Lesson 5: 100% Sacred
100 days of psychedelic reflections
I am interviewing people who have at some point in their life, identified as Christian and I am asking them to share their stories about why they have chosen to learn from psychedelic fungi and plants. This story is from a former, lifelong Catholic woman in her 70s. She shared both her interest in taking mushrooms, as well as her decision to leave the Catholic Church.
She said, “I wanted to be involved more in my faith. I thought if I got deeper into it, maybe it would be more home for me. But the more I put into it, the more painful it became because there is no role for women. And that’s when I realized I’m not considered a sacred person. There are seven sacraments, but there are only six for women. I am not 100% sacred in the eyes of the church.”
(She was speaking of the Sacrament of Holy Orders and that women cannot be ordained as a priest, deacon or bishop.)
On being in her 70s and considering what it will mean for her to finally meet God, she asked herself, who will show up at the pearly gates? 100% of me, or the part of me that the Catholic Church accepts?
In the end, sitting with mushrooms has offered her an underground path to not only understanding her own relationship with God, but has also helped her come to peace with a lifetime of not being seen as 100% sacred within the church.
Today, she serves sacrament to Catholic parishioners who are either not welcome in the catholic church or no longer feel comfortable or safe walking into church. She shares, “I am proud that I am able to do that. I have seen what it means to an 80 year old woman who cries every time I come.”
After telling me this whole story she finished with this: she still goes to Catholic mass periodically with her husband, who worries that she might not go to heaven if she doesn’t go with him. She says she goes because she loves him and she wants him to know.