Soundtrack for this page: “Slowdown” by Nahko and Medicine For The People
Act I ~ Preparing The Soil
Episode Three, Part 3 ~ The Entheogenic Journey!
Huachuma ~ 2020: Slowing Down The Mind!
You have to be able to slow down enough to switch your focus away from all the ways things could be better, to know how good they already are.
–
One of the interpretations/translations for “Huachuma” is, “No Mind”…indicating that the experience of ingesting this Ancient Master Teacher, results in the sensation of our mental awareness shifting out of the “alert, problem-solving mode,” (as author Graham Hancock calls it), and allows us to witness and consciously observe/perceive reality at an entirely different pace of life and in an entirely novel way.
To clarify, Mr. Hancock is referring to our “sober”-mode…which represents our “normal” 24-thoughts-per-second, “day-to-day,” state-of-mind.
The phrase that came to me, during my first Huachuma cactus ceremony, as the effects began to present themselves…was that this medicine felt like “molasses for the mind.” Slowing everything down…
But allow me to back-up just a bit…
…September 4, 2020…
…the day 10 Jaguar on the Mayan Tzolk’in calendar…
…Playas de Rosarito, Mexico…
We sat in a large circle…fifteen, or so, of us…holding plastic red “party” cups filled approximately 3/4ths full with the ancient cactus brew known as “San Pedro” to non-indigenous/”Western” cultures.
We were asked to each hold, and then pass around, a long quartz crystal with a leather-looking, flat, drum-like headpiece attached to the top…so that it looked like a flattened hand-drum with a solid crystal handle.
As we each took our turn holding the crystal, we were asked to share our NAME!, our purpose for being at this ceremony, and any other information we felt guided to share.
When the sacred object was handed to me, I introduced myself and explained that my passion was to be an “Ambassador for Spirit“…to assist those who wished to deepen their connection to our Creator…through whatever means they felt appropriate for them.
I explained, further, that I was specifically at this ceremony to personally learn from this Ancient Master Teacher, Huachuma, and…in so doing…I was looking to gain a new perspective that may help to broaden human awareness of this and other plant medicines…making them more accessible to Western culture.
Three large gulps and the somewhat-bitter, but otherwise pleasant tasting pulp-filled liquid was inside my stomach. We were then offered orange halves, to help clear the residual flavor from our mouths.
Admit it…you kinda want an orange or some orange juice meow! 😛
Our Curandero (Healer) then guided the group through a meditation that lasted, perhaps, 30-45 minutes.
His 3 Curanderos/facilitators/assistants (two women and one man) moved around the outside of the circle and throughout the picturesque property they procured for the ceremony, burning White Sage and Copal in abundance.
Each of them appeared to be Curanderas (The two women healers) and/or facilitators (The other male) in-training.
This Curandero…our group leader…easily donned a cloak of quiet familiarity about himself…wrapped in Agape (Divine or Unconditional) Love, confidence, wisdom and experience with this Sacred medicine and these ceremonial proceedings.
One of the Curanderas would occasionally come to sit behind me and my other two English-speaking friends, to act as Spanish-to-English translator, as he relayed the history of this medicine and the nature of its healing effect on the body and mind.
As I sat and listened to his instructions, breathing slowly in for ten seconds…
…holding that breath in as I counted back down to zero…
…then exhaling for ten seconds and repeated the hold, for another ten second countdown…
…
…before breathing in again for round after round of this guided-breath work technique…
…I began to notice my body getting hot and also noticed some discomfort/mild pain in the middle of my back…just below the third Chakra/diaphragm area…
…this as a result of sitting with my legs crossed and my back straight for such a “prolonged” period of time.
The heat running through my entire body slowly increased, until I was sweating about my forehead and neck.
I realized that this heat was not due to the outside temperature…it was a mildly warm September day in Northern Mexico…nor was it from sitting in the sun, as I was under the shade of several beautiful trees.
As I began to contemplate that this was the first reaction my body was displaying from the medicine, I felt one of Curandero’s hands cover my forehead and he placed his other hand on the exact area of my back that was registering the discomfort.
He then slowly pressed his hand into my back and my discomfort dissipated a little.
He then moved his hand up a few inches and pressed again…and up a few inches and pressed again…until he reached my neck, by which time the pain was gone!
How he knew what I needed…I do not know…but his calm and assured presence in that moment was very welcome and appreciated.
After a little more time passed, he guided us to slowly…very slowly…open our eyes and look around the group…encouraging us to lock eyes with anyone we chose and to “see ourselves in their eyes.”
One of the friends that joined me for this ceremony, 3 Reed Scorpio85, was seated to my right and she eventually turned to look at me.
Upon reflection, I feel that it was my feelings for my friend…more than the medicine’s influence at this early stage..that took me on a short journey of gratitude for this special person in my life.
In Western culture, it is rare that we stare at one-another in the eyes for more than a few seconds. I think it is because the eyes do not hide things in the ways our words can do sometimes.
As I stared into and through her eyes, I felt so much Love and appreciation for her having decided to come with us, for her first Huachuma ceremony as well.
She was there, at my request, to hold space for me when I drank Ayahuasca for the first time in 2017…
…so it was highly comforting for me that she decided to join us on this day…especially because she asked to join us and partake of this magical cactus herself!
I did not ask her to come in support of me this time!
We stared at one another for a few minutes until he again guided us to bring our awareness to how we were feeling in this moment.
As our Curandero moved around the circle, he proceeded to ask a few people to share what they were feeling or what they were wanting in this moment.
He then closed the circle with a few more words and we each got up at our own pace and moved to various spots in the property.
I was feeling very sleepy, so I walked back over to the blanket I had stretched out for the occasion, which was located at the other end of a long rectangular grassy area in the center of the property…the opposite side of the rectangle from where our initial group circle had been…and I laid down on my back…staring up at the palm trees that were lining a stone patio off to my right.
Not knowing what to expect, in terms of the sensations, I merely noticed the sun reflecting off of the palm leaves, as they blew in the wind and, again, noticed the heavy/sleepy feeling…beginning to yawn here and there.
3 Reed Scorpio85 laid down on her yoga mat, which was situated to the left of my blanket, from my perspective looking down towards my feet and along the longer aspect of the rectangle grassy area.
We chatted lightly and somewhat sarcastically that, even though we were both feeling sleepy and a bit “dopey,” we really weren’t “feeling” anything yet…perhaps an hour after drinking the brew…musing that we’d been offered a convincing placebo in place of the actual medicine…but knowing this was not the case.
Just a bit of “fun” to lighten the mood somewhat as we waited for the effects to “kick in.”
After a little more time passed…I commented to her about this “molasses of the mind”/slow down feeling…and…noticing that I was feeling a bit cold, I got up and moved down the grass and up onto the stone patio off to the right, were the palm trees were casting more-or-less linear and parallel shadows along the patio’s red-stone surface.
As I walked from the grass onto the patio and up the single step, I remember contemplating the nature of how this medicine’s “come on” felt to me…the initial “burning hot” feeling, while I was in the meditation circle, then the gentle…cooling…sleepiness I experienced for the first hour or so, while I laid on my blanket in the shade.
Then…this unassuming molasses…gently filling my skull with S L O W D O W N!
But meow…stepping into the direct sunlight of this patio…and, resultingly, feeling a sense of deep invigoration rising through me…I was smiling at the mastery I was noticing of the “technique” of this Ancient Master Teacher, as It worked Itself into and throughout my field of energy…body, mind, and beyond!
I realized how disarming this…relatively long…period of sleepiness had been as it “set in”…even distracting in its effects…as slowly but surely a gentle “pouring of molasses” was being applied into my awareness…without me being directly aware of that aspect of the process. And certainly not alerted or concerned by it!
At best, it was in my peripheral awareness…while I was primarily observing the heaviness and near-constant yawning I was experiencing.
My perception was focused on my physical experience…while the mental experience was “shifting frequencies” outside of my direct awareness.
I didn’t notice where this journey was going…I just felt sleepy and dopey…disarmed.
Well played, Cactus!
When San Pedro begins to affect your consciousness, it first feels as though a subtle wave of change occurs, and can best be described as a vibration of sunlight penetrating your energetic field. The medicine’s spiritual correspondence relates to masculine energies, the energy of the sun, and (in my personal experience) serves as a vehicle for remembering light through a presence of warmth.
–
As I basked in the warmth of The Sun, I familiarized myself with the layout of this large patio and noticed an outdoor kitchen/bar area off to my right.
Walking over to it, I recognized the word, “Love,” constructed of wood pieces…perhaps 6-10 inches long each…sitting at eye-level behind the bar…in amongst the branches of a massive tree around which this bar was built.
It was very quiet and calm…very peaceful in this place.
The bar was empty and not in use…this entire patio, and property, likely is rented for weddings and other group occasions…but this day, it was all shut down and just our small group was present to explore this fabulous ceremonial space, in all its natural beauty!
Turning around to lean against the bar-top, so that I could feel the sun on my face as I observed the patio in more detail, I saw that along the border of the red brick area, perhaps 25-35 feet away and lined by a short stone wall…the patio perimeter was filled with all types of succulents, palm and aloe bushes and palm trees…planted along the wall of this expansive stone terrace.
I felt extremely content in this space and eventually lowered myself to the ground, with my back against the wall of the bar upon which I was leaning.
The sun felt SO wonderful…warm and nurturing but not over-heating or burning me…and I felt like I might be able to just sit there forever…completely content to soak in this magnificent view.
It was in this moment, that I began to actualize a description of Huachuma in my molasses-filled mind.
One I was offered a week earlier, from a friend who had had multiple Huachuma ceremonies during his time in Peru last year.
He told me that what it feels like to be under the “influence” of Huachuma, was a desire to just stand still and “be a cactus“…basking in the sun and silently observing everything around.
And that’s when the “penny dropped” in my awareness, as to what it was that I was actually feeling from this medicine!
This…coming approximately two hours after ingesting it! It took me awhile to figure it out!
What its effect upon me was offering to my human “point-of-view,” was novel…totally unique from any previous experience…so, at least for me, it took awhile to “get it!”
What, at first, just felt like a sleepiness and/or dopiness in my awareness, had transformed…somewhere, it would seem, in the short walk from my blanket to this red-stone patio…into a feeling as if my mind had nearly halted, in terms of its processing-speed, in comparison to my “sober” state.
If nothing else, A MAAAAAAJOR SLOW DOWN!
This may be a sensation that does not translate into words and simply must be personally experienced, but it felt like my ability to think about and/or contemplate my surroundings was unchanged, in comparison to sobriety…however, my mind’s “need” to process information…and “quickly” move on to the next set of incoming sensory variables available for analysis and processing…
…had basically halted…
…or at least slowed down SIGNIFICANTLY!
Slowing down The Mind…SIGNIFICANTLY. To what end?
Why would this be a useful and/or helpful thing for me to experience?
Why would this cactus “want” me to feel this way?
What I was able to perceive, was that I was being offered the opportunity…as much as is possible from within my human “mind’s eye”…to perceive reality at the pace of plants.
That a plant’s pace…or at least this particular cactus’ “sober speed”…was MUCH slower than the 24-thoughts-per-second of the human mind.
Definitely not slower meaning dumber…quite the opposite, as a matter of fact!
To have the opportunity…as much as is possible from within the human “way” of perceiving…to imagine what it would be like to hear a cactus “speak” its thoughts!
THIS required my mind to SSSSSLLLLOOOOOWWWW DOWN! Way down!
What I imagined, in this moment, was that for a cactus to convey a thought constituting let’s say, for a human, what would be a ten-word sentence…say, for example, a thought about how much the cactus Loves and appreciates The Sun!
Perhaps it takes the length of an entire day for the cactus to “say” that!
Or…at least the length of time, during a day, that it takes for the Sun to travel across the sky in view of the cactus…
…such that the cactus begins its thought as soon as the first rays of light hit its skin in the morning and the thought finishes as the final rays are leaving the surface of the cactus…
…as the Sun drops behind a tree, or a mountain, or the horizon itself.
Why would we need to slow our mind down for this “conversation?”
Because…as Treebeard says in Lord of The Rings ~ The Two Towers:
“It takes a long time to say anything in old Entish…and we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.”
With this new “slowed down” insight beginning to integrate into my consciousness, I focused my attention on the parallel Palm tree shadows that were reaching out across the patio in front of me and I was suddenly overcome with a deep sadness…yet I was not sad…I was simply observing how the palms trees might sing a lament for the Sun, as it passed across the sky each day.
“Why a lament? Why is this a sadness?”, I contemplated.
The awareness came to me that, perhaps for these trees, it was such an incomprehensibly massive gift…each day…that the Sun graced them with Its Light and Love…providing the fundamental property upon which they survived and thrived…their energy.
And yet, each day, perhaps they have the ability to only express one sentence of gratitude!
And further, that it might seem…to the trees…that once the Sun was over the horizon and the darkness of night returned…that they might never again have another opportunity to express their gratitude to this Divine light in the sky.
For all they might know, it would not rise again the next day!
I was humbled by these thoughts…I felt very naive in my human-ness…which translated, to me, as a lack of awareness of the Power of Agape Love!
As I focused on the shadow nearest to me…I noticed it slowly moving…ever so slightly…back-and-forth across the stones, as the wind wafted through the tree.
I also noticed that the tree’s entire shadow was…ever-so-gradually…moving closer to me, at the pace of The Sun moving across the sky…as were the parallel lines of the other Palm tree shadows…a few feet further away.
How long might it take them to reach me?
How would it feel to be in that shadow, after having meow been in the direct Sunlight for quite some time?
This reminded me that, for the past few years, I have become…peripherally…much more aware of the pace of The Sun…as I occasionally sit out on my roof-top patio in the morning…having to slowly move backwards a little every few minutes…as the Sun moves across the sky and the shadow thrown by my apartment building gives way to the direct light of The Great Life-Giver.
I then recognized that while I had never experienced the pace of the plant world, as I was on this day, I had before…thanks to The Sun…experienced a slower pace of reality than my fast-moving mind…and I was encouraged and invigorated to not feel COMPLETELY ignorant of this wondrous natural world within which I exist.
Some time later, my other friend, Aquarius86…who invited me for this ceremony, her first Huachuma ceremony as well, walked past me as she made her way to another part of the property.
Our brief and humorous exchange served to effectively shift my awareness out of the tight focus of observing these Palm tree shadows and, as I was meow briefly within the shadow of one of these trees, the glare of The Sun was muted and…staring generally out across the patio…I noticed a slight movement against the far wall of the patio…some 30 feet away from where I was sitting.
From the way the object moved, I first thought it was a small animal…perhaps a lizard…attached to the wall with its head facing towards the ground…and that it was moving its head in a way that seemed like it was eating something.
However, as I sat and observed further, I realized that it was not an animal…but something that was merely hanging from the wall…like a leaf. It was drawing my attention enough, however, that I decided to get up and walk over to it.
As I got within a few feet, I discovered that it was a small feather caught in some cobwebs…and it was the wind blowing the feather, that was generating the occasional movement.
It is too much of “another story” to go into here, but suffice it to say that I have a embraced a “Spiritual concept” about feathers…when they “randomly” come across my path.
I find great significance in these “feather moments” and I usually either pick up the feather to take it with me or I sit with it and meditate on what messages I might be able to “receive” from Spirit, through an intentional communion with the feather.
I chose the later on this occasion and sat down cross-legged on the patio in front of the wall…my face still oriented towards the Sun…ready for a “Spiritual Download!”
The feather was perhaps 3-4 inches long and was mostly black with a white tip.
As the wind wafted along the surface of the wall, the feather was briefly lifted up and to the right…into a more-or-less horizontal position. Wavering back and forth in the late-summer breeze…
…dancing about in paradise…not a care in the world.
As I focused deeply into this movement, it was as if the feather was saying, “Well hello there, Human! I am happy you noticed me!”
Synchronously, the day before this particular ceremony…September 3rd, 2020…was the two-year anniversary of my cat, Sandy, passing away on September 3rd, 2018.
As such, she was close to the surface of my thoughts and this feather’s ability to “communicate” with me…by blowing in the wind…suddenly took on the form of Sandy “speaking” to me.
Not with an actual voice in my mind, but through an intuition spiraling around in my heart, that Spirit was bringing Sandy’s presence close to me in this moment and she was offering a purr-filled warm and Loving embrace…transmuted through the gentle motions of the feather’s dance…
…with its stalk entwined in the cobwebs attached to the wall and the wind gently moving it up and to the side…and then bringing it back to a resting vertical position as the breeze abated.
It felt so wonderful to feel Sandy’s Agape Love in this way!
As I overflowed with gratitude for the myriad magical ways through which Spirit communicates to me…this just being one example…my energy shifted dramatically and I suddenly was overwhelmed with a sense of embarrassment for having described earlier…while holding that sacred crystal before drinking the Huachuma…at the beginning of the ceremony…that I wished to be an “Ambassador for Spirit!”
What ARROGANCE I felt in the reflection upon my “past self”…from a few hours earlier…and then, almost immediately, I felt enormous humility in this moment, as the thought occurred to me and a smile spread across my face, “Silly human…as if Spirit ‘needs’ an Ambassador, if She wishes to Speak to one of us!”
I realized that just because I hold my connection to Her as SO specifically Sacred…SO unique and special to me…
…THAT does not mean that any other human (whether they are aware of it or not) cannot, or does not, already have their own unique and special…but completely different…connection through which Spirit communicates with them!
They, NOR Spirit, has ANY need of ME being involved in THAT equation!
In the next moment, however, I realized that this was not a “directive” from Spirit that I should abandon my passion to serve the role of Ambassador…
…just that I should ALWAYS remember to be aware of the fact that, hiding in plain site within the very word, lay the potential to easily slip into my ego’s desire to BE somebody to another person…and in so doing…to place myself in-between them and Spirit…thus becoming an “AmbASSador!”
THANK YOU for the lesson, Great Spirit! I honor how you magically bring these paradoxically humbling and inspiring teachings into my awareness…that I may keep my feet firmly planted on the ground…as I reach for You amongst the Stars!
Sat NAM!!!
You thought you were a nobody. But heaven is full of nobodies. Except we call them saints.
–Richard Paul Evans, “A Perfect Day”–
As I looked up from the ground…with a new sense of humility and groudedness for my life’s passion…my eyes lifted higher and higher as a new confidence settled within me…and…from this vantage point…sitting cross-legged on the patio…I was meow almost directly underneath the Palm trees.
There were several other plants interspersed between and around the base of these towering trees. As I leveled my gaze on the plants directly in front of me, I noticed what looked like a Sand Aloe or Snake Aloe plant, with dozens of ants moving quickly across its limbs. So much life…such a different pace of life.
Then my gaze was drawn to several spider webs that were backlit by the waning afternoon Sun, as they drifted to-and-fro in the light breeze.
I was transfixed momentarily by the complexity of the webs and the shimmering glisten-effect…”randomly” reflecting off of each web’s branch-points, from the Sunlight catching angles in combination with The Wind’s motivation…
…this movement too…
…speaking Its own story…
…offering Its own lessons…
…for those who choose to listen…
…I was again in awe of the pace of nature and how foreign the human world appeared to me, in comparison to this state of consciousness.
How our “human cadence” seemed so far away…almost silly…in its frantic pace and self-important demand for attention and action RIGHT MEOW!!!
The plants seemed indifferent to all of the things we choose to focus upon and consider SO important!
As if, in reality, none of our human machinations really matter at all to the natural world!
Indeed…it is arguable that humans may even go unnoticed by Nature, at large. At least in terms of the way humans notice, and place importance upon, ourselves and our human activities.
In this reflection, I began to grow slightly cold again and so I slid myself back away from the wall and fully into the sunlight…feeling guided to lay down prone on the patio…which allowed me to look directly up at the Palm trees.
I was then profoundly impacted by my Love of Palm trees…so tall…so strong…so little “green growth” at the top to sustain themselves…and, seemingly, SO far away from their Mother’s surface…as they reach proudly for The Sun.
What was a lament for The Sun, earlier, transformed into an homage to Him coming from this “tree sight”…and I actualized why I’ve always had such a powerful Love and appreciation for this particular type of tree.
Feeling an immense amount of connection and Love coursing through me in this moment…in these powerful revelations…I closed my eyes and lay there in gratitude and appreciation.
I do not know how many moments past, but I opened my eyes to see 3 Reed Scorpio85 walking towards me with a lit and smoking Copal incense stick.
She said hello and proceeded to blow the sweet fragrance around my prone body.
This was not unusual behavior for Scorpio85…many times, in past ceremonial settings, she seemed to intuitively know when and what to do to “tap into” her inner “Sha-woman” and, thus, provide positive energy for those around her in the healing space.
I was then aware that the other…non-translator…female Curandera walked up and joined Scorpio85 at my side. She began spraying a very cooling, lemon-scented, essential-oil-infused water (Aqua Florida) over my body.
As I had unconsciously placed my left hand over my heart and my right at my side, when I laid down, this magical…angel-like…Curandera intuitively felt/knew to take ahold of both my hands and crossed them onto and over my stomach…between my second and third Chakras…just above my belly-button.
She then placed her hands on top of mine and I immediately felt a wave of sadness rising through me.
Originating within the base of my spine, it was not overwhelming enough to cause me to cry, but as I witnessed the emotion moving through me, I was distinctly aware that this sadness represented an energy I was unknowingly holding within my body…a deep sense of loss, for the past two years, without Sandy living in my life.
As I would likely have done in the past…with this type of feeling…this time, I did not resist the energy as it passed up and through my spine and, as a result, it seemed to transform…as it reached my heart…into a realization that the way I had been holding this energy was not a positive thing for me.
I further realized that, in releasing my unconscious hold of it, I was not dishonoring Sandy or forgetting about her…but rather…I was transforming an “improperly” oriented attachment to my grief for her loss, into an homage for her life and for her passing.
As…it seems…do the trees, the cacti, and the other plants offer their long, slow homage to The Sun…as it passes overhead each day. There is no sadness in Agape Love.
Sat NAM! and thank you, Huachuma, for offering me these experiences of Agape Love…the Divine Love of The Great Spirit…manifesting into our realm through Pachamama (Mother Earth) and Padre Cielo (Father Sky)!
Thank you for assisting me in my bridge-building efforts…to rejoin and reconnect my Physical Realm to The Spiritual Realm!
Sat NAM! and thank you, Great Spirit, for guiding me to a more balanced orientation within myself and for assisting me in the process of aligning into the “Agape balance” of Huachuma and the other Ancient Master Teachers.
Thank you, Huachuma, for teaching me what life feels like at “Your” speed! I look forward to my next experience with you!!
P.S. ~ Synchrony With Intention ~ Energetic Alignment
Synchronicity is an ever–present reality for those who have eyes to see it.
–Carl Jung–
Today is October 14th, 2020. On the Mayan Tzolk’in calendar, today is 11 Jaguar. Forty days after my first Huachuma ceremony, September 4th, 2020 on 10 Jaguar.
As you may already know, the Tzolk’in is a 260-day, never-ending “energetic tracking system,” spiraling through time. You can learn more about it here, if you wish!
Among the various ways to interpret the combination of today’s energies, I perceive that 11, as the Intention of resolution that arrives as a result of many “wanderings” across a dynamic range of…seemingly unrelated…directions, combined with the Sun Sign, Jaguar, offers “unintended evidence” of synchronistic alignment with intention and purpose.
Two of my four Ayahuasca ceremonies occurred on 11 Jaguar.
My last Ayahuasca ceremony, two years ago, intentionally on August 26, 2018 and my second-to-last…260 days earlier unintentionally on December 9th, 2017!
“Intentional vs. unintentional” meaning my choice to participate in a ceremony on that specific day.
The December 2017 ceremony was planned without me picking a date…as was the case on 10 Jaguar, forty days ago, for my first Huachuma ceremony.
The Jaguar was there…as She is again today!
Jaguars figure prominently in both Huachuma and Ayahausca ceremonies and my NAME! Day, the day of my birth, was 2 Jaguar. We Love cats in this home!
I wrote the bulk of this piece on September 5th, 2020…wanting to “capture” as much of the experience as possible, before I returned to “normal life.”
It was not my “plan” to publish this piece today…I did not realize I would be doing so until three days ago!
The Universe arranged it to be so and I am but aligning with Her Agape Flow!
Onward and Upwards WE go!
Spiral On…and Spiral Out! 😉
Next Piece: Episode Three, Part 3 ~ The Entheogenic Journey! ~ LSD – 2021: Ceremony In The Aquarian Age!
Back To: Act I, Episode Three, Part 3 ~ The Entheogenic Journey!