into sanctuary and heal that as well.

00:28:29 - When scary things emerge in a medicine journey, lean in with curiosity rather than making assumptions about the intentions of the figures that may arise in your visions.

00:32:23 - Hamilton’s first ayahuasca ceremonies were no walk in the park. They were more like a hard drive disc defragmentation.

00:40:50 - Perhaps we should seek healing from trauma. Perhaps should be seeking liberation from trauma.

00:43:07 - 250 years of Western medicine shouldn’t wipe out 50,000 years of ancestral medicine application. Rather, “modern medicine” should seek to clarify the prior 50,000 years of medicine that preceded it. This is a huge value to Hamilton’s work in opening the world to these medicines. Dosing with plant medicines has less to do with body mass and more with individual temperament, and knowing how much to give to a person for the desired goal requires practice and patience as a facilitator.

00:53:00 - How does one reach a point where they are ready to offer medicine themselves?

00:57:18 - What is the role of the facilitator/Shaman/maestro in a ceremony?

01:02:18 - The importance of being able to distinguish reality from illusion in a visionary plant medicine experience.

01:09:51 - Integration after a medicine journey is as important if not more important than the medicine experience itself.

01:21:55 - A proper “dieta” prior to ayahuasca and why these restrictions are valuable to the experience. Pros and cons of mixing visionary medicines.

01:35:00 - Medicine versus sorcery

01:41:07 - Birth trauma and visionary plant medicines

Read Hamilton’s books. Visit BlueMorpho.org for his retreats and online course. You’ll find community, education, support, compassion, and new ways of looking at the world. Tell them Nathan Riley sent you.

References from the conversation:

* Buddha in Red Face, by Eduardo Duran

Related episodes:

* Hamilton Souther: On the Use of Plant Medicines in Releasing Birth Trauma

* You are the Church: Psychedelics Within and Without Ceremony, a Conversation with Payam

* Kimberly Ann Johnson: On Grieving the Loss of Sanctity in Birth

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