April 9, 2024 • 35 mins
When the weight of the world bears down on us, it's the seeking of solace in healing that often leads to profound self-discovery. This week on A Witch, A Mystic & A Feminist, our guest, Victoria Craig, is a beacon of hope in this realm, transforming her own battles with trauma and illness into a mission of nurturing through plant medicine and breathwork. Her insights are a treasure trove for anyone looking to untangle the complexities of their inner world and emerge with a renewed sense of self-love. As Victoria walks us through her personal transformation, she also lays bare the intricate dance of empowering the feminine spirit, marrying vulnerability with strength in a way that resonates deeply with all who are on a journey of self-healing.
Navigating the delicate intricacies of ayahuasca ceremonies requires more than knowledge—it demands a heart attuned to the silent cries of the soul. Victoria Craig masterfully depicts the sanctity of these trauma-informed spaces, where the subtlest of details, from the flicker of a candle to the arrangement of the room, can make the difference between anguish and catharsis. We discuss the beauty of patience, the art of providing support without words, and the courage it takes to welcome all forms of expression during these profound experiences. It's here that listeners will find a map to the healing potential of ayahuasca, charted through Victoria's compassionate lens.
The journey doesn't end at the ceremony's close; it weaves through every facet of life, demanding integration and reverence for the healing that has unfolded. Victoria ushers us into the world of Cambo medicine, illustrating its potent detoxifying abilities and how it complements the deep work done in womb healing and yoga practices. As we explore the Soul Rising Retreat, the importance of setting boundaries becomes as clear as the Mexican skies under which transformations are nurtured. Victoria's guidance on carrying the wisdom of these experiences back into the rhythms of daily life is a profound lesson in honoring the inner work that continues to shape us long after the retreat ends.
For more information about Victoria Craig, you can visit her website at https://www.iamvictoriacraig.com/
Medical Disclaimer
Have questions or comments for A Witch, A Mystic & A Feminist? Send us a message at https://www.wmfpod.com/contact/. Also you can subscribe to receive updates at https://www.wmfpod.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to a Witch Amistic and a Feminist.
We are so happy to be back thisweek chatting with Victoria
Craig.
Victoria is a feminineembodiment and self-love coach,
plant medicine and breath workfacilitator and the founder of
the Soul Writing retreats.
Victoria, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you so much for having me.
I've been really excited aboutthis one.
No one.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We're excited.
Yes, your work and what you do.
I'm just very intrigued,especially with the plant
medicine and your retreats,obviously.
So I'm excited for this show.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm really looking forward to sharing with you.
Can you give us a littlebackground on kind of how you
ended up here with all theseamazing credentials and retreats
?
And yeah, just start us there,of course.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean, ultimately, I guess I turned my pain into my
purpose and I've kind of broughttogether all of the modalities
and the practices, the medicinesthat have helped me to heal and
come back home to myself, mybody, and reconnect with my
(01:19):
feminine body, my emotions, andI put all of those together and
I've been through the fire moretimes than most in this lifetime
.
You know I've got a lot of myown past trauma from sexual
assaults, eating disorders, bodydysmorphia, grief loss, abusive
(01:42):
relationships, severeautoimmune illness and I do
being completely open on this Istill get the odd flare up.
But nothing, you know nothing.
Like I was when I got reallysick.
I had severe gastrointestinalissues, a bowel prolapse, pelvic
inflammatory disease, chronicfatigue, amenorrhea, skin issues
(02:05):
, alopecia.
I lost three quarters of myhair, I had bald patches a
couple of years ago and it'sthat one thing in the body kind
of goes.
It's just a cascade, it's aripple effect and yeah, you know
everything that has happened tome, or should I say for me?
You know we never think it's forme at the time Right, I'll be a
(02:26):
little bit later on, it reallyled me to my purpose and, you
know, really being able to bringother women together to, you
know, to heal and to rise and toregulate back into their
feminine body.
Whether you know, whether we'reusing part medicine, whether
it's breath work, whether it'ssomatic practices, sisterhood
yoga, you know I don't, I don'tbelieve there's, you know, one
(02:47):
way for everyone, like we all.
You know we're all designed andbuilt differently and what
works for me may not work foryou and vice versa.
So it's really let's try thesedifferent things and let's let's
see what my body is resonatingwith and also when we're working
with a lot of women that cometo me have experienced and have
(03:08):
their own trauma and you knowit's a very, very sensitive
space to be working in and wehave to be very careful not to
push the body to a place thatit's not ready to go.
You know we, our body, willtell us and show us when it's
ready to move through somethingand ready to heal.
And you know, I've had theexperience both ways where, you
(03:31):
know, things have been pushed orI've been pushed and I wasn't
ready to go to certain placesand it left me in a bad way, you
know, possibly more traumatizedthan I was prior.
And then I've also seen on myjourney, you know, having, you
know, sexual assault wassomething that I'd had repressed
for many, many, many, manyyears and it didn't come up at
(03:53):
the beginning of my healingjourney, you know.
It came up through a four yearslater when I created the safety
of my body to be able to say,okay, it's time I can move
through this.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And that's amazing to think about our bodies in such
a protective way that our mindcould block out such trauma to
protect you because you're notready to deal with it yet.
And so it's interesting how,once we accept it or are able to
embrace it if you will, themind will release it so that
(04:25):
you're ready to heal.
And it's amazing what ourbodies can do for us in a
protection mode and also aconnection type of feeling as
well.
So that's um.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, the body.
The body is so Powerful and we,unfortunately we haven't been
taught that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah and so just to dive right into it.
I told you in our interview andactually the pre-show, that I'm
really intrigued and want tohear more about plant medicine
because it seems to make themost sense.
To be very honest, we seem tobe in an era of Pharmaceutical
everything throw a pill at that,throw a pill at that, here's
another pill, here's a shot.
(05:08):
You know did to just fix theproblem, but you're not fixing
the problem.
Yeah, you're masking it, you'remasking it and every.
It just seems like we'regetting so much more in an era
of there's a pill for that,there's a shot for that, there's
, and I feel like plant medicinejust seems so Logical.
It's from the earth, it's grown, it's natural For our bodies.
(05:33):
So I'm really interested inhearing about your journey with
plant medicine and and what youhave found.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Of course and you know I fully agree with
everything you were just sayingthere.
You know, with with plantmedicine, what is actually
happening is we're dealing withthe root cause, whereas Often
Western medicine andpharmaceuticals is okay, let's,
let's look at the symptoms andlet's put a bandaid on those,
let's try and stop symptoms, buteverything is going to keep
reoccurring.
(05:58):
And then the piece which yousaid about natural right, I
would watch, rather putsomething natural into my body,
then something that is that'schemical or man-made.
You know, with plant medicineand we are working with the
earth, we are working withmother nature's medicine and I
see part medicine is.
(06:18):
It kind of shows us the truth.
I was being able to see thatthere is so much more to the
world, to the universe, thanmaybe we've ever, we've ever
been shown or learn, and it'sshowing us the truth of who we
are and that actually, you know,even in the Western medical
(06:40):
system and and you know, lookingnot just physical health but
mental and emotional health aswell we often go down that route
and we're made to feel, or wethink that there is something
wrong with us and we need to beFixed.
And actually plant medicineshows us that there is nothing
wrong with us.
We know that you know we don'tneed to be fixed and we're whole
and worthy already, and thatactually we have the ability
(07:04):
With the right support of courseto be able to heal ourselves.
That's something I just loveabout plant medicine.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So with that, how do you guide people through, like
different plant medicineCeremonies, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So the key medicines that I work with or we work
within retreat is ayahuasca,also cambo shanga, which is DMT
for anyone that's not familiarwith that and obviously DMT is
an element within ayahuasca.
And then we work with that Bay,which is a sacred tobacco, but
(07:39):
the the key ones here would beayahuasca and cambo.
Ayahuasca is a psychedeliccambo isn't.
The way we hold ceremony withayahuasca is like, say, like we
like to do things differently.
We hold a very trauma Sensitiveand safe and safe space.
So often you know you could goto journey with plant medicine
(08:02):
and you could go.
This could be ayahuasca or adifferent medicine, but you know
, specifically with ayahuasca,you know you might be completely
sat in the pitch black, in thedark, on your mat, on your own.
You could be with Five people,ten people, fifty people.
You know you could have spaceto move.
We might be stuck on a.
You know the size of a yoga matwith, with people either side
of you and for some people thatcan feel quite Intimidating and
(08:27):
it doesn't feel safe in itselfand especially when you're
you're about to take a Plan, amedicine that you have never
experienced before, and there'sa lot of fear.
So when we're holding ceremony.
We are Like I say, we'relooking at it being a trauma,
safe and sensitive space.
We're right there for the womenthrough anything and everything
(08:48):
that they need in that ceremony.
We are in darkness but we'renot in pitch black, so they are
all of us.
You are still able to see whatis going on around you and
navigate, like when you want togo to the bathroom or if you
need to get up and move or ifyou want to go outside by the
fire, and we, you know.
If you're going through adifficult experience and no, not
(09:12):
everyone does.
You know I was.
I see I was a little bit likethe energy of Carly Doga.
She's, it's like a card.
She has the energy that she cancome in and and kind of fall
down everything around youthat's not serving you and it's
for your greatest of good.
But when you're in that towermoment, whether that's in your
(09:34):
life or in Iowa school journey,it doesn't feel good.
Now, not, you know.
Some people just have amazingjourneys from start to finish.
But you know, just being reallyopen and honest, you can have a
difficult time.
It can be challenging.
Your body might be going into amoment where it's purging,
where it wants to physicallyvomit or some noise wants to
come out.
There's a big emotional purgeto be had and there's often some
resistance in the body, notconsciously.
(09:55):
This isn't great, you know, youcan't say to someone stop
resisting, and I had that saidto me once.
I'm like what?
Why don't you know?
I'm resisting what you'retalking about Well like
surrender.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
What is a?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
render and you don't know until you experience it.
You know if someone's goingthrough something challenging,
we are there, we're by theirside.
We've got tools to help someoneget through a purge.
If there is, if we can see thatthere is resistance, right,
we've got modalities and toolsthat will help them get that
purge or that release up and out.
Sometimes it is just patience,but we will stay with them.
(10:26):
If there's an emotional purge,you know, for some sadness or
grief that's coming up or comingout and someone just needs the
mother energy or the sisterenergy and they need to be held,
you know we will sit there andwe will hold them while they cry
and we will hold them whilethey have that release.
Because I believe, you know, weheal through love, we don't heal
through suffering, and a lot ofpeople, including myself, going
(10:48):
into ceremonies is becausethere's an element of that love
missing in our life, whetherthat's in connection with other
people or whether that'sself-love and being in a space
where all of you is welcome,whether this is in ceremony or
in any other part of the retreatwe are like.
Everything is welcome, allexpression.
You know we encourage women touse their voice, even, you know,
(11:09):
in ceremony, for example.
So we're very aware of what canhappen.
You know we can see someone gointo a trauma response implant
medicine, and I feel this is apiece that can often be
overlooked, you know.
So someone can go into thatsympathetic response, whether
it's fight, flight, freeze, fall.
(11:30):
So we need to be able to seethat and to be able to help them
to move through that.
And, for example, one that'sreally common with women is the
fall response, right, which isthe teasing and the pleasing,
the shutting down.
I can't use my voice, I can'tspeak up for myself, and we sit
in this where you know someonemight like they really want help
.
So maybe they're in anayahuasca journey and actually
(11:51):
they're.
Just they've got a lot of fearthat they're feeling that's
inside of them and an ayahuasca.
She is just amplifyingsomething that is happening in
your day to day life.
But you don't necessarily knowthis.
But we see women, they can sitthere in that fear and it's
really uncomfortable and it'sreally scary, but someone else
is having a bigger experience ora big purge.
So they in their head it's likewell, I can't ask for help
(12:14):
because I'm not worthy of help.
My experience isn't as big asthis.
Other people need it more thanme.
You know these.
I'm worth less dialogues.
You know we have been, you know,often conditioned with as women
.
So we're aware that noteveryone is able to.
You know, we'd say like, speakup, just say you want help, but
they can't do that.
So we have these littlenightlights, these little purple
(12:36):
nightlights.
They just flick on and if wesee a nightlight, go on.
We know that someone is in thefall, response and they want
some support.
So we'll just go and sit withthem and maybe what they need is
a perspective, because theydon't understand what's
happening there in their journey.
So I've seen it before where themind, you know, they're really
stuck in their head and in theirmind and that monkey mind and
(12:57):
their thoughts just feel chaoticand hectic and too much and
it's like when is this going tobe over?
And it's like there's a bigresistance there and I'm able to
sit next to them and say what'syour mind like in your day to
day life?
And then they have this like ahha moment, like this is what
ayahuasca is showing me.
(13:17):
They understand it, they havethe release.
The whole journey changes.
They go from the challenging,the difficult part into the love
, the joy, the happiness.
Because this is it withayahuasca.
She shows us everything youknow we can experience, and it,
you know, everyone's experienceis going to be different, every
journey is going to be different, but we can experience the
(13:38):
whole range of human emotions inone night, all at one time.
So we often have, when the womenleave the present, like I
didn't realize I had the abilityto feel so much.
And that's one of the beautifulthings about medicines is they
reconnect us to our emotions, toour feelings, which is a huge,
(13:58):
huge part of the feminine rightOf us being able to find safety
in our emotions.
And I believe the plantmedicine can give us that if
we're held in the rightenvironment and we're held
safely.
But actually, oh, it's okay forme when I go home, it's okay
for me to feel, you know, I'mnot going to die.
If I've got some shame comingup or some fear or some sadness,
(14:19):
I can have a good cry.
Through the retreat we teachand we give them the tools.
You know somatic tools andembodiment practices and
different ways to work withemotions when they go back into
normal life.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
And I love that, that support, because I've spoken to
a number of people that havegone through ayahuasca
ceremonies and some have had,you know, very amazing
experiences and experience thatafterwards, and some people have
gone through spiritualpsychosis following that and
because they weren't supportedduring that ceremony.
(14:53):
And so to be able to support,you know, these women through
their ceremony and also givethem the tools I think is very
important.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And it's you know, it's not something I've been
through myself, but I have beenthrough ceremonies where I
wasn't held safely and itactually retraumatized me for a
good good few months.
To the point, I did think I wasgoing crazy.
And it's very important One.
You know even the intakeprocess.
You know really understandingwhat is going on in someone's
mental, physical and emotionalworld.
(15:24):
What's their support networklike once they get home?
Are they in severelydysregulated?
If they are okay, is thatthere's something you know there
needs to be, something prior tocoming into into that space and
then how they are held in thatceremony and being able to watch
what is happening.
And this is another reason Idon't for me, I don't want my
(15:44):
ceremonies in pitch black,because I want to be able to see
what's happening in someone'sbody language, in their speech
and also being responsible withhow much medicine people drink,
because we don't all need todrink three or four cups of
ayahuasca.
One of my best friends who alsosupports and she holds a space
(16:05):
with me in ceremony and supportsme throughout the whole retreat
I mean she's really buildingthese with me now and she is
super, super sensitive andobviously we, when we're in
ceremony, we take ayahuasca to,you know, not three or four cups
, not anywhere near what theparticipants are drinking.
But she is so sensitive she canmicro dose and have like one or
two drops and she is fullyconnected to the medicine.
(16:26):
If she was to and actually shehad one ayahuasca journey which
put her off ayahuasca for a verylong time because she was given
medicine that was far toostrong and far too much and her
body could not cope with it wehave to look at people's you
know the different levels ofsensitivity and also allow
people to have their own controlto a certain extent about how
(16:48):
much they consume and they drink.
You know, I always if someone,if we're offering more, if
someone's coming up for more,I'm like how much would you like
?
It doesn't have to be a fullcup, if you want a third of a
cup, if you want a half a cup.
Because also, when we're workingtowards trauma right, we've had
and we've all experienced, youall know this, we've all
experienced some kind of trauma,just at different levels.
(17:10):
But when we experience trauma,we have our choice and agency
taken away from us and we haveour boundaries crossed.
So through sharing me, throughthe experience, we want to put
this power back within women andthat's in giving them choice in
every single thing that they do.
That's a key piece of it.
That's having boundaries, youknow.
So we, you know we can be quitephysically hands on, but we
(17:31):
really honor anyone's boundary.
We speak up.
If you don't, you know, if youdon't want us to sit next to you
, if you don't want us to touchyou, then you can say so.
Even if you know you want to beheld and then you decide you
don't, then you may not feelthat you can speak up.
Just tap us, you know, tell usa couple of times in the body,
we'll step up and we'll walkaway.
(17:51):
I had a client actually who cameto one of our retreats last
year and we've been workingtogether prior to the retreat
really beautiful souls.
She has some incredibly deep,powerful, transformative
journeys and one of her journeysshe was often calling out for
me quite a lot in ceremony andshe did have some very intense
experiences.
(18:11):
So I go and be with her andthen at one point I just went
over to her and I was, like, youknow, just checking on her.
How are you doing?
She just turned around to meand she had a reason about my
life.
So she just went oh, oh,victoria, okay, and I was
waiting for her to laugh and Ijust walked away with a big boob
on my face and you know we hada little bit of a giggle about
(18:34):
it the next day and she was likeI'm so sorry.
I was like you've got nothingto be sorry about.
It's like I'm reallycelebrating you because you set
a boundary and you spoke up foryourself.
And actually she said in thatmoment what she'd realized is,
you know, we'd be workingtogether for a period of time
and she had been putting a lotof her healing like in me as in
like I'm always there, I can goto Victoria, you know, like
(18:55):
almost that outside of herself,it was like a reliance on me
being her healer.
And she said in that moment sherealized it was her, she was
the one that was healing herself, it wasn't me.
But just the way it all cameout was just really funny Right,
you can lie.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
That was her saying I got this, go, go away yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I loved it.
I was like yes.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
How do you know when you are fully connected with the
medicine?
Because you said you know youstart off small and some people
have more and some people haveless.
Is there a moment where you'relike, okay, that's enough.
I'm just trying to think howyou judge that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, you tend to.
I mean, you'll know when you'reconnected, you'll feel it, but
it's like the level of you know,you start to feel things
shifting and changing in yourbody and in your mind.
But the level of connectionobviously it's different for
everyone.
When it comes to like, have Ihad enough?
Should I have more?
I always say try and understand.
(19:55):
If you can Like.
If there's resistance there, forexample, right, if my body is
saying no, no more, then like.
If it's a body feeling, it's ano, it's a hard no.
But if it's the mind, don'tknow if I want to go deeper, I
don't know if I want to do this.
Well, you know, if it's themonkey one, I'm like.
If it's mind resistance, Iwould say step through that and
(20:18):
it's a yes, my personal feelingand personal advice.
But again, it's different foreveryone.
But most people tend to, youknow, resonate with that,
because our mind is ultimatelyoften it's the ego, right, so I
don't want to go there, I don'twant to face this stuff, I don't
want to do this work.
But if the body's saying no,it's like it's a hard no, it's
like I'm not ready for anymore.
(20:39):
What I have now is a no.
But we've had.
You know, I have had itactually quite recently where
one of the women she just reallyfelt like nothing was happening
and she had a reasonable amountof bio-asca and I was like, hmm
, like nothing is happening andshe started to feel like there
(21:00):
was something wrong with her.
So she actually sat out with afire and I went out and I was
like you know, how are you doingwhat's coming up for you?
Or actually your Hannah hadkind of told me that what was
coming up for her?
And she was like, oh, just, youknow, I'm not feeling like, I
feel like there's somethingwrong with me.
Or you know, and I said, oh,where, you know, where in your
life does this show up at a harmmoment?
And it was all, it was alllinking her to her relationship.
(21:22):
And in that moment then thefloodgates opened, she started
to cry and she suddenly began tojourney.
What it actually was?
She's been in an unconsciousresistance for probably three or
four hours.
She's had enough and it was.
It was just that bit ofresistance and then it was like,
(21:42):
when she allowed the emotion tocome up and that kind of aha
moment, she just went on areally big, beautiful journey
after that, wow.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
So real quick with your retreats, you know.
So you do have your ceremonies,but what is a retreat
experience like?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Okay.
So the soul rising retreat isit's eight days, seven nights.
We are in the jungle in Mexico,quite close to where I am, in a
place called Puerto Moreloswhich is, I'm trying to think,
where people would know, maybepleidale carbon.
It's quite close to there, halfan hour between pleidale carbon
and cancun.
Little bit further away isTulum.
(22:21):
So it's that kind of area,pleidale carbon, and we have got
so much happening.
We've got three.
We do three ayahuascaceremonies, we do one cambo
ceremony.
Cambo is a frog medicine.
It still comes under the kindof plant medicine, still
muminatious medicine.
It's the venom of a frog andnot a psychedelic, it is a
psychoactive.
(22:41):
Cambo works with the if weallow it to the physical body,
big detox, the physical body butalso the emotional body.
We can really tap into and openup the emotional body through
cambo as well and work with,maybe, past experiences,
suppressed emotions, wounds andtrauma.
The experience is much shorterthan ayahuasca.
(23:01):
You know you're looking at,rather than being in ceremony
for a night, you're looking atbeing in ceremony for maybe an
hour, a little bit less, maybe alittle bit more Quite, an
intense experience.
You know we apply the medicineto the body.
You would drink a reasonableamount of water maybe a liter
and a half ish, depending onsomeone's size.
At least you're full of waterprior to sitting with cambo,
(23:24):
because you're going to have apurge.
For 98% of the time people willphysically vomit and that
really is the idea of cambo andit's a and having the water is
so that we've got something tothrow up and ultimately what
it's doing is it's pulling outthe toxins from your body.
So it works very, very heavilywith the organs of the body,
especially at the liver, thegall body.
(23:45):
What we can often see is likebile coming up and out and you
can generally tell by looking atthe color of your vomit of how
toxic you know the body has been.
But it can be quite an intenseexperience.
You know, when we apply it tothe body we make these little
burn marks.
It sounds worse than it is.
They're superficial burn marks.
Just so that we can, we canremove the top layer of the skin
(24:07):
and then we'd apply themedicine Again.
Person dependent on how muchanyone that's new to cambo.
I will always do a gradualapplication, so I will not apply
, you know, a big amount ofmedicine and really shock their
body, will take it a little bitslower and we'll do a couple of
dots and then we'll add another,and we'll add another until we
get them into the fullexperience, ready to purge.
(24:28):
But once you feel it instantly,whereas something like
ayahuasca will take maybe anhour to kick in, often you get
like a rush of heat comingthrough the body all the way up
to the head.
You know the face can get veryred.
The you know your face can evenswell up and become puffy.
Where you know you know I'vedone it where I look like a frog
and I'm in the journey as welland the heart rate increases,
(24:50):
blood pressure increases, whichis very, very normal.
But if you're not aware, youhaven't been told these things,
it can be quite scary and thenyou're likely to start to feel
kind of uncomfortable andnauseous.
Until that, until that purgecomes, whether that's physical
vomit, which you're likely goingto have, but have had people
that have just had a bigemotional purge through cambo
(25:12):
and that was what they, whatthey needed at the time, but
very, very powerful medicine forthe physical body and the
emotional body.
So we have one cambo journey.
We did used to have two, but Iactually feel there's too much
of an intensity, with two cambojourneys and the ayahuasca, and
we really have to balance.
You know we're working withdifferent medicines.
You have slightly differentdiets as well.
(25:33):
You know, in ayahuasca we don'thave salt, so I'm like having
to make, I'm making sureeveryone's having electrolytes
pre ceremony, post ceremony,whether that's cambo, whether
that's ayahuasca.
And you know we can have theseintense experiences, but we also
need some really regulating andgrounding experiences and this
is where you know the yoga comesin and somatic work.
We have a Temescal ceremony,which is a traditional Mexican
(25:56):
sweat lodge again a physical,emotional and spiritual detox of
the body, really, reallypowerful Still, you know,
intense in some ways, but can bevery, very grounding as well.
We actually have the Temescalon one of our integration days,
when we're not working with theother medicines we do we've got
a lot of other medicines we dowomb healing, so really
(26:19):
connecting with the womb space.
We go into a womb healingworkshop where we're
reconnecting women with their,with this space, with their womb
and actually the power that wehold as women within our
feminine body, within our womb.
And we do that.
We actually.
I never I don't actually dothat at the beginning of
retreats Because I'm always likejust before sitting with
(26:44):
ayahuasca, I'm never sure I wantto open up that space just yet,
you know, because it can be acan of worms.
And when we're working withplant medicines as well, we're
not just healing for ourselves.
You know we've got we ancestral.
You know we're doing the wholelineage and you know women
having experience and locks,oppression, oppression and
violation Often what we see oncewe've been working with the
(27:07):
womb.
That area gets opened up andcomes up a lot in the air
journeys, which is justincredibly.
And then you're also there'sthe power of all being women.
In that space too, we do dailyintegration in group and then
also we're available one on oneif anyone needs additional
support.
But we also include postretreat integration so once you
(27:29):
leave the retreat it doesn't endthere Again, something that
really does feel like it'smissing in the in the space.
You know, we often say the workstarts after the ceremonies.
We get a lot of insights downthose clarity, understanding,
healing.
We have the afterglow.
But we have to then go back andintegrate this into our normal
(27:49):
life.
And you know, for example, in asense many times where someone
might see that maybe theirrelationship is they've I mean
they've kind of known it, butthey've been pushing it away and
suppressing and pretending thateverything's okay and and just,
you know, accepting and stayingwhere they are, and then it's
come very clear to them thatthat relationship is not for
(28:10):
them or the future, for theirhighest good.
It's not easy then going homeand you know, and then if you've
got kids and you know You'vegot assets together and it's
like that's not an easy journeyto do on your own and that's
just one example.
So you know, we offer thepost-intubation support.
We do group online workshops.
(28:31):
We obviously have a Communitychat group, so they can.
One of the big pieces as wellis that they get to support each
other, you know, and they havethat connection, that sisterhood
, and when you go that deep Withother women like you, really
you really bond In a way thatthat you don't with with many
people because there's so much,you know, vulnerability.
(28:53):
We also we kind of throw in likeworkshops here and there, like
seeing what's coming up.
So at the beginning we'llalways do something around
nervous system and nervoussystem regulation and like how
do we, how do we regulate Intoour body, how do we connect with
our body?
Also connecting with Feelingand sensation that's happening
with us, because all of thishelps Once we're in the journeys
(29:16):
connecting with our breath,like how do we breathe and how
do we breathe if something feelsquite difficult, let's start to
get into that deep breathing.
And then we have breath workjourneys, conscious, connected
breath work journeys, which canbe like plant medicine journeys,
but maybe without puking in abucket, you know.
You know you can have thesereally powerful big experiences
and releases through throughbreath work journeys as well,
(29:37):
and also depending on what.
So we offer integration supportand someone said this to me a
couple of days ago Well, how doyou plan that?
And I was like I don't, youknow, I I just see where you
know, where is everyone out, andif I feel like, okay, well,
maybe we need a breath workjourney, then that's what we'll
do is as part of theirintegration.
So, yeah, that's the retreats.
There's a lot.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
It sounds amazing.
I love that post-retreatintegration support because you
know, honestly, it's somethingyou just you don't think about.
Like you have these Huge ahamoments and all the things you
need to change and you're like,well, shit, I just realized I
shouldn't be in thisrelationship.
Now, what am I gonna do?
Like you don't think aboutthose kinds of things.
Those are some huge and it canbe overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, especially if you're like, okay, well, I've
got this and this and this andthis, or I'm like, oh, actually
Every area of my life is likethis stuff I need to change.
Well, you know, I had a.
I spent six weeks in Peruworking with my teachers and I
wasca back in October last year,october November and one of the
things that came through clearas day there was like I was not
(30:39):
meant to be staying in Playa delCarmen, where I live right now.
It's like I'm not a little bitisolated.
It's not my energies, but toomuch kind of party.
I don't really have thecommunity that I want here.
I've known all of that.
But my comfort zone right, it'sfamiliar and but it came
through so clear that I couldn'tignore it anymore.
(31:00):
But even I was slipping alittle bit and it wasn't till
maybe six weeks and I went hangon a second.
What am I not integrating thatpiece of?
I'm not happy in my environmentand I'm staying in that comfort
zone.
But it took me Three months tostart.
Right, I'm gonna look forsomewhere else.
(31:20):
And now I'm actually moving tothe loom.
Yeah, fantastic.
You know, it really does taketime to to integrate and
integrate.
Integration for some peoplecould be a couple of months for
some people, yeah, yeah, years,oh yeah Well, victoria, thank
you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
If you could promote yourself a little bit, give
everybody your website how theycan contact you, that would be
fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Of course, and just thank you.
You know so much for holdingthis space for this conversation
, I think second talk about.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, you can listen to you forever.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
So the best way to find me is either through my
website, which is WWW.
I am Victoria Craig.
Craig's felt like the boys namesee our AIGcom and on there you
will see the, the landing pagefor the sole rising retreat as
well, which has all of theinformation.
I mean, it's a it's a longlanding page, but I really
(32:21):
recommend when I read it throughfrom top to bottom, because it
will tell you every single pieceof the retreat and and it
Really, you know, even when Iread this now, I'm stuck.
It speaks to my soul, likethere's a particular woman that
it speaks to.
So all of the information is onthere about retreats and how to
apply.
You can also the.
The platform that I'm most kindof, regular and consistent on
(32:44):
is Instagram and my handle is Iam Victoria Craig and I will say
anyone that follows just dropme a message, drop me a DM if
you haven't heard from me first.
I love just buildingrelationships and connecting and
and you know, and also foranyone that's interested in the
in the plant medicine space orthe breath work will come into a
retreat.
It's really important to feelTrust and feel that the people
(33:07):
that you're going to work withis like energetically is aligned
for you.
So I'm happy to chat back andforth on DMs we do.
Also, when you apply for atreat, we have one coming up in
August on.
Next one is the 15th of the22nd of August.
Part of the application processis having a one-on-one call
with me as well, so that we makesure that you know everyone's
(33:28):
happy physically, mentally,emotionally, spiritually.
You're in the right place.
It's.
You know that there's plantmedicines not for everyone, and
that you feel that you have atrust and connection.
And we also do.
I say we've offered postsupport.
We do pre as well, and actuallygetting ready for the retreat
and connecting with all of theother women to help.
You know we all have some likefears and nervousness come on.
(33:51):
So we work with the pre bit aswell.
And then you know I do workonline, whether it's with breath
work shortly I don't have adate, but myself and my best
friend solstice to your Hannah,who's with me in retreats we're
actually putting together amicro dosing and breath work
embodiment program for theonline space as well.
Um, so yeah, that's that's mesounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Well, thank you so much again for coming on our
episode and thank you to ourlisteners for listening.
If you want to connect with us,go to you WMF podcom.
We'll get all past episodes andwe will see you next week.
You.
Welcome to a Witch Amistic and a Feminist.
We are so happy to be back thisweek chatting with Victoria
Craig.
Victoria is a feminineembodiment and self-love coach,
plant medicine and breath workfacilitator and the founder of
the Soul Writing retreats.
Victoria, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you so much for having me.
I've been really excited aboutthis one.
No one.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We're excited.
Yes, your work and what you do.
I'm just very intrigued,especially with the plant
medicine and your retreats,obviously.
So I'm excited for this show.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm really looking forward to sharing with you.
Can you give us a littlebackground on kind of how you
ended up here with all theseamazing credentials and retreats
?
And yeah, just start us there,of course.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean, ultimately, I guess I turned my pain into my
purpose and I've kind of broughttogether all of the modalities
and the practices, the medicinesthat have helped me to heal and
come back home to myself, mybody, and reconnect with my
(01:19):
feminine body, my emotions, andI put all of those together and
I've been through the fire moretimes than most in this lifetime
.
You know I've got a lot of myown past trauma from sexual
assaults, eating disorders, bodydysmorphia, grief loss, abusive
(01:42):
relationships, severeautoimmune illness and I do
being completely open on this Istill get the odd flare up.
But nothing, you know nothing.
Like I was when I got reallysick.
I had severe gastrointestinalissues, a bowel prolapse, pelvic
inflammatory disease, chronicfatigue, amenorrhea, skin issues
(02:05):
, alopecia.
I lost three quarters of myhair, I had bald patches a
couple of years ago and it'sthat one thing in the body kind
of goes.
It's just a cascade, it's aripple effect and yeah, you know
everything that has happened tome, or should I say for me?
You know we never think it's forme at the time Right, I'll be a
(02:26):
little bit later on, it reallyled me to my purpose and, you
know, really being able to bringother women together to, you
know, to heal and to rise and toregulate back into their
feminine body.
Whether you know, whether we'reusing part medicine, whether
it's breath work, whether it'ssomatic practices, sisterhood
yoga, you know I don't, I don'tbelieve there's, you know, one
(02:47):
way for everyone, like we all.
You know we're all designed andbuilt differently and what
works for me may not work foryou and vice versa.
So it's really let's try thesedifferent things and let's let's
see what my body is resonatingwith and also when we're working
with a lot of women that cometo me have experienced and have
(03:08):
their own trauma and you knowit's a very, very sensitive
space to be working in and wehave to be very careful not to
push the body to a place thatit's not ready to go.
You know we, our body, willtell us and show us when it's
ready to move through somethingand ready to heal.
And you know, I've had theexperience both ways where, you
(03:31):
know, things have been pushed orI've been pushed and I wasn't
ready to go to certain placesand it left me in a bad way, you
know, possibly more traumatizedthan I was prior.
And then I've also seen on myjourney, you know, having, you
know, sexual assault wassomething that I'd had repressed
for many, many, many, manyyears and it didn't come up at
(03:53):
the beginning of my healingjourney, you know.
It came up through a four yearslater when I created the safety
of my body to be able to say,okay, it's time I can move
through this.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And that's amazing to think about our bodies in such
a protective way that our mindcould block out such trauma to
protect you because you're notready to deal with it yet.
And so it's interesting how,once we accept it or are able to
embrace it if you will, themind will release it so that
(04:25):
you're ready to heal.
And it's amazing what ourbodies can do for us in a
protection mode and also aconnection type of feeling as
well.
So that's um.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, the body.
The body is so Powerful and we,unfortunately we haven't been
taught that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah and so just to dive right into it.
I told you in our interview andactually the pre-show, that I'm
really intrigued and want tohear more about plant medicine
because it seems to make themost sense.
To be very honest, we seem tobe in an era of Pharmaceutical
everything throw a pill at that,throw a pill at that, here's
another pill, here's a shot.
(05:08):
You know did to just fix theproblem, but you're not fixing
the problem.
Yeah, you're masking it, you'remasking it and every.
It just seems like we'regetting so much more in an era
of there's a pill for that,there's a shot for that, there's
, and I feel like plant medicinejust seems so Logical.
It's from the earth, it's grown, it's natural For our bodies.
(05:33):
So I'm really interested inhearing about your journey with
plant medicine and and what youhave found.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Of course and you know I fully agree with
everything you were just sayingthere.
You know, with with plantmedicine, what is actually
happening is we're dealing withthe root cause, whereas Often
Western medicine andpharmaceuticals is okay, let's,
let's look at the symptoms andlet's put a bandaid on those,
let's try and stop symptoms, buteverything is going to keep
reoccurring.
(05:58):
And then the piece which yousaid about natural right, I
would watch, rather putsomething natural into my body,
then something that is that'schemical or man-made.
You know, with plant medicineand we are working with the
earth, we are working withmother nature's medicine and I
see part medicine is.
(06:18):
It kind of shows us the truth.
I was being able to see thatthere is so much more to the
world, to the universe, thanmaybe we've ever, we've ever
been shown or learn, and it'sshowing us the truth of who we
are and that actually, you know,even in the Western medical
(06:40):
system and and you know, lookingnot just physical health but
mental and emotional health aswell we often go down that route
and we're made to feel, or wethink that there is something
wrong with us and we need to beFixed.
And actually plant medicineshows us that there is nothing
wrong with us.
We know that you know we don'tneed to be fixed and we're whole
and worthy already, and thatactually we have the ability
(07:04):
With the right support of courseto be able to heal ourselves.
That's something I just loveabout plant medicine.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So with that, how do you guide people through, like
different plant medicineCeremonies, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So the key medicines that I work with or we work
within retreat is ayahuasca,also cambo shanga, which is DMT
for anyone that's not familiarwith that and obviously DMT is
an element within ayahuasca.
And then we work with that Bay,which is a sacred tobacco, but
(07:39):
the the key ones here would beayahuasca and cambo.
Ayahuasca is a psychedeliccambo isn't.
The way we hold ceremony withayahuasca is like, say, like we
like to do things differently.
We hold a very trauma Sensitiveand safe and safe space.
So often you know you could goto journey with plant medicine
(08:02):
and you could go.
This could be ayahuasca or adifferent medicine, but you know
, specifically with ayahuasca,you know you might be completely
sat in the pitch black, in thedark, on your mat, on your own.
You could be with Five people,ten people, fifty people.
You know you could have spaceto move.
We might be stuck on a.
You know the size of a yoga matwith, with people either side
of you and for some people thatcan feel quite Intimidating and
(08:27):
it doesn't feel safe in itselfand especially when you're
you're about to take a Plan, amedicine that you have never
experienced before, and there'sa lot of fear.
So when we're holding ceremony.
We are Like I say, we'relooking at it being a trauma,
safe and sensitive space.
We're right there for the womenthrough anything and everything
(08:48):
that they need in that ceremony.
We are in darkness but we'renot in pitch black, so they are
all of us.
You are still able to see whatis going on around you and
navigate, like when you want togo to the bathroom or if you
need to get up and move or ifyou want to go outside by the
fire, and we, you know.
If you're going through adifficult experience and no, not
(09:12):
everyone does.
You know I was.
I see I was a little bit likethe energy of Carly Doga.
She's, it's like a card.
She has the energy that she cancome in and and kind of fall
down everything around youthat's not serving you and it's
for your greatest of good.
But when you're in that towermoment, whether that's in your
(09:34):
life or in Iowa school journey,it doesn't feel good.
Now, not, you know.
Some people just have amazingjourneys from start to finish.
But you know, just being reallyopen and honest, you can have a
difficult time.
It can be challenging.
Your body might be going into amoment where it's purging,
where it wants to physicallyvomit or some noise wants to
come out.
There's a big emotional purgeto be had and there's often some
resistance in the body, notconsciously.
(09:55):
This isn't great, you know, youcan't say to someone stop
resisting, and I had that saidto me once.
I'm like what?
Why don't you know?
I'm resisting what you'retalking about Well like
surrender.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
What is a?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
render and you don't know until you experience it.
You know if someone's goingthrough something challenging,
we are there, we're by theirside.
We've got tools to help someoneget through a purge.
If there is, if we can see thatthere is resistance, right,
we've got modalities and toolsthat will help them get that
purge or that release up and out.
Sometimes it is just patience,but we will stay with them.
(10:26):
If there's an emotional purge,you know, for some sadness or
grief that's coming up or comingout and someone just needs the
mother energy or the sisterenergy and they need to be held,
you know we will sit there andwe will hold them while they cry
and we will hold them whilethey have that release.
Because I believe, you know, weheal through love, we don't heal
through suffering, and a lot ofpeople, including myself, going
(10:48):
into ceremonies is becausethere's an element of that love
missing in our life, whetherthat's in connection with other
people or whether that'sself-love and being in a space
where all of you is welcome,whether this is in ceremony or
in any other part of the retreatwe are like.
Everything is welcome, allexpression.
You know we encourage women touse their voice, even, you know,
(11:09):
in ceremony, for example.
So we're very aware of what canhappen.
You know we can see someone gointo a trauma response implant
medicine, and I feel this is apiece that can often be
overlooked, you know.
So someone can go into thatsympathetic response, whether
it's fight, flight, freeze, fall.
(11:30):
So we need to be able to seethat and to be able to help them
to move through that.
And, for example, one that'sreally common with women is the
fall response, right, which isthe teasing and the pleasing,
the shutting down.
I can't use my voice, I can'tspeak up for myself, and we sit
in this where you know someonemight like they really want help
.
So maybe they're in anayahuasca journey and actually
(11:51):
they're.
Just they've got a lot of fearthat they're feeling that's
inside of them and an ayahuasca.
She is just amplifyingsomething that is happening in
your day to day life.
But you don't necessarily knowthis.
But we see women, they can sitthere in that fear and it's
really uncomfortable and it'sreally scary, but someone else
is having a bigger experience ora big purge.
So they in their head it's likewell, I can't ask for help
(12:14):
because I'm not worthy of help.
My experience isn't as big asthis.
Other people need it more thanme.
You know these.
I'm worth less dialogues.
You know we have been, you know,often conditioned with as women
.
So we're aware that noteveryone is able to.
You know, we'd say like, speakup, just say you want help, but
they can't do that.
So we have these littlenightlights, these little purple
(12:36):
nightlights.
They just flick on and if wesee a nightlight, go on.
We know that someone is in thefall, response and they want
some support.
So we'll just go and sit withthem and maybe what they need is
a perspective, because theydon't understand what's
happening there in their journey.
So I've seen it before where themind, you know, they're really
stuck in their head and in theirmind and that monkey mind and
(12:57):
their thoughts just feel chaoticand hectic and too much and
it's like when is this going tobe over?
And it's like there's a bigresistance there and I'm able to
sit next to them and say what'syour mind like in your day to
day life?
And then they have this like ahha moment, like this is what
ayahuasca is showing me.
(13:17):
They understand it, they havethe release.
The whole journey changes.
They go from the challenging,the difficult part into the love
, the joy, the happiness.
Because this is it withayahuasca.
She shows us everything youknow we can experience, and it,
you know, everyone's experienceis going to be different, every
journey is going to be different, but we can experience the
(13:38):
whole range of human emotions inone night, all at one time.
So we often have, when the womenleave the present, like I
didn't realize I had the abilityto feel so much.
And that's one of the beautifulthings about medicines is they
reconnect us to our emotions, toour feelings, which is a huge,
(13:58):
huge part of the feminine rightOf us being able to find safety
in our emotions.
And I believe the plantmedicine can give us that if
we're held in the rightenvironment and we're held
safely.
But actually, oh, it's okay forme when I go home, it's okay
for me to feel, you know, I'mnot going to die.
If I've got some shame comingup or some fear or some sadness,
(14:19):
I can have a good cry.
Through the retreat we teachand we give them the tools.
You know somatic tools andembodiment practices and
different ways to work withemotions when they go back into
normal life.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
And I love that, that support, because I've spoken to
a number of people that havegone through ayahuasca
ceremonies and some have had,you know, very amazing
experiences and experience thatafterwards, and some people have
gone through spiritualpsychosis following that and
because they weren't supportedduring that ceremony.
(14:53):
And so to be able to support,you know, these women through
their ceremony and also givethem the tools I think is very
important.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And it's you know, it's not something I've been
through myself, but I have beenthrough ceremonies where I
wasn't held safely and itactually retraumatized me for a
good good few months.
To the point, I did think I wasgoing crazy.
And it's very important One.
You know even the intakeprocess.
You know really understandingwhat is going on in someone's
mental, physical and emotionalworld.
(15:24):
What's their support networklike once they get home?
Are they in severelydysregulated?
If they are okay, is thatthere's something you know there
needs to be, something prior tocoming into into that space and
then how they are held in thatceremony and being able to watch
what is happening.
And this is another reason Idon't for me, I don't want my
(15:44):
ceremonies in pitch black,because I want to be able to see
what's happening in someone'sbody language, in their speech
and also being responsible withhow much medicine people drink,
because we don't all need todrink three or four cups of
ayahuasca.
One of my best friends who alsosupports and she holds a space
(16:05):
with me in ceremony and supportsme throughout the whole retreat
I mean she's really buildingthese with me now and she is
super, super sensitive andobviously we, when we're in
ceremony, we take ayahuasca to,you know, not three or four cups
, not anywhere near what theparticipants are drinking.
But she is so sensitive she canmicro dose and have like one or
two drops and she is fullyconnected to the medicine.
(16:26):
If she was to and actually shehad one ayahuasca journey which
put her off ayahuasca for a verylong time because she was given
medicine that was far toostrong and far too much and her
body could not cope with it wehave to look at people's you
know the different levels ofsensitivity and also allow
people to have their own controlto a certain extent about how
(16:48):
much they consume and they drink.
You know, I always if someone,if we're offering more, if
someone's coming up for more,I'm like how much would you like
?
It doesn't have to be a fullcup, if you want a third of a
cup, if you want a half a cup.
Because also, when we're workingtowards trauma right, we've had
and we've all experienced, youall know this, we've all
experienced some kind of trauma,just at different levels.
(17:10):
But when we experience trauma,we have our choice and agency
taken away from us and we haveour boundaries crossed.
So through sharing me, throughthe experience, we want to put
this power back within women andthat's in giving them choice in
every single thing that they do.
That's a key piece of it.
That's having boundaries, youknow.
So we, you know we can be quitephysically hands on, but we
(17:31):
really honor anyone's boundary.
We speak up.
If you don't, you know, if youdon't want us to sit next to you
, if you don't want us to touchyou, then you can say so.
Even if you know you want to beheld and then you decide you
don't, then you may not feelthat you can speak up.
Just tap us, you know, tell usa couple of times in the body,
we'll step up and we'll walkaway.
(17:51):
I had a client actually who cameto one of our retreats last
year and we've been workingtogether prior to the retreat
really beautiful souls.
She has some incredibly deep,powerful, transformative
journeys and one of her journeysshe was often calling out for
me quite a lot in ceremony andshe did have some very intense
experiences.
(18:11):
So I go and be with her andthen at one point I just went
over to her and I was, like, youknow, just checking on her.
How are you doing?
She just turned around to meand she had a reason about my
life.
So she just went oh, oh,victoria, okay, and I was
waiting for her to laugh and Ijust walked away with a big boob
on my face and you know we hada little bit of a giggle about
(18:34):
it the next day and she was likeI'm so sorry.
I was like you've got nothingto be sorry about.
It's like I'm reallycelebrating you because you set
a boundary and you spoke up foryourself.
And actually she said in thatmoment what she'd realized is,
you know, we'd be workingtogether for a period of time
and she had been putting a lotof her healing like in me as in
like I'm always there, I can goto Victoria, you know, like
(18:55):
almost that outside of herself,it was like a reliance on me
being her healer.
And she said in that moment sherealized it was her, she was
the one that was healing herself, it wasn't me.
But just the way it all cameout was just really funny Right,
you can lie.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
That was her saying I got this, go, go away yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I loved it.
I was like yes.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
How do you know when you are fully connected with the
medicine?
Because you said you know youstart off small and some people
have more and some people haveless.
Is there a moment where you'relike, okay, that's enough.
I'm just trying to think howyou judge that.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, you tend to.
I mean, you'll know when you'reconnected, you'll feel it, but
it's like the level of you know,you start to feel things
shifting and changing in yourbody and in your mind.
But the level of connectionobviously it's different for
everyone.
When it comes to like, have Ihad enough?
Should I have more?
I always say try and understand.
(19:55):
If you can Like.
If there's resistance there, forexample, right, if my body is
saying no, no more, then like.
If it's a body feeling, it's ano, it's a hard no.
But if it's the mind, don'tknow if I want to go deeper, I
don't know if I want to do this.
Well, you know, if it's themonkey one, I'm like.
If it's mind resistance, Iwould say step through that and
(20:18):
it's a yes, my personal feelingand personal advice.
But again, it's different foreveryone.
But most people tend to, youknow, resonate with that,
because our mind is ultimatelyoften it's the ego, right, so I
don't want to go there, I don'twant to face this stuff, I don't
want to do this work.
But if the body's saying no,it's like it's a hard no, it's
like I'm not ready for anymore.
(20:39):
What I have now is a no.
But we've had.
You know, I have had itactually quite recently where
one of the women she just reallyfelt like nothing was happening
and she had a reasonable amountof bio-asca and I was like, hmm
, like nothing is happening andshe started to feel like there
(21:00):
was something wrong with her.
So she actually sat out with afire and I went out and I was
like you know, how are you doingwhat's coming up for you?
Or actually your Hannah hadkind of told me that what was
coming up for her?
And she was like, oh, just, youknow, I'm not feeling like, I
feel like there's somethingwrong with me.
Or you know, and I said, oh,where, you know, where in your
life does this show up at a harmmoment?
And it was all, it was alllinking her to her relationship.
(21:22):
And in that moment then thefloodgates opened, she started
to cry and she suddenly began tojourney.
What it actually was?
She's been in an unconsciousresistance for probably three or
four hours.
She's had enough and it was.
It was just that bit ofresistance and then it was like,
(21:42):
when she allowed the emotion tocome up and that kind of aha
moment, she just went on areally big, beautiful journey
after that, wow.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
So real quick with your retreats, you know.
So you do have your ceremonies,but what is a retreat
experience like?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Okay.
So the soul rising retreat isit's eight days, seven nights.
We are in the jungle in Mexico,quite close to where I am, in a
place called Puerto Moreloswhich is, I'm trying to think,
where people would know, maybepleidale carbon.
It's quite close to there, halfan hour between pleidale carbon
and cancun.
Little bit further away isTulum.
(22:21):
So it's that kind of area,pleidale carbon, and we have got
so much happening.
We've got three.
We do three ayahuascaceremonies, we do one cambo
ceremony.
Cambo is a frog medicine.
It still comes under the kindof plant medicine, still
muminatious medicine.
It's the venom of a frog andnot a psychedelic, it is a
psychoactive.
(22:41):
Cambo works with the if weallow it to the physical body,
big detox, the physical body butalso the emotional body.
We can really tap into and openup the emotional body through
cambo as well and work with,maybe, past experiences,
suppressed emotions, wounds andtrauma.
The experience is much shorterthan ayahuasca.
(23:01):
You know you're looking at,rather than being in ceremony
for a night, you're looking atbeing in ceremony for maybe an
hour, a little bit less, maybe alittle bit more Quite, an
intense experience.
You know we apply the medicineto the body.
You would drink a reasonableamount of water maybe a liter
and a half ish, depending onsomeone's size.
At least you're full of waterprior to sitting with cambo,
(23:24):
because you're going to have apurge.
For 98% of the time people willphysically vomit and that
really is the idea of cambo andit's a and having the water is
so that we've got something tothrow up and ultimately what
it's doing is it's pulling outthe toxins from your body.
So it works very, very heavilywith the organs of the body,
especially at the liver, thegall body.
(23:45):
What we can often see is likebile coming up and out and you
can generally tell by looking atthe color of your vomit of how
toxic you know the body has been.
But it can be quite an intenseexperience.
You know, when we apply it tothe body we make these little
burn marks.
It sounds worse than it is.
They're superficial burn marks.
Just so that we can, we canremove the top layer of the skin
(24:07):
and then we'd apply themedicine Again.
Person dependent on how muchanyone that's new to cambo.
I will always do a gradualapplication, so I will not apply
, you know, a big amount ofmedicine and really shock their
body, will take it a little bitslower and we'll do a couple of
dots and then we'll add another,and we'll add another until we
get them into the fullexperience, ready to purge.
(24:28):
But once you feel it instantly,whereas something like
ayahuasca will take maybe anhour to kick in, often you get
like a rush of heat comingthrough the body all the way up
to the head.
You know the face can get veryred.
The you know your face can evenswell up and become puffy.
Where you know you know I'vedone it where I look like a frog
and I'm in the journey as welland the heart rate increases,
(24:50):
blood pressure increases, whichis very, very normal.
But if you're not aware, youhaven't been told these things,
it can be quite scary and thenyou're likely to start to feel
kind of uncomfortable andnauseous.
Until that, until that purgecomes, whether that's physical
vomit, which you're likely goingto have, but have had people
that have just had a bigemotional purge through cambo
(25:12):
and that was what they, whatthey needed at the time, but
very, very powerful medicine forthe physical body and the
emotional body.
So we have one cambo journey.
We did used to have two, but Iactually feel there's too much
of an intensity, with two cambojourneys and the ayahuasca, and
we really have to balance.
You know we're working withdifferent medicines.
You have slightly differentdiets as well.
(25:33):
You know, in ayahuasca we don'thave salt, so I'm like having
to make, I'm making sureeveryone's having electrolytes
pre ceremony, post ceremony,whether that's cambo, whether
that's ayahuasca.
And you know we can have theseintense experiences, but we also
need some really regulating andgrounding experiences and this
is where you know the yoga comesin and somatic work.
We have a Temescal ceremony,which is a traditional Mexican
(25:56):
sweat lodge again a physical,emotional and spiritual detox of
the body, really, reallypowerful Still, you know,
intense in some ways, but can bevery, very grounding as well.
We actually have the Temescalon one of our integration days,
when we're not working with theother medicines we do we've got
a lot of other medicines we dowomb healing, so really
(26:19):
connecting with the womb space.
We go into a womb healingworkshop where we're
reconnecting women with their,with this space, with their womb
and actually the power that wehold as women within our
feminine body, within our womb.
And we do that.
We actually.
I never I don't actually dothat at the beginning of
retreats Because I'm always likejust before sitting with
(26:44):
ayahuasca, I'm never sure I wantto open up that space just yet,
you know, because it can be acan of worms.
And when we're working withplant medicines as well, we're
not just healing for ourselves.
You know we've got we ancestral.
You know we're doing the wholelineage and you know women
having experience and locks,oppression, oppression and
violation Often what we see oncewe've been working with the
(27:07):
womb.
That area gets opened up andcomes up a lot in the air
journeys, which is justincredibly.
And then you're also there'sthe power of all being women.
In that space too, we do dailyintegration in group and then
also we're available one on oneif anyone needs additional
support.
But we also include postretreat integration so once you
(27:29):
leave the retreat it doesn't endthere Again, something that
really does feel like it'smissing in the in the space.
You know, we often say the workstarts after the ceremonies.
We get a lot of insights downthose clarity, understanding,
healing.
We have the afterglow.
But we have to then go back andintegrate this into our normal
(27:49):
life.
And you know, for example, in asense many times where someone
might see that maybe theirrelationship is they've I mean
they've kind of known it, butthey've been pushing it away and
suppressing and pretending thateverything's okay and and just,
you know, accepting and stayingwhere they are, and then it's
come very clear to them thatthat relationship is not for
(28:10):
them or the future, for theirhighest good.
It's not easy then going homeand you know, and then if you've
got kids and you know You'vegot assets together and it's
like that's not an easy journeyto do on your own and that's
just one example.
So you know, we offer thepost-intubation support.
We do group online workshops.
(28:31):
We obviously have a Communitychat group, so they can.
One of the big pieces as wellis that they get to support each
other, you know, and they havethat connection, that sisterhood
, and when you go that deep Withother women like you, really
you really bond In a way thatthat you don't with with many
people because there's so much,you know, vulnerability.
(28:53):
We also we kind of throw in likeworkshops here and there, like
seeing what's coming up.
So at the beginning we'llalways do something around
nervous system and nervoussystem regulation and like how
do we, how do we regulate Intoour body, how do we connect with
our body?
Also connecting with Feelingand sensation that's happening
with us, because all of thishelps Once we're in the journeys
(29:16):
connecting with our breath,like how do we breathe and how
do we breathe if something feelsquite difficult, let's start to
get into that deep breathing.
And then we have breath workjourneys, conscious, connected
breath work journeys, which canbe like plant medicine journeys,
but maybe without puking in abucket, you know.
You know you can have thesereally powerful big experiences
and releases through throughbreath work journeys as well,
(29:37):
and also depending on what.
So we offer integration supportand someone said this to me a
couple of days ago Well, how doyou plan that?
And I was like I don't, youknow, I I just see where you
know, where is everyone out, andif I feel like, okay, well,
maybe we need a breath workjourney, then that's what we'll
do is as part of theirintegration.
So, yeah, that's the retreats.
There's a lot.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
It sounds amazing.
I love that post-retreatintegration support because you
know, honestly, it's somethingyou just you don't think about.
Like you have these Huge ahamoments and all the things you
need to change and you're like,well, shit, I just realized I
shouldn't be in thisrelationship.
Now, what am I gonna do?
Like you don't think aboutthose kinds of things.
Those are some huge and it canbe overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, especially if you're like, okay, well, I've
got this and this and this andthis, or I'm like, oh, actually
Every area of my life is likethis stuff I need to change.
Well, you know, I had a.
I spent six weeks in Peruworking with my teachers and I
wasca back in October last year,october November and one of the
things that came through clearas day there was like I was not
(30:39):
meant to be staying in Playa delCarmen, where I live right now.
It's like I'm not a little bitisolated.
It's not my energies, but toomuch kind of party.
I don't really have thecommunity that I want here.
I've known all of that.
But my comfort zone right, it'sfamiliar and but it came
through so clear that I couldn'tignore it anymore.
(31:00):
But even I was slipping alittle bit and it wasn't till
maybe six weeks and I went hangon a second.
What am I not integrating thatpiece of?
I'm not happy in my environmentand I'm staying in that comfort
zone.
But it took me Three months tostart.
Right, I'm gonna look forsomewhere else.
(31:20):
And now I'm actually moving tothe loom.
Yeah, fantastic.
You know, it really does taketime to to integrate and
integrate.
Integration for some peoplecould be a couple of months for
some people, yeah, yeah, years,oh yeah Well, victoria, thank
you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
If you could promote yourself a little bit, give
everybody your website how theycan contact you, that would be
fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Of course, and just thank you.
You know so much for holdingthis space for this conversation
, I think second talk about.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, you can listen to you forever.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
So the best way to find me is either through my
website, which is WWW.
I am Victoria Craig.
Craig's felt like the boys namesee our AIGcom and on there you
will see the, the landing pagefor the sole rising retreat as
well, which has all of theinformation.
I mean, it's a it's a longlanding page, but I really
(32:21):
recommend when I read it throughfrom top to bottom, because it
will tell you every single pieceof the retreat and and it
Really, you know, even when Iread this now, I'm stuck.
It speaks to my soul, likethere's a particular woman that
it speaks to.
So all of the information is onthere about retreats and how to
apply.
You can also the.
The platform that I'm most kindof, regular and consistent on
(32:44):
is Instagram and my handle is Iam Victoria Craig and I will say
anyone that follows just dropme a message, drop me a DM if
you haven't heard from me first.
I love just buildingrelationships and connecting and
and you know, and also foranyone that's interested in the
in the plant medicine space orthe breath work will come into a
retreat.
It's really important to feelTrust and feel that the people
(33:07):
that you're going to work withis like energetically is aligned
for you.
So I'm happy to chat back andforth on DMs we do.
Also, when you apply for atreat, we have one coming up in
August on.
Next one is the 15th of the22nd of August.
Part of the application processis having a one-on-one call
with me as well, so that we makesure that you know everyone's
(33:28):
happy physically, mentally,emotionally, spiritually.
You're in the right place.
It's.
You know that there's plantmedicines not for everyone, and
that you feel that you have atrust and connection.
And we also do.
I say we've offered postsupport.
We do pre as well, and actuallygetting ready for the retreat
and connecting with all of theother women to help.
You know we all have some likefears and nervousness come on.
(33:51):
So we work with the pre bit aswell.
And then you know I do workonline, whether it's with breath
work shortly I don't have adate, but myself and my best
friend solstice to your Hannah,who's with me in retreats we're
actually putting together amicro dosing and breath work
embodiment program for theonline space as well.
Um, so yeah, that's that's mesounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Well, thank you so much again for coming on our
episode and thank you to ourlisteners for listening.
If you want to connect with us,go to you WMF podcom.
We'll get all past episodes andwe will see you next week.
You.
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