Is more than just story...
...it is a message from a wise Amazonian Elder that now is time to change our relationship with Mother Earth and each other.
When my job in a hotel in the village of Machu Picchu fell apart my dream of having a successful career shattered. One night, in my darkest hour, I called to the mountains of the Andes for help. A wise, old man appeared to me in a vision. He told me that he was a Shaman, and that he had the answers I was searching for. All I had to do was believe in the vision to find him. I traveled to the Amazon to find the ‘vision of this wise, old man’ I knew was waiting for me.
In the depths of the ancient rainforest I found Don Juanito, the elderly shaman of my vision, living as an ‘Ayahuasquero’ healer with his family in his small village on a tributary off the great Amazon River. Ayahuasca, which translates as ‘The vine of the Soul’ is an ancient vision-journeying medicine, brewed from local plants.
None of the local men had been able to complete the rigorous apprenticeship so the Shaman had been looking for an apprentice to pass on his knowledge before he died. We both knew from the moment we met, that I was to undertake the apprenticeship. He had called me, as much as I had called him. I stayed with the Shaman and his family for four moons that lasted throughout the dry season of 1998.
Under the Shaman’s guidance, I took over forty powerful vision journeys and was initiated into the ancient traditions and rituals of Ayahuasca. By preparing and drinking the brew I began to understand the importance of setting intention and being mindful of the immense power of the ‘Mother of all Medicine’. I slowly realized how all life is interwoven and how our survival is based on our mutual cooperation with all the other life forms on this planet.
During my time in the Amazon I had many amazing adventures and experiences. I learned the ancient art of shamanic healing, working with energy, and communing with nature and plant spirits. I participated in the making of masato with Pashco the shaman’s wife, explored, fished and daydreamed in the magical Amazon. I was faced with my worst nightmare, losing my western ‘identity’ and I fell in love with one of the Jungle men.
The Shaman asked me to bring his message, and the messages from the Ayahuasca to the West that when we become consciously connected we begin to see how we can participate more directly and fully in the process of life. Instead of being a victim of circumstance we can use the ancient rituals celebrating the cycles of the moon, seasonal changes, the four cross-quarter festivals, Equinoxes and the Solstices to work for us so that we can achieve our greatest dreams and become powerful human beings.
Western lifestyle, dominated by a man-made calendar, has kept us ignorant to this understanding and many of us have forgotten our direct connection with the source. This has created a stressful environment and has blocked our Shamanic flow. The more we tune into the natural world around us, the more we can start living in conscious intent and the more our lives will start making sense.
After exactly one year in Peru, life and the Shaman sent me tumbling back to the West to face my destiny….