hikuri dreams itself
acrylic on 8 1/2 x 14 canvas
can’t write for a dream that I have yet to meet
but I know it’s true, I feel it too
if the books you read exclude the songs ~
how can you tell what’s right? What’s wrong?
this teacher is deeper in their reaches:
so let them touch you. see it through.
an observation on the power and terrible misunderstandings wrought upon this small, spineless cactus commonly called Peyote Native to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and northern Mexico with Indigenous use spanning over thousands of years. The U.S. government outlawed the use of Peyote with The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970) and Peyote was included as a Schedule 1 drug along with the likes of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and hard narcotics. The reasoning behind this harsh classification was for the naturally occurring chemical, mescaline, and the other 60+ alkaloids found in the cactus. The challenges to reclassify Peyote came on a long, hard road of rigorous research and on the backsides of Native American activists who pushed for access and autonomy with their religious and spiritual rights. On October 6th 1994, Peyote became legal for Native American religious use under federal law and as an amendment to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. This legislation granted protection over the possession, transportation, and use of Peyote by tribes for traditional ceremonial purposes. The transformational components of this plant cannot be understated. Oral origin stories suggest that Hikuri taught the people how to use its medicine for guidance and healing through dreams and within the ritual spaces. Songs were gifted to unlock this ancestor Master Medicine’s capacity. Attributing the wonders of what these beings can offer to just a chemical scripture, to mere trial-and-error, demeans the bigger picture of how ancient peoples have come to know and understand their uses so intimately. Tapping into the frequency of universal knowledge is credited entirely to the use of medicines such as Hikuri: considered a teacher, and by all accounts a sovereign entity who shares its power and its wisdom through ‘unconventional’ means.
