Rite of Passage: My Sacred Hunting Experience W/ Mansal Denton #348

In this episode, I go off-grid with Mansal Denton, the founder of Sacred Hunting: an intentional hunter who combines plant medicines and indigenous practices into each hunt.  So many of us have become disconnected from what we consume, becoming all-too-accustomed to buying sterile cuts of meat in plastic, often from questionable sources. My recent voyage with Mansal reclaimed the innate human desire and necessity to live from the earth and interact with life and death with intention and respect. I reflect on my four-day ceremonial hunt and the breadth of emotions, judgments, and fears I faced when killing and skinning a wild boar.  Mansal Denton’s sacred and sensitive vision for hunting, framed by his six-year training with an indigenous Muskogee (Creek) medicine man, shreds any preconceived judgment that hunting is an egotistical expression of toxic masculinity. After experiencing his unique mastery of the field firsthand, I’ve witnessed the care and compassion he has for the land, its creatures, and humanity.  10:35 — Mansal’s Background, Rock Bottom and Prison Sentence Time spent in prison Ethnic-divisions in prison Restrictions post-sentence My own sports hunting experiences growing up    33:59 — Motivations to Start Hunting  Desire to get closer to his food Drive to express his aggression authentically  Thinking and consciously embodying masculinity Reflecting on his first kill  Ayahuasca lessons and healing    51:48 — Disconnect Between Eating Meat and Killing It Experiences being vegetarian  Connection to the natural life cycle Hierarchy of suffering in the wild vs. regenerative farming Creatures embodying their mission in the ecosystem DMT energetic release at death  Seeking connection to plants and animals   1:20:33 — Dealing with Animosity  Sports hunting and the perceived lack of consciousness Shadow and ego in the hunting community Indigenous hunting vs. Western hunting  Analyzing hierarchy in the ecosystem    1:34:38 — Training with Indigenous Cultures  How a Muskogee (Creek) medicine man gave him sacred hunting tools Relationship with rattlesnakes Sacred ceremonies during intentional hunting  Why he uses psychedelics on a hunt  Reconciling with the “way things are” after a kill Upleveling consciousness on a hunt    01:59:10 — The Future of Sacred Hunting  Democratizing sacred hunting practices  Plans to partner with land  Collaborating with women...