Written: April 6, 2023
It was on Good Friday of last year that Parker and I parted ways with Bridge to One, and as we commemorate a year since the turning of that page I find myself once more in a major death portal with an uncertain future.
Since before the possibility of Bridge to One arose I’ve been building a citadel of light in my mind’s eye for a healing sanctuary. This was a vision and prayer that Parker and I shared, and for the first three months of last year it seemed like it was coming into being.
But then a different vision arose, not better or worse, just different - and our vision had to find a new home. We started Smiling Jaguar Retreats two weeks after things at Bridge to One came apart. We didn’t know what might come next, but we knew this was our life’s work and that somehow we must keep doing it.
It is a difficult thing to do medicine work in the United States. In theory you are entitled to the free exercise of your religion. But in practice the government may still choose to persecute you, jail you, fine you, and take your sacraments. It is only after being persecuted that you might get a chance to defend yourself by proving the sincerity of your religious beliefs - if you have the knowledge and resources to do so.
When it comes to the medicine path, you are guilty until proven innocent.
I have no doubt that in serving and working with the medicines I am in right relationship with the creator, but I’ve always known I might someday have to defend myself against the government.
That day seems to have come sooner than expected. On Wednesday, April 5th, I received a package from Peru containing medicine. A few minutes later law enforcement came to my door with a search warrant, searched my house, and confiscated my sacraments.
…it’s been a hard few days, y’all.
But if not me, who? One of the things the medicine has been teaching me about leadership is that sometimes we lead in order to spare others the burdens that come with leadership. When it comes to being a leader of medicine work that means enduring spiritual as well as legal attacks.
A few weeks ago I was chatting with a friend who is engaged in conservation efforts to preserve and protect medicine for the Native American Church. Even though he is authorized by his church to be doing that work, he still lives in fear of persecution. He doesn’t read or write, is a person of color, and comes from a family with a rocky history with law enforcement. So he feels powerless in the face of a government that has never treated people like him fairly.
In our talks he opined that if someone with more social prestige got caught that things might change…and maybe he is right.
I grew up poor in the big white ghetto of east Kentucky, among some of the poorest people in the country. But because of the color of my skin and gender I’ve enjoyed a certain amount of privilege. People have generally assumed I am more than I am, not less, and that has encouraged me to do things I might otherwise have thought were impossible.
I’ve lived and practiced law in my town for a decade, while serving my community and living a very conventional and law abiding life. My spiritual conversion and use of these medicines is well documented, and I’m the head minister of The Infinite Way, the shamanic church we started after Parker’s death.
These things don’t make me bullet proof. Things might get really bad at the 3D level. But if not me, who? This is a matter of first impression in Kentucky, which passed the Religious Restoration Act in 2013. But even though these laws are on the books, people who walk this path live in fear of persecution. However, I think for things to change we must practice our faith openly without fear, and defend ourselves in the face of government oppression of a religious minority.
These medicines and this path are one of the few hopes I have that humanity might survive to live in a world worth living in. It is a sign of our collective sickness that indigenous ways and medicines have been outlawed, and those who practice them persecuted.
When I began this path I gave my life and all I am to the creator and simply asked Great Spirit to do something good with it in service to the good of all. I trust that this too is part of the path, and is leading me to where I need to be.
Infinite Love,
Zachary
I have been following your youtube for awhile. The cross roads that you are currently at will resolve itself, as you well know. My internal guidance started many years before yours, but at the same age (I'm 76 now). In the 2012 time I was told that this is a sorting as you have mentioned in the law of one harvest video. What I also was told is that this an experiment. Experiments are adjusted based upon outcomes. We are IN the experiment as well as conducting the experiment. This is the connundrum the physicists a hundred years ago encountered with particle physics and now you are presented with the same.in consciousness social physics.
As a suggestion, Hawaii or Oregon or Northern California or British Columbia might be better choices for a location rather than Florida or Kentucky. The dynamics and climate for sorting are different in each place.
I look forward to following your adventures as you progress.
It’s unfortunate that the western world does not yet see the benefit in the medicines we work with. They are one of the many gifts from God that we have been provided with to unify and purify us all.
Keep following what feels good to your heart even in the face of difficulty ❤️