How to prepare San pedro? My recipe

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious”. Albert Einstein

I was not interested in indirect stories or ready-made solutions. I never intentionally chose to work with medicine. It just appeared at a certain point in my life. I wasn’t searching for it.

Paradoxically, cutting a plant makes it stronger. Also the body ultimately regenerate and become healthier after being initially weakened by the consumption of the plant. That is precisely how alchemy works. The poison becomes the medicine.

Intention (Latin intentio: strain, tension, increase, augmentation, exertion) – a conscious process consisting in an active relation towards a certain situation. A conscious intention, intent, design, goal, motive, thought, will, desire.

If a certain person is supposed to drink the prepared brew, it is wise to ask what is that person’s motive to connect with the plant. Strengthen that person’s intentions with thoughts during the entire preparation of the brew. Put intentions into each act of working with the plant. Stay aware, don’t think about past problems or future plans, focus on the motive for which you will consume the plant. Treat the brewing as a ritual. Drinking the brew prepared personally, is the strongest combination. No medicine acts like that which is prepared with an honest intention.

A portion for one person is prepared from a trunk of the length of 15-20 cm. Supposedly, plants with five or seven arms work the best. I’ve also tested those with six or eight arms, and sometimes I mixed them.

The cactus has to be cleaned from thorns and the outer skin layer, which resembles paraffin or plastic and prevents water loss. If one wants to achieve more cleansing properties of the brew than not only the green skin should be used (which possesses all of the psychedelic material), but also the light-green flesh located between the green skin and the woody trunk.

The woody trunk of the cactus was traditionally used as a wand for locating waterlines for example in the Columbian Tatacoa desert.

There are many methods of how to act with the separated material. San Pedro is very bitter, and it is very difficult to swallow more than a fistful in volume. It can be consumed raw, for example as a salad, although it will be a very unpleasant salad. Another method helping preservation is drying small pieces in the sun. This method is especially popular among those who practice micro-dosing.

Huachuma, as any cactus, consists in 90% of water, that is why in my process I wanted to separate the fluid from the fibers, which are difficult to swallow and digest. First I’ve grinded and then filtered the flesh.

I’ve boiled the prepared raw material, on a low heat for about 8 to 12 hours. Technically, this process aims at disinfecting and reducing the water level. However, the sole act of boiling is the best time for a mental contact with the plant and throwing own intentions into it.

I’ve cut off the tops of the cactuses, and planted them. That way I tried to give back to nature what I have taken away from it.

The most important element of work is maintaining focus on the intention. In order to deepen the contact with the plant, I was drinking small amounts of a previously prepared brew.