Manifesting Huachuma

In 2022, The Haven, the thriving Portland art collective I’m a member of, was invited to come enrich the grounds of one of the many small festivals which had sprung up like mushrooms around the outskirts of the Oregon Country Fair.

With an arsenal of live painters and performers of all kinds, we established our camp: a large cluster of 10x10 pop-up tents zip-tied together and decorated in intergalactic gypsy eclecticism, all bound together with five miles of rope lights and blessed with billows of sage and adorned with crystals. We were essentially one large art installation, serving as an oasis of inspiration for the several hundred festival attendees.

I started this Huachuma painting there, from a blank white board. My intention with this work was not just to honor huachuma but to conjure its powerful medicine into my life. I had worked with this plant ally once or twice before but it had been a long time and I was feeling called to connect again with this “grandfather” spirit. I released that intention into the ether and then got to work.

It was a beautiful summer day and I put on some rubber gloves, (things are going to get messy!) threw the large 3x4 foot board down on the grass and attacked it with abandon.

After I applied a sloppy layer of thin watered down paint and used a plastic bag to establish a texture, I started to rough in the main cactus bodies using the tips of my fingers pushed together like a big meaty paint brush; I loaded my hand-brush with paint and drug my fingers down the length of the board. Within minutes I had magically established the main cacti and the overall composition of the painting.

The initial throw-down, painting with my hands

The painting was a monochromatic phthalo turquoise at that point and lacked a horizon line. Next I started to add a ground plane and some dynamic color in the sky to start establishing the overall atmosphere and give it a little zing…

Bringing in the ground plane and more color in the sky

Starting to bring in some smaller cacti and more details

After working for awhile I decided to roam the festival grounds and explore a bit. I connected with Joe, a fellow Haven painter, and we went for an aimless walk. We soon found ourselves in a kind of walk-in shrine someone had built in a grove of giant red cedars. We sat there and talked about the goal of finding huachuma and decided it would be best if we combined our prayers. Together we put out an even stronger spell to find huachuma than the one I had cast on my own…abracadabra! (clap hands).

We then left the grove and about two minutes later we ran into another Haven artist who was talking to a guy we’ll call Spencer, who had recently seen my paining and had been asking around, trying to discover who painted it! That’s right when we walked up. Spencer was elated to meet me and he excitedly reached into his bag and pulled forth a large ziplock full of huachuma! I could hardly believe it! He asked if I’d like some and I gladly held out my water bottle. With questionably clean hands, he reached into the baggie and scoped a good amount of the light green powder up with his fingers and dropped it in my water. Bam. Mission accomplished.

After talking with Spencer for awhile, and sipping on the terribly bitter and unpleasant tasting Huachuma, I excitedly returned to my work as I began to feel the cacti moving through my blood and spirit.

If you’re not familiar, huachuma (often called San Pedro) is a cactus known for its psychoactive properties, similar to peyote but a lot less strong. Both contain mescaline, the chemical responsible for the high. Aldus Huxley wrote about his experiences with mescaline in his well-known book, The Doors of Perception. My current experience with huachuma was very mild but it added a nice sparkle of inspiration while I worked.

I continued to fill out the scene, adding more detail and life. I brought in some other cacti including a cluster of peyote, the button-like cacti with pink flowers in the bottom right.

Trying a totally different kind of energy in the sky

I saw Spencer a couple more times that weekend and he made sure to keep me inspired! For the record, I was already inspired to make this painting. I’m not saying that it was Spencer’s huachuma that made this painting what it is, but it definitely didn’t hurt, and the magic of my meeting him seemed very significant.

I worked like a madman throughout the three days of the festival and had so much fun painting this.. By the time we packed up to leave Monday morning, the painting was well established, which isn’t always the case with weekend festival paintings. Sometimes I leave with a total disaster-painting that I have to deal with later...

The sky again takes on a new feel and the lizard starts to take shape

Back in the studio I started to tighten it up and render out the lizard at the bottom. After about 80 hours of studio work the painting was finished and today it hangs in the gallery of the Haven.

Below is the final painting…feel free to comment if you liked this story, or want to share your own magical experience of manifestation.

Huachuma - acrylic on board - 36x48”