The Watchful Leaf: Who is Salvia divinorum?

This tender herb, known only from the mountains of southern Mexico, has a long-held persona and relationship to ritual. There, the Mazatec people of knowledge think of her as a being – tender, complex, and sometimes utterly confounding. One must learn to tend the plant, and the relationship to these powerful leaves. They can suddenly transport us beyond the beyond, or zoom in close to examine, with intimate clarity, one’s own origin. They can give the sense that one is living within a vast, fertile awareness. Decades ago, Kat learned this ancestral code of care, and has developed a profound fondness and respect for the swirling glimpses of the edge of reality that the fresh, chewed leaves can offer. What does the experience of that edge help us to understand? As the species is circulated in the margins of global psychedelia, it is often misunderstood or misused. Yet some respectful, syncretic ways of engaging in this relationship are arising, and can be shared.

This presenter’s talk will be delivered remotely via live stream or pre-recording.