PT212 – Zoe Helene – Colonization, Coevolution, and Cosmic Sisterhood

In this episode, Joe interviews environmental and cultural activist, founder of advocacy group Cosmic Sister, and originator of psychedelic feminism, Zoe Helene.
In this far-flung conversation, Zoe discusses her career path in male-dominated fields including the performing arts, high-tech, and natural products, leading to the creation of Cosmic Sister. She talks about othering and ableism; coevolution and coextinction; how ayahuasca “tourism” benefits Indigenous people; how many Americans have a fleeting, fickle, media-centric attention span on critical social and environmental issues; how living in late-stage patriarchy affects everyone across the gender spectrum (and how most males don’t think about how it has harmed and is still harming them); Zoe’s “ancestor medicine;” colonization and the decolonization movement; ancient Mycenean and Minoan civilizations’ use of sacred psychedelic plant medicines; the tribalism of Hellas (Greek) people and how early Greek civilizations worked with sacred medicines far beyond the Mysteries of Eleusis; the roots of cultural appropriation; and ancient gold Signet rings depicting medicine women, including one that looks very much like an artistic depiction of ritual ecstatic dancing and ergot.

NOTABLE QUOTES

We need to decolonize from ALL the colonizers—globally, and throughout herstory. Dominator cultures have been around since the beginning of time, in subtle, systemic ways and in brutally apparent ways—and it’s still going on.

Please don’t call her Venus. Her indigenous Hellas (Greek) name is Aphrodite. When the Romans appropriated Aphrodite, they not only changed her name, but they turned her into a twisted, patriarchal version of Aphrodite.

Please call Mercury by his original name, which is Hermes. Mars is Ares. Cupid is Eros. I cringe when pop culture celebrates Diana rather than the original Artemis, a complex and powerful archetype that we need more than ever right now. (re: #werestillhere)

I hope people hold onto this passion for fighting racism. We can’t quit. Same with sexism and environmentalism—all the big isms. Our culture is fickle about important issues in the news. Remember when the Amazon was burning? So many people were devastated by that, as if that was the first time we’d learned about the destruction of the Great Amazon. In mainstream American culture, many people now think that it’s done. It’s fixed. But it’s not. The fires are raging on, but the media stopped paying attention.