Love & Light and everything bright...

FROM SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

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My Second Despacho Ceremony & Spirits' Responses

SCOTTSDALE, Aug 11, 2008 - It has been a little over a week now that I have felt really at home.  By "really," I mean that I have had more than just a few days during which I changed clothes and got ready for another trip.  It was the first time since June 27, the day I left for Peru, that I have had a chance to start to integrate our Peru experiences into my everyday life.  And it's been a hit and miss record.

Last night, for example, I felt guilty that I had not done any ceremony for three days.  So I held a real fire ceremony in my back yard.  By "real" here, I mean a fire ceremony around my fire pit with real flames shooting skyward, not just with a white candle in the living room or on the patio.  And I felt so much better afterward that I slept for nearly nine hours straight.  That's some sort of a record for me.

That emboldened me to do create my second despacho today (left).  I inserted the names of the Peru Holy Mountains in the picture for those who may not be initiated in the symbolism of a despacho.  Also, “Apu” is the Quechua term for a mountain spirit.  So Apu Ausangate, for example, the mountain where we received the rites of passage, means Mountain Spirit of Ausangate Mtn.  There are actually 12 Holy Mountains in Peru.  But I added Waimi Picchu, Machu Picchu’s twin mountain, because that’s the peak we all see in pictures and think of when we think of Machu Picchu (right photo). 

"Armed with all that shamanic knowledge," you can now follow what happened when I actually got to Camelback Mtn, my home mountain in Arizona (the right two shots).  Even though it was 107F (42C) at the time, I wrapped myself in the poncho I got at Urubamba monastery in the Sacred Valley.  And then,  just as I said my four winds prayers, strong gusts of wind hit me (again!), knocking the camera out of my hand.  As a result, you got to see a close up of the poncho (rightmost shot). :-)  But at that point, I was still too slow to understand what was going on... that the spirits were actually communicating with me in their inimitable way.

My Second Despacho Ceremony on Camelback Mtn (part 1 of 4) (2:14 mins)

Check out also a short video clip I made at my Camelback "prayer rocks" (above).  I posted it later on at YouTube for faster viewing.  Then, just as I was about to add a "post script' to the video...

Tumbling Camera at Camelback "Prayer Rocks" (part 2 of 4) (21 secs)

...another strong gust of wind materialized out of nowhere, sending the camera tumbling down the "prayer rocks" (above).  :-)

One final omen happened at the prayer rocks after my despacho ceremony.  As I was packing up my mesa, another strong gust of wind knocked a beautiful red coral rock (left) out of it.  The rock tumbled right down the altar into the dying fire of the despacho.  I instinctively reached for it and took it out, careful not to burn my fingers as I did it.  Then another gust of wind hit my mesa wrapper before I was able to tie it up.  And the same beautiful rock (!) tumbled out of it again, down the same alter back into the fire.  This time, I left it there.  I got the message.  The Apus wanted the rock.  They did not want it in my mesa.

Now to understand why I was so fond of this rock, you have to believe in birthstones.  Red coral is one of my birthstones, according to Indian astrology.  I got the one I left on the mountain this afternoon back in April, when I learned that fact from someone who had studied under an East Indian guru for years.  It is the largest one in that right photo.  But I forgot to pack it in my mesa when I left for Peru.  So this rock was NOT a part of the mesa that the mountain spirits blessed several times and initiated during our Celestial Despacho ceremony on July 8, and during the final rites of passage the following day.  And today, the Apus reminded me of it.  Twice!  To me, that seemed like a definitive proof that they received my despacho, wouldn't you say?

I chuckled at THE WAY they communicated with me - through all those gusts of wind.  "Typical," I thought, remembering what Apu Ausangate told us before our mountain trip (to look for his signs in the clouds, rocks and lagoons).  And considering what happened to me on McDowell Mtns before my trip to Peru (see McDowell Mtns: Farewell Hike, June 2008). 

"Thanks for the reminder," I told the mountain spirits as I gave up my most beautiful mesa stone.  I tucked it in for the Apus where it fell in the smoldering despacho.

At the end of my despacho ceremony, I played some Inka music that I had recorded earlier for just this purpose.  So when I started to climb down Camelback, I was still playing it.  Check it out in this short video clip...

Descending from Camelback Mtn "Prayer Rocks" (part 3 of 4) (1:23 mins)

By the time I descended from Camelback, the shadows were lengthening as you could see in the above video.  I had forgotten that I still had my poncho on.  I was reminded of that by curious glances of a couple of climbers I had.  They were heading up the mountain.  So I took it off.  It felt good, too, to have it off, given that it was still about 107F (42C).  I've come a long way down to the desert from the freezing temperatures of the high Andes.

As I was walking down the mountain, I also thought of a question I had just received in an e-mail from a dear friend in Ohio.  This former newspaper reporter and editor who rightfully checks and triple checks every story with an "I am from Missouri" (the "show me" state) frame of mind, asked the following question about my Peru experiences:

Do you honestly feel as though your spiritual quest has provided some of the answers about love and life for you? If you do, then I am extremely happy for you and somewhat envious as well. You are much too brilliant to be “taken in” by anything.

I had not yet replied to her, but I was doing it now - while kicking up dirt on the Camelback Mtn trail.  And it was an unequivocal - "YES!"  My experiences did provide invaluable answers to love and life.  I only wish more people had the good fortune to discover them.  There were only 35 of us from the West on the shamanic journey in the Andes.

My writer-friend also quoted one of my own favorite sayings when I face a challenge: "It's a matter of mind over matter: If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."  :-) Except that when it comes to universal love, "it is a matter of heart over both mind and matter."

For, the answers my spiritual journey has provided so far are more in the category of FEELINGS than thoughts; more about matters of the HEART than of the mind.  The Peru mountain spirits have let me experience UNCONDITIONAL LOVE in a way that I had felt it only once before (also while on my recent spiritual journey - on May 11, 2008 in Montenegro (see "Out of This World"_.  [Oh, my God... I just realized: Today is also an 11th day of the month!]  But back to my earlier train of thought... it is the kind of love that is so all-encompassing that it is not focused on any particular person.  Yet it is so powerful that it shakes you right down to your roots.  And it leaves you filled with utter bliss. 

"So, yes, yes, and yes," I said to my dear friend from Ohio.  "I did find some amazing answers about love and life in Peru."

No sooner had those thoughts crossed my mind and those feelings entered my heart, when something happened that made me realize I was not alone; that there were some "eavesdroppers" on my above thoughts and emotions.  I was thinking I was all done for the day on Camelback Mtn, but the mountain spirits weren't finished "talking" to me. 

To see what they had to "say," out this video clip (below) that I made at the end of the Camelback Mtn trail...

"I love you, too," I replied to the mountain spirits off camera.  I could see that they evidently agreed with my "written," but as yet unsent, message to my Ohio friend.

"Strange how things like that happen," I thought afterward on the drive home.  I must have stepped on that rock a hundred times.  But it was only today that it carried a LOVE sign for me, at least in this three-dimensional world.

Then I chuckled again, quickly changing the film. This time, I was smiling because I managed to burn another despacho without getting arrested for starting an open air fire in 107F weather in the middle of a desert city.  "Thank you, my dear Apus," I said out loud. :-)

And that's all she wrote from my home mountain in Arizona.  What happened was evidently a continuing echo of our Peru adventure.  Like the first despacho, this one started with prayers and ended up in smoke... that carried the prayers all the way to the Andes' Apus.  And they responded to it in their own inimitable way.

Love  Light 

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