This psychedelic series all started with a friendly call to Mehka one fine November afternoon.
He hasn’t taken the plunge yet, but I have. Either way, we both noticed that these healing hallucinogens are intersecting with the Black community more and more, so why not highlight Black folk leading the charge on internal transformation?
As we’ve learned with 2020 election, Black women are (for better or worse) guiding lights in this country. So I’m highlighting 3 Black female psychonauts for you to learn about and get insight from as you’re considering your psych journey.
I end the bit with an excerpt about 1 of the many trips I’ve taken since 2019.
Read on and enjoy!
Robin Divine: A Black Psychedelic Awakening
Robin Divine is a writer and mental health advocate for Black women. She believes that the psychedelic community is heavily white washed. But we can find healing too thanks to the return and rise of these powerful hallucinogens. Her journey inspired her to scribe her current book project, which serves as a guide for Black women wanting to explore plant medicine.
So how did she get started?
Good ol’ 2020 has proven to be a year of awakening for many. Particularly for Robin, she started here psychedelics at the beginning of our historic living. She sought to process lifelong trauma and explore an alternative to depression medication since she had grown resistant to.
Robin worked with a guide or “trip sitter” during her initial experiences combining psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA (or ecstasy). The results? A noticeable decrease in anxiety and depression, leading to increased energy and improved coping skills in the face of everyday stressors, overwhelm and exhaustion.
Psychedelics have been a substantial life-changer for her. And she believes that they are powerful healing tools that our community doesn’t known enough about.
So if you’re curious to start your psychedelic journey, she recommends starting with a trip to Amazon or elsewhere for a drug testing kit. You want to acquire your entheogen from a trusted source, of course. But still do your own testing to make sure you’re safe.
Next up, before consuming anything establish a safe support system that makes you feel comfortable. Especially for first timers, a solo journey may have to wait so make sure you have a trained guide or a trusted (sober) friend around. Again, psychedelics are quite powerful. So having those around who can care for you physically and emotionally is essential.
To keep up with Robin Divine, follow her on Instagram @blackpeopletrip, on Twitter @writerdivine and/or reach out to her via email at blackpeopletrip@gmail.com
Jay the Cannabis Fairy: the Essentials of Entheogens
Jay, also known as the Cannabis Fairy on Instagram, is the first Black woman Founder of a National Entheogenic* Organization. Their motto?
Representation, Education and Access for all who Desire.
She was one of the last principal students of the late Baba Kilindi Iyi. He passed away April 2020 due to COVID-19 unfortunately. You can learn more about him on his website and in this brief article honoring his life.
Since Jay is a regular host for cosmic journeys, here are are suggestions for starting your own journey with psychedelics beyond doing your own research:
Connect with other Black folk within the community
Microdose, microdose, microdose! Whether it’s with one or half of a dried psilocybin mushroom or half of an LSD tab, start small until you’re ready for larger doses
*“Entheogenic” and “entheogen” means “a chemical substance, typically of plant origin, that is ingested to produce a nonordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes.” Cannabis is her favorite entheogen because it saved her life.
Querida Escalera: Leader of the Maryland Psychedelics Guild
In case you don’t know, I’m based in Baltimore, Maryland, so I always have to rep the DMV somehow! This time around, the Maryland spotlight goes to Querida Escalera, the Founder of Maryland Psychedelics Guild. Since support and thorough research are vital to your entheogen experience, feel free to join her Facebook group.
Querida is an avid recreational and medicinal users of psychedelics, clocking in at 7 years or so of consumption. Her favorites are LSD/acid and psilocybin mushrooms: she chooses based on the purpose of her journey.
As for the effects she loves, she loves how both entheogens make her feel all over combined with the deep introspection she gets to experience. She’s found that these substances make her face who she is at her core: combined with therapy, they help her sit with her past experiences instead of pushing them out of her mind.
Querida recommends that you enter your experience with as little fear as possible. You must decide that you’re ready for the trip before you take it and it helps to release your need for control. And before taking the dive, make sure you have everything you need in your chosen safe and comfortable setting beforehand.
Follow Querida on Instagram @marylandpsychedelicsguild for more resources.
Alaina Dorsey: The Solo Psychonaut
I hadn’t planned on using psilocybin mushrooms for depression and anxiety. But as it happens with me and weed, things fell into place and it opened a path on July 4, 2019.
The deep stomachaches followed by shocks of nausea didn’t turn me off.
No, they led me to my second dive on Thursday, March 26, 2020. Because that “something” within me was craving release but couldn’t seem to get it right. Honestly, I was heartbroken and distraught that I had pushed away a guy I still like.
Especially because I felt it was “someone” doing the pushing.
It wasn’t something I rationally wanted. So what in the fuck was going on?? That was the turning point of going deeper into what I wanted to deny but couldn’t let go.
Childhood trauma had its grip on me.
Continue reading about my first psychedelic journey on Medium.com.
Until Our Next Black Psychedelic Conversation
And that is a wrap. Querida, Robin, Jay and I gave you a window into healing transformation that can happen with entheogens. Make sure to follow us as you’re considering a new frontier for your consciousness.
And comment below: have you taken a psychedelic trip or three? What was your experience like?
If you haven’t yet, let us know if you’re interested and what’s holding you back!