How Ayahuasca Taught Me Astrology: The Soul is Like a Plant

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology. And today, I'm continuing my series, which I have called How Ayahuasca Taught Me Astrology. I think this is technically the fourth episode that I've created. The reason that I decided to do this series originally is that I was reflecting over the summer on the fact that I hadn't taken time to sit down and really kind of write out and consolidate some of the tangible ways in which my participation in Ayahuasca ceremonies over the course of a decade, informed the way that I came to know and understand and study astrology, Ayahuasca played an integral role in my development as an astrologer.

This is not a series where I'm trying to sit down and tell you to run off and drink Ayahuasca. I think it's a very personal decision. It's not the right decision for everyone. But I do believe that entheogens in the right setting and the right context for certain people can be very helpful and very healing. For me, it certainly was, and I wrote a book about it called Fishers of Men, the Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest was published by Tarcher Penguin in 2010. It was a few years before that that through the ceremonies and people involved in the ceremony, a couple of key individuals that I came to become interested in astrology.

And then what happened was for a number of years after that, my participation and ayahuasca ceremonies dovetail very nicely with my budding study of astrology. So this series is really, in part, the series is for me, it is a way of just sort of cataloging some of the insights that were really important, you know, before I forget them, I mean, some ways you can never forget the experience, right? I mean, it's had such an impact on me; I can never forget it. But those specific stories and points and insights, I just realized, like I should write them down. And then I thought, well, this would make a good series to share with other people. Since I get asked quite regularly throughout the years, you know, could you speak more about how ayahuasca and astrology have had a meaningful overlay for you.

And so the other reason that I wanted to continue doing the series this week is because we have a new master or a new class coming up in the new year called Roots and Spheres. I'm going to take you over to show you that right now. So let's go over. So the Roots and Spheres Moon circle begins in January of 2023. And it consists of meetings before the new and full moons with Ashley and I. And we are going to be looking at the astrology of the month while also dieting and plant teachers. These are not entheogens. These are just herbs that you could pick up at your co-op. But we will be working with planets and plants together throughout 2023 as a way of deepening our relationship with the astrology. If you take in astrology regularly, and you would like the astrology to play more of an active role in your spiritual life, and you know your actual physical life, because sometimes astrology is just sort of like taking in celestial news or information.

So the purpose of this program was to try to integrate it a little bit more into our bodies. So I wanted to do this talk today also to speak a little bit more about the connection between planets and plants and how that connection was established for me during a good number of Ayahuasca ceremonies where I was, you know, actively studying and starting to practice astrology as well. So if you want to enroll, the early bird payment is available until all of our sales for the two new courses are available until September 12.

There's also a new MasterClass you can check out, save a couple of $100 off on the Roots and Spheres program, and there's tuition assistance available. And like I said, there's if you go to the Courses page, there's also a MasterClass series you can check out. And those master classes meet quarterly for four classes, a piece of 16 total on the year on advanced topics. In ancient astrology, there's an early bird payment for that one as well. So I'm really hoping, though, that we'll have a good number of people coming out for the Roots and Spheres program because, you know, in a sense, it's there's nothing like bringing planets and plants together. And that's actually how all of this got started for me was the marriage between plant medicine and, you know, and learning the archetypal language of astrology.

So today, before I get into it actually should say Don't forget to like and subscribe, and share a few comments if you've had experiences, whether they're positive or negative experiences with entheogens and sacred settings or whatever the case may be. I'd love to hear from you guys hear what you have to say about it. Again, remember this series is not meant to drive people to go do Ayahuasca. I think it's a highly personal decision and it's not the right one for everybody. So I'm not trying to peddle Ayahuasca, but I want to share with you the insights from my experiences, which were really critical to the way I practice. If you'd like my channel, it might be interesting for you to listen to this and to hear about the way in which the Ayahuasca experience has shaped the way that I understand astrology.

Okay, so as I prattle on here, today, I want to talk about an experience that repeated itself over many ceremonies in different ways. When you're working with plant medicine, a lot of the images and metaphors that come to teach you, whether you're learning astrology or not, have to do with the actual imagery of plants in nature. They are plant teachers, after all, and there they are, alive and living, and they communicate with you. And that you might think that that's woo-woo. But if you work with, you know, indigenous people who actually have the living tradition of plant medicine, should plant medicine, plant shamanism, so to speak, living, you know, living in their veins, they will tell you that the plants communicate. And this is a strong belief of both me and my wife, who's an herbalist, that if you work with plants intentionally, that you will develop, they will start communicating with you in your dreams, in altered states, and just little information and little hits and synchronicities.

Start working with plants until, like, purposely, they are highly intelligent. And plants will indeed speak to you and are there often to help. I'm not trying to say that there aren't. I mean, just like anything else, there are plants out there that are, you know, that are dangerous. There are plants that are not very nice. But there are many of them who are elders and healers and helpers. And it's like, to my mind, I just look at the world. Now when I see plants, it's like, oh, yeah, those, those are sentient beings with souls who have wisdom. That's how I see the world now; forever changed because of these ayahuasca experiences.

So today, I want to talk about an insight that came up; I couldn't narrow it down to just one ceremony, but just an insight that came up through a variety of different ceremonies, which is that the soul is like a plant. The soul is like a plant.

Now, if I had to, you know, just basically talk about how this very insight arrived, it came about by realizing through many, many ceremonies, not just one but many, that the soul is like a plant in a variety of different ways. And I in the because when the plant medicine is in your body in an Ayahuasca ceremony, and I'm not the first person to say this, and many people have shared this insight when the plant medicine is in your body, you get to understand plant intelligence, it's like, you know, you don't know what it's like to, I don't know, live in Paris until you hang out with someone who lives in Paris, you don't know what it's like to live in Minnesota, or, you know, Mexico City, or wherever it might be, until you actually hang out there live there. And then you get to understand that the vibe and you're like, Oh, this is what this culture is like, or this is what this place is like.

When you take plants into your body, in a way that is deliberate for the sake of healing or Gnosis, the plants will communicate with you, but they will also as they are communicating with you often like people literally talking to you in these altered states. The plants will also, you know, it's like you can't help but pick up on the fact that it's a plant and what is what are plants like and what is their intelligence like and, and the wisdom that they give is natural to who and what they are. So it's like when plants give you healing in a ceremony. It's coming through the natural experience of what a plant is like and what defines health or vibrancy or purity or integrity for a plant. And so when it's not just that the plant comes in and like heals you and cleanses you of, you know, let's say some shadows, which a lot of people experience with Ayahuasca, and then you're good.

It is that as it is cleaning and cleansing and healing you, it is doing so in a way that mirrors what it is like to be a part of a healthy ecosystem to be a healthy plant. And so you start understanding that you are not different from nature, from plants, from natural living and growing organisms. And you get a feeling of what it's like to go back to a very simple definition of like biological vibrancy. And that's what's so amazing about plant intelligence is that they heal as they remind you of what it means to live a natural whole life. So how did I experience that with the plant intelligence, and then How does that relate back to astrology?

Well, number one, environment matters that this was something that the plant intelligence spoke to me over and over and over again, like every ceremony, not just like one moment or one vision, just every ceremony that the plants live in, like in the Amazon, right, these plants live in one of the most vibrant, mysterious, beautiful, interconnected ecosystems on the planet. And not every ecosystem is the Amazon, right? And not that, you know, it's the only ecosystem that matters or anything, but then, when you start getting, when you start receiving healing, from these plants that live in this environment, that environment starts to be a part of the intelligence of the healing. And so you're sitting there going, like, my life is like a plant, My soul is like a plant. And it needs to be part of a vibrant ecosystem. So where I place my life, whether that's where I live, or where I work, or it's just in the same way that a plant can't just grow anywhere, and the healthiest plants, so to speak, are living in places that have a vibrant, eco ecology around them. So like, plant intelligence starts with the idea, in my opinion, that the environment matters a great deal. And so a lot of the way that plants heal in Ayahuasca ceremonies or otherwise, like even if you're just working with some of the plants, we're going to be working within the Roots and Spheres program. It starts by showing you, like a plant, would you know what will help you thrive and grow? And what will diminish your life force or, you know, kill the plant off? And it's not showing you based on what you're doing, right or wrong, the moral idea that if I'm doing something good, then I'll be okay. If I'm doing something bad, then I'll be okay. It sort of eliminates that and says, let's start with something more basic, which is where is your plant place? Where is the soul? Your soul plant? Is it in? What kind of ecology and environment is it in? Is it a healthy one or an unhealthy one?

And that has to do with association with what you're associated with on all different levels, and it starts showing you, you know, how to weed things out of the environment, or maybe more specifically because weeds play a really beautiful role in ecology too. But, like, where should your plant be placed so that it is in the best possible system and circle of life? I hear a lot of people every single day as astrology clients say that they don't feel like they're on their path. And then, when we explore that, together in readings, it turns out that a lot of it boils down to not feeling like the environment that they're in is conducive or supportive of happiness or some degree of peace or joy.

The environment really matters. We are not different from plants, we are not different from trees that need a healthy ecology around us, and there's a lot of disease and unrest and, you know, unhealthy stuff in our environments. And you know, these experiences did not make me look around with like cynical, critical judging eye. But they made me much more aware of what kind of environment, whether it's in my home, or you know, any level of my life, what it looks and feels like to be in a healthy space, how to create that kind of connection. And that is plant intelligence.

Number two, light and water matter. This is so simple. and I'm using this as a metaphor. Plants need very basic things. And there are some plants that need very different amounts of things and, you know, different amounts of shade and light and everything like that. But, you know, plants need, they need light, you know, they need water, they need, they need the right soil. There are very, very basic things. These are very basic things that the right environment, along with these things, will create health in a plant. I couldn't believe how simple the insights were that the plant medicine gave me about similar things in my own life, like getting enough sleep every night, because I did not. Turn off, you know, not spending too much time on phones or media, right before bed, drinking plenty of water, like lots of water. You know, making sure that I'm not putting lots of toxic thoughts, ideas, or substances into my body. Sobriety came out of these experiences for me, not because drinking is bad, but because light and water are good. If that makes sense, getting outside, getting exercise, like moving your body, moving your muscles using your muscles, and getting water and sleep, and living mostly a sober life, I'm not saying what where that boundary is, I don't want to determine that for everyone. But for me, like, as someone who had addictive tendencies, it was, this was a process of realizing like, you can't feed a sheep, you know, you can't, you can't feed a plant Coca Cola. Do you know what I mean? You can't feed a plant alcohol all the time, or your tons of caffeine or, I mean, I have to drink tea, that's about the only thing that I drink. But it was like just very, very simple light and water kinds of things as a metaphor.

Three; relationships matter. Plants are in really interesting and beautiful, symbiotic relationships with animals with other things in the ecosystem. And it's really important that our lives are not completely isolated, that we don't live in individualistic vacuums, that we are, you know, in, give and take exchanges with things in that environment and in a healthy environment. So, light, water, it's like such simple things that were just vibrant plant metaphors, you'll be in the right environment, be careful that you're in the environment matters. Be mindful of who and what you associate with, get sleep, drink, you know, drink water, be careful what you put into your body, move your body, breathe, get exercise, move your muscles, get enough sleep, like such simple things that I don't know how I had gone so far from them, you know, and for many of us, I think they're challenging still. Relationships matter who you surround yourself with; a reciprocal nature be with people who like to give and receive love, kindness, friendship, exchange, laughter, humor, questions, and ideas. You need that vibrant exchange in your life.

Number four, and the last one, there is an invisible gardener. One thing that I was amazed by is that, you know, the, here's the plant intelligence, and it is so vibrant, and you know, sentient, but it wasn't just like the plant is the all mighty knower of truth. It was also this constant feeling that where did this whole, How did this whole beautiful interwoven tapestry of the Amazon ever come into being? What to speak of human relationships and cultures and astrology is, and you know, math and astronomy and physics and what a beautiful universe we live in. And then I almost named my book, The Vine in the Gardener; it was one of the alternate titles that I had for my book ended up going in a different direction, mostly because there was a lot of my book that explored my Christian upbringing, and the way that the ayahuasca experiences kind of worked on that. But I thought about naming it The Vine in the Gardener because one of the experiences that I had over and over and over again was the idea that you're not alone in this.

There's an intelligence, a divine knowing that is moving and that a blade of grass moves without this divine intelligence behind everything, within everything. Above, as above, so below, that there's an invisible divine way of life. That's, you know, and there's, there's justice built into it, it's, it's very mysterious. And so, also that, in the natural world, there's, there's a way when you're in kind of alignment, it's also easier to see and feel the movement of this divinity, this Tao, you can feel it and when you observe, often just sitting in observing things after ceremonies that just go into the jungle or in my, like, my hut, and I would, you know, like sleep in a hammock, and you know, just listening to the jungle. And yes, like, I could hear all the life, but then it was like, there was a pulse, you know, like, like the force or something is really important that the plants were also a part of this divine unity that was within all things. And that a life, if I can tend to my soul, like it's a plant and take care of it. Even just trying, you know, I don't have to be perfect, but just giving it some effort, that I will start to feel and be in touch with this invisible presence, this source or Tao, or a sense of alignment with the oneness and all things.

And that being in touch with that is, that's what you know, it's that sort of like That's why plants reach for the sun. That's why plants like, grow up and blossom in our blossoming happens as our lives are in alignment, and that blossoming looks like you know that the fruits of that process are wisdom, love, patience, virtue, leadership, kindness, all sorts of things. That's different for everyone what that blossoming looks like. But you know, the reward of treating your soul like a plant is that you get to live with some alignment that's pretty profound and a felt sense of intimacy with the divine. That's the way I would describe it.

Well, this leads to the idea that astrology and plants go together in all of my ceremonies; when I mean, some of these insights were well before I even started studying astrology, right? But then, as I started studying astrology, I would say that the same insights started to; I could start to see how the same insights were coupled with astrology. First of all, astrology and plants have gone together for 1000s of years. The earliest, you know, medical herbalists were oftentimes astrologers, and the correspondence between certain kinds of plants, the doctrine of signatures, the correspondence of how plants work, and how they work on the body and how they look and where they're placed in an ecosystem. The symbolic mind is looking at ecosystems, just like they're looking at solar systems. So that the ancient view of correspondences, that hermetic way of being symbolic in our approach, you know, in our approach that's used in plants as much as it's used in planets, they're often married together. So I started realizing this as I was studying astrology and continuing to work with Ayahuasca. And there were a few takeaways that were really profound for me.

Number one is that if the environment matters, then what's so amazing about astrology is that whether you're looking at transits or you're looking at a birth chart, astrology can help you understand and see and recognize the environment that you're in, whether that's the karma of the soul's environment in this lifetime, or that's the environment of two years Saturn is transiting a certain house in your birth chart, or an experience of Jupiter going over your ascendant. Astrology really helps us to start recognizing this archetypal environment that the soul finds itself in, which is to say that we live in a psychic ecology. We live in a psychic Amazon that's just as vibrant and filled with patterns in life and gods, omens and signs, and symbols as the Amazon is filled with plants and plant teachers and doctrines of signatures. So astrology can really help us to actually become more cognizant of the fact that we live in whatever environment we do it not just a mundane environment, but a psychological one.

Number two, astrology shows us what the soul needs. And by that, I guess you could say what the soul loves, what it's afraid of, what it desires, what it's averse to because that's all contained in the birth chart. The birth chart shows us what the soul is drawn to, is attracted to, or in some cases, repulsed by. And that is super important because the more we understand that, the more we know how to attend to the life of the soul, just like we, you know, understanding the ecology of the planet and what it needs for its own unique as a unique species would be important. Every soul has a different set of desires and needs, and fears. And when you understand that, it's really helpful when it comes to tending and caring for the soul.

Number three, astrology will show us what kind of relationships are helpful or harmful. Relationships matter that we need to be in reciprocal relationships just like plants are whether you know them; it's amazing how plants will propagate, you know, like, a plant will often, you know, drop a fruit that will be digested by an animal and then pooped out and it's through the the the poop and the carrying of the seed in the poop into the soil that fertilizes it. And plants are very intelligent in the way that they go about, you know, staying alive. And that's one of the interesting ways in which plants are, you know, reciprocal I had a beautiful vision of a panther eating this plant and, you know, going into the bathroom and then like the jungle growing out of it, and I mean, lots of stuff like that.

Well, you can look at your birth chart, you can look at astrological signatures in the birth chart in order to understand during a phase of life, or overall you can understand what kinds of relationships might be helpful or harmful. By virtue of looking at, you know, the signatures of the birth chart and not just in one way, like all your seventh house or your 11th house, or Venus or the more you get to like, the more I've gotten to know my birth chart, the more I've been able to recognize, as the planets are moving week by week or month by month, or as transits are happening to my birth chart, I start to recognize what kinds of things or people are going to be good ones to be in relationship with, versus which ones are maybe draining me or maybe I'm draining someone else. But astrology is just such a nice way of being able to offer that feedback and reflection. It provides a kind of reflective capacity, so wonderful for being able to understand what kinds of relationships am I in, all different spheres of my life, and are they helping or harming the life of the soul.

Astrology also points to the invisible gardener. If you spend enough time with astrology, you start to realize that the same unity that's alive, you know, as I was understanding it in the plant world, and if you're, again, a healthy plant has this kind of natural, it's amazing how, like the plant intelligence, you're taking it in, and you'd have these visions of like, the plants healthy, clean, vibrant, beautiful with the soil and water and light. And there, even though they're on the earth, the intelligence, almost like in the DNA, is like, celestial, totally ethereal, angelic, like beautiful and divine. And I realized, oh, it's not well, not that the plants are, are like, angels necessarily, it's that when they're so healthy when any organism is so healthy and vibrant, it naturally roots down from wherever it is up into, you know, in on the earth up into these beautiful divine places. And so can we, if we're healthy, and we take care of ourselves, then we can, our blossoming, our flowering reaches up through the crown chakra, you know it, it connects with these beautiful vibrations. And the way that we experienced that is to feel it feels like we're in alignment with the universe, or it feels like we're connected to an invisible gardener. And it feels like we're connected to the Divine, or the Tao, or whatever you want to call it.

So if you practice astrology, with the same idea that I'm using this information, to be reflective and to try to take care of my soul. And to root it in the right place to feed it the right things to make sure I'm in the right kinds of relationships, then it naturally flowers and grows, and we feel in touch with something that's flowing through everything but bigger than us. It's a part of us. And it's more. And that is what we live for; that feeling of connection is what we live for. And you can experience it whether you know, with a spouse, or your kids, or on a walk in nature when you're healthy, relatively happy and feeling whole because you're taking care of your soul. And in its ecology, you start to feel like you're in touch with something divine, and it just starts to permeate your life. There's an appreciation for it that's overflowing without having to sit down and do a gratitude exercise. You just feel grateful. And it's amazing how simple it is. That how simple it can be, like, like I said, like water and sleep, a little bit of exercise, you know, that can get really allowed me you know, it's always There's always more fine-tuning, and it's a very, it's an adventure to it's really exciting.

And then if you pair just taking care of yourself and tuning in treating your soul, like a plant that needs the right stuff. And you pair that with astrological wisdom. It's incredible. It's absolutely mind-blowing how well the two go together. I can, for example, I can reflect on the fact that you know, the, as the moon went into Scorpio a couple of days ago, as I'm recording this, you know, I caught a cold from my daughter and started getting run down and lack of sleep. And because I sat down and did my meditation, I was able to reflect on some of the different choices that led to, like, we sort of pushed too hard. And you know, the kids immune; we push too hard and doing stuff like activities. And then the kids got a little bit worn down, and they're a part of the ecosystem, and you know, their bedtimes get messed up too many nights in a row, then one of them gets a cold, and then they spread it, you know it goes around the family and So you if you're you know you have astrology in that case, you have a little bit of reflectiveness, and you're treating a soul like it's a plant. You know the shifts in the environment, cosmic and earthly, at the same time. You can get a lot of wisdom, and then you can make adjustments, and you learn, and it's like in that in that case, isn't life just become such a beautiful learning, experience of learning and curiosity. So, okay, I'm rambling on.

Hope you guys found this interesting today. And don't forget, if you enjoy talking about planets and plants, the roots and spheres program begins in January. You can learn more about it on the website nightlightastrology.com. The pre-registration sale for that lasts until September 12. You have a few more days to take advantage of it. Before you go, share a story. Tell us a little bit about your own story with planets and plants if you have one or entheogens if you have one. And don't forget to like and subscribe; appreciate it when you do; it helps the channel to grow. Alright, that's what I've got for today. Take it easy, everyone. Bye.