The Integration Chronicles - Mary Olivar

"Earth as Medicine: How to Integrate Shamanic Practices Into Everyday Life" -Take 2

The first launch of this email didn’t quite go as planned. So if you already received this in your inbox, thank you for your graciousness! If you’re just seeing this for the first time…Welcome back to The Integration Chronicles 🌌—your go-to source for stories, insights, and inspiration from the world of psychedelic facilitation .

This month, we’re exploring SPIRIT🕊️—connection, prayer, reverence, and our relationship with the Earth. And who better to lead this conversation than, Mary Olivar, Executive Director of the Center for Shamanic Education and co-producer of our annual ACT conference fundraiser.

Mary’s work bridges indigenous spiritual practices, plant medicine wisdom, and deep earth connection. Her approach to integration centers on something simple yet profound: how we can live in right relationship with the natural world every single day. This conversation is beautiful and chock-full of wisdom and integration tools.

The Conversation

Olivia Eden: Looking back, what were some pivotal moments that led you to facilitation work, and what was your life like before you took that leap?

Mary Olivar: I actually don’t know if I know the answer to this question. I think it’s an answer that’s always evolving. Our story of our past is constantly changing depending on what day it is or what moment we’re looking back on.

I’ve always been a weirdo, so rather than a stop point or revelatory moment, it was a path of exploration and discovery. It was about clarifying and giving language to my prayer for life—how to show up, how to make the world a better place, how to be an instrument for Spirit, to bring forth more harmony, more understanding, connection, and love. Often that work has been inside myself to create more harmony, to bring in more softness, more kindness, more grace.

My first ceremonial journey was with teachers who had a lot of tools. It wasn’t just about the plant or the ceremony—it was part of their larger prayer, their connection to indigenous communities, their purpose work, and their service. That first experience exposed me to tools I now work with daily and share with others.

I’ve always been fortunate that my work has been mission-driven and usually always with plants. I worked for years in the natural foods industry, most notably with Whole Foods Market as the Healthy Eating coordinator. I’ve always been a plant pusher. I’ve always believed that the Earth is our source of healing, support, wisdom, joy, alignment, and good medicine. When I use the term medicine, I mean something that makes us whole, something that helps us remember and return to our blueprint of perfection.

Olivia Eden: What caused the shift from the natural food sector to stepping into ceremonial work? And did you decide you wanted to facilitate this work before or after your first ceremony?

Mary Olivar: Definitely after, and something that’s taken me many years to step into with a lot of reverence and smaller steps, because I have tremendous reverence for altered states and the plants as powerful teachers.

When I stepped out of work with Whole Foods, part of that was natural. I was very lucky to be in the heyday of mission-driven projects there. We were running education programs around things like seed oils before anyone talked about them. We were talking about no oils, using whole foods, using unprocessed foods. It was much more mainstream now, but we were doing this fifteen-plus years ago.

As Whole Foods changed direction with the Amazon acquisition, they pulled back from those purely mission-driven programs, stepping toward more conventional business practices. Around 2013, I was very curious about what was happening in the cannabis space, so I did work there as an advocate, advisor, and investor.

In parallel, I was stepping more into learning ceremony and shamanic practices. Shamanic refers to nature-based spirituality and the thread of lineage that indigenous people are holding. I believe we all come from shamanically practicing people. All of humanity comes from people who said hello to the Sun, who listened and communicated with birds, who were grateful for waters. These weren’t just parts of life collectively—they informed us, taught us, and kept us in good communication with the natural world.

The work I’ve learned and share through spiritual mentorship is helping us remember and return to a way that is very natural to our nervous systems, to our mind patterns, to things deeply ingrained in our physiology, DNA, and spirit patterns.

Olivia Eden: You work with peyote, which is less commonly discussed. I know the Center for Shamanic Education weaves peyote into the beautiful tapestries created by the communities you support. Could you speak to the medicine of peyote and the wisdom you’ve taken from that plant?

Mary Olivar: I’d rather not prescribe what the medicine is—I think it’s for people in their own inquiry and relationship. But I can speak from the lens of the communities we work with.
The Center for Shamanic Education supports indigenous-led spiritual initiatives through a non-extractive model that honors perpetuation, not extraction. We work with the Shipibo-Conibo communities in Peru’s Ucayali River Basin, supporting youth in traditional plant medicine practices and the creation of woven textiles called teles—cloths embedded with the visual vibrations of plant songs that are themselves considered healing medicine. We also partner with the Wixárika people of Mexico, who hold one of the world’s oldest peyote lineages. We recently helped secure UNESCO World Heritage status for Wirikuta, the peyote gardens and pilgrimage sites, protecting this delicate and endangered plant from agricultural and mining threats while supporting the communities whose spiritual practices depend on it.

What’s important to know about peyote is that while it is a grandfather wise teacher, it should be approached with reverence and curiosity about who is keeping it, who is sharing it, and what their relationship is—not only to the plant, but to the communities and land.

For people curious about peyote, you can be in good relationship and connection with a plant through prayer, through asking, through approaching it as you would a sacred teacher or elder. “I’d love to get to know you better.” Start that with awareness, do research, get involved with organizations moving toward peyote conservation methods. Ask questions about where it comes from and what the lineage is. You can also connect through the art—peyote art made with prayers and good relationship is another way to bring the medicine into your house.

Olivia Eden: I love that you highlight other ways to connect with medicine beyond ingestion. Why would someone approach peyote? What might they be searching for or wanting to learn?

Mary Olivar: I’d rather encourage people to start with being in curiosity about right relationship before putting out a shiny thing to step towards. The Wixárika people have a very powerful relationship with fire and with the Sun, and peyote is an aspect of that relationship. But I really want to reiterate being in encouragement for right relationship.

Olivia Eden: How could we use the tapestries and art for integration?

Mary Olivar: They’re beautiful mandala-style pieces. The Shipibo pieces have many plants woven into them. The Wixárika pieces have strong representations of the Sun, of peyote, of other allies. A visual meditation is one practice, but they also serve as reminders.

Many people are familiar with having an altar—a space of reverence that welcomes what’s on it into your house, giving it a special seat in your landscape. Art can be the same way. It reminds us and brings into presence these allies and helpers. You can connect with them every day. I have a beautiful Wixárika yarn painting with the Sun, snakes, hummingbirds, tobacco, peyote, and flowers. These are things in my field that I see every day, multiple times a day.

Integration isn’t just about practices and doing—it’s about how we bring these vibrations and relationships into the container of our lives in a way that’s natural and part of our daily practice. It can be something like saying hello to your water each morning and thanking it. It can be looking up and seeing a beautiful bird and honoring Ayahuasca or the plants it brings into your life. It’s surrounding yourself with the beauty and visual vibration of the medicines. I call it receiving medicine through the orifice of the eyes—an opening, a reminder, and reinforcement of that connection when you take a moment to connect with reverence and gratitude.

Olivia Eden: What is your favorite integration tool?

Mary Olivar: Laying on the ground. Laying on the earth. It’s something I often recommend to clients I work with in spiritual mentorship.

We talk a lot about the Earth, protecting her, our relationship with her as humans. But we can bring it into simple but profound practices of saying hello to our bodies. Our bodies are Earth. How we are in relationship with our bodies is representative of how we are in relationship with the Earth.

One of my favorite practices is to go lie down on the earth. Find a place where you can put a blanket down. It doesn’t have to be flesh to earth—be comfortable. It’s really nice to lay on your back, but even better is laying on your belly on the earth, putting everything down, working with gravity as an ally, and letting your belly button connect to the earth like an umbilicus. Feel yourself being received and held fully. Breathe out and really let go.

If you want to take it further, you can start to process and tell the earth whatever you’re holding—whatever’s in your mind, your heart, whatever’s heavy. The earth is a master composter. There’s not much she can’t break down over time. Trees give their leaves in the quiet season, and those turn into nutrients for the next growth cycle. You can be in that process too. You can let go of whatever is burdening you and tell it to her. There’s nothing you can tell the earth that she will judge you for or kick you off for. She will still just hold you with constancy and love.

When you feel complete, start to tell her your dreams. Start to tell her what you want to bring nourishment to, what you’d like to be supported and fertilized for in a season of growth. Maybe start inviting in the prayers of your heart you haven’t even whispered out loud yet.

“This can be a big practice, but it can also be as simple as breathing in and breathing out, breathing in support and love, breathing out fear, while you’re held by the Earth. It helps us remember that we are not separate, not alone. We’re always supported by the Earth. Even in an airplane, we’re going to come back down. It reminds and lets our bodies truly receive the unconditional, consistent, generous support that’s always here for us.” —Mary Olivar

Olivia Eden: You also do one-on-one work, song circles, tobacco blessings, and home clearings. What can people expect from working with you, and what exclusive offer can you share with our community?

Mary Olivar: The majority of my work is remote—phone or video, though usually audio. We do spiritual mentorship, talk about what’s going on in the person’s life, and then do shamanic clearing and energy work. Song is a big method I use. Through the songs, I’m able to see what allies are showing up. I have good relationships with different allies like the Earth, different birds, and different plants. Through the songs, I can feel into what ally is showing up for that person.

Every ally, every animal, every element shows up with different kinds of wisdom. If a tree spirit showed up, it would reinforce things about balance, timing, perspective, grounding, and also reaching—being grounded and expanded. These are some of the elements and qualities we might discuss and how to integrate that medicine more and look to the wisdom of that ally.

I offer house clearings and blessings for land—a way to reset energy, honor the space, and build relationship with it while setting your home’s vibration in resonance with your prayers. I also lead in-person song circles and Your Sacred Voice class here in Austin, working with the elements and allies to open your voice and reclaim singing as your natural birthright. Singing is our spiritual inheritance, and I love helping people step past the idea that only trained singers can sing, just as only priests can pray. I’m offering a 20% discount to Integration Chronicles listeners, and I encourage everyone to join our community gatherings around Austin—whether at swimming holes, song circles, art exhibits, or other events where we build connection together.

Facilitators, mark your calendar. October 21st in Austin, TX TAP INtegration and ACT are hosting a meetup for facilitators and practitioners. Explore sacred indigenous art, connect with other dynamic guides in the integration space, and learn from Mary Olivar how to work with the elements for spiritual hygiene and daily practice. This is your invitation to deepen your craft, expand your toolkit, and build community with fellow facilitators committed to authentic, respectful work. RSVP here!

Integration Tools Summary:

Laying on the Earth:

• Find a comfortable place, blanket optional

• Lay on your belly with belly button connecting to earth

• Let gravity be your ally, feel fully held

• Share what you’re carrying with the earth

• Then invite your dreams and prayers

• Even just breathing in support and out fear works

Visual Meditation with Sacred Art:

• Spend time looking at tapestries or art with reverence

• Notice the plants, symbols, and energies woven in

• Create a space in your home as an altar or special seat

• Connect daily with gratitude and presence

• Receive medicine through the eyes

Song and Voice:

• Singing is your natural birthright

• Work with the elements and directions through song

• Channel spirit through your voice

• Reclaim joy and uplift your energy

Spiritual Mentorship:

• Work with shamanic clearing and energy work

• Connect with allies and natural teachers

• Integrate their wisdom into daily life

• Build relationship with the natural world

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Mary Olivar is Executive Director of the Center for Shamanic Education and co-producer of ACT, the annual South by Southwest fundraiser supporting shamanic practices and indigenous art. She offers remote spiritual mentorship, song circles, house clearings, and her Sacred Voice class in Austin. To connect with Mary and claim your 20% discount, visit:

Center for Shamanic Education & Exchange

Mary’s Website(TAPIN for 20% off)

Art Show in Austin through 11/3

The Integration Chronicles is on a mission to simplify psychedelic integration by providing accessible tools for transformation. This month, we’re exploring spirit—connection, prayer, reverence, and our relationship with the natural world. Support us by subscribing to the newsletter! We love being sharing our tools with you!