I drunk a single cup again in this ceremony – possibly ever so slightly more than the last ceremony, and then lay on my back and put my awareness on my breathing. I begun to notice minor distortions in the room and fidgeted a bit before relaxing and allowing the process to start.
An octopus was stuck to my face with its tentacles tightly grasping my head. A wave of anxiety followed before I relaxed into it and realised that I was able to breathe just fine, and that the octopus was allowing me to release whatever negativity and heaviness I wanted into it.
After a few minutes, the octopus vision passed and I was suddenly being stabbed in both eyes with something sharp – it seemed to be a long wooden pole with a piece of glass or plastic embedded in the end. I opened my eyes and realised that my vision was blurry, although I reassured myself that my eyes were just fine, and I took it in my stride!
I was then transported to some sort of “lower world” – it was dark, murky and hard to see. I came up to a large totem pole perhaps over 10 foot high with human heads stacked all around it. Horrible as this all sounds, it was OK. As I had learned in previous ceremonies, nothing is anything until judgement gets attached to it, not even the “best” or “worst” experiences. Only once my mind steps in to describe something and tell me what it is does it become so, and my body then reacts accordingly. Without that process happening, things just are what they are.
The hummingbird that I’d helped with energy healing appeared briefly – it seemed to fly by to say thank you.
I went outside for a while with my bucket and purged soon after, before lying back on the grass. It wasn’t long before I had the urge to return back inside.
Inside, I went to lie down on my mat – the medicine was going strong. “Sit up,” came a voice. “Oh please no,” I thought – I was tired and still feeling nauseous. “Come on, sit up,” the voice came again. I sat up, and immediately the most detailed visions were “transmitted” to me to enhance my energy healing work. It was a new state of awareness, optimal for energy healing work. “I’m never going to remember this,” I thought, and I knew there was no way to write it down! “Lie down,” said Ayahuasca and so I did. I realised that this was the way to integrate and commit the lesson to memory. I bowed on my knees afterwards to express my gratitude for such a powerful lesson.
“Sit up,” came the voice. “You don’t have to ask me twice,” I replied and got up. The nausea had quickly passed. Despite having never touched a drum before, a detailed visual and intuitive instruction came explaining exactly how to use one for energy healing work. I lay down again to integrate the lesson before bowing on my knees.
“Sit up,” said Ayahuasca, as I learned to “feel” energy in more detail as well as working with it at a distance. I lay down, integrated the lesson, and bowed.
I was profoundly grateful for these 3 lessons and had never experienced anything like it. It was clear after this that energy healing work was to be a large part of my work going forward.
The medicine was wearing off, and the last hour of the ceremony passed quietly. With the ceremony closed, I slowly hobbled to bed.
I was doing totally different work with Ayahuasca than San Pedro. I had got into the mindset of, “I do all my real work with San Pedro – Ayahuasca is just kind of mild and fun,” and I could see that this view was inaccurate. I was beginning to develop a deep respect for Ayahuasca and her wonderful healing abilities.
