Bees and Butterflies: Part I
Bees and Butterflies: Part I
The Golden Road to Luna
The Golden Road to Luna
From 1998 to 1999, I had the honor of being part of Julia “Butterfly” Hill’s ground support team during her historic tree-sit in the old-growth Redwood tree named “Luna.” For anyone unfamiliar with the story, Julia lived in the branches of “Luna” for two years and eight days, never once touching the ground, until the lumber company whose land Luna stood on agreed to protect the tree permanently, on December 18th, 1999.
Julia and I have been friends since we were 18 years old, and our paths to Luna were somewhat parallel. In 2023, Julia lit a fire under my tail to write my story. Two years later, “Bees and Butterflies: Part I” was born. While I’ve been promoting the forest defense aspect of the book on social media, there are elements of the story that are only appropriate for platforms like Psychedelic Scene.
What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
The underlying story of “Bees and Butterflies” is a psychedelic journey from the corn fields of Illinois to the rolling hills of Southern Missouri, then finally to the California coast of Humboldt County. Starting in a Christian school in the Quad Cities, the path of discovery to cannabis, LSD, psychedelic mushrooms, and peyote ceremonies with the Native American Church was a wild journey.
Without giving away too many spoilers, let’s just say that my first experience with cannabis both opened my eyes and stole my vision at the same time. I thought I knew psychedelics until my first meeting with LSD. That first trip would have a profound impact on my perspective, lessons I still carry with me to this day.
Then came psychedelic mushrooms. While providing a shorter experience, they were no less intense than my experiences with LSD, and they became my favorite. So much so, however, that they would bring me into close contact with law enforcement. Too close.
Jason Wilson
Honor the Sacred
Upon arriving in Humboldt County, California, I met a native elder named Durwin White Lightning, a licensed peyote roadman. Everything I thought I knew about psychedelics would be challenged. Sitting up in medicine ceremonies with the Native American Church brought everything to a new level. I saw things I never thought imaginable, and it was nothing like anything I’d ever seen with cannabis, LSD, or mushrooms. This wasn’t the giggly, melty, wavy experience I had become accustomed to; this was serious, deeper, and there was energetic accountability for every thought.
While there was a progression, it wasn’t linear. All these experiences were interwoven, interconnected with each other throughout the story. I did my best to describe these experiences in a way that was not cliché or cartoonish. This isn’t a Cheech and Chong story or a retelling of “Dazed and Confused,” although it may have subliminal influences from Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” These are real experiences, and, as many of you know, they are sometimes life-changing in a way that can only be described by those of us who have been there.
The Music Never Stopped
As much as psychedelics played a role in “Bees and Butterflies: Part I,” music goes hand in hand with the path that led me to Luna. In 1996, just a year before graduating college at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, I met a psychedelic rock and roll band named “Jupiter Hollow.” Little did I know that our chance meeting in Columbia, Missouri would help to carve my path to Luna.
Jason Wilson
To rewind just a little, when I was growing up in the Ozark hills of Doniphan, Missouri, we were listening to Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Pink Floyd. Looking back, though, I can’t recall anyone listening to the Grateful Dead. I wasn’t even fully aware of the Grateful Dead until I went to college in 1993, just two years before Jerry Garcia’s passing. I had one opportunity to go to a Dead show while Jerry was alive, but I missed it.
Thankfully, the bus came by, and I got on, with Jupiter Hollow at the wheel. Thanks to Jupiter Hollow, I finally got to experience live psychedelic music, got over my self-conscious fears of dancing, and got a taste of real Dead culture. I finally realized what my life had been missing, and when I graduated from Westminster it wasn’t long before I moved to Jupiter Hollow’s hometown of Springfield, Missouri, just to be closer to the music.
These were the best of times, when the music and psychedelics were flowing freely. We didn’t have much, but we didn’t need much; the music and each other filled our cups and made life feel like an adventure. Those times were about to change, though, when we all got restless and started making moves to head out West. Jupiter Hollow bought a bus and named it “Mom,” then had a desert mural painted on all sides to give it that Merry Prankster vibe. I bought my buddy’s Dodge van and equipped it to act as a mobile camping unit and tugboat for “Mom.” In 1998, we all headed West, from Springfield, Missouri to Springfield, Oregon.
Jason Wilson
Spent a Little Time on the Mountain
Jupiter Hollow played in Oregon, then they were heading back to Missouri. Through the grapevine, I had heard that my friend, Julia, was “living in a redwood tree in Northern California.” I didn’t know what this was about, but I wanted to find out. I at least wanted to see the tree and say “Hi!” to Julia. I had no idea what was about to unfold.
I made my way down to Humboldt County, California, where the former Jupiter Hollow bass player was living. It took some time to find people who knew Julia, but the connection was made. Julia told me about an Earth First! “action camp” that was going to be happening soon, so I made plans to go.
Before the action camp, though, I arrived on a piece of property just down the hill and across the highway from Julia and Luna. It was there where I met Durwin White Lightning and had my first experience with peyote and the Native American Church. The next day, a group of us hiked up to see Luna, and, with the grandfather peyote medicine still strong in my soul, seeing Julia for the first time in years, perched up in this ancient, sacred being, was mind-blowing.
Courtesy of Jason Wilson
From that moment on, I was all in. I attended the Earth First! training camp, got my non-violence training, learned how to use climbing gear to scale ancient redwoods, and was ready to go on my first shift with Earth First!
That first day in the woods with Earth First! would change my life forever. What happened there—and everything that followed—is another story, and one I tell in Bees and Butterflies: Part I. Some things are better left without spoilers.
Jason Wilson, who writes under the pen name Jason Poulos, was a member of Julia “Butterfly” Hill’s ground-support team during the final year of her historic Luna tree-sit. His memoir, Bees and Butterflies: Part I, traces the psychedelic, musical and spiritual journey that led him from Missouri to Northern California. He is currently crowdfunding the book’s professional editing and design on Kickstarter through October 5, 2026.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beesandbutterflies/bees-and-butterflies-0
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