2 Minute Recap of my Peyote Pilgrimage in Mexico

Several years ago, I sat in my first ceremony with the sacred medicine of Peyote. While I’m no stranger to plant medicine or the indigenous traditions of the States, working in the original tradition of the Wixárika people has been life changing.

Peyote is a plant medicine that grows only in the desert of Mexico and in southern Texas. While it is a psychedelic, it is the most gentle and grounded plant medicine I have come across in my 14 years of exploration. It is extremely antibiotic, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. It is commonly used as a medicine in daily life for wounds, skin conditions, and internally to fight disease.

Peyote, or Hikuri in the native tongue, is often referred to as “The Shimmering Heart Medicine.” When one eats the medicine, and receives the healing, it has a profound effect to awaken & open the heart, connecting it with the mind and aligning an individual to their purpose & path in life. When taken in ceremony, there is a central fire that is focused on and the union of the waters of life in the medicine with the purifying energy of the fire, a act of transformation unfolds removing all that is impure and untrue in the individual.

It is true healing at its essence and a miracle to witness & experience first hand.

The Pilgrimage is a yearly tradition where the Wixárika people travel from Nayarit to the birthplace of Peyote in the Wirikuta desert. Traditionally this was done on foot and a 3 month journey that entailed long periods of fasting from salt, food and water.

The Pilgrimage is led by a Marakame. One who works with and has merged with Peyote. They are the spiritual leaders and healers for the people and have knowledge of both the plant and spirits worlds.

I attended this trek last year in 2024 for the first time at the recommendation of a Kiowa Roadman I work with. When I was picked up from the airport, it was Don Prisciliano who greeted me. He was the first individual I ate peyote with back in 2022 several years prior. I didn’t know he was the one leading it, but alas, the world gets smaller and smaller everyday on this great Red Road.

He has travelled all over the world sharing this medicine, healing people from both physical, mental, and emotional trauma. He is a bright light and a true saint who holds this medicine with integrity whose family has been holding this tradition for thousands of years..

One of the things I respect about him is despite criticism from other natives, he continues to share his culture and the medicine with anyone and everyone who asks for help and a willingness to learn.

There has been a lot of controversy around the use of Peyote by non indigenous / native people in the past several years. For me personally, I feel this reaction comes from the trauma that genocide and exploitation that has been experienced at the hands of American & Spanish colonization. Caucasians and Europeans have long forgotten that we too have been affected and lost our indigenous ways during the conquest of the Roman Empire as it expanded towards Western Europe and England.

All of humanity is of the Earth, and as a result, all are worth to receive this healing medicine. I believe that we as a human species need to be more unified in our connection to the earth, the original pacts that were made with the spirits, plants and land if we are to truly evolve & survive.

These ways are Sacred. They have been passed down generationally. Some of my native relative’s parents or grandparents were persecuted and imprisoned for keeping these traditions alive. Yet they still share this way of life with those that wish to approach it with respect and hold it in their hearts.

For me, this plant and these ways have been the most instrumental in my healing and growth. I eat this medicine because there are those who may never know it. I pray in this way for my relatives who do not have the chance to. I honor the spirits and the Earth so we may have a brighter future in harmony with the land and our fellow man.

This is a path that teaches us to live in a good way. Free of anger, hatred, and division. The Earth and the spirits are here to receive us if we are willing to listen and sacrifice our own self importance and ego to be able to humble ourselves in the face of the great mystery.

This medicine is pure love. Love from the earth, the stars, the oceans, and all of nature who cradles us during our lifetime on this planet so we may awaken the heart and share with our fellow humans that there is a better way.

I’d like to invite you to join me on this journey in September of 2025 as we visit the desert once again to commune with the medicine so we may receive the healing that we need in order to fulfill our path in this lifetime and help our fellow brothers and sisters in humanity.

Click here to join the waitlist for September 2025

Aho mitakuye oyasin.

For All of My Relationships

-Taylor 

When you have time, this is a good documentary produced in 1969 that follows a family on their Pilgramage. It is a little more than an hour long.