When you get the message, hang up the phone.
Alan Watts
This quote by the late great philosopher and psychedelic traveller Alan Watts, really sums up my last Ayahuasca ceremony and is an important message to be aware of, to receive and to act on, it is also a cautionary red flag for the insistent psychedelic/plant medicine explorer, such as myself.
The temptation and trap with plant medicines is that the urge and obsession for exploration and new discoveries can override the simple and foundational messages that come from these great teachers and that need time outside of the medicine space to be sat with, contemplated, and fully integrated into your life in this reality.
After all, the purpose of plant medicines is that they are an invaluable tool to bring us insights and to teach us lessons to help navigate the choppy waters of life, but the information is useless if we don’t apply it in our everyday lives and for that we need space, peace, and solitude.
Fermenting the Lessons
After my second cup of Ayahuasca in my last ceremony, a deep journey ensued and an even deeper purge was expelled from my body, projected out into the Amazon jungle beyond the Maloka (ceremonial space).
This was the first ceremony I had experienced where there was no personally assigned bucket to catch our purges, but we were trusted that our bodies would give the signal to purge with enough time to get ourselves and our wobbly legs to the edge of the Maloka to give back to mother nature.
It worked out just fine as the Maloka is built right in the jungle, so it wasn’t far to travel to get clear of the space.
As I sat by the fire after that purge and the hold of the medicine finally started to loosen on me, my attention was shifted internally to my journey of self-acceptance, that in the last week has become a big piece in my personal development.
I was invited to consider that although I had now become aware of my journey to self-acceptance, the journey wasn’t complete, the next phase was to look through all areas of my physical body, life, emotions, experiences, self-perceptions and to essentially recognise that any area of judgement that existed in me was a sign that self-acceptance was not present, and that it was now up to me to sit with all of that, observe it, understand it and ultimately accept it, accept me and love all of it.
The message was, no more medicine, for now. I knew intuitively that drinking more, going deeper and avoiding the simplicity of this life lesson, would only distract me away from it and prevent me from experiencing the treasure in this self-realisation that would help me in all areas of my life.
My body was also physically drained and there was no part of me that wanted to take on board another cup, I was done and I’m pretty sure that for the next couple of weeks and maybe longer I won’t be drinking more Ayahuasca, instead I will be sitting with my new acceptance of self and getting to know myself and love myself on all levels.
Once I feel the call is strong enough in time, then I will put on my ‘Huascanaut helmet’ and dive in once again.
I did however have a mushroom ceremony on Wednesday night this week which was a magical experience which gave great insights and was very nourishing for the soul, but more of that in my next blog.
Sting in the Tail
There was however another challenging experience to have that night which was an Ortiga cleansing ceremony. The Ortiga is essentially an Amazonian stinging nettle with small thorns, which is brushed against your skin to stimulate energy and blood flow through the body, whilst sitting in shorts by the fire.
This was performed by our Taita shaman Jonny, along with music and cleansing with agua de florida, finished off with a liberal dose of burning incense.
It was pretty uncomfortable at times but gave me a new lease of life as my energy flowed strongly through my body and out through the crown of my head, so strongly in fact I nearly feinted but held it together.
Here’s a video on YouTube that shows you more about the Ortiga cleansing >>
The ceremony gradually came to an end and we all fell asleep on our mats and hammocks. The next morning we had a well deserved simple breakfast of banana, papaya, oats and a delicious Arapas, which is a flat thick corn tortilla made with cheese.
After that we set off back down the mountain, legs still wobbley, through the jungle to an awaiting taxi.
The message has been received, I’ve hung up the ayahuasca phone for now.
I look forward to updating you on the recent mushroom experience.
Peace out and plant power from Colombia
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Here’s the full video breakdown of my experience below:
