And so it begins

And so it begins

In my thirties I had a strong calling to go to Peru, as an explorer of the mystery and a lover of travel I booked what I thought was a yoga retreat visiting the intoxicating Amazon jungle and the breathtaking heights of the Sacred Valley.

On the boat ride from Puerto Maldonado to the destination of our eco village jungle retreat I discovered part of the experience was undertaking local customary shamanic ceremonies utilizing Ayahusca. From the desperate tales shared on the boat, I formulated a fear of defecation in public. This was real, these people I hardly knew where showing fear over participating in the ceremony. I didn’t know what to expect. Hopefully not losing capacity of my bowels.

Rachel and Quechuan mountain tribe shaman

Over the seven days in the Amazon jungle and three evening ceremonies of Ayahusca, my body was ridding fluids at an exhausting rate. It seemed like litres of clear snot, hiding out somewhere in my skull, rid my body. Intense wave like total body vomiting, evocative shamanic chants on loop in my head and I was experiencing a total body clearing and lightness and a remembering of the dreaming world….

The intoxification of the Amazonian jungle was abundant in my senses as the adventures continued into the Sacred Valley. In the where Quechuan mountain tribe shamans travelled with us and holding ceremonies for Panchamama and the Apus. High in the Andean mountains we participated in an initiation to become shamans, we were asked very seriously if we wanted to, it was a calling and the time has come to welcome more remembering amongst us. After the success of the bowel control during the Amazonian jungle adventures I was feeling fearless and vital. Once the ceremony began the once clear skies above clouded over and no sun could be seen the once balmy mountaintop became a freezing, strong winded desolate plateau. Desperately hovelled together for warmth the ceremony concluded and the cloud slowly began to drift apart. Standing watching bewildered unclear of the significance at the time. The Qero medicine path follows two ‘Pampamesayok and Altomesayok both years of arduous training which didn’t feel like my path so I returned to Australia as planned.

Sacred Valley – Peru

Back in Australia, I picked up a ‘Living Now’ magazine a local street press on all things holistic. I was reading a story about this Urban Shaman called Raym who was doing what I thought was real hardcore shaman stuff like clearing demonic forces and I thought to myself well that’s not the kind of shaman I am, that’s not for me surely I’m the type of shaman who makes the beautiful offerings for spirit made from flowers and chants a little has a lovely relaxed time. Then I received a random email not addressed to me but with details on a course on crystals, I had always been interested in crystals and was willing to learn more. I enrolled. On the first day upon actually reading the brochure I discovered that the next few days we were learning the shamanic technique from that guy from the Living Now magazine, what I thought I would never do in a hundred years I was actually about to do………and so it begins…