Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Something About Medicine

Okay, for some of you this post is going to seem quite off the wall. I understand. For some others, who have worked with plant medicines, or spent time meditating and are familiar with the other realities, it might not be so crazy.
I've a good friend...well, I've a client from a fairly recent trip who has something very unique about him. Madeleina was absolutely taken by his demeanor and basic generosity of soul. So was I.
He did medicine on the trip to Peru with me, and then stayed on for months. He's still there. And he's done more medicine. And he wrote me about a month ago that he had an ayahuasca dream wherein he met a man--a spirit that looked like a man to my friend-- smoking mapachos, the black tobacco cigarettes that are common in Amazonia and vital to the rituals there. And this man was in a sort of dark museumish place. And my friend was at first startled and a bit frightened but relaxed when the man told him to "look around" a bit, to see if there was something interesting there. Now to me, that's a special thing: To get invited to look at things that seem magical to us in ordinary reality, but things we can sometimes utilize to help people in ordinary reality, is a pretty fantastic thing.
Later in the ayahuasca dream, my friend met a little girl--a spirit that my friend saw as a little girl--who told him some things about some of his past experiences and then told him she would be with him always to help him. Again, to me that is very special. That's a guardian. As someone raised Catholic, and as a former alter boy, we would have called them guardian angels. As an adult I know they're real. They're the ones that keep you from stepping out in front of that bus you simply didn't see, the one that would have killed you. And they're the ones that make your car stall utterly unexpectedly just before someone runs through the light in the opposite direction going 100 miles per hour. They protect us. Why? I've no idea. I guess they're assigned or find us curious or get something out of watching us blunder along on this plane.
But my friend got one. Very very good.
And so, that led me to write him this note. It was about his responsibility now that he's got a place to find things people might need and a spirit who's volunteered to help him.
Dear X:
Just reread this for the 8th or 12th time. How fucking wonderful. Invited to
> explore. Given a guardian to answer questions. I hope you understand what a
> rare treat this is and treat it as such.
> I've just finished the second day of a prayer. That involves cama lunga,
> mapacho smoke, florida water, a shacapa, and some invisible things. I sing
> and call on the magics, red magic that moves through all the blood of
> everything in the universe; green magic, which moves through the verdancia,
> the trees, and rivers fish, earth and and snakes; white magic, which lights
> the world with stars and suns and moons and the light inside people, and
> black magic, the deep deep magnetic field, the magma that holds all things,
> large and small, together and keeps them moving in a way that allows the
> entire universe, known and unknown, to keep moving in rhythm--I call on the
> magics to help heal someone or something that has asked me for help. I can't
> help. I'm just me. But the guardians can help and I need to pray to call
> them. I need to sing. The song arrives when I need it. That's one of their
> gifts.
> Sometimes healing happens. Unimaginably.
> So treat your guardian girl with love and respect. She's offered her
> help, as has the man smoking mapachos who said you were free to look around.
> LOOK AROUND. Dream him, dream his space. Learn his space. He might have a
> million secrets you need hidden there.
> Just be joyful you've been made aware of helpers and thankful you have
> them. Use them, don't abuse them or you might lose them.
> It might also become a burden to you someday: People will know you have
> power. You won't have power but you will have helpers and people's souls
> will recognize that and ask you for help. You will need to help when it's
> appropriate. That often interferes with what you had planned on a given day.
> But that becomes your job.
> I don't mean to rattle on. I mean to tell you something I know about my
> circumstance and think you might have been initiated into something like it
> as well. And so I have to tell you what I've told you. It's part of the
> unspoken pact.
> I will finish my three day prayer for my friend and a few others
> tomorrow. It will be inconvenient because I have a serious deadline for a
> story. So what. The prayer is what I have been assigned to and it's bigger
> than my deadline. Though actually, the prayer will not interfere. It never
> has. Sometimes I can spend an hour or more and look at the clock and see
> that not 5 minutes of real earth time have passed. And if tomorrow I'm told,
> somehow, that I need another 10 days of prayer, I will do it.
> There are leaps of faith out here.
> Take good steps with your gift and she will walk with you always.
> And don't tell too many people--unless you write a book--because they
> will think you crazy.
> I hope I'm not being arrogant here.
> Peter G

1 comment:

Devon said...

Thanks for sharing Peter. And I definitely don't think your crazy ;)