I’m very happy to report that I’ll be presenting a lecture on Salvia divinorum at the Rogue Valley Metaphysical library on Jan 18th, 7-9 pm. Information about the lecture is as follows:
Presentation at the RVML, Friday, January 18th, 7-9pm, $5-$10 suggested donation.
Diviner’s Sage – Salvia divinorum and the Entheogenic Experience
Author and entheogenic researcher, Martin W. Ball, Ph.D., will present on the visionary sage plant, Salvia divinorum at the Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library and Event Center.
Salvia divinorum, or “Diviner’s Sage†is a unique, visionary sage plant from the Mazatec region of Mexico, where it has been used as a shamanic and healing tool for countless generations. Now widely and easily available in the United States and the West, Salvia divinorum is sold as a “legal high†with virtually no legal restrictions. Often misunderstood, salvia is commonly likened to LSD and marijuana in the mainstream media with little to no appreciation of its actual effects or the nature of the experience it engenders.
In this presentation, author Martin W. Ball, Ph.D., will discuss the unique nature of Salvia divinorum, how it can be used responsibly, its role in ritual practice, and the changing cultural contexts in which Salvia divinorum finds itself as well as how it can be incorporated into contemporary neo-shamanic and spiritual practices in the West.
Short lasting, radically introspective and often overpowering, Salvia divinorum, in stark contrast to other so-called “party†drugs, has virtually no recreational value. Instead, salvia is best understood as an entheogenic agent – a plant that “awakens the divine within.†However, the term entheogen also implies a reverential treatment of the plant and its use. The presentation will therefore focus on how the plant can be approached and used as a creative and spiritual catalyst for those who choose to visit with the sage on their own spiritual paths.
Martin W. Ball holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies with an emphasis on shamanism and Native American spiritual traditions. For his doctoral dissertation he studied with Mescalero Apache medicine people while researching the Mescalero Mountain Spirit tradition. He is the author of several books, including his most recent, Sage Spirit – Salvia Divinorum and the Entheogenic Experience by Kyandara Publishing, 2007. To learn more, please visit www.martinball.net
