The Curandera from North Dakota

In South and Central America, Curanderos are the medicine men and shamans of their culture. Likewise a Curandera is a female medicine woman, which there are few of compared to the number of men.
Lately I really felt guided to find a medicine woman to do ceremony with, which is part of why I went to Peru for the conference. I knew that several women would speak and that I would be in the company of some of the leading experts on ayahuasca and shamanism, who could at least lead me in the right direction.
I had all these grandiose ideas about the Curanadera that I would meet. That she would be indigenous, having traveled from her home in the far off jungle somewhere and needing an interpreter to translate her complex ancient language to us.
Who I found was Wendy. Wendy is a humble Curandera who really prefers not to have a title at all. She would just rather be a friend and not someone to be revered. She wears tye dyes and speaks only a little Spanish. But, she has trained with shamans from all over Peru for many years, including Don Augustine Rivas.
My first ceremony with Wendy was beautiful. It was for women only and we worked with a beautiful medicine. It is an integrative plant, meaning it teaches you how to connect with nature and with spirit. It was a day ceremony at the zoo. We started off sitting under a little maloca (palm hut) on a lake for a couple of hours, reciting our intentions for learning from the medicine that day and waiting for it to take effect. Wendy got a reading off of each of us for where our original bloodlines were from. Mine, would’nt you know, is of Elven decent, meaning of the Fairies.
When we were ready we ventured into the zoo, first visiting with a gorgeous water boa (see picture). At one point we ended up at a Jaguar cage where I witnessed something I had never seen before. Wendy stood looking at the animal for awhile and then the cat actually came over to the cage, stood on its hind legs and leaned up against the bars, staring at her and purring. He obviously felt a connection, without any threat or he would never have bared his belly. It was incredible.
We all got so excited, taking pictures and talking that is distracted him and he sat down again. Then the other women walked on and Wendy explained to me what had happened. She said that she had gone into a space of just feeling the cat, sort of shifting her energy to be on his level. She did not ask him to do what he did. She just opened up to who he was and he felt her connection and returned her honoring of him with that gesture, showing his honor of her as well. It is really hard to explain. She had me do an exercise to understand it myself. I truly felt the tree I was leaning against. I felt its connection to everything around it and to me, its acceptance of everything exactly as it is. And I felt like I was the tree. It was the most amazing lesson in connecting with nature that I have learned yet. It happened again later when these monkeys sat staring at me for several minutes.
That was proof enough that I had found the woman I had looked for, a Curandera from North Dakota who is as brilliant as any other shaman, if not more so. I am honored to learn from Wendy and I feel a wonderful friendship is developing with this amazing sister of mine.
huachuma

Photojournaling of Peru 2

The markets too were fascinating places, with shelves of corked bottles containing medicines and ointments made from hundreds of Amazonian plants. After all, the Amazon is the pharmacy to the world. And the Plaza de Armas was always a happening place on weekends, with plenty of nightlife and entertainment on Saturday night, including an airband of 8 year olds.

Photojournaling of Peru

Here are some more pictures of my trip to Peru. I enjoyed riding in the moto taxis, although they make Iquitos one of the noisiest cities on earth. The boat ride to my camping spot was always interesting, like being in another country compared to the city, where local people fished, swam and washed their clothes, seemingly unaware of the nearby noisy Iquitos. I thought the kids playing in the water from the storm runoff were adorable as well as this cutie at a fruit stand.

A Gifted Shamanic Healer

On going to Peru, I wanted to find a shaman with the ability to heal and a true desire to help people. I had already done ceremony with several shamans and although I’ve had lots of good experiences, I also found that many shamans are just as lost as the rest of us, with alcohol addictions, adultery issues and a craving to make money more than to heal.
The first day I got there I heard about a ceremony to be held at the house of a talented Banco Espiritual in Iquitos, Don Javier Dasilva Oliveira. Bancos are rare because they work on each of the three planes (here, above and below) while many shamans work on only one plane.
Don Javier was originally from Brazil and had been practicing shamanism since his early teens, trained by his father, who in turn was trained by his father. He was said to be an amazing healer. He held ceremonies in his home, a small house with many chairs and a alter to the Baby Jesus. The dining room and kitchen was where those of us who would drink the ayahuasca (around 15 people) would sit for the night, while the front room would hold all of his other “patients”, locals mostly (about 50 or so people).
Throughout the night Javier would perform limpias (cleansings) on each person there, giving valuable information about health and things to watch out for in the future.
Javier said that he worked through the Baby Jesus, his main spirit guide, and that it was only through him and the “doctors” that he was able to perform this magic. He called these spirits the “doctors” because when they were alive, about 250 years ago, they were powerful healers. Now they performed healings and psychic surgeries through Javier. He would embody these spirits, speaking in their ancient languages and singing icaros throughout the night. It was amazing how his personality would change with each spirit that spoke through him. By the end of the night he would become even more vibrant and would have performed limpias on 50 to 80 people.
The man was clearly a powerful shaman. This was evidenced by the fact that each person I talked to found his assessment of them to be right on, including myself.
I had never seen a shaman with such focus and devotion to his “patients”. His icaros were powerfully beautiful and I felt I could sit and listen to him sing for days. His medicine was very pure too. He used only ayahuasca and chacruna in his brew.
I wish I could better express what an incredible impact he had on us all. The best I can say is that being in his ceremony was one of the most amazing experiences ever. I truly believe that not many as powerful as him exist, and that I was blessed and guided to find him.
Here are a few pictures of him next to his alter. In one he is blowing tobacco smoke into the jar of ayahuasca, cleansing it to prepare for the ceremony and there's another of him and me. I am also posting a video is of one of the private healings that he performed on me, during a regular business day.

My Trip To the 4th Annual Amazonian Shamanic Conference

I had been wanting to go to Peru for awhile to work more with Ayahuasca but I wanted to go and meet some true healers and women shamans as well, without having to wander around the country trying to find them. For about three days I could not get Peru out of my mind. I knew I had to go there this summer, somehow, someway. Suddenly, on the third day of this, the opportunity arrived. I saw an ad for the 4th Annual Amazonian Shamanic Conference. Instantly I knew that that was the answer I had been asking for. I paid for the conference that day and got a plane ticket to Peru, leaving in three weeks.
The conference was fascinating. There were speakers on just about anything having to do with Ayahuasca, the paranormal and shamanism. Topics included plant teachers, sorcery, near death experiences, trance, and visionary art, among others.
The first day we were introduced to many of the curanderos (healers/shamans) that would be leading ceremonies throughout the conference. A panel was set up with about 8 at a time and each curandero gave a summary of their work and life. Some gave the short version, “I work with Ayahuasca and use it to help heal people.” while others went on and on about their power and work with the plants since birth. One, the rock star of shamans, wore an elaborate headdress and held a decadent staff, shaking everyones hand beforehand like a politician. Another just simply sang an icaro (ayahuasca ceremonial song). It was a diverse group to say the least.
One of the real treats of the conference was when renouned visionary artist, Pablo Amaringo, spoke about his art and work with the sacred Ayahuasca. Amaringo was once a powerful shaman himself until others became so jealous that they tried to kill him with black magic. From that point on he focused on his art instead, using his paintings to demonstrate the lessons he learned from the sacred plant teacher. His art is a wonderful example of many of the visions produced by Ayahuasca and its sacred teachings.
Also speaking at the conference was Dennis McKenna himself. He came with no formal lecture but discussed how the Ayahuasca teaches us to connect with nature. He expressed his belief that plants want to migrate. They want to teach us and to grow everywhere in everything so that they are integrated into our lives on a deeper level. Ayahuasca is one plant especially that does that through us, spreading itself across the world through our experiences and sharing of them and through the mass conciousness.
Another fascinating part of the conference, maybe a little too new agey for some, was the “Telekenises Party”. We were all given cutlery to practice bending with our minds. Of course that does not happen without lots of practice but we did learn how to bring energy down into our minds and bodies to be able to bend the forks with very little physical pressure. Once one person got it then people all around them began to have the power to bend metal cutlery and watch it melt like butter in our hands. It was an amazing testament to how powerful our minds truly are.
The conference was a very well produced event, held in a beautiful ampitheatre at a nice hotel. There were too many speakers to mention them all here but it was a diversified and educational program. I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about learning more on these topics and I will probably go back myself next year.

The Beginning of My Experience with the Sacred Medicine of the Ayahuasca

I had read about Ayahuasca about 15 years before ever coming into contact with it. I was so fascinated with the potential healing powers and access to the spirit realm that it was claimed to give, that I decided then and there that one day I too would experience this sacred plant teacher.
Ayahuasca is a psychotropic plant from the Amazon, which has been used for practically forever to help shamans with healing and to connect with spirit on a deeper level. It is called “medicine” because that is what it truly is, for the healing of ones soul. In Peru today, it has even begun to be used in special clinics to help treat drug and alcohol addictions. Sometime in the 70’s, Dennis and Terrance McKenna wrote a book about their findings on this plant teacher and ever since the subject has gained interest for its healing properties with spiritualists and scientists around the world. However, it is still a very foreign topic to most westerners.
Little did I know, when I first learned of it, that this ancient medicine would change my life forever and lead me down my souls true path. I did know at the time however that it would be a very powerful experience and that I was not going to go looking for it but to let it come to me when my soul was ready for it.
Then, a few years ago, my best friend began to work with the plant in ceremonies with shamans from the Amazon. Together we had read about Ayahuasca for the first time so many years before, so she was excitted to share the opportunity with me. I was finally able to make it out to San Francisco for my first ceremony in the summer of 2006. I did two nights of ceremony and the second night was perhaps the most enlightening experience of my life.
I met Mother Earth that night. I fell in love with the universe and was blessed with so much love like I had never experienced before or even knew existed. It started when at one point I felt sort of stuck, like I needed to get something out of me that was stunting my growth and so I asked for the medicine mans’ help. He came to me and began to rub Agua de Florida on my forehead over the third eye and on the area above my heart. At first there was a burning sensation so I kept asking him to put the water on me to cool me down. Eventually I felt a sort of opening up and I began to cry deeply and to release what felt like years of pent up emotion. Then I felt my third eye open up and light started pouring into me. Finally my heart just blossomed, like a lotus flower, and I felt generous amounts of love streaming into me from the heavens. It was the most beautiful feeling I can ever remember having. I knew it was a rare blessing that occurred only because I was so open to it, and that my soul had wished for that connection with spirit for a very long time.
From there I received many messages to give to loved ones, including the shaman, all of whom agreed that they were right on. My own messages from the Mother were that I too have the ablility to heal and that I would learn skills to help humanity in its spiritual evolution. My art and work with wild animals would be the catalyst for this in years to come.
After that, the shaman invited me to Colombia for ceremonies with his tribal family there and the next summer I invited him to the U.S. to do ceremony with my own friends and family. I had a number of beautiful ceremonies with him and learned a lot about myself. The universe truly blessed me with meeting him but the real blessings and teachings came from the plant medicine itself, an amazingly enlightening and healing teacher whom I have been honored to know.