María Sabina: Saint Mother of the Sacred Mushrooms
Maria Sabina was a curandera from Oaxaca, Mexico. She was a beautiful soul that offered deep healings to people who struggled with health conditions and supporting them to heal. She led mushroom journeys to the people of her community in scared ceremony. She offered healings through the plants, song and dance. It was in 1955, 2 men from the United States learned of Maria. Gordon Wasson, Vice President of JP Morgan Bank and a New York fashion photographer. Wasson went to Mexico to seek Maria’s help and mislead her to believe that he needed healing. He had a profound experience with the mushroom ceremony and experienced ecstasy. He went back to the states and published an article in Time magazine reporting on his experience. He published Maria’s photograph without permission. The article was published in 1957 and the term “magic mushroom” was coined.
After the article was published, the psychedelic revolution began. Westerners began to head to Mexico for healing from Maria. She became well known by celebrities, poets, musicians, and lay people alike. This also caused much pain and suffering for Maria as this interest in her work also led for her house to be burned, the federales raiding her home and she was forced to leave her hometown. People began using mushrooms out of ceremonial context and disregarding the scaredness of the plant and indigenous wisdom that comes with it.
Maria stated, “from the moment the foreigners arrived to search for God, the ninos santos lost their purity. They lost their force, the foreigners spoiled them… Before Wasson, I felt that the ninos santos elevated me. I don’t feel like that anymore.”
All over the history of civilizations, spiritual ceremonies integrated these natural resources. Through the power of nature, indigenous people created bridges to the divine. Until now, rituals are still used to heal and connect with the Universe.
Maria died at the age of 91 in 1985 in poverty. In her life, she never even owned a pair of shoes.
What can we learn from this historical story? As a western society, it is time to honor the traditions of the indigenous wisdom and honor the path of healing with sacred medicine. We must shift our paradigm of thinking that we are entitled. We must honor the ways and come back to the roots of the medicine and what it is here to teach us. It has the potential to support us in healing what ails us, connecting us to all things greater than us, releasing the illusion of separation, teaching us about ourselves in profound ways and offering deep wisdom that may not be apparent, but it is working in subtle and unfathomable ways.
At Sacred Earth Collective, it is our mission to bring back the sanctity and deep wisdom of the medicine from the earth. We must come back to ceremony and heal as a community. We are committed to supporting the indigenous wisdom that has known for so long the power of community, connection, and healing through our mother earth.
Thank you, Maria, for what you brought to this world. Thank you for your deepest wisdom. We at Sacred Earth, want to honor your memory by bringing back the sacredness of the work you have so beautifully offered this world.