(Article wrote prior to coming to Ecuador)

Sharing about Ayahuasca Plant Medicine Ceremony I have been blessed with the opportunity to participate in a couple of Ayahuasca Ceremonies much to my Mother’s dismay. Behind the memory of myself, I hear my parents niggling, whispering, accusing ~ “she is doing drugs!!!”

In my youth, I courted the yielding desire of illicit drugs. It offered an intense yet brief fantasy to escape this world. It is a mask portraying a desirable experience. However, it is a false allurement, a temporary high and a seductive temptress for “gettingout”. The act of smoking a joint or having a drink at the end of long day is not a ceremony to enter the sacred space where Panchamama cradles us in healing. It is a brief, false trip into both illusion and disillusion. I have been blessed to experience the difference.

For 21 years, I communed with a man whose daily desire was a staunch joint and a shot of alcohol. He was a good man cloaked by his first love of the “high”. In the game of this relationship, I entered the abuse dance as a means to keep some peace with the temporary mantra “if you can’t beat them, join them.” And, as a young girl, I first discovered sacred plant journey’s while experimenting with Mushrooms. The party usually began in a social setting but as the plant sank into my veins, I always ended up removing myself from the social scene to be in solitary conversation with the experience. I often, with pen and paper, would write and write and write and surprise myself with the depth’s of knowledge, wisdom an insight flowing freely. (This log book of plant medicine journeys was confiscated by my parents. I was told when I was all grown up, it would be returned. I am 43 and I think my parents have either lost it, or they still think I am a child.

In the past year, I’ve entered 2 Ayahuasca experiences which I shared have been the spiritual pinnacles of experience. It is magical. It’s brings one beyond the experience of utter, complete, unabashed sexual union with oneself as ONE. Shamans of many indigenous cultures have used the powerful Ayahuasca concoction to heal illness, obtain mystical insights, contact spirit guides, and explore magical worlds. It a potent and sacred plant brew to be respected.

My sacred experience of Ayahuasca has enabled me to grasp my paradoxical nature ~ an acceptance of myself in both glorious and dark aspects. Ayahuasca taught me to release the illusions I hold about myself and made it possible to integrate the diverse self-aspects that will empower me to stand in my own true, heroic power. Ayahuasca is such a powerful teacher and healer offering strong visionary trips.. As initiates know, the ritual can be an intensely physical experience–a woozy, vibrating, literally gut-wrenching dance of coughing, spitting, burping, puking and, of course, back end purging. They call it getting well. The ceremonial communal cup is passed around and the amount consumed by each participant. Being raised in the ceremony of the Roman Catholic Church, I was awed at being able receive the plant as communion, like Christ’s wine, as an offering to enter the sanctified union with the Universe (God). Those that enter the world of Ayahuasca become privy to an understanding of the arrangement of the universe. There is something very primal and timeless ~ felt and known. It can feel familiar, as if you knew this all along but only forgot. It is hard to explain the mysterious phenomenon this plant journey provides to the uninitiated seeker. Each person seems to have a unique perspective to the weaving threads and tapestry of wisdom and grace. Although in saying this, the ONE message for all to discover is LOVE…and it becomes a deep introspective journey into the depths and discovery of this Unified Love as it is expressed uniquely in each individual, unique human manifestation/existence.

I do promise to share the “story” line of my Ayahuasca experiences in latter posts. For now, though, I will share that everything that ever was or could be was presented perfectly in my experience. I was filled with a saturated sense of jubilation that cannot be described. I was God itself (Mom forgive me). But even as that feeling washed over me something equally profound struck: I was terribly lonely. I was the be all and end all and as such it was only me and nothing but me and I felt a terrible loneliness rise up. It was such a profound contrast, this sense of being One with all of existence, but also so alone in that oneness.

What I got is that there is a greater, vaster intelligence than I have ever, ever imagined. I think I already knew that, so it was a small but comforting “aha”. The big “aha” was that I can work with this amazing plant teacher who both was gentle and caring yet a powerful stand for movement, action and . And this plant houses the mother intelligence who is completely devoted to my well being, self-realization, healing and recognition that I AM LOVE. Does it get any more magnificent than that? I don’t think so!!!!!

Posted in Nature, Personal Transformation, Spirit, Wild Kitchen, Wilderness Stories and Myths

Tags: Magic, Nature, Nature Spirits, Personal Transformation, Shamanism