Friday, November 25, 2016

Ways to Take Magic Mushrooms: Tea

In my last article on the subject of mushrooms (the magic psilocybin containing kind), I talked about microdosing. To continue the subject of new ways to take psychedelics, I will share and expound upon two methods that when microdosing or otherwise I prefer, their effects and some of my personal stores with these processes.
Method 1: Tea 
Before the art of chocolate (see next section) was revived and perfected this was by far my preferred method for microdosing and sometimes psychedelic dosing (3 grams or more usually- if it's psilocybe cubensis). Often times this process can be simple, quick and tasty but has some differences in effect when compared to eating whole, fresh, or dried magic mushrooms.

First, let's find the baseline mushroom experience that you will notice throughout the scene. Usually people find magic mushrooms on the street or dark web that have been dried and generally are a strain or "variety" (a hybrid/designer strain) of Psilocybe Cubensis. The common terms for these sacred fungi are "shrooms, cubes, gooms, boomers" and so on. Most people online suggest taking a psychedelic dose of 3.5 grams but as stated in my previous articles about dosage, I have found a wide variety of amounts and methods which can all yield different results for different folks. Most people will just eat the dried shrooms or blend them into something, which as long as the dehydration process was done at lower temperatures, should masterfully maintain the amounts of psilocin and psilocybin in the magic mushrooms. 

Personally, I find that after the mushrooms have been dried and all the moisture removed, the grinding, smashing or breaking apart processes do little to change the amounts of the active alkaloids and thus should diminish potency. Although, sun light, heat (above 162 degree Fahrenheit) , and oxygen (especially moist air) exposure over time can all contribute to the breakdown of psilocin and sometimes psilocybin...so for potency's sake vacuum seal and cold-dark store all mushrooms or powders.

I mean you did something difficult and costly to acquire them and possibly even broke the law in your area, so store them well and treat them with reverence as you would any "Host of God."

Back to the tea; to be honest adding water and heating magic mushrooms usually diminishes their potency in some small to large way and it is very important to do this process precisely (or at least to not be disappointed if you don't have a deep strong trip). For me the process of tripping is best if it is shortened but strong so I can move on to the processing part where I sort the new information brought through my altered state. So mushroom tea, for me and others as you can see from this video, tends to be a shorter more intense trip in the right dosage. Remember is you see blue, there is a chemical breakdown occurring and a time limit to consider (a short shelf life).



To make mushroom tea, start by separately heating distilled or purified water to about 150 degrees Fahrenheit (or a little less to be safe). You have the option to add lemon or citrus juice (just a large squeeze) as some people enjoy this flavor and it has been said to help the extraction process and possibly strengthen the effects of the psilocybin.

Remember the active ingredients degrade chemically at temperatures above 162 degree Fahrenheit. 

So once you are fairly sure (usually by testing with a thermometer) that your water is about 150 degrees or below, add your mushrooms. These can be dried or fresh. I prefer to increase surface area by breaking them into small pieces. Some people. including me, have enjoyed ground mushroom powder that can be made by use of a coffee grinder (remember to clean it before and after). This dried powder should also be weighed and can be mixed into a warm water solution to make tea the same as dried or fresh mushrooms (whole or crumbled). It's important, in my opinion that a person at least break up the mushrooms so that water can have access to more surface area.

If you have a fork or something similar you can stir, mix and press the mushroom matter in the water while waiting 5 minutes for the solution to steep. In my opinion 10 minutes is also safe to wait while steeping but anything longer than that risks chemical breakdown and potency. If you have a clean French press this can be very helpful. After the steep time is complete, you should have water with active psilocybin and psilocin in it.

If you have mushroom matter floating around in your cup. press or tea pot, you can drink around it, eat it after drinking the tea (or before), or scoop it out. The best method for people with sensitive stomachs (as shroom tea and mushrooms especially raw, have been known to give people stomach trouble including nausea) is to pour the liquid off into another cup before drinking. Separating the fungal body of the mushroom from the essential tea extract is very likely to eliminate any stomach sensitivities and nausea that would normally result from digesting food or semi-raw mushrooms.

Mushrooms are like shellfish in their levels of chitan and for some people lacking in the enzyme chitanase, they can be very difficult to digest without being cooked. Shellfish and mushroom cell wall break down with heat, that is why it is generally a rule in culinary classes and cultural cooking to cook or saute mushrooms of almost every kind before human consumption.

Well there you have it! If you followed these suggestions up to this point you are about to go on a magic journey. Hopefully you are in safe lovely environment with someone watching over you and your body until you return to "normal" consciousness. Remember to journal your visions when you are "back" and talk to friends or counselors if you have difficulty with something you saw or experienced.

Don't do anything illegal in the eyes of God. Follow God's Laws!

You might be ready to graduate to Method 2: Chocolate Truffles (coming soon)
Or the secret bonus combo Method 3: Maya Hot Cocoa (coming soon as well)

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Magical Protection and Cord Cutting

During my years as a teacher of Metaphysics and the series Defense Against the Dark Arts, I have encountered questions from students about energy, energy cords or parasitic connections to others and energy vampires. I have read and listened to many opinions on these subjects and find the following blog re-post from Cedar Stevens to be honest and helpful. It conveys many things I have talked about and encouraged students to practice.  Please read the following before going on to read more of my own words on these subjects.

Original is available here:

Cord cutting is a ritual done to remove unhealthy energetic attachments between yourself and another person or persons. I believe that Diane Stein was the first to detail this protocol in her book "Psychic Healing With Spirit Guides and Angels." I will transcribe her tech and append a number of variations that may suit your occasion. This is well-worked magickal practice which has developed considerably since her writing.



It is illuminating to consider what these cords are. The theory is that they are the visualized energy transfer conduit between two people. One is usually the donor, and one is usually on the receptive end. It is a relationship of dependency between a stronger being and a weaker being. If this is sounding unhealthy already, good! However, it has been theorized that these conduits are modeled after the umbilical cord. Your first cord cutting ritual was at birth! That was the severance of the meat of the cord, but there is usually no doubt that an energetic cord of (hopefully) healthy dependance remains between baby-child-young adult and their parents. Cords also form along this umbilical model between friends, lovers, spouses, employees and employers...and unfortunately between predators (aka energy vampires) and their prey.

Because we are all people somewhere on the spectrum of mental health and emotional unbalance, with motives from pure to puerile, there are many opportunities for cords to be formed, whether we like it or not. Some of these connections are healthy, others codependent, others outright malicious.

Diane Stein's original exercise goes:
"Enter the meditative state, ground and center, do full body
relaxation, and invite in your spirit guides, angels, and God/
Goddess/Source. Place protection around yourself. Look within and
ask your guides to show you the first layer of negative chakra cords
to be removed. Look at your solar plexus first. You will see coming
from that center one or more of what look like electric cords plugged
into it. They will seem ugly, dark, or moldy looking, and of various
sizes and thicknesses.

Pick one to focus upon and ask whom it is connected to. You will see,
feel, or know ther person. If it feels right, ask to cut the cord; if
it doesn't feel right, there will be another time. Cutting the cord
does not harm the other person in any way, it just frees your energy
from that person. To cut the cord, visualize scissors or light doing
the job, or ask your guides to cut it or unplug it like a lamp. The
cord will snap back to the person it came from; if it doesn't or there
is a root of it left, ask your guides to take it away. Send light to
the person who has been released, if you can, then fill yourself with
healing light where the plug came out to heal the chakra."

I was taught a variation of this by Reclaiming teachers. We would go to each chakra in turn, starting with the Root Chakra and proceeding up to Third Eye. If you just do Solar Plexus cords, you would miss the cords attached to your Heart with an ex who you can't get over, or the Root Chakra dependencies with a boss who uses your paycheck or job security as a way to control you, and so forth. I disagree with her that there is any “need to know” who the cord is shared with. “Needing to Know” is a trait of obsession which only benefits either the unhealthy attachment at hand, or the tendency to enter into others in the future.

There is no need to cut cords from the Crown Chakra. This is the chakra of the Higher Power, and cords to this chakra only attach to the Divine nature we all share.
We also used actual knives to cut our cords, and the ideal would be your ritual Athame. I have a very gnarly Boline for this work!
Some cords of love lost or codependency are re-formed out of habit, and this is why we should repeat this operation every day for a week or so to get over whatever grief or unhealthy attachment.
Some very persistent Energy Vampires are very aware of this magickal act, and will know when their feed tube is cut off, and reattach it. I have heard of and used a couple of these strategies, but really this is a very rare situation which should be scrutinized to eliminate that the source is not an internal one.
1) First, realize that any agent who seeks to feed off your energy is inherently confessing that they are weak and you are strong. This knowledge will ALWAYS give you the advantage in such a struggle. Most victims feel powerless compared to their predator, but this is a cheap mind trick which is often the ONLY developed skill of the vampire. If they were truly more powerful than you, they would not need you at all.
2) Use Banishing oil or Four Thieves Vinegar to rinse the ritual knife, athame, scissors, etc., before and after the cord cutting. Four Thieves Vinegar is used to eliminate and bring dissolution to enemies, hexes, and the like. The Witch Bottle technology is a similar way to diffuse negative magick sent your way.
3) Instead of allowing the cord to "snap back" to the vampire, plug it back into either the Crown Chakra or another Fountain of positive energy such as a Unicorn Spirit Guide, Guardian Angel, or the like. The needy party is then flooded with more energy than they know what to do with, and become healed by communion with the Divine. Sometimes otherwise positive romantic relationships can become discordant or veer into unhealthy or codependent terrain. You might try re-attaching your cords to your Beloved to the Crown Chakra, to bring the relationship back under the guardianship of each other's Higher Power.
4) Instead of allowing the cord to snap back, plug it into some large, immobile, and useless material object, such as a junk van on a wrecker lot, or a building that is always on the market that nobody will buy. This connection will cost the parasite more energy than they can afford, and theoretically they will give up after a few more attempts to re-attach.
5) You can hand the severed cord off to any God, GoddessSpirit Guide, Totem Animal, or Ancestor that you are on good terms with, and ask them to take care of this for you. 
6) Attach the severed cord to a mirror. Put the mirror in a black bag or pouch some place away from your home where it will be undisturbed for some time. This metaphysically causes the perpetrator to reflect on what they are doing and receive the energy they are giving.
Some of these techniques are tried and true, and others are more experimental Defense Against the Dark Arts. I would definitely ask for feedback on how these or the many other versions have worked for you.
Most importantly, since Nature and Magick abhor a vacuum, return to mundane life and replace the negative energies with protection, self blessing, forward focus, and dedication to your own Will. DO NOT OBSESS on your little problem. (Vampyers love obsession...) Try to think of it as something you will have to remind yourself to do, like taking an antibiotic on time every day. Other than that, you have much more important things to do with your life!
Cedar Stevens
Sept 2012