the path turns

I used three leaves from the plant here, for the first time. These were leaves that looked decidedly flakey after being on the plant during it's nine days in a box, in transit.

They burned well and I got at least one good big inhalation. I didn't feel the usual rise in temperature, or the usual brief sense of disorientation. I could sense myself being on the walkway of a block of low rise flats that I lived in as a young man. Another anachronism, I could hear music from the early sixties, soul, and the female presence was encapsulated thus, in a pretty black American woman. There was a strong pull at my face. I began to follow the pull along the walkway, but realised I couldn't go further tonight.

This experience was different to anything that has gone before. A little puzzling. Less intense. And in a different place, though still in the same town.

One thing it had in common with earlier experiences, and which I think I forgot to mention before: afterwards, my breathing feels wonderfully deep and regular, the way we're urged to get with meditation. Indeed, there are many similarities between salvia experiences and some deep meditative ones.