Beyond Infinity Bob

The Land of the Lorax

2011-04-04T14:54:00.002-07:00

If you have ever slept out, under the stars on a moonless night, tasted cool water coming out of a natural spring after a hot day of hiking, bathed in a refreshing pool or cook by an open fire and watched the fire burn until bedtime, then you have an idea of my last twelve days backpacking in the Baja mountains.

Backpacking for me has always been a refuge, from my first adult vacation at eighteen up Mount Washington in New Hampshire to the hiking around the mountains of Northern California, I have enjoy getting away from it all.

Most of trips have been solo, since it was hard to find company willing to spend precious vacation days “working” harder than at their day jobs. This time five of us venture out into the wilds of Baja led by primitive skills teacher Rio, who has hike these mountains for the last forty years.

While most feel privileged to wake up in a house, have a factory processed meal, drive a fancy car to work and spend all day in front of a computer screen to return home to sit on the couch and watch Survivor, we were bless to begin the day with meal of raw oats, chia, nuts, and/or dried fruit, getting our hearts pumping by climbing the next ridge, collecting seeds and wild fruits before finding a cool pool to swim in and a flat place to sleep, cooking a meal of tortillas, beans, cabbage, and air, dried deer and settling in front for the bush TV, the fire, telling stories.

There is something to learn from hiking. It is a meditation. It requires focus, flexibility and balance. Hiking up a south face in the hot sun is rewarded by shade that is just over the ridge. It is never up or down, but a series of ups and downs that get us to our goal. We hike along in the heat of the day lost in our own thoughts and then are rewarded with a pool of water that’s too good to pass up for a group swim. Hiking is another metaphor for life.

We began our trip hiking up the Boca de Sierra. It was three days up this arroyo until we could see the Pacific Ocean. We walked along crossing he arroyo as the trail went up through it. Each night we would fine a flat spot by water, cook a big meal and sleep out under the stars. Morning came with the chirp of the birds and the light of day erasing the stars in the sky.

Most mornings, I would find a spot in the arroyo for my morning meditation. After a morning fire to take off the night’s chill, we would eat and pack up for another day of our adventure.

On the forth day we started across the ridges, we would leave the water to climb up and down the ridges until we reach the our next arroyo. Water is a must in the dry tropics. We reached the top of the Agua Caliente water supply which feeds the farm most of us were staying at. Here was a beautiful meadow with willow and oak trees. We had plenty of fallen oak to keep us warm at night.

The next day we took off from the packs and hiked up to the source of our water. It was a beautiful spot where three canyons meet to form a beautiful pool. This arroyo is very rough and a four day hike out of it, without a trail for most of it, but if you venture down it would lead right to our farm.

Day six we bushed whacked to Don Francisco canyon. Bushing whacking in shorts and a tank top is a bad idea and I ended up looking like I tried to take a ferrel cat’s temperature (there is only on way to take a cat’s temperature and it’s not pleasant, ask your veterinarian).

Don Francisco is the Land of the Lorax. Here we entered a pine forest, that was spotted with oaks, yucca, black palms. In Baja the oaks lose their leaves in summer to escape the dry part for the season. They call it the land of the strange trees and it was very special to sleep in such a spot.

After a few years of drought, water was a little hard to find, but we succeeded at the base of the second waterfall, in a small crevice to find the building block of life.

The following day we hike to a Biological Station at the head of Guadalupe de la Zorra Canyon and camped there for the night. We would hike out the la Zorra canyon, but first we were to go to the top of Baja Sur.

We hike to our highest camp the next day and camped the la Laguna, pronounced la la guna. This is a massive lagoon that with many springs. The next day we hike up to the el Picacho and for the saw both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. It felt good to be at the highest place in our area and that each step from here on out would bring us home.

The high home was challenging and beautiful. We left the la Laguna and hiked past the Biological station and down in to la Zorra canyon. We hike over a long, steep ridge and down the main part of the canyon. We walked for most of the day, going for maybe 15 miles. Knowing that we would have another long day the next we found a camping spot with a couch and celebrated by eating a lot of the extra food we packed.

The next day was another tough day. The canyons get washed out by the hurricanes and the trail disappears and with the free range policy a trail can quickly turn into a cow trail only four feet (1.33 meters) high. However the pools we found to swim in, in this canyon were the best of the trip.

We made it to a 200 year old ranch in many hours up the mouth of the canyon and slept in a mango orchard on a soft bed of mango leaves. But first we ate most of our remaining food. The next day the ranchers invited us for breakfast and we had our first meal which we did not carry in over a week.

The three hour walk out the canyon was rewarded with a swim in the Sol de Mayo, a waterfall and swimming spot near where we began.

About 100 miles (160 km), twelve perfect days in nature, five life long friends and an adventure of a life time.

One night, high in the mountains, as I slept a tree reminded me that nature was our neighbor. I thought about this as I walked along and realized that we are not different that nature. We come from nature and we return to in to become nature again.

For me, nature is where I want to be. To enjoy a good fire and the company of good friends. To challenge myself without competing another’s game. To celebrate the diversity that nature is and to realize that everything has value in this world. Our world is changing, it is not longer the world where “he with the most toys wins” it a world where the more of those who help each other and get along with their environment means we all win.

Meeting the Earth Mother

2011-03-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

During my last stay in Baja, I kept hearing of this mythical free spirit who spend his days up the valley in the shadow of the mountain meditating and communing with nature. All would tell me that “I should meet him” or “I have to talk to him”. The time went on until one day in the garden I came to meet this mythical creature and his lovely partner. We hit it off from the start.

This year my friend came down from the mountain and we met again and right away pick up where we had left off with conversations of Love and Unity. My friend had just completed two and a half weeks of solo meditation and was easing back into community life. As he made a batch of his special raw chocolate, with plenty of healing herbs, we talked and sampled his batch until he got the right mix of this special treat.

That night, high from chocolate, good conversation and reconnecting with a dear friend, I drifted off to dream time.

Soon, I was back in school, an old abandoned, elementary school, walking arm in arm with the Earth Mother. She was showing me the emptiness of our educational system that does not include Her teachings. As we where walking her alluded to her size and I was surprised.

“How can you be so big when you are smaller that me”?

She explained that most can not handle to see here in all her glory and that she shows only a glimpse of her true being. I felt sadden that she felt that she had to hide her glory from the world and said to her; “What kind of friend would I be if I did not let you appear to me as your true self? Please show me you in all your glory.”

With that she rose up and I was dwarfed by Her. Still arm in arm I was awe struck with kindness that radiated from her being. The love and bliss that I was showered with was so pure and innocent that it could only be described as the feeling of love a newborn receives the first time he is held by his mother.

As we we continued I was reminded that this was still just a glimpse of Her full glory that would grow as we moved to more of an earth honoring society.

I awoke still feeling the love She had bestowed on me.

Now each morning I greet the day with a meditation that takes the love She freely shares with the love that Unity brings from above into my being and pray that I can be a worthy citizen of this amazing love that they so freely bestow.

Ocean Honoring Ceremony

2010-11-29T17:20:00.000-08:00

Ocean Honoring Ceremony
November 7, 2010
Linda Mar Beach, Pacifica, California
Co-Led by Charlene Sul and Ginny Anderson

One year ago to the day, I sat in ceremony at the creation of the Earth Medicine Society, whose purpose was to help bring people back to the Earth Honoring ways and connection them with all their relations, of the stone, water, plant and animal realms. At one of the early meetings we journeyed. This vision had me on a mountain above the Bay Area looking at the lush greenery that had returned and seeing the sparkling connection of the web of life below. I was filled with hope, then as today, as we come together in ceremony and add another spark into the web of life with our ceremony to honor the Ocean.

Our purpose is to honor the Ocean, the body of water that connects us all, the womb of which all life was born and one of the places on Earth where one can find intense peace, joy and harmony within.

We will do this today in the creation of a Tule boat in which we will place our prayers and let the Ocean consume them to feed them back to the world. We are led by two beautiful people of mystery, Charlene Sul, who is the founder of the Confederation of Ohlone people, which empowers others to serve their communities thus creating better society and Ginny Anderson an eco-Psychologist and leader of ritual for personal and community transformation.

The Tule reeds where collected a week before by Ginny and Stacey, in a sacred manner, at Alviso by the bottom of the Bay. Ginny and Stacey where able to this by going invisible from park rangers, flying over a fence, and not shape shifting into ducks, thus attracting the unwanted attention of the high tech, duck hunters that surround them. Miraculously, they survived brought the Tules for our purpose of building a boat.

When I arrive at the beach I see some of the people beginning to gathering, people with Tules and offerings for the ceremony. We do a thorough search of the beach to see if there is anyone we have missed. We can not see Charlene who is supposed to have arrived. As we wait outside in the rain, we each tell our story about being drawn to the ocean. I joke about spending most of my life in hot water, but then again that is my make up fire and water, and tell of my attraction to the Ocean from a early age, and how for me it is like returning to the mother, the womb, a sacred place

We then scour the beach for any offerings that we can find. I make an offering of a feather, piece of wood and a flower and blow in a prayer of heath to our Mother Ocean. After this I notice that the crowd is moving. It seems that Charlene has been hiding in plain sight and steps back into this dimension and is ready to start the ceremony.

We prepare an altar of flat stones in a cleared circle on the beach. Charlene smudges us with sage and the rain stops. We lay out our offerings of flowers, fruits, herbs, seeds, incense and all other offerings to add our prayers to. The Tules are unwrapped and we go to work.

We each gather a bundle by taking the Tules and folding them in half. The bundles are then tied with raffia in four places. Next we braid the raffia in to a rope to tie the tule bundles together. I get a lesson in braiding. The bundles are tied in the shape of our prayer vessel. If one were to make a boat in this manner for fishing then the boat would be allowed to dry completely before being sea worthy.

Once the boat is completed we add our prayers and offerings. It is a beautiful ceremony as we create with our prayers and intentions this offering to the Ocean. The boat is a beautiful expression our hearts’ desires for the Ocean.

Now there are eleven of us, two male and nine females. Charlene opens the ceremony with a song. The birds gather on the ocean as a flock of seagulls plays in the waves. We go around the group and everyone offers a prayer or a song or both. Half way through this the flock of seagulls flies overhead and one of their numbers bless our gift as only birds can with a bit of good luck as some might say.

Next we make a offering of tobacco and cornmeal and each one of us takes a pinch and offers our last prayers for the Ocean. The rest of the cornmeal and tobacco is offered for all forgotten prayers and the boat is ready to be carried to the sea.

Aerin and I carry the boat to the sea following a straight line in the direction the boat faces and Charlene leads the procession smudging the air. Before going into the Ocean there is one last prayer song. While we sing there is the last offering of honey that is poured on our prayers to sweeten them for the Ocean.

We head to the sea. I try to avoid the waves and for my trouble get knocked down into the surf. Luckily the only damage is done to my pride and the lesson is learn, to fully commit to the objects of one’s prayers.

The boat makes it to the surf and the waves play with it as it move down the shore line, getting stranded and being brought into the sea again. Each one of us offers more of our prayers to the Ocean with the additional items that did not make it to the boat.

The ceremony completed we go for a snack. Later we return for a picture and while we had our backs on our prayers they were consumed in the surf, a successful offering accepted by Mother Ocean.

Sitting on Top of the World

2010-02-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

Oneness with a stream, our life’s goal, there is no stopping, we never deviating from this goal, as the stream flows, so do I, only deviating its course to maneuver life’s obstacles. There is no obstacle too big or too strong that can keep us from our goal. We will flow around, over and through all of them. Only a disconnection from source can stop a us from achieving our life’s goal.

It is cold and dark, my first night in the Arctic, the spirits of the stream continue.

Nutrients stirred up from the bottom, into the blue glow of the water, feeding all that participate on this journey. The stream flows to a still lake, frozen and covered with snow and much like the stillness of my soul once was it is contained by the beneath layers of a frozen defense. In the sky is the Eye of Odin, the eye He sacrificed for knowledge. His eye becomes the sunrise, a new day, melting away any remaining layers and with a flash of bright light, feeding my light body for this journey.

This is the land of dark and cold, but not like a moonless night in a deep forrest. The clean pure snow keeps everything illuminated in a surreal way and even at night the star nation, keeps it aglow. Grandmother moon is hiding.

I have journey to the Arctic to see the Northern Lights, to connect with them. Why, I am not sure, but it feels I must. If you know me, then you know in the winter I like to go warm sandy beaches and relax in the surf. But somehow, the clean snow of the Arctic is a necessary turn on my journey.

We visit the Sami Market in Jokkmokk. Each winter, around the midpoint, the Sami come together for three days to sell their crafts. The Sami are indigenous people of the North, who before being converted to the cross where nomadic hunters, trappers and reindeer herders. Only about 10% still live in this way. They are also mostly caucasian.

The market is a PETA nightmare. Reindeer pelts are everywhere as well the furs of other animals. I want to bring some of the finely preserved animals back to life, but realize that this way of life is necessary for the survival of people who live a region that celebrates spring, summer and fall in a four month window every year.

At the Sami Market I am introduce to yoiking. The Sami found a song for all things in nature. Everyone and everything had their own song which the Sami would sing to honor. You could yoik just about anything except yourself in public, which was considered really, bad form. The songs usually had to do with how the subject moved about in nature, like a blind person observing a rabbit in the snow might sing about its movement. Yoiking was outlawed when they were converted in the 17th century but was keep alive by the reindeer herders. Now and since 1995 it is taught in school again to Sami children. It is extremely energizing to yoik in a group. We yoik for the rabbit, moose and the raven.

We have a sunrise fire ceremony the next morning. Here I offer my layers that have been shed, fully to the fire and commit to step into the next ones that are now. The sun breaks the horizon and it is 9:00 AM. One of the benefits of being so high in latitude is sunrise comes at decent hour.

We load into the magic bus and head North, leaving Sweden, driving through Finland and into Norway. That night we see our first display of Northern Lights. We are lucky, we are told, to see them, most who come don’t and lately it has been a slow with the sun’s activity that cause these lights. But, I know that we are bless. Good luck and sunshine see to follow me since stepping on this path.

The Northern Lights are cause from the love making of the Sun and Earth. The Sun showers the Earth with love, in the form of particles. The Earth gladly accepts them in her magnetic field and explodes in an orgasmic release of color. (For a scientific explanation see Wikipedia).

The lights can be red, yellow, blue and green in color. Green the color of the heart is the most common. The lights come in spirals, arcs and curtains. Sometime in monochrome and others are multicolored. We get an green arc, in a section of the sky, that last for 30 minutes or so.

After, in celebration, some light sparklers and other make snow angles. I feel eight again lying in the snow moving my feet and hands to form a beautiful, fallen angle. After we form a circle and give thanks to the blessing we have received. My heart is fully open to witness this mating ritual of the Sun and Earth.

That night, I dream of the lights, no dream is the wrong word, I lie in bed half awake, with my eyes closed and see and feel the Northern Lights interacting with light body. It is a blissful interaction. This interaction is kind of a cleanse, a release of all the been and a awaking to this moment right now. I awake honoring the old layers and with complete acceptance of where I am right now. I, now, know why I have travel so far.

In the morning we travel further north. On the way we stopped at a museum at Alta where ancient people left petroglyphs in the surround rocks. The petroglyphs were covered with snow so we hung out in the museum and tried to connect to the messages left to us long ago. That night in ceremony, I created my version of a glyphs that honored the cycle of life and death in both ordinary and in-ordinary time.

I also pulled a Rune for the trip and received the Rune Wynja which represents Joy. The Joy of physical, sensual energy and pure and innocent playfulness. This concerns with living in the present.

Rune Magic is part of the Nordic Shaman culture that differs from the Sami. Much of it is like quantum physics where everything in connected and time is one. The Nordic shaman culture is feminine in nature. The women of the Vikings where responsible for the ritual and ceremonies and the men focused on war and conquest, fishing and hunting. Runes were a gift to humankind from the holy beings and are believed to open a dynamic system of power and knowledge. I am happy with my pull.

In the night, I still dream of lights and fall into a bliss state again. There in an interaction with my light and the energy of this place that feels refreshment one feels after a dip in a cold stream on a hot day.

The next morning we headed to North Kapp. North Kapp is the highest point in Norway and sits a latitude of 71 degrees North. Most visit this place to witness the midnight sun.

We come in the heart of winter and have a ceremony of roses. I envision the the connect between the Earth and the Sun and how this love falls from the crown chakra of the Earth and feeds every living creature on and in its surface. The knowledge and wisdom center of the Earth informed by the Sun and the Universe is available to anyone who can find the stillness inside to listen. Our lives, our dreams, our becoming can be informed by the love that reign in the universe. A beginning of a brand new day.

After the ceremony, I stand in the frigid wind releasing rose petal into the Arctic Ocean giving the thanks and gratitude for this moment, awake at the Top Of The World, full of universal wisdom and innocent playfulness. We toast with with Champagne and it does not get much better that this.

That night we celebrate with “American” style pizza and beer and take are ride out to the dark to search for the Northern Lights, again. We drive away form the city back up on the road to North Kapp. The bus comes to a stop. This time we are greeted by a toe curling display of the Lights, unless your are accustom to them, then the feeling does not quite reach so far, stopping in the thighs.

From the Western mountain tops to the Eastern horizon there is an arc of green. Other curtains of lights form and join with it. It is a grand display of heart opening energy in the sky. The stars shine in the sky and through the lights. We gather in front of the bus with the wind at our backs in awe and amazement. To have been a witness to such a show is absolute blessing. We stand in the wind and cold until the bus puts on the lights and signals us it time to return.

I fall asleep to the same dreams as before.

We start the return the next day and we meet with the Sami in Lavo for Reindeer Stew and Reindeer games. Our host had been a part of a Reindeer herding family since the retreat of the last Ice Age. This way of life is in her heart as shopping malls have infected the hearts of some Americans.

Now a days the Sami, use snowmobiles and ATVs to herd the reindeer. They live in houses during the winter and Lavos when with the herds. Her grandparents where the first of her line to live in a house.

The Sami being nomadic herders live many centuries in harmony with nature. Their motto, like the people who attend Burningman, was leave no trace. In fact they have a lot in common with Burners, from radical self reliance to colorful clothing. The problem with leaving not trace is when the “civilized” people appeared they could not prove that the land they had herded on for centuries was theirs because they did not leave a trace. Polluters get all the rights, in this twisted dream of the world. Now they leave tire prints from their ATVs in the tundra. Thank god for progress.

The Lavo is much like a Native American teepee with snow on the floor and covered with reindeer skins. There are three sacred places that in the Lavo, the the spot opposite the door where the Noraidc (Sami Shaman) did his work and the woman of the Lavo prepared meals, the fire in the center and the door to protect it.

We have two soups today. One of the traditional reindeer and on vegetarian. Our host called and ask for our delay on the road as this was the first time she had a a request to cook vegetarian. I try both soups. The reindeer are harvested in a sacred manner. Both soups were outstanding, served in the Lavo with coffee.

After dinner a ride a on reindeer sleigh. The reindeer are all named by their color and markings. There are about 250 names for reindeer using this system. I good header can look into a field of a 1000 and spot one missing and know where to go to find it. Reindeer are shy creatures. It take about four years to to get the reindeer comfortable to work with people. The Sami help this by finding the song of each reindeer and yoiking it to them. We have a selection of reindeer for our group. We bomb around a single track course on a single sleigh carried by a single reindeer. It’s da bomb. I would consider going back to work if Santa needs a reindeer test driver.

In the morning a fire ceremony. Here we are greeted by two rainbows in the sky as we burn our community prayer bundle and give thanks for the journey.

One final stop on our adventure, the Ice Hotel. The Ice Hotel is built each year on a frozen lake. It is a temporary art form that is given back to nature each spring. There is a changing area and bathrooms in a heated building, but the rooms are keep at -5 degrees C. The people that are staying there are given snowmobile suites and arctic sleeping bags to keep warm. We go to bar.

The drink is Absolute mixed with an array of mixers to come up with drinks like, Northern Lights and Fire and Ice. The glasses are made of ice. The music is the best of the 70’s and 80’s. The barroom is beautiful. We dance off the effect of a week long bus ride before dinner at the restaurant across the street. Tomorrow is the long ride home.

It is such a pleasure to spend a week with such men and women of power. People who can keep the feet on the ground, hearts wide open and pray in way without dogma. This adventure was opened a new portal in our lives and Sitting on the Top Of The World, at the crown chakra of Pachamama, as she is embraced by the Sun, has opened a new place in my heart.

Bear Medicine

2009-09-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

I tend to think of bears can be solitary animals, foraging the forrest looking for nourishment. However, in times of abundance they can join together in community and enjoy the wisdom of a salmon run. I am much like a bear, foraging for that what feeds me in the realms of the great spirit and my relations on our Mother Earth and last week I feasted on the collective wisdom of a salmon run of knowledge.

As summer turned into fall, I answered the call to join my community to vision and co-create the world we are evolving. From the vast reaches of the stars and galaxies to the place of oneness that we come from and return to I was reminded of the importance of keeping my house in order, finding the spaciousness within, healing my relationships in life, in order to source the wisdom to vision the beauty of our collective dream.

I see more and more of us are emerging. We are stepping forward and claiming the dream that resides in our hearts, rejecting the cynicism and isolation of modern world and opening to the magic of the possibilities of right now coming together and feeding the dreams that we can no longer ignore. Much like how this community fed our global fires this weekend and help awaken the wild heart within.

There is a special magic that I find by tending the fire at dream time and this year was no exception.

On the last night, I found myself around the fire in a community of salmon fed bears. We were all telling our stories and the lessons learnt from the powerful, yet gentle creature.

We sang a song to call bear, who “comes when called”. I was connected to powerful bear brothers and powerful bear sisters at the magic of these fires. Then I became a caretaker of some bear medicine with a bear brother from our generous bear sister.

Bear medicine, I have witnessed before. On a wilderness quest I was reminded before dusk on the first day of the power and strength of bear without the need to prove or engage. At first I thought, wow the deer are big here, but soon the bear appeared and as we looked at each other I sensed although I was on his path that he was happy to deviate rather than engage in an encounter would not nourish him. So he simply turned and went in a different direction. Brother bear has big strength without big ego.

On the first night, of the fire, at dreamtime we journeyed to another dimension, and I was connected into the rainbow river of light as if shifted and twisted without the constraints of time and space free to create whatever beauty that needed to manifest in the now. This world is now open for further exploration, to taste beyond infinity, one might say.

As a co creators, I am realize that it is my perceptions and and beliefs create my creations. Claiming this, that my world is a reflection of my own creations.

I was working to rediscover the person that I was born as. The one who entered this world with a purpose and gifts to share on his path. Now I realize, that I am this person, shedding the last layers of clothing that kept me from seeing the perfection among the mistakes that provided the lessons for this discovery. So I now claim this person as me. No more searching for that, that has always been.

My heart is now radiant. Time is speeding up. cooperation is taking hold, we are starting to listen to our evolutionary programs in our DNA and rejecting other programs that may prevent us from beauty we so long for. Our hearts are beginning to shine bright. We are accepting the connection and the oneness that we share and beginning to realize the possibilities in this.

It is a beautiful time to be here, to see the dream changing, to see the awaking. The power of our love is attracting many.

And like bear, I will, by the way I walk through my life, feeding off only that that provides nourishment and sharing the wisdom from brother salmon to bring forth my medicine with big strength without big ego.

Shift Happens*

2009-08-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

And then there was a shift! It happen all of a sudden and I knew that my plan had to shift as well...

Now that I had realized my dream vacation, it is to put my life’s purpose into action, to fulfill my end of the deal and share these visions, so others could see the happy places I visit frequently. My job is to play and play in a way that enriches the Earth while I live my life well. The time has come to write this book that is with me. I will realize this in the next six months. Then it will time to set up the playground I have been dreaming and become the CEO of play.

The last part of my journey was great, as I wandered around Florence, Rome, Athens and the Greek Isles of Mykonos and Santorini.

The food was great, and the wine, everyone should take pride in their house wine that way that Italians and Greeks do. Good food is a blessing, a connection to the land and one of life’s pleasures. We are what we eat and and once again, traveling, I ate like a king.

In Italy, I saw some amazing art, really spoke to me. At the Uffizi gallery in Florence there was a statue of Pan who offered his words of encouragement, “revel in the beauty of the Earth.” As if I need that reminder.

I envisioned these great pieces of sculpture interacting with nature, in a birch forrest, an oak grove or within a glen of wild flowers with the mountains for a back drop. The interaction of these human gifts of the heart with nature showing us that we do belong for this Earth, our talents enrich the world around us. The Vatican has the best collection of pre christian art in galleries that look like warehouses.

I felt an unwinding of empire happening as I walked the streets of Rome. Its goal served, the dark ages being necessary to usher in the millennium of gold that is approaching.

There is so much to see and feel, walking around in places, like Athens, where Socrates and Plato walked and debated. Both looking to define a noble philosophy of the world they occupied. How wonderful to go back to beginning of the roots of our civilization and feel what it’s willing to offer us as we sit at the steps of one age and a new age dawns.

The sunny beaches of the Greek Isle was a fitting end to this adventure. I am happy with nothing more than a towel, coconut oil and waking up and stumbling on to a beach and sunning by deep blue water, taking a swim and repeating all morning. Then enjoying a good lunch, taking a nap and going to some place surrounded by cool music and beautiful people to talk with. Revel in nature, fuck yeah!

My days on Santorini were spent on the ocean. One day on a Greek Galleon, sailing, drinking wine and watching the sun set and the other day in a Zodiac SCUBA diving in the crater that once was a giant volcano. This has to be one of my favorite place. It may be the biggest under water crater in the world, but it is a stunning with its red, white and black beaches cause by a volcano eruption that wiped out the Minoan civilization of crete and created this paradise.

And then it was time to return, different from how I started, change and recharged.

As I made my way back I was greeted by rain, a drizzle in Dublin and a good old New England downpour arriving in Boston. The rain cleanses, washes away what needs to be let go of. With this reminder I was brought back to the center and to manifest the life I have been envisioning and enjoying my beach bum ways while they lasted.

I now sit in San Francisco. Another dream manifested. Once, I decided to move to SF, I drove to where I wanted be, found a hotel on a Friday night, a cancellation and a vacancy sign at had just been lit for my arrival. The first place I looked at, the next morning, was right around the corner. I put a deposit down and was done. It was fast, quick, easy and met to be.

With some well defined goals to manifest, it is time to be that person that I have always been. Over the next six month, I will realize my spiritual, professional, physical, and social self. And find the place that I seek that has always been shining in my heart.

*as seen on a tee shirt at a Yoga Studio in San Francisco

The Voice Inside

2009-07-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

in the Labyrinth at Damanhur we are invited to meditate in front of windows that represent one of the 37 gods on display. The windows are stain-glass, coded with colors and symbols that activate something inside of me. We are chanting, and the chamber resonates with the sound of angles as we move from window to window.

I am struck by awe as some windows that seem to call me, Pan, Wakan Tanka, and others. While standing in front of some of them there is a whirlpool of of colors pulling me deeper and deeper into the window. The vortex of colors activated something in my DNA to assist with my spiritual evolution. At last I sit and meditate at the beginning of the hall where we entered and realize that Gaia is looking down the hall to me.

I am here for the Earth. Where some come from different places in the universe, I source from the Earth. She is my inspiration and the reason for my quest. How appropriate that she watches over me as I digest the messages that 37 gods have just downloaded in me.

Damanur is built on art, ceremony and a quest for knowledge. They have crated their myths that guide them through forty years of community. Open discussions that sometimes put people into different schools of thoughts, each searching for the truth, knowing the the truth changes with time and discovery. It is really beautiful, even if I can not fully get behind everything they have discovered in 30 years as presented in a 3 hour lecture.

The Damanurians have built a series of fantastic temples in that mountains. These are called the “Temples of Humankind”. The temples were built with with hand tools and volunteers wortking to carve out the temples, reenforce the space and decorating them with amazing art that touches my soul at the mythic. You can see then here: http://www.thetemples.org/.

The next day we go to the Sacred Forrest to meet the elementals and hear a concert performed by plants. Here I start to sense the elementals in the forest. There is one checking me out, reminding me to listen to the forrest and source from nature.

In the Sacred Forrest there is a tree house village. There is a small child that has live her whole life in a tree house. “How cool is that”! the tree climber in me saids. The beauty of the place in the summer with filter sun through the trees is stunning. The Damanhurians say people dream purer dreams in the trees.

They have developed machines that allow plants to play music. The plants are hooked up with a clip to a leaf and a stake by the roots and generate wave forms that are converted to music. We have a concert with a improvisation jazz singer and the plants. Mostly she follows the music of the plants, but sometimes a plant will follow her as it adjust to the vibrations we call sound. Now, I wonder what is the soundtrack that the insects and animals of the forrest play to.

While at Damanhur, I had the opportunity to meditate each morning in front of a statue of Pan. Pan for me is the wild masculine in nature the raw sexuality. We connect and he plays his flute over me. Who needs Viagra with Pan in his corner?

When I left Scotland, my trip was open to what ever that needed to happen. I took a train to Paris and met up with a friend, Aleksandra and spent a day visiting the sights. She introduced me to her favorite park and the tree of lovers. Two trees grown together and a bench with a young couple making out. It was a beautiful day, Paris in the spring time.

The next day I took a train to Spain. It took a couple of days to get from Paris to Santiago, Spain. Santiago that is the end of the road for people who go on pilgrimage. The cathedral I found dark and intimidating as I do most. While here I was thinking that this place was built to steal your light from the cosmos. When I visit with god it is in the forrest where our lights joins to shine over the world. But that is me.

I enjoyed Spain. From Santiago, Madrid, Ibiza and Barcelona all where great. In Madrid I attended a breath session with my friend Aixa. Here we breath for three hours. Like most breathing sessions I go to a happy place.

There a river with people floating down it and arriving at the river bank in front of me. They leave their canoes and a celebration forms on the bank. Its a party with food, music and dancing. From this party, I am transformed into light and shoot up into the world of light. Here I see the controls to switch on and off traits in my DNA. I choose health and optimism. Then, I notice that there is a collective DNA, a global DNA or the collective consciences, that can be changed as well.

After Spain I take the train to France and rent a car to visit the Cathar Castles.

Walking through the ruins of some of Cathar Castles, in France, I am struck as though I have been here before. The stones speak to me, “everyone has a value is worth a life’.

I sit by a familiar stone and listen.

“Our collective mind is what changes the world”. It reminds me.

All around people are beginning to change. More and more, realize that what is “real” does not seem to serve their higher purpose inside. This awakening is happening across the globe. We are being called to change our reality.

Back at Damanhur, I witness their full moon ceremony. The stage of fire for such an event. The Damanurians show up in their colored ropes, red, white and yellow. There are 12 oracles wearing blue. The ceremony builds with drumming and dancing. The fires burn, incense is added, the stage prepared. It is quite a ceremony to behold.

The community summits questions at least a month in advance to be answered at the full moon. The oracles channel the answer and read to the questioner behind a veil. This keeps it impersonal as the answers come from another source. But then, those are the answers, the ones inside, that I seek.

I leave refreshed to continue this journey.

Play and Magic

2009-06-07T02:05:00.000-07:00

I am sitting at restaurant in Edinburgh looking out the window and watching a young man run up and down a hill with a eighty pound punching bag across his shoulders, thinking of that wonderful feeling when the muscles are taunt and the heart in pounding in the chest from the strain of physical exercise and am glad that I no longer need to train for that kind of fight.

On the Isle of Skye, I am lying in bed as the walls start to fall away from the room and I a exposed to the night sky that is shining brightly with the stars. I am naked to the night sky when three portals of light appear.

To me these portals represent the three ways to go in life, there is the path of least resistance where your are like a leaf on a stream bobbing along to the strongest current until you’re sucked under or the path of most resistance where you stand strong in your ego like a boulder in the wind letting everything that does not stick to you, pass you by, or some in-between way as a boat on the river that makes the proper adjustments for a meaningful ride where you arrive at the place life has destined you to.

The path between ease and ego.

I am finding this path more and more in my life with gentle lessons and meaningful adjustments.

My experience week at Findhorn was full of play! That was our group angel, “PLAY”. A continuation of the Irish adventure, where the Earth called out to honor her with play.

And I have been playing sense leaving the fire vigil.

My last day in Ireland, John and Karen took me to the faery tree where the rights of faeries where first transmitted. We honored the tree with oats and blessings. John then introduced me to “Irish Manhood” with a introduction to the game of hurling.

Hurling is a team game played with hurly, sticks of the root of the ash tree and a silotar, a leather ball. It is the fastest team sport played. Once John Wayne, at a hurling match, was asked if you would like to be down there with a hurly, to which he replied “I wouldn’t want to be down there without one”. Or so legend has it. Much more practice is required before I hit the pitch.

After, we went to the “grave digger” for a Guiness. This pub is the wall of a graveyard and would serve a beer to the grave diggers out the back door. The pipes have never been cleaned with soap, only hot water. The Guiness is as pure as you find anywhere in the world and the wall are steeped in sweat, smoke and stories of the people that frequented this pub for centuries.

Here, I was discovered the art of Brewination, where you blowing a question into your brew and reading the foam to predict the future. This only works with a proper Guiness.

So what does the future have in store for my current journey? My journey will many layers and a rich and creamy ending.

Sweet!

In Glastonbury, somewhere between the Chalice Well and the Tor the sacred masculine and feminine are dancing with me as I meditate. This is the male/female union that the Earth loves. A place for mediation at this place of balance.

Standing by a fountain that flow in the garden of the Chalice Well I am taken by a feeling of love and bliss. The feeling comes in from behind and wraps around my hearth in a way that is both healing and affirming. Nearby grows a Hawthorn Tree said to be taken from the thorn crown that Jesus wore, but I know it as the tree that holds the Faeries that just paid me a visit.

I also, manage to find the Gog and Magog trees. These trees are last two of a road of trees that the druids gathered before their processions. One tree is hanging on to a small branch of life and the other is still flourishing.

Glastonbury is a spot where poetry flows through me. I am taken over often with prose that spring forth into my head. I am reminded:

When the heavens

open

and you are standing there

naked and free

your love shining

in the dew

left by a soft rain

and

spirit is flowing

all around

miss not the moment

looking for

the message

Later, I meet with Sara and we talk about the Fire Vigil in Ireland. We agree that something big happen there as if, the entire group, has shifted up to another level. Sara invites me to a ceremony on Sunday, but it not meant to be as the buses do not cooperate.

Off to London and there I meet up some old mates. One is Paul, who I haven’t seen since Peru. We have have a nice stroll through High Park in the afternoon and night of Doom at his local pub. This night, the company, the ale and the food are too good not to indulge. So we do. It is an incredible good time.

Next up is my Experience Week at Findhorn. Findhorn is a place built on magic. Can you imagine growing 42 pound cabbages in the sand? Now imagine eating 42 pounds of cabbage with five other people while living in a small caravan, camper. It is magical that the caravan staid on the ground and did not fly away to the stars.

Today there are no longer 42 pound cabbages and the eco-village built next to the park has homes that rivals California in cost and square footage, There is, however, still the possibility for magic and that is why people come to Findhorn to live, work and play.

Somehow they have design a week that is an introduction to Findhorn and seems to be just right for anyone where ever they are on their path. We attune, play games, work and interact with nature in a way that we all discover something about Findhorn and ourselves. In a week, I feel to have eleven more bothers and sisters, which my personal angel of Brotherhood/Sisterhood seems to confirm.

I am re-introduce to the Pan spirit, the wild masculine, that was also part of Findhorn. Most know that Eileen listened to the inner voice and Dorothy listen to the Garden Divas and some know that Peter was the believer and organizer acted on the magic and built Findhorn, but I did not know about ROC and his introduction to Pan until touring Findhorn when I am overtaken again with bliss on the spot of ROC’s trailer.

I investigate more and it seems that another character in this saga is ROC who one day he saw a little satyr in a park in Edinburgh. The creature was surprised that he saw him since most humans choose not see these creatures. This meeting led to a meeting with Pan, who at one point walked into him and let him experience nature though his eyes.

With this knowledge, I decide to focus on meeting the spirits. We go to the Findhorn River one day and I sit by a tree in the rain. After a while, I feel the presence of another spirit, but can not see it. We have a telepathic conversations where I am told that I will see when I am ready. Am I delusional? Who knows, but I am tardy and nearly miss the bus going back to the college.

The next day at the morning mediation, I try to go to my quiet place but there are faeries on both sides of a wooded path leading me to a different place. A clearing in the forrest. There is a rock and I sit down. There is magic all around as I watch the woodland spirits play. I am encouraged by the spirits to believe the magic and follow through on my visions. I shape-shift into a sea bird and fly over the shore. It glistens in the sun as the waves gently roll upon the shore. As I return, I see Pan. He has a message for me. Then I notice my breathing as I return to the reality that is Findhorn the gong is sounded and it is time to go to work.

I leave Findhorn with Gabrielle and Celia. We give Celia a ride to Erraid, a little island off the west coast of Scotland. We drive through the rain to reach the sunshine of the island. After four days of rain on the island the sun greets us. Erraid is small community of nine adults, two children, three cats and seven cows and a bunch of sheep. It is peaceful and nice to unwind here and I wake up to the sounds of getting the cows to the dairy for the morning milking. “Come on Jennie, that a girl”.

A couple of days on Erraid and then Gabrielle and I go on a seven day adventure to the Isle of Skye and the North Coast of Scotland. Where we drive, there is pretty much a postcard at each turn.

We explore this part of Scotland, hiking each day and finding interesting place to spend the night. We go without plan open to the journey and what it has to offer. Most times we arrive a place for the sun to greet us as we begin a hike. The magic follow us as we play, finding great restaurants and places to stay, like at Ocean’s where the walls fall away as I sleep. Our last night, together is spent in Jail. Well, an old police station converted into B&B. We sleep where the two jail cells use to be.

The next day I was freed from the jail and another layer of myself, that I brought to Findhorn,

The Gog and the Magog Trees

2009-05-09T01:52:00.000-07:00

Under a tree

older than belief

Clinging to life

by a branch

a chance

to grow

to learn

to be

born again

a new

in the dirt

from which

we crawled

to see

the light

that lifted

us here

to hear

the song

of the spheres

as they sing

to lead us

back to

the dirt

from which

we crawled

Sacred Ireland

2009-05-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Shooting up in a beam of light, I see three circles of light go out into the the world as I ascend. I go through to sky to the tree of life, where I land on the top of the tree and realize that all the leaves are different and separated for from one another, as we modern humans seem to be. I descend the tree and where the branches meet we are all one again, deep inside the tree of life. There is great wisdom by going in and accessing this unity, we all hold within.

A beam of light engulfs me and I am off again flying to the middle world where I come to pristine field. Here I see the sacred masculine and the divine feminine join in a long kiss. As they kiss and kiss and kiss, an infinity sign of energy forms, crossing at their hearts and ending at their crown and root chakras.

In this land watching this union is the lion and lamb lying side by side as male and female, strength and tenderness join as one.

This was a global vision received next to an altar that I had early visioned as the sacred meeting place where the union of the male and female energies came together to honor the earth. The next day I was in the pristine field of Uisneach, a sacred site in the exact center of Ireland, where the divine energies meet we held a Beltraine ceremony with a masculine and feminine fire that we walk through to celebrate this union that is brought forth by the spring.

It is amazing to me how this journey has evolved from a personal healing journey into a global one, where I now journey for the collective. The pieces have fell into place and the work that I am doing continues to put me in the places that I need to be in at the time I need to be there.

This is the first international fire vigil and when I heard that it was in Ireland I knew that I would be there for I have a special love with the land, and the people who I have the pleasure to meet and hold ceremony with. As usual I was not disappointed.

We opened our ceremony with a journey in the cairne at Dunderry Park. It was a home coming for I had received the ninth right of the Munay Ki, for the first time in this very caire. I can still remember the feeling of rebirth as I emerged and saw the stars for the first time as a child of light.

In this cairne and journeyed and I was very clearly aware of the head of an eagle and a enchanted village, my journey, envisioning the how we my thrive in connection with the earth. We emerged this night and I felt home, again.

The next day we headed to Tara to visit the sacred well, the faery tree, Lia Fa’il, Stone of Destiny, and the si’le na gig, the stone of the divine feminine. After a quick tour we gathered at the Faery Tree and ran around the tree dancing and laughing as we fed and connected with the faeries of the land.

Under the Faery tree, we journeyed in threes. My journey took me up the tree of life and journeyed over an altar that was in the earth in a series three of squares that was meant to be covered. This altar was for the sacred union of the divine feminine and masculine in honor and celebration of the Earth.

After the journey, I worked back and had ceremony with the Stone of Destiny to work for my destiny in this life. This was done by connecting with the stone at the heart and walking around it with eyes shut three times. This was the stone that where the Kings of Ireland where crowned.

After, I mediated on top of a cairne that held the ashes of the some of the ancient inhabits of this land. Next up, was the stone of the divine feminine to connect with her energy as this union is vital for the healing of the Earth.

Cleansed and refreshed we returned for a keening ceremony that night.

I first heard of keening at a family funeral, my father joked that he wanted to have an “Irish Wailer” at his funeral. Traditionally, there we three woman in long black veils, who would mourn for the deceased so the family could celebrate their life. The keeners would gather in a corner to cry and wail as the family celebrated by having the decease favorite foods and drinks and I am guessing, if it was a good looking corpse, that this include lots of fried foods and whiskey.

As we enter the cairne I was without anything to mourn about. My tears have all been shed. Once in the carine it occurred to me that I could mourn for the state of the Earth. This came as an energetic release that felt like a weight off my shoulders. I have read that despair work is important to be able to open up to the healing of the Earth. Without the despair work it is too overwhelming and many can not accept the consequence of their actions and their effect on the Earth.

After keening the mood was way too somber for me and we ending up forming a drum circle and finding bliss and joy in the process beating the shit out of the available drums. The grieving was completed.

The next day we went to Loughcrew, Sliabh na Cailli, to connect with the wild feminine. Yeah! She was happy to see us, the weather was wonderful and the site was inviting. We had been warned that it could be extremely wicked on the hill, but we where held sweetly. My feeling is was one of play in engaging her. The old girl still like as good night out with dancing and a good “rumpy bumpy” at the end of the night.

We returned to find two big piles of wood on the place of where the sacred fire was to be that next day. As we talked about the day it was announced that we would be able for fire walk that evening. Well, the shit eating grin spread across my face at this surprise. I had said once that if I ever got the chance to walk fire I would have to go first to have the full effect. Once I saw someone else do it then it would not be the same to me. I was both excited and nervous as we prepared.

We prepared ourselves with breath work, ecstatic dance and drumming, working ourselves into a state of ecstasy. When the time came I was first in line and set my intent to walk to live to my higher purpose in spite of myself and I was off. What a feeling of rebirth after walking fire.

Then came the fire vigil.

We switched altar, made the map and prepared the fire. The spark was lit by our Irish hosts, Karen and John and carried out by representatives of the four directions, Canada, Iceland, Africa and Ireland. We marched to the fire and it was off.

That night we received the faery rites. This was “so fucking awesome”. These rites we devised by the si’ folk of Ireland and presented to us by the side of the faery lake. We painted our faces and once the rites where received, we played and danced and danced and played. Play is such a powerful way to heal the Earth. Our laughter and smiles energize the Earth. And playing connects us to the Earth. We ended the night with stories, songs and jokes around the fire.

With the luck of good fortune and good friends, I ended up getting my preferred spot at the fire, 2 to 4 AM. For me this is dream time, it time of the faery folk and the best time to be holding a vigil. My fire mate, Lisa, David, who we were to hand the fire to and I, armed with a bottle of whiskey headed to the fire. We offered our prayer, whiskey, tobacco and incense to the fire and got it burn with the intensity in which we held our love for the earth. Our fire burned bright. It was here I saw my first faery. The ball of light appeared and hovered around to to check us out and was gone. But, not without a little mischief that involved a gazebo and an electric fence. That, however, is another story.

Saturday we mostly gather by the fire. It burned differently with each pair of fire tenders, some sweet, others intense and all with honor. At night we went on a journey on boat ride to the three worlds. In each realm, I received gifts for the collective. Mine were a golden book to answer any question, a lamp to light any darkness and a golden guitar and book of poems.

More fun around the fire and then some sleep. Around 10 in the morning we stopped feeding the fire and let it expire a natural death. Our work completed.

The next morning we got up and when on our road trip to Ireland sacred sites. We visited Carrowkeel where three cairnes remained and open to the public. Here the theme of play was strong. For this was a trip to play and recapture my youthful sense of life as I embrace my sage self.

The next day we went to Carrowmore and here I shot up into a beam of light.

Beyond Infinity Bob Blog - March 2009

2009-04-02T13:35:00.001-07:00

The best summer I had was a winter in Baja California Sur, Mexico. If Mark Twain did not say this he had not been to Baja in the winter.

It was nice to spend almost three months in Baja, doing a lot of mediation and centering exercises, living sustainable and connecting with nature in a way that left me operating in the presence from my place of balance and stillness. It is a place of power, vision and deeper wisdom.

The confirmation of this was that I was invited to spend a week retreat learning about Sacred and Sustainable Wisdom, from one of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, Flordemayo.

One night, I am cooking dinner by an open fire when, Kitzia, a seed saver, poet and teacher of Earth wisdom, comes walking into our camp. This night, we where to have a sacred fire and she decides to stay and participate. And by the end of our ceremony, I am invited to meet with one of the Grandmothers.

An opportunity too reaffirming to pass up.

It turns out that Buena Fortuna, a diversity and seed bank, which grows dry tropical and wet tropical specimens of rare edible and medical plants needs some support. It is currently a place in transition from the work of one family to a seed genealogy and training center and could use some help with this transition and with a community pump that has died.

If anyone is interested in helping Buena Fortuna let me know and I pass it on.

It is necessary to grow and propagate seeds so the can evolve with the Earth. Seed banks that stick them away, in the ice, for hundreds of years run the risk of having seeds that will not be able to thrive in the conditions, that exist, when they are brought forth.

This work is important for diversity in the biosphere and more so now because, there is a law. going through the US congress (to protect us from receiving products, in the supermarket, with infectious diseases) that will outlaw family gardens and organic farming if passed in it’s current form.

It is time to protect the diversity left in our environment.

This is one of the reasons why Flordemayo came to participate a week long Sacred and Sustainable Wisdom Retreat in Baja.

Flordemayo is a seer and the Mayan Grandmother. She believes in prayer and action, keeping things simple in life and having a plan B to keep moving forward in life. The first thing that struck me about her was her grace. The next thing was the Bronx accent.

Flordemayo is like any grandmother, very practical and nurturing. The first night of ceremony she cleansed us with a bath of sacred herbs and taught us to nurture ourselves with a lullaby that her mother hummed to her. It was very relaxing and after the fire sleep was deep that night.

The Retreat was such where we shared ceremony, pray, lived and worked in community together. We stared each day in a circle giving gratitude for the day. We would eat a local and organic breakfast then have a group class at 10 am followed by lunch and a afternoon class at 3 PM, dinner and a nightly fire.

It was an honor to be able to participate and guide some ceremonies. In one we created a medicine wheel by going on a guided journey in groups of three and finding the medicine of our direction for a spirit guide before we knew the direction. We then pulled the direction and created our quadrant based on our vision as opposed to our knowledge of the direction.

The second night Flordemayo gave us some oil on our third eye to help us dream. That night the spirit of the Earth Mother came to me and wrapped me in a red cloth as a spirit of the garden sang to me and all at once the day broke in birdsong. A little later there was a modern lady surveying land for development while telling me her plans. Without words I place my head to hers and transmitted the wisdom of the Earth Mother to her and watch as she connected to the land and change her vision.

The next evening a Lakota woman showed up to our place to sing songs of prayer. She does not call herself a medicine woman, however she is blessed with prayer songs that to share with the world. As she said it was no accident that we where there that night in ceremony.

That night, I dreamt of an embrace with the high priestess inside of me. This was a sacred honoring of the divine feminine. As I held this dream in the pure light of ceremony and spirit the high priest, the divine masculine, came forth in me. It was as if the union of the divine inside of me started a chain for events where I now realize that all I do is sacred and my gifts are necessary and vital to bring forth in to the world.

There is now a path and a vision of a network of sustainable communities that encourage connection, learning and enhancing our world around us. A vision that will grow, refine and be brought forth soon.

We had many adventure. We visited a place with a waterfall at a sustainable farm and enjoyed many a meal, song and story together. We worked together to help bring forth a plan to help Buena Fortuna evolve into what it is becoming.

We had a breathing meditation were I got a vision for the place and share it with the community. It was quite an incredible week.

For the closing ceremony, I had the honor to bring forth a despacio ceremony. We create a prayer bundle using items collected from the garden and blew our prayers for Buena Fortuna and the world into this bundle.

During the cleansing with the despacio, Christine had her baby, Maddy on her back. As I cleansed Christine, I also got Maddy and touch the despacio to her third eye. After the ceremony, Maddy was looking at me very intently. She had notice me during the week,but never looked at me like this before.

As I was talking to her mother, I asked if she had ever connected to Maddy telepathically before. Christine said she had not and I looked over at Maddy with her big eyes and immediate connected to her and heard her voice in my head as I repeated to words to her mother.

“We did It, Bob. We turned the world around in my generation”!

Beyond Infinity Bob Blog - Feb 2009

2009-02-23T12:26:00.000-08:00

Things I like about living in Nature:

The vibration of food cooked on a wood fire.

The color of corn sprouts in the setting sun.

Sleeping close to Pachamama.

Camp fires every night.

Sacred fires once per week.

Passing on the Munay Ki.

Picking salad from the ground.

Eating fruit from trees.

Natural Spring Hot Tub baths.

Conversation with othe conscience beings in the hot springs under the Milkey Way.

The darkness of the New Moon.

The shadows of the Full Moon.

Hawks and Vultures flying together in the sky.

Ravens and Hawks playing together.

Physical work.

Walking bare foot.

Learning to be foot sensitive to the things on the ground.

Naked sun bathing.

Sun rise and sun sets.

Moon cycles.

Drinking water from the river.

Hiking up the canyon.

Becoming part of the landscape with the wild animals.

Sunning lizzards.

Flying Bats.

Cardinals.

Snakes.

Frogs.

Roadrunners.

Foxes.

Rabbits.

Hummingbirds.

Moles that stay out of the garden and the one that eats our onions.

Garden Spirits.

Birds with a message for me.

Sand Paintings.

Transformation.

Sleeping good at night.

2009-01-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

This jouney has taken me to Baja Sur in Mexico and a small town call El Chorro, the squirt. Named for the either the local hot spring or the local taco stand. It is a chaming place with cows and gringos roaming free.

I am staying at Kina Freedom Retreats, kinafreedom.com, helping on a sustainable, offgrid, retreat center. We have planted a garden and are watching the seedling sprout through the soil to grow and feed us. I was visited by a garden Angel who came to me as dove to remind me to feed the garden with love. Everyday I am being educated on the workings of a sustanable life.

Our days begin with a mediation and end with hot spring. We cook on an open fire and I did my first batch of hand laundry in a five gallon bucket. It is great to spend most days commpletly immersed in nature, eating local produce and enjoying the local community.

The work continues with dreams and shifitng. The other day the dark masculine came to me to play in dreamtime. In the morning I knew it had to be honored which I did in a sand painting and felt something shift.

I like it here and am resonating with land.

Meeting the Future

2008-12-08T08:46:00.000-08:00

In a dream time circle where we met our future generations, 100, years into the future. I was asked by my great, great, great, grandchild, what did I do to help turn the tide when the Earth was on the brink of destruction. The answer below is what flowed.

I dreamt of you. You where my inspiration. Seeing you in a the world that you were thriving in, with the balance of the mind and the heart, technology and nature and with the realization that all are one, related, made me realize that the change was easy.

I stopped colluding with the assumptions that change had to be traumatic. I knew that this as not going to be a revolution, but rather an evolution of the human heart and mind. Others shared this vision and we found each other. Together, we knew that our dreams would change the tide so all could enjoy the world we dreamed for you. Our hearts opened, we saw technology as a friend that could help the Earth. As the systems failed we were here with our love and vision to help other use their talents to change the world so our grandchildren would survive and our great grandchildren would thrive.

Beyond Infinity Bob Blog - October

2008-10-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

There is a loud crash and I see trees are falling into the crevice below. I see their roots are they topple down. As I look around for the cause I realize that I am a tree that is growing larger and as I grow I am pushing other trees off the cliff. As more trees fall, I get closer and closer to the edge and I am in danger of toppling in to the darkness below.

I awake.

There is the archetypical image of the clown, a the holy fool, or the idiot, that dances on this edge. This person has the beginner mind and is ready for a journey, a change, and to fall if necessary. There exist the danger of falling, of failure, but with each failure, there exist the chance for redemption and rebirth.

I have spent too much of my time living in the safety of the dark forrest.

My whole life, I have fought for independence. I made on my own, denying and rejecting help. To my friends and family that you have stayed with me, you are truly generous for putting up with me in spite of the asshole I am and was.

And now, I realize that I was hiding from the rest of the forrest by growing into tree as I pushed other trees out of my way.

But now, I am at the edge, ready to leap.

It is an exciting time to making a move. It is also, a scary time because I need to leave the comfort of the forrest that has hidden me for so long and expose myself with all my faults to universe.

I am jumping off the edge and risking failure. I know that I can no longer make it all alone in this world. The support of the tribe is necessary in every way to how this story will turn out. The love and support, I give and receive, no matter how small it seems, will feed this and keep us going. As our ego accepts its death then our evolution to communal beings can be realized. Instead of being one tree, I hope to grow with the new forrest of that is interconnected.
 So it is now time for me to step up and learn become interdependent with the community around me. To open and receive all this life has to offer. No more hiding.

There is a big rock that I climb up on with at least ten others. On this rock we are all one, teachers and students with our different perspectives, beliefs and visions. As we learn from each other our burdens are lighten, our mistaken beliefs discarded and our love expanded. We begin to dream and the rock rises into the air like some spaceship hovering over the earth. United together in vision, we can truly move mountains.

I awake with renewed hope.

Global Fire Vigil Weekend - The Pachamama Stick

2008-09-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

During the fire vigil we kept a Pachamama stick close to the fire to honor and blow are prayers for the Earth into. During the closing ceremony, the stick was place into the fire by two expectant mothers.

What a privilege to have this energy of motherhood here and what an honor for us to have them to remind us that how important our thoughts, actions and deeds are to those who will inherit the Earth from us.

In Gratitude,

Bob

Global Fire Vigil Weekend - Work in Joy

2008-09-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Let the joyous work begin!

The Q'ero remind us that we that this work should come from joy. After a week of laughing, hugging joking, and loving with the Q'ero this seems to be in my heart, too. What amazing medicine men, how they hold their love of all with such humility. They can laugh and joke with one another and still hold space where we can contribute to the healing of the world. It is such a honor to be apart of this.

As Don Francisco said, " I am here to help grow large trees"!

Our light shining together is the forest.

With love to all,

Bob

Global Fire Vigil Weekend - Saturday update

2008-09-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

The fire burns!

Today we had a sacred drama for the healing of the world and brought to the fire our lessons to go out into the world. We also had a conversation with our future generation, seven generations into the future. There was much hope and love in this connection. We also brought these gifts to the fire to share with you all.

Tonight, we prepare to receive the Taitanchi Ranti, Creator Rites, from the Q'ero and to be taken on a Wonder Voyage in a happy ship of fools to the other lands by our Irish delagation. Wish us luck on our journeys.

We hope that all is well with your fires and we send our love and blessings.

Con Munay,

Bob

Global Fire Vigil Weekend - update

2008-09-19T12:15:00.005-07:00

After the creation of a medicine wheel and bringing in each of the the four directions at the mythic level, we lit a candle from each of the four directions and brought it to the fire pit. Don Francisco and Don Humberto lit our fire and it took off. Ashes were added from connecting the fire from sacred fires from all over the world. We added a Pachamama stick to the fire and sang songs, people played instruments and we created a happy fire. There was much joy around the fire as we received the Mosek Karpi, Star Keeper rites. One by one our numbers dwindled until the three fire keepers where holding vigil. A beautiful end to a beautiful day here at our vigil.

Con Munay,

Global Fire Vigil Weekend

2008-09-19T12:15:00.003-07:00

Dear Friends, old and new,

What an incredible week here at Wakewood leading up to the Global Fire Vigil.

We have just finished three days or ceremony with the Q’ero. Don Francisco and Don Humberto are here with Wake and Kinlen in ceremony as we hold space and continue our sacred work in this community.

We have had folks here representing four continents, North America, South America, Australia and Ireland, err, I mean Europe.

We have had claimed our light at a fire ceremony and enriched our community by recognizing the gifts of this world that we are stewards of.

We have received the Pampa Mesayok, Day Keeper, Alto Mesayok, Wisdom Keeper and Kurak Akuyek, Earth Keeper rites.

We have connected our Apus, mountians, with all the mountains of our community and were cheered on by whales as we did.

We created a dispacio to carry the seeds of our becoming beyond the world to the universe. And watched it burn as we told the story of the world.

We have created a world mandala to to shine our light, our love and our being into the world, as a despacio and saw the Mamachoca, ocean, come and accept our prayers to carry forward.

Last night we enjoyed a performance of didjeridu by Tyler Spencer who made an incredible contemporary sound with an ancient instrument.

And we are still hours away from lighting the fire.

Exciting times!

I will be live blogging during the weekend to keep our community posted. We have set up the Beyond Infinity Bob blog that will allow you all to reach it and comment on your experiences.

Below is a description of the event. Please join us if you can.

Peace, love and light,

Bob

The Gathering of Shaman:
Global Vigil Fire
Co-created by Wake and Kinlen Wheeler, and the Global Ayllu of trained Shaman, including Don Francisco, and Don Humberto of the Q’eros.

September 19-21, 2008

This fall, over the Equinox weekend, we will be joining together again to continue to weave the New Global Tapestry. We will bring together all our hearts desires and visions of what the world can be. We will join each other in the fire and offer this weaving of visionary threads out to the Universe to conspire and co-create with us. Last year we had over 50 fires connected in this beautiful dream. Many of us feel this is the work we were born to do.

Logistics:
The Vigil Fire will begin Friday around 8 pm, Pacific Time and be tended by shaman, and dreamed through until Sunday at noon Pacific Time.
You may participate in any form you wish. Some people gather together in small groups, others prefer to dream in personal meditation. Some have a large bon fire, others a small fire, others create an alter with candles. Some use sacred drama to help shift or miqui heavy energy for the collective, some play music, dance, sing, etc… This is your opportunity to create a gift for the world and send it out in your own unique way.

What we have noticed in doing world work:
Wake and I have found, as with most shamanic work, that it is important to work through our selves, and be careful not to project on to the earth. It is important that if we feel the earth has been damaged, that we look for that damage within and use our shamanic tools to work with it there.

We have also found that if you have done much of your personal work, you have already contributed to the cleansing of energy in the world. It is now time to plant new seeds, nurture them, and dream big. All gardens have little weeds, but if we use our time always weeding, we have just barren ground. We need to spend most of our time planting and tending the seeds of our vision.

World Map we have a big world map showing all the participants names/locations. We will share our experience through e-mail. If you intend to join this vigil fire, please e-mail your name, location and comments to me, so you can be included on the Map, and in the e-mail communications.
HYPERLINK "mailto:kinlen@sacredpathways.us" kinlen@sacredpathways.us.

We’ll see you in the fire,

Much love and Blessings,
Kinlen and Wake

Pachatusan: The Axis of the Universe

2008-09-19T12:15:00.002-07:00

After the Amazon, a long boat ride and a longer wait in the airport where we had time to say goodbye to those who were leaving us, we had a short flight to Cusco. After landing From Cusco, it was a hour and a half bus ride to the Sacred Valley we back in a nice hotel with hot running water. Yeah!

Most of us rested, ate a big lunch, and found someone around the hotel to wash our much soiled clothes from the jungle. And of course shop.

In the night we had opening ceremony and welcomed new friends to the journey. The next day was a warm up hike to Pisaq and a despacio ceremony with the Q’ero. At the end of the ceremony we received the Earth Keeper Rites passed on by the Q’ero.

We started our ascent to our base camp on Pachatusan at a ranch above the Temple of the Waters are Tipon. Last year, on my birthday, I was baptized, naked, in a fountain at Tipon after receiving the healers rites, which were our last rites of the trip, but, the first rites of the Munay Ki, to remind us that the trip was over but the journey was beginning,

That night, a year ago, I received a healing with Don Martin, the ceremonial leader of Pachatusan, who “aligned me with spirit”. I returned from that trip, quit my job and here I am back to mountain where it all began.

On this hike we would not be bathing for four more days. The hike was a leisurely climb up hill to the base camp at 12,000 feet above sea level. It took about three or four hours to make it to base camp. Here we sat up tents and rested the afternoon away.

In the afternoon, Don Martin and his daughter, Vilma, arrived. At dusk we started a ceremony with them and the Q’ero. This ceremony was to open our hearts. We started with despacio, and then were opened by Don Martin, cleansed with condor feathers by Vilma, and blessed by Dona Bernadina. As the ceremony ended, the full moon rose over the mountain on queue. The medicine people started to play their instruments, drums and flutes, we all started dancing and hugging. This was our first day on Pachatusan with open hearts and full of love for the adventure ahead.

The next day, we took a short walk to a lagoon about a kilometer from base camp. Here we head ceremony for the lagoon to be able to step through the lagoon and taste infinity. At this ceremony, we did a despacio, had our altars blessed and received the Star Rites. It was a beautiful ceremony as Don Martin and Don Pascal put offerings on a rock altar in the center of the lagoon.

I was not feeling well. I had gotten a sinus infection somewhere between the heat of the jungle and the cool of the mountain. Also, having not been traveling for awhile, my herbs to treat it where in the medicine cabinet at home. When the ceremony broke, I decided to make a beeline to camp and rest.

Upon arriving, I put my mattress pad on the ground outside the tent and tried to sleep. Here I was mothered, by Sara, who brought me soup, tee and healing herbs. Christine and Paul also came through with some Emergen C. It was a little hard for me to not reject their help, but I managed to receive and promised to pay forward. I learned to be grateful to receive such good care.

That night I had a despacio with Don Pascal. He had me spit into some herbs that he placed in the despacio. This was different for the the ayni despacios that are normally done. I was still feeling pretty bad as he built it up. I placed prayers in it for my mother up coming surgery as well as for my continued good fortune. After the despacio was finished Don Pascal kept it wrapped up and did not give it to me to burn as was the custom.

Later at the fire ceremony, he placed it on the fire last. The next day I felt much better and was able to climb to 14,000 feet for ceremony.

We were going up to a lagoon at 14,000 feet. In the morning I loaded up on the coca tea. I was feeling better, but still not my frisky self. Once we started to climb though, I was at peace and knew that I would make it.

Some of us remain in camp to have ceremony there, some went to the half way point and returned to join with the camp ceremony and the rest went to the lagoon to receive the Creator Rites and the blessings by Don Matin and Don Pascal.

The spot was beautiful, a little crater of valley off the peak of Pachatusan. There was a lagoon with a piece of blue plastic tarp that had blown into the center of it. It seems that there is plastic everywhere you go these days. If we considered the clean up cost into the price of plastic or we would use it very sparsely and in things that are meant to last forever.

As we ate our lunch the medicine people went around and collected rocks to keep our altars. Some rested, some took photos and some did Chi Gong while we waited for ceremony. There was music from the Medicine people and, as away, Don Basillio was looking to dance. It was beautiful day, bright sun and warm conditions.

The medicine people set up a circle with flowers and we put out altars together in this circle. There in the middle was incense and we started the despacio. Later we removed our altars from the circle to receive our rites and blessings. Don Martin looked at me and I went first. Some would say the guinea pig, which some raise under their beds for food in Peru.

I received both the rite and the blessing in the circle. Later, they made two lines to speed things up. I was told that one I was receiving one on the rites, over the incense that a flame shot up between my legs and Don Martin put it out. Maybe, it was my message from the universe lighting a candle under my ass and get moving.

After the ceremony we washed the stones in our altars in the lagoon to give them a cleansing. There was dancing, it was Dree’s birthday and she enjoyed many dances with two young medicine men as the music played on.

There was a group that took an offering to the top of the mountain. The rest, we hiked back down the mountain where we were all greeted by those who staid below with hugs and smiles. We had a great lunch of fish and rice and rested.

In the evening some of the villager came by for an allotment of rice, beans and cooking oil. They were all smiles and we all felt good.

That night, I got up to pee. As I was standing looking at the spot where the lagoon was I saw a shooting star. This star was brighter that all the others I has seen and it was if a ball of bright, white, light flew from the lagoon and into space. I was lucky to witness it. Later, I got back into my sleeping bag and dreamed that the spirit of the mountain came to me and gave me additional rites. I could feel the my body being moved as this dream was taking place. It was as real to me as the rites I had received previous my “real” people. I am still working through this download.

The next day, some of us, were doing a long walk from camp. It was maybe a 8 mile walk with a 3000 foot vertical at the end. But we would see heart shaped lagoons and have ceremony among them.

We were told to get a stone and blow in all our limiting beliefs into it. At first, I grab a big stone to hold all my such beliefs. I was showing people the big stone to hold all my shit and Alberto said that should be the first belief to let go of - I need a big stone. He was right. All the work I have done over the last couple years, the changes I have made and I still act like that fuck up kid from high school sometimes. Enough of that, I am really quite OK, thank you very much for the opportunities to improve. I got a smaller stone.

This was day of the winter solstice and when the sun rose over Pachatusan, we standing in between the conversation of the sun and the moon. Tammy, Gina and Sara and I just kind of stood there taking in all the love the sun and the moon where sharing. It was very cool to be at the axis of the universe while this conversation was happening.

The time came and us hikers headed off into the moon, we headed west . The walk was good. It is somehow cleansing to walk in the mountains. As I walked, many useless thoughts bubbled up and they were blow into the stone. We also used the stone to cleanse parts of the body that needed repair.

On the way I saw the eye from my Ayahuasca journeys in the form of a stone circle. It kind of blew me away that this theme keeps appearing in my journeys. However, there was a strong connection to this mountain, from last years ceremony on my birthday, having to be there his trip, to receiving rites from the mountain to seeing a strong symbol in my Ayahuasca journeys it all made me realist that there is something here for me to take into my life.

Our first stop was a rock outcropping where it was suppose to bring fertility if you touch it. Thinking that condoms are cheaper that fertility treatment, I gave it try. After a short rest and some photos we walked on. Finally, we came to a heart shape lake. Moving a little further we came to a semi heart shaped like where we would have a quick ceremony. First Don Martin and Don Pascal cleared the lake of the cows that were enjoying a drink there. Then the prepared the space as we ate lunch and rested.

It was a quick ceremony for we still had much to walk. We took our limiting belief stone and a cup of red wine. First we throw the wine into the lake and then the stone. The we made an offering of coca leaves and flowers to place in the lake. We then got blessed by Don Martin and Don Basillio.  
With the ceremony over it was time to hit the road again. We walked a little further to come to a site on top of the world. There way down in the valley was a red, roofed church that was our destination. There were three or more crosses that pilgrims from the church would walk up to place blessings. I made a blessing for my mothers up coming surgery and placed it under a stone.

On the way down the trail was littered with plastic bottles and cigarette butts. I thought that after plastic is controlled we will have to organize litter travel trips where people go to all over remote sites in the world to pick up the plastic that is everywhere. We could melt it all down and find purpose for it worthy of a thousand years.

We walked and walked and walked down hill until our toes we screaming to be let out of our shoes. Or at least that was how it was for me. Finally, we made it to the church at the bottom to wait for the bus. There at the church in the back there was a little window with a waca. A waca is a intense energy that is somethings place on things to bring them in alignment with the world. This waca has been in existence for longer that the church. I held my hands to the waca and could feel a rush of energy around my heart like it was doing another cleaning. It was intense and I waited and went for another ride after we all had a turn.

My time in Peru has definitely cleared my heart. For the first time in years I feel I can show my true self without any attachment. It was great to have such a heart opening trip.

Later, I dreamt of a team of mountain climbers that was stranded on a mountain. The message was return with the gifts on the mountain. And once again the ending of a trip and the beginning of a journey.

Meeting Dr Ayahuasca

2008-09-19T12:15:00.001-07:00

Our ayahuasquero, maestro, was impeccable, trained by the plant during the nine years he lived alone in the jungle. He prepares his brew in the jungle, fasting and praying as he harvest the ayahuasca from the a special vine and a certain type of chacruna leaf for his ceremonies. The vine and the leaves are cooked over a wood fire in the jungle until the right consistency is met. The whole time maestro is fasting and praying.

We have the opportunity to meet meet “Dr. Ayahuasca” the day we arrive. Ceremony at 8 PM. We enjoy a light lunch, but must skip dinner to partake. The first night we meet in a circular room in the jungle compound far from the rooms of the other guest. This is important, for later, there will be sounds of screaming, retching and vomiting.

We sit in a circle on well used cushions from old discarded lounge chairs. We are instructed to sit upright was we would when waiting for a a friend until Dr. Ayahuasca comes. We are also instructed to not drink water and refrain from vomiting for the first 30 minutes. Maestro comes around dispensing his brew. He travels the circle in a sun wise manner asking us what we want to work on, Health, Love, Wealth, Career, or Projects.

My turn comes and I choose health, I take the full and well worn cup and down the hatch it goes. The taste is vile. It feels as though that everyone else drank from a thimble and I some how drew a coffee can, in reality the cup is about 3 or 4 ounces. It immediately wants to come right back up, but with a couple of swallows and all the saliva I can muster it stays down for the time being. Next comes the rose water. It is poured into our hands and we cleanse our hands and face and inhale it up to our third eye. Then come the tobacco. Maestro has a ceremonial pipe that is cooked with the brew and he come over and blesses us and our altars with the smoke. When all is done we will smell like a night of bad behavior.

I wait for the good doctor as maestro walks around the center of the circle singing and whistling to us and holding sacred space. We are in ceremony.

At first I sit and then slowly I make it to lying down. The doctor is with me, I can feel him looking through my body looking for the places in need of healing. Last year when I had my first ayahuasca experience I did not vomit until the very end and that was one quick purge. In the back of my mind I am thinking that and wondering if I could get off so easy this time. No such luck.

I am resisting it, this need to purge and finally the doctor tells me to let it go. I get up and walk across the room to the toilet and struggle with the door. I finally figure out that you have to reach through the open window and open the lock from behind. I make to the toilet just in time. The retching starts in my toes and next I am vomiting like I have ate tainted meat in India again. The poison leaves my body, it is blood red as best I can tell in the candle light that keeps the bathroom lit. Will this stop, no another, then another and finally I can make to back to my cushion. I curl up in the fetal position and wait.

“I am taken into the ground of the jungle by the vines and woven into the fabric of the mother”. This is what I write in my journal the next day. It felt if I was being swallowed by the jungle and reorganized at my very core. It is like my DNA is being rearranged. I am lying on my back twisting and turing as this healing is taking place. I feel good as I am being rebuilt on this molecular level. And then I need to vomit. I resist and am reminded that a big part of healing is letting go, so I trudge to the bath room for the second purge of the night.

Back on the cushion I see my life reduce to a comic book. It was some 70’s cartoon comic book playing the bad scenes of my life with Frank Zappa playing in back ground. I watch with amusement as they are reduced to the ridiculous and torn from the book and balled up and tossed from my life. It is if the bad things that have defined me are being removed. Twice more during this process I have to vomit until there is nothing left to purge. The message is clear, do not hang on, let it go. This goes on and finally I am left with a shape like an strange eye that keeps appearing. But it not a living eye it more geometric, as shape that reminds me of something that I can not place, something archetypical.

Things are dying down and I return in my body to the cushion. On cue, Maestro ends the ceremony. I get up and am cold and spent. I walk back to my room and notice how much I have fallen in love with the jungle. We are on a nutshell path and the trees are lit by kerosene lanterns. It is beautiful. And I feel complete, at ease and in love with the jungle.

As I enter the room I try not to wake my roommate. No such luck the door make a huge squeak and I see him toss. I can’t remember if we exchange pleasantries or if he falls back to sleep, but I spend the better part of the next hour on the toilet clearing my bowels. Tonight is a double ended purge. I finally get some air and go to bed, but as I dose off one more little reminder of humility creeps out my ass and I am up to clean myself, letting it all go, including my pride. This ends the first night in the Amazon.

The next morning I feel fine, hungry, actually and though I miss yoga, I make to breakfast and have fresh fruit and banana bread.

After breakfast, we head across the river to Monkey Island. Our guides bring bananas to the monkeys every day. We take a walk in jungle and meet 4 or 5 different species of monkey. This day a little monkey, about the size of rabbit, uses my face as tree as it leaps from her tree to the table where the bananas are served. Reminder to never get between a wild animal and a free lunch. Back for lunch, a lounge in the hammock and ceremony at 8 PM.

Tonight we head to Monkey Island for an outdoor ceremony. The ceremony is held on this sand bar that is visible during the dry season. We take boats across the river and lay out the old worn cushions in a circle. The moon is about three quarters in partly cloudy sky. Tonight, I am asking for love and expect a sweet night on the beach. But the doctor has other plans.

My cushion is in the east, so is my journey, so I think that this is cool. The same ceremony as the night before take place. And soon, we are lying down with the doctor.

I soon realize that I have a cushion next to one or the girls that was screaming from the night before. Whatever, demon she is fighting it is not giving up easily. I try to show compassion, without trying to rescue her or take on her demon, but I can not enter fully the dream state of the doctor. And I am vomiting, like the night before. It is a vile, bitter, awful substance that leaves my body this night. In the sand I see a face of a bitter old man and realize that this was inside of me. My retching is coming from around my heart, clearing whatever defense that I place there from getting hurt again. I discover love is not always sweet, but being able hold space for someone in their struggles and being able to keep the heart free of bitterness. Maybe I will grow up someday, after all.

The ceremony ends and we pick ours selves up and mill around the beach as the guides call for the boats. “Bote, bote, bote” they yell. Soon a light and the sound of a outboard motor. I get first boat and make it back to my room. My roommate enter shortly, after taking the second boat.

I slept with out incident.

The next day we take a boat ride to one of the tributary rivers upstream. It is a pleasant walk in the forrest. We return and have lunch. Tonight is the final night of ceremony with the doctor and as much as I hate to drink that brew again I feel I have to. Our teacher calls us the “diehards” those you have to keep going back to the vine of the soul and her lessons.

This night we are again back on Monkey Island. The whole sky was cloudy except for a circle over head. There was lighting going off on the horizon and if we were not in ceremony I would have predicted rain. But we just knew that we where safe from the elements tonight.

I force down another cup of the brew and waited for the doctor to come. Tonight, I will be taking this ride through the perceptual states, of body, mind, energy and spirit.

I started in body at the first chakra and was slithering through the jungle like a snake. The jungle was very alive and had a florescent quality about it. The leaves of grass glow in their green as I was a snake in my domain. I climbed up a branch and surveyed the trees on the horizon. Then back down through the grass to the river where I eat a frog before shifting into the mind.

This was accessed at the second chakra and I immediately had to get up and vomit. I should not have ate the frog. It’s over quick, one pass around my heart to clear it. I get back to the cushion and started across the rainbow bridge when it clasps into a surf board and I keep riding this wave to infinity. It’s like all of time keep rolling under the board I an standing on. I can jump off an any time I want to or I could keep riding this for forever.

So I shift to the world of energy accessed at the sixth chakra and my world was transformed to trillions of rainbow color string vibrating forming the fabric of life. Into this world there appear these bubbles, that I understood as our thoughts and prayers that are bubbling up and changing the fabric of life. The fabric contorted and expanded around our thoughts and prayers and the strings would change their vibration, colors and sound as these bubbles come through. It was like viewing an interactive IMAX movie where the mood of the audience affected the outcome from inside the projector.

It is now time to bring my intention up to spirit where we all connect. I was immediately brought to a place of bliss. It was a surreal world and the geometric eye from the first night played a part in the architecture. There was a soft vibration in my ears and I felt much peace and love in this world. I was held in pure love when I felt a rushing from my heart into the world I was visiting. I asked what was that and the doctor told me that was pure love from my heart, you must feed this world with pure love so it can feed it back to your world.

Then I was back in my body, lying on Monkey Island in the Amazon, under a 3/4 moon, in a clear circle of sky with scorpio over head, bliss out, feeling a connection to all the creatures, all the plants, all the stones, dirt and grains of sand and all the people of the world. I was not alone, I was connected to my fellow shaman on the beach and to my fellow shaman having ceremony across the river and our dreams of the world were feeding the universe who in turn was feed us back what we dreamed. I was lying there in the sweetness of love that only the divine can bring. Wow what a way I have come, I never could have imaged a night like this as kid growing up.

It took a while for the ceremony to end. I lied there watching our maestro come around singing and whistling his songs as others where still in their dreams. I lied there feeling a profound since of gratefulness. I lied there feeling this strong connection to the jungle and to the whole world. I did not know what I had come to the Amazon for, until that moment.

The ceremony ended and I felt much love to all the participants. I wandered for group to group listening to their experiences and sharing some of mine. There was lots of hugging.

I finally made it back to my room and the sound of the jungle was amazing. I had never noticed so loud as before. There was laugher from another room which I saw as multi-colored ice cream cones rolling across the sky. I fell into a dream state and I was in a bed in the middle of the jungle. The bed was decorated with flowers and vines and was alone in a clearing surrounded by the jungle and lit by moonlight. As this symphony of bugs played on, I lied in this beautiful bed which I understood as my honeymoon bed for I was married to the jungle.