Walking the Path of Humility in the Age of Information: A Call to Deepen Our Standards for Ceremonial Facilitation

We are living in an extraordinary time. The gates of ancient wisdom have swung open, and information that was once passed in hushed tones over sacred fires is now accessible at the tap of a screen. The collective consciousness is expanding at an unprecedented pace. Our dreams, aspirations, and abilities to perceive and interact with unseen realms are blossoming like never before. And yet, with this blessing comes a profound responsibility.

In the West, especially within the realms of plant medicine and energy work, a new culture has emerged. It is not uncommon to find one-off training programs offering certifications after only a few days, weeks, or months of immersion. For example, some training containers promise that participants will be ready to facilitate after a four-day ceremonial training where four powerful plant medicines are consumed back-to-back.

While all experiences with sacred medicines can be valuable stepping stones on one's path, it’s important to recognize the intensity and gravity of such an undertaking. Even for seasoned practitioners, taking multiple powerful medicines within a short window demands months, if not years, of careful integration. When multiple medicines are combined without extended periods of integration, both the intensity and the potential risks increase exponentially. What commonly happens in these types of trainings is that participants receive a certificate and "permission" to serve from a teacher, and they begin facilitating from an unintegrated space.

It would be a significant enhancement to these programs to build in long periods of integration as part of the training itself, rather than serving medicines and sending participants immediately out into the world as facilitators. Real service is born not from the peak experiences alone, but from how we live what the medicines have shown us — quietly, humbly, day after day.

Similarly, many containers that last only a few weeks or a few months offer initiations into energetic healing and shamanic practices. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with these experiences. Every sincere prayer, every moment of connection with Spirit, holds value. But it also raises important questions: Are we calling forward enough discernment? Are we vetting deeply enough? Are we ensuring that students who seek to carry these medicines forward have undergone genuine rites of passage led not by human timelines, but by Spirit itself?

Even within energy work traditions not involving psychedelics, it has long been understood that it takes decades of training, mentorship, and Spirit-led initiation to become a true carrier of these ways. Integrity, safety, humility, and the protection of the collective field are not skills one can rush.

It’s also important to recognize that not all shorter training containers are inherently irresponsible. When created with deep integrity, they can offer immense value — especially for those who have already built a solid foundation through years of personal work with the medicines. For initiates who have spent significant time in apprenticeship, integration, and devotion to the path, these containers can serve as important rites of passage, offering refinement, community, and blessings for the next stage of leadership. In these cases, the discernment must be mutual: it is up to organizers and teachers to clearly vet participants, ensuring they are truly ready to step into the responsibility of carrying sacred medicine, and up to participants to honestly assess their own level of preparedness. When approached in this way, shorter trainings can act as sacred ceremonies of recognition and empowerment — not as shortcuts, but as acknowledgments of a depth that has already been cultivated through prayer, sacrifice, and devotion.

Traditional cultures have always known this. The sages, mystics, shamans, and healers were often recognized from birth — not by human decision, but by the signs given by Spirit and the ancestors. Their training began in childhood, often without their consent, and continued throughout decades of their lives before they would even begin to contemplate stepping into service. This training was not an achievement; it was a surrender, a purification, and a lifelong prayer.

Today, however, especially in the Western world, a very different dynamic is often at play. Many Westerners feel entitled to access sacred teachings through one-off tourist-style containers in other countries. These offerings, while sometimes well-intentioned, are also often conditioned by capitalism and the lingering shadows of colonialism. The truth is: it takes far more training to safely and ethically become a plant medicine facilitator than a two-week trip to the sacred mountains can provide.

Earth herself is the grand initiator.  

We are students of the Divine, being slowly shaped and schooled by life itself.

While traditional initiation has always been a long and enduring process, we must also honor the unique time we are living in. Consciousness is evolving at rapid speeds to meet the urgent need for global healing. The world is calling for souls to stand up in their power and medicine. Through this, ceremonial and plant medicine trainings have the potential to adapt, evolve, and serve this great need — if we prioritize safety, rigorous integration, and spiritual maturity as the foundation. With a few thoughtful alterations, many of these accelerated trainings could meet the pace of consciousness expansion while still honoring the depth these traditions require.

Additionally, much of the integration work we are now doing is not beginning from a blank slate. We are carrying the wisdom, the initiations, and the medicines of our ancestors within our very DNA — passed through blood and bone. Our souls, too, hold memories from past lives that are now surfacing with greater ease. In many cases, the initiations we face in this lifetime are not about acquiring something new, but about *remembering* what has always lived within us. The medicines, the songs, the prayers — they are etched into our spirits, waiting for the right moment to reawaken.

Now is the time for a great elevation in how we prepare ourselves for the stewardship of sacred medicines. These spaces are not casual wellness experiences — they are encounters with the profound mysteries of life, death, rebirth, and Spirit. Holding space for this level of transformation is akin to holding a doctorate in a modern world. Receiving sacred medicine from someone who has trained only in a few weeklong workshops would be like undergoing brain surgery from someone with a general health certificate.

So how do we bridge the gap between ambition and integrity?

It begins with the elders, teachers, and lineage holders setting higher standards — passing down the wisdom with patience, perseverance, and discernment. It begins with each of us building a long-standing relationship with the medicines and the spirits of Nature before even thinking of offering them to others. Some elders share the "100-session rule" — a guideline suggesting that if you have not sat with the medicine at least one hundred times, in one hundred different ways, and learned to hold your own container, you are not yet ready to hold space for others.

It’s important to recognize that this number may vary for different people. Some may need fewer sessions, while others may require more. The true essence of this guideline is not about rigid counting; it’s about honoring the deep time, patience, and spiritual maturity needed to walk this path. A genuine facilitator is someone who has cultivated an intimate relationship with the medicine, the spirits, and themselves. They are not rushing into service because they are driven by ambition; they are responding to a true call of the soul, knowing that their path will unfold slowly, sacredly, over many years.

Humility is free of ego and is the true essence of the hallow bone.

The path of the hallow bone is an ancient prayer in motion, a vow not made lightly. It carries within it two faces of one sacred truth. *Hallow* — meaning holy, consecrated, offered entirely to Spirit. *Hollow* — meaning empty, clear, free of the clutter of personal ambition, ego, and fear. These two meanings dance together in the bones of the true healer. To be a hallow bone is to surrender all that is personal, all that is grasping, and allow oneself to become a sacred instrument through which the winds of Spirit can move without distortion. It is not a title one can claim, nor a role one can rush toward. It is a state of being that is forged through enduring one's own fires, over and over again, until there is nothing left but openness and devotion. In this way, the hallow bone becomes not a goal, but a lifelong prayer — one whispered into the marrow of those who are willing to be reshaped by love, by humility, and by the unseen hands of Spirit.

As Sky Spirit Shamans elder Denise Sheehan reminds us,  

"You must ensure your integrity is greater than your ambition."

This teaching echoes in our bones today. We live in a time when the youth are arriving to Earth already carrying extraordinary frequencies of light. They are ambitious, visionary, and deeply needed. Yet it is only through life experience, humility, and continued surrender that true wisdom is cultivated. No teacher, no training, no certificate can bestow this. It can only be cultivated — again and again — through direct relationship with Spirit, with the Earth, and with the medicines themselves.

May we all walk forward as humble students of the unseen, willing to apprentice ourselves not to trends, but to Truth.  

Willing to build temples within our own hearts where the medicines can live — patiently, quietly, beautifully — until the day Spirit says,  

"Now, you are ready."