Colombia 2008

I also drank Ayahuasca at the end of February 2008 and this time was in Colombia. There were six of us, as well as the Shaman and his two assistants.

Again this was organised by a wonderful man who is so kind, and the Heart of the Initiate team.

We stayed with a nice family who had a lovely old Chow dog called Gonzo; the relevance to his mentioning will become clearer later.

The ceremonies took place in the on site maloca which was a very peaceful place but with very strong energy vibes as I found out later. We also took part in two Inipi sweat lodge ceremonies.

This is a true account of my experiences

The First Journey - The Magical Maloca

When I drank Aya in Brazil, I asked many questions of the plant. Some of the answers I got straight away, others months later. This time I decided to allow the Goddess to show me what she thought I needed to know. The Aya medicine was mixed in a way as to be like treacle. So you had to take it from a spoon, put it in your mouth then swallow the ball of goo in one gulp. Then after you had mastered that, you had to lick the spoon clean. This left you with sticky lips and black teeth! Some of the group cheated with toothpaste tucked away to rub on their teeth to take the taste away as well as tiny sweets to do the same (You know who you are, you wimps!)

One of our tribe got food poisoning the day of this ceremony, but the Shaman let them join in without drinking as he was fast asleep on his mat feeling very ill.

I drifted off

First I saw three people come walking towards me wearing black plain robes, with black pointed hoods. Then I was shown the circular roof of the maloca but it was not the same as when I entered it, it had wooden carvings all around it and I floated all the way around looking at it all.

Someone picked up my left wrist very gently and looked at the beaded bracelet I was wearing for a while then put my wrist back down on the mat, again really gently. A Shaman appeared with long straight black hair in a pony tail which was tied halfway down his back. He was also wearing white robes and a white hat kneeling next to our friend who was ill. He was fast asleep but I saw this Shaman fanning leaves over him and could see him chanting but there was no sound. It was not the Shaman we had sitting in the maloca

Gonzo the Chow dog then appeared beside me, and turned into a white wolf with bright blue eyes so I began to stroke him and he was happy, telling me he was once as I see him now. He also told me to take his senses and see how he sees the world for a while.

Then he ran off into the woods and as he did a white horse ran out from the trees galloping very fast right past me.

A massive glass pyramid was the next vision with light behind it so that all the colours of the rainbow shone through it. I saw my husband walk towards this pyramid and he was looking up at it as he did so. He disappeared and a black silhouette appeared inside it, but I could not see who it was. Then I got the message that 2012 was coming.

Every flag of every country of the world appeared before my eyes in a circular motion and I saw them all as if I was in some sort of arena. Hordes of people came walking past me, looking at me. Some were normal looking but with others their faces changed so that they had snake eyes and crocodile teeth. They were followed by hordes of soldiers in military gear carrying machine guns; they wore black berets with camouflage gear and big black boots.

Visions of severed heads I saw, some with hatchets in them, women and men of all races and cultures, with blood running down their faces. I saw mutilated children and babies in plastic bags struggling to breathe. The message I got was that we are being controlled and that life is precious and we should not butcher and kill each other. Whether this was the wolves that were ever present by my side telling me or something else I do not know.

The last things I saw were four black snakes with the eyes of a big cat along with bees on a tree branch working together. Then that pyramid came again with a bright blue eye above it with light all around.

The image of that pyramid was in my eyes long after my journey was over, even whilst I was back in my lodge dozing off to sleep, and it was still there the morning after I had slept.

The Second Journey - Playing With Wolves

This time we all decided it would be easier to swallow the Ayahuasca if it was in liquid form. So the Shaman made us a liquid brew as some of our group were having difficulty getting the syrupy stuff down, as I mentioned before.

I went back to my mat, pillows and blankets waiting to see what I would be shown, trying not to vomit and breathing deeply through my mouth to change the direction of the “I want to throw up”feeling (Which incidentally works)

I had changed places with one of our tribe as he said he was in a “spooky spot” so he just asked me to go on his spot to see what would happen.

Gonzo appeared next to me and I stroked his head. He then took me out of the door and down a path outside the maloca to a clearing in the jungle. Wolves appeared from every angle, beautiful creatures with blue eyes. Gonzo was watching from a small hill looking down. I was playing with the wolves and the feeling was fantastic. I was so happy and elated. When I woke up for a short spell I was on my back sprawled out on my mat with my arms out either side of me bathed in a warm glow.

I turned onto my tummy with my head downwards, then became aware of footsteps walking round my mat. At first I thought it was the Shaman’s assistant who was walking round at intervals wafting incense over us, but there was no-one there when I turned and looked, neither was the assistant. Puzzled, I decided to turn back onto my tummy, head down.

Next I heard the chant of a Shaman. It was not our Shaman as the voice was very very deep. It was like a very very deep “Whey-hey-hey” sound. I could feel his warm breath on the back of my head. My Aya buddies reading this will know the voice of our Shaman, and it definitely was not him! The voice was right over the back of my neck. I turned again to look and there was no-one there and our Shaman was playing a harmonica anyway at the other side of the maloca.

I thought I had better get my head down again as I was intrigued to hear this man again. As soon as I did he began blowing on the back of my head and making the same noise.

My next vision was of a little girl with dark brown hair but I could not see her face. She was sat cross legged in front of some sort of temple beckoning me to go to her swinging her right arm towards me then back to her, saying “Come here, come here” There was an arch behind her but as I went to go up the steps the footsteps round my mat came again and the wolves were all around me. I awoke again and sat up watching our Shaman who was in deep thought across the room. From behind me came the same deep voice “Es bueno?” (It’s good?) I spun my head round to see no-one, then back to our Shaman who was still in the same spot. By this time I thought I was going a bit mad hearing voices so I decided to lie down again and try to sleep.

The last thing I saw was the glass pyramid again with the rainbow colours shining through it, then the Shaman’s assistant came over to my mat……

Incidentally, the person who I had exchanged places with also saw the cross legged girl beckoning to him saying exactly the same thing to him as she did me, and he also heard footsteps round his mat as well as seeing the black robed figures with pointed black hoods, except they came through the door and were behind each other not in a line as I saw them. This I found out after the ceremony was over.

My Healing Ceremony in Colombia

As I was coming away from my second journey the Shaman’s assistant came to me to ask if I wanted to have a healing. I agreed and followed her to the Shaman, and sat on a wooden log after being told to look at the fire before me.

He started to heal me by chanting with his fan of leaves, blowing tobacco all over me whilst chanting and using crystals on my head. None of this I can actually remember but I was told what had happened the day after by the others. All I could hear was the Shaman’s voice and all I saw was the fire as well as heard the music which was a didgeridoo played by his other assistant.

I was also told that a very loud thunderstorm started as soon as my healing began and the others said that the maloca was shaking. The storm ended when my healing did. All I felt was my body shaking uncontrollably and after he was done I felt like a million bricks had been lifted from my body and mind. I walked back to my mat in a bit of a daze but feeling absolutely fantastic.

The others also told me the day after, that the Shaman was deep in thought when he suddenly pointed his finger at me and told his assistant to go and fetch me to him. It was as if he knew what I needed.

A couple of days after the second ceremony we were allowed to ask of the Shaman anything we wanted. I asked him if he saw other Shaman during ceremonies and healing, because I had seen and heard them. He said he called on the Grandfathers during the ceremonies and healings for assistance. He also said that he saw them often and was very firm with his answer.

I am now of the opinion that the Shaman with the deep voice who came to me the same night that I received my healing was there to help our Shaman.

Another strange thing happened during this healing too. I was involved in a car accident in 1994 in which our car was bashed into from the back. When I went to hospital for an X ray on my neck arthritis was detected in the top two bones of my spine, nothing to do with the accident of course, but the Doctor said it was unusual to find it in a woman of my age.

As the years have gone by I have had trouble with this especially with getting comfy to be able to sleep. I have tried the usual one pillow, two pillows, no pillows system, changed to new beds, usual conventional pills and potions to no avail. I have had an ache down the left side of my neck to my shoulder for years as well as an ache where the bones actually are.

Towards the end of my healing, the Shaman decided to sit behind me and began to prod these bones at the back of my neck saying "Ah ah" He then started to closely talk to them in some language I did not understand whilst still prodding.

He went exactly to the right spot. I was amazed at how he knew what was there, because only I knew and I certainly did not tell him. He began to stroke his fan of leaves down the correct side which was giving me problems from the side of neck to my shoulder whilst still talking.

How the hell he knew I do not know, but afterwards all the pain had gone. I still have the grinding in the bones when I turn my head, but the ache from my neck to my shoulder has completely gone.

First Inipi Sweat Lodge

For those of you who do not know what one of these is, the sweat lodge consists of an open domed structure made of bamboo tied with red bands, with a space for a door. Thick woollen blankets are thrown over it in a certain way and large and smaller stones are baked in an adjacent fire of willow branches until red hot then put in a hole in the middle of the structure.

Obviously the thick blankets keep the heat in, and you sit in it, stark naked whilst the steam from the stones after the Shaman has chucked water on them hits your bare body. As once of our tribe says “It kinda bakes the Ayahauasca in”

The ceremony is conducted by the Shaman and his assistant, who chant and sing and it is a very beautiful ceremony. Each time the water is thrown on the fire it creates steam hotter than a sauna and the ceremony is actually a re-birthing process whereas you are in the dark as you would be in your mother’s womb and you emerge a new person. It is a ritual which was performed by the Lakota tribes from centuries ago.

At intervals the door is opened and the steam is let out.

I entered the lodge with my towel round me and once in my spot sat there in the buff. Another woman was with me, as well as the Shaman and his female assistant. The door was covered after the stones were put into the hole from the adjacent fire with a pitch fork brought especially from America by one of our group. Apparently they do not have them in Colombia, maybe because they do not have hay.

As the ceremony started I felt the nastiest energy in the lodge. My heart began to bang really hard in my chest and I could hear it pounding. I could not breathe despite breathing through my mouth as I was told to do so. I started to panic really bad and really tried to keep myself under control. The Shaman was trying to help me calm down but it was no use. I was wrapped in some form of bad energy which would not let me relax. You may think that this was just maybe some form of panic attack, but it was not just the panic symptoms, it was like there was something bad inside the pit of my tummy that would not come out. It even stopped me from crying out.

I began to quietly ask if I could leave, but they just kept telling me to try to relax which I really tried to. After two openings of the door the Shaman said I could leave if I wanted to. I crawled to the door like a rag doll with a purple face, asked one of our tribe manning the door blankets to take my hand to help me stand as I could not move and staggered to my feet.

I sat down and started to cry and I could not stop myself, I felt so sick I almost threw up. The heavy brick in my tummy sank back down. The heat was nothing to what my other feelings were. The Shaman came to me afterwards and said that there was a very bad energy inside me, but he said that having two door openings from the ceremony would have helped it nearer the surface. I explained that as a child I was put in our dark cellar as punishment and he said the bad energy from those experiences did not want to come out as it was too deep inside. It wanted to stay put but it had to be out of me as it was no good.

On reflection, I think I now know why he randomly selected me for healing the second time we drank as he knew I had some baggage that I had to be rid of.

I did feel a bit of a wimp for not being able to stay throughout the whole Inipi ceremony but it was if I was possessed by something that wanted me to get out of it as if something did not want me to be cleansed.

Second Inipi Sweat Lodge

This was after my healing with the Shaman and I still could not bring myself to take part in the ceremony, but there again this could be that I now felt I no longer needed it to be honest. The Shaman just asked me if I would help with both the women’s and the men’s ceremonies and did not ask if I would be taking part as if he knew the reasons anyway. His eyes tend to be reading you in some way. So I helped with the blankets and the door for both. It was quite amusing listening to the sounds that were coming from inside with the men.

He also asked me to blow the incense on the women and men as they entered. I felt like I was chosen.

However, this ceremony was very intense and as I was at the door side of the Shaman (where he asked me to stand) I could feel energy being released each time the door blankets were thrown back. Even the Shaman said that the stones were very powerful that day. At one point the vibes nearly knocked me over, but it was the good stuff and you got the feeling that the tribe inside were glowing with good and all was well.