I realize that most people here utilize psychedelics for spiritual and consciousness expanding purposes. I was curious as to how many of you utilize a focused ritual while useing psychedelics, and what that entails. The reason is, with all of the cultures across this planet and shamanic practices varying from culture to culture, I was wondering what different people do to fulfill this purpose. I myself have utilized mandalas prior to a DMT trip to focus my thoughts, as well as music and insense. I have yet to develop a formal ritual to suit a particular purpose, but I am intrigued with what others have done. I have known wiccans whose ritualistic use of DMT as a sacrament, and I would assume that the used elemental symbolism in their works. I'm also familiar with traditional shamanism with ayahuasca involving icaros. So basically, how do you do things when useing a psychedelic for ritualistic purposes?

I haven't developed any in-depth sort of rituals except for maybe this one.

I know it isn't really a ritual (a "novel" one at best) but I am still working on it and it really does help clear my head and cleanse my being. I like using music and incense during a journey as well as doing stretches with my significant other. IME, sex can be very rewarding too.

While these things are not ritualistic by themselves, they have a tendency to occur in nearly every one of my journeys, therefore creating a ritualistic effect.

I think it is about finding your center and being open to and trying out as many methods as possible. Through trial and error, your own rituals and rites will become apparent. Do what is comfortable for you!

Pacing up and down nervously, wondering "do I really want to do this"

Then trying to meditate to clear my mind

Finding that it's not really working and I'm still feeling flighty

Take a deep breath. Go.


For me, most of the ritual happens afterwards, giving thanks for the experience (which is always nice then I think it will be), and trying to integrate it all together.

Blessings
~ND

Before any psychedelic experience I try not to eat much or anything that will disturb my intestines in particular. I try to get lots of sleep. I try not to have done anything that day that I will later criticize harshly.

Before I would make it a special point to abstain from masturbation and sexual intercourse before any psychedelic experience. Now I try to abstain from these most of the time so it's never really much of a concern, and honestly beforehand I did not notice any huge negative effects.

And this is more of a clerical ritual, but I like to get some paper and pens out or anything that I might need during the trip. I do not want to be searching for and deciding on what shirt to change into while on mushrooms for example, as I simply feel silly while engaging in such vanity during a trip (though the fabric on my body does have an immense effect on my setting).

Superstition only does something for you if you believe in it. So overall I take a more physical approach; I don't have any rituals pertaining to "getting lucky" during the experience, but I try to do things that will make my body and mind feel better during the trip itself.

The tenets of chaos are super handy in this regard - most notably the suspension of disbelief. So while we're aware of 'superstition', and flaky esoterica, the vehicle of human belief is a powerful juggernaut to place your intentions in. Putting aside scepticism and being reverent, respectful and meticulous about preparing and securing the space for me is invaluable.

This is my process:

Pre-prep -
- Veggie and white meat diet for a few days before, vegan on the day of. Depends on the ROA - I'm only super careful with tea, a little more casual with changa or shroomage.
- If I'm not being good to myself in general, meditating, exercising, etc etc, I can expect a rough ride, but it's also senseless to just implement that stuff right before a journey. In a perfect world I'm doing a moderate amount of that stuff already.

Setup -
- Comfortable clothes, comfortable space to sit and lie, blanket for later.
- Calm, no-surprises playlist.
- Warm ambient lighting.
- All mod cons (something to write with, toilet paper, torch, bucket, water, whatever else you need).
- Tarot (for before and after).
- An altar space at the forefront of my space (all of my medicine, spare incense, trinkets, singing bowl etc are placed here). The altar seems to orientate me during the evening.

Prep -
- Light candles and incense, kill lights, start playlist.
- Smudge the room.
- Smudge myself.
- Use a singing bowl to encircle the space.
- Either a Kabbalistic Cross or a full banishing ritual (lesser pentagram).
- A short meditative space in which I contemplate my true intent, and lightly converse with whichever sacrament I'm about to partake of.

I also light a little incense in the bathroom, and smudge there as well. It's flaky, yes, but I've tested varying degrees of this, and I find the more I prep, the stronger and calmer I feel in ceremony. I also can't recommend the Kabbalistic cross highly enough, not just as a part of ceremonies, but for daily use as well. A truly great energetic centering tool.

Personally I'm a fan of Chaos magic, Kabbalah, and Shamanism, meted out with a sprinkle of science - the joy of chaos is that you can really wrap all of them into any weird hydra that you like, without any conflict. The joy of science is that it doesn't care how much mumbo-jumbo goes down if there ain't enough alkaloids in yer brew

This is primarily regarding DMT, though I have essentially followed the same ritual before partaking in Salvia Divinorum, as well.

Usually I start feeling "the call" a few days, or sometimes even weeks, beforehand. For the days leading up to the journey, I reduce the amount of external stimulation and try to focus inward. I will try to avoid technology as much as possible, don't listen to music, try to spend as much time outdoors, away from people & noise, etc. As The Hermit said, I also try to increase the frequency of meditation I am performing, though, ideally, I should be doing this already.

Usually, I know I'm going to journey as soon as I wake up in the morning on that day. There's a very solemn, ominous sense of "facing the music," so to speak - I can't put it off anymore. Nothing else will help me get over this hurdle. This is the only way. I try not to eat for a few hours beforehand. I smudge with white sage, & light incense - I use one scent exclusively for journeys, because I feel that the familiarity & association will give me some sort of anchor or reference point, when things inevitably get rough. Some stretches beforehand, especially headstands, really get the blood flowing and give you the sense of "being in your own body," shortly before forcefully ejecting your consciousness out of this realm.

I wear a set of Rosary beads around my wrist that belonged to my grandmother. They were given to me by my father after she died. I always kept them with me. Originally, it was a "good luck charm" for journeying. After several more journeys, I sarcastically referred to her as my "guardian spirit" in that dimension. Several more journeys later, the sarcasm disappeared. Interacting with the deceased in these states of mind might be some sort of a controversial topic to discuss, but I have had experiences that have legitimately shaken me to the core of my being and left me staring at a wall with my jaw hanging open for a solid twenty minutes wondering what the hell any of this means.

Once I'm ready, I sit cross legged on my bed, cover myself with blankets if it's cold, and hold my GVG and torch lighter. I stare at them hard. I lift the bowl up to my nose & breathe in that smell - how do you even describe that smell? It's enough to make my heart start racing & I began performing breathing exercises to calm myself. I recite the Litany Against Fear (yes, I'm a Dune nerd), & my grip gets tighter and tighter around the pipe & the lighter as I speak each line with more and more conviction. I kiss the cross on my wrist, say "Protect me, Nonna," then I hold the pipe up to my mouth, light it, & you know what happens next.

My ritual is slightly different for each plant I work with.... I only diet ahead of time for Ayahuasca, other plants I dont diet for, though I may skip breakfast if I am doing ceremony first thing in the morning. Sometimes I also practice vegetalismo which is when you apprentice to a specific plant (psychedelic or not) and diet it for a few weeks straight....

Most ceremonies I will call in the winds/medicine wheel (I do this in a Q'ero style calling I learned) to start and then I will blow mapacho smoke on myself, all the medicine, and if someone else is with me them too. I will sing a song before we start, then anyone present has the chance to say what they are grateful for, what their hopes/intention for the ceremony is, and also pray for the guidance or healing they need. Then we start the ceremony.

Often times I am singing during the ceremony whenever a song comes to me that wants to be sung. Anytime I smoke mapacho or cannabis within the ceremony I will blow prayers into it before I smoke. If I am with someone who need energy work I will offer it, and if I am with anyone who needs to talk to process through things, then I will help them with that. I do a lot of emotional/ecstatic prayer too.

Also a lot of quiet meditation time and walking meditation time. Sometimes I may also add a hape' ceremony into our psychedelic ceremony too.

I find that most but not all times, less is more, so I try to keep ritual minimum so I can focus on the plants teachings. Just a song every once in a while, otherwise mostly silence unless someone needs to talk something out.

There are many more little things that I may do every once in a while, but those are the main things that pretty much always happen in plant ceremony for me.... Sometimes I do ceremony alone, but I am usually with my wife or especially with someone looking for assistance healing, so there is often 1-3 other people with me....