Leaving My Job & Transforming My Body Through Psychedelic Ceremony || Raquel O’Leary

Raquel is an organizer and volunteer for Decriminalize Nature in Bend, Oregon. Raquel is a mother, a wisdom keeper of indigenous ways of knowing, and a volunteer who’s trying to create space legally in her community for sacred medicine.

Meet Raquel O’Leary

Raquel is an organizer and volunteer for Decriminalize Nature in Bend, Oregon. Raquel is a mother, a wisdom keeper of indigenous ways of knowing, and a volunteer who’s trying to create space legally in her community for sacred medicine.

Watch “Psychedelic Therapy’s Impact on Physical Health”

What are some physical changes you have experienced since your first ceremony in 2019?

So I have taken my health back. I’ve released like 60 to 70 pounds of extra weight in my body.

I’ve healed my gut.

I have gone through definitely a physical transformation, like an intense physical transformation and a really beautiful way of being more present in the world. You know, my presence has definitely changed within my own family and my community.

And it’s been a real honor because as I was releasing all of this, you know, extra baggage, I had a ton of pain in my body.

I live with chronic pain all over my body and my jaw, my shoulder, my neck, my hips. You know, it was like I was an old woman. And so through this process of healing and doing a lot of somatic work as well, like to learn how to journey and be in my body, to navigate spaces where there’s stuck energy or trauma stuck in my body, it helps me show up to help with this beautiful community.

Do you think the the inner work has helped with self-love, which helped with the weight loss and things like that?

Yeah, it’s all completely related.

I saw addictive behaviors, like I was using the wrong medicine, you know, food, alcohol.

There were just so many things. And I was also giving my all my energy towards a job that wasn’t I wasn’t in reciprocity with.

So there wasn’t an exchange. So using my energy more wisely and making sure that I’m creating space to recharge and do my own work and like my connection to the Earth is just, like blossomed in such a beautiful way.

So in 2019, was that your first experience with plant medicine?

Yes, I started with ceremonial use of cannabis. Psychedelic use, of which I was kind of like, what?

I had a really good friend of mine who was being trained to use psychedelic cannabis in a ceremony in a psychedelic way. And I was curious. Like many of us, you know, I’d use cannabis recreationally, not ceremonially. I didn’t even think it could be of a ceremonial. Like, I was just sort of amazed at the power of the medicine and that it could be used in a psychedelic situation.

Why do you think the ceremonial setting is so much more powerful than the recreational setting?

Yeah. And there’s no judgment on the recreational setting. A lot of us have come to these medicines, you know, and I think there can be a lot of shame around, like, I use this plant this way or this or I’ve done this.

I think that with intention and having like a safe container to do your work is just so powerful and e if you have someone sitting for you and holding the space for you.

I mean, I had a full blown ego death with cannabis. No kidding.

So it’s really powerful like the ceremonial setting, you know. And there’s like some ways of being where you don’t even need very much medicine. The medicine becomes a sort of present maybe in the facilitator or the guide. And you don’t you don’t need much medicine to do the work.

It’s the intention of communing and calling in the guides.

Can you talk about the importance of weaving yourself into the community in healing ways?

Yeah I think the key is the community building aspect of using medicine.

Doing medicine work has been the most profound for me, and I’ve seen the impact on many others, a lot of people, and this is not a judgment on people that like to do solo journey work.

I know a lot of people that do journey work on their own, but once you do ceremonial work in large spaces with groups of people, your energy’s connected and we’re holding space for each other in a way, and we are potentially learning and healing from other people’s stored traumas and things that they’re working through.

So the potential for healing on a collective level is just beautiful.

How did you come to be part of this movement?

My path with sacred plants and fungi medicine started in 2019. Building a community here and working with the medicines and being in ceremony. I’ve been on a long path of being a product of generational trauma and colonization.

Once I found the sacred plants. It’s sort of like set me on a path. There was no stopping at that point. Yes. So I started there in 2019 doing my own personal work with a small community here, and then I was keeping my eye on the decriminalize nature movement in 2019 in Oakland and wanting to bring it here to Bend.

And honestly, at that time, my professional world was complicated.

I was an executive and had a responsibility, as part of my role in an organization, to have a certain outward portrayal of what an executive is in a capitalist environment.

So I was sort of hesitant. It didn’t feel safe to be out about my medicine use and also fighting for the sacred.