to my amazing kids, Mother, family and friends..
so you all know how i think things happen for reasons.. sometimes a mystery for a long time and sometimes for a short time and hopefully in our lifetime we can figure out the whys.... well, with the idea that we have some contracts to fill with the people that we meet and important big reasons why he or she happens in our life.. including all the wonderful ordinary... here is an amazing story...
there was this man who was living in our house for about three weeks.. i may have mentioned him before ..or not.. he is 72 or 73 years old and looks alot like Col. Sanders, which became his nickname in the school that he worked, with his kids... anyway, he struggled greatly with the thin air here suffering from sleep apnia (?) and having survived three heart attacks in his fifties.. honestly, i had a hard time enjoying those meals of rice and potatoes with his heaving and snorting and my patience and stomach were growing thinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.. as well, he was an intellectual.. like Eggie, your dad´s friend in university, and liked to talk about things like .. the shortage of natural gas in canada... and medical this and that, and farming practises in New Zealand vs. those in Korea... and so on... so a light hearted breakfast discussion was never the case... anyway...
the night before he left laura and i were having dinner with him and laura had a miserable headache.. so Michael, offered to help her.. . he was an oral surgeon, practised acupuncture and some other healing natural medicine... he pressed a spot on her leg, somewhere midway on her lower leg, just outside the bone and pressed for about 5 minutes .. and bingo! the headache was gone.. totally impressed we questioned him further and he proceeded to tell us about this other form of treatment.. body talks in the states.. where he diagnoses your body to learn what is not 100% and then treats it with energy to make it heal.. so first at the bat.. i stand in front of him with one arm stretched out and firm and the other placed on my forehead.. he stood in front of me with one hand on my stretched out arm pressing down.. then he begins at the top of my head and seemed to be calling on his energy and breath as he took his other hand and moved it from my head, to my neck, to my shoulders and lungs and to all other body parts.. all the time pressing on my hand... all of a sudden when he got to the area just below my ribcage on my left side my arm uncontrollably dropped... there! something is there... he continued .. the rest was fine... he zoomed some breath into himself and put his hand again and again on my outstretched arm... something there in..eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! then i told him about the scan i had and he moved to my head... then the backs of my legs....
he did the same proceedure to laura and then to nadia who also had a headache...
in the morning he said to me .. i can´t read you.. you need to speak to someone good because i believe it is spiritual ...
so now the story gets really interesting.. when i did the trip to Tipon, which i have yet to write about , the guide walked us through the ruins, with water that is channeled thoughout in various patterns. at one place water spouts out the rock into a small pool cut out of the rock.. this was designed to naturally filter the water.. the guide asks if we would like to be blessed and we all agree... the guide takes the water and touches each of the areas of our chakras... intrigued.. i ask for more.. what does he know? is there anyone good i could speak with.... and so on...
there are many shaman in cusco.. many tourist attractions... but there are two real shaman.. one that lives on the top of one of the mountains and one that lives at saxcywauman.. the place i visited on the first weekend. he went on to tell the story of the old shaman who knew of his gifts as a boy and travelled away to return one time and have a condor land on a big rock on saccyhuaman ( saxywoman) while he was there... he took this as a sign and settled there, just at the side of the mountain near this place.
so i tucked this thought into my mind and decided i would get ahold of the guide later and see if he might be able to arrange a meeting with him for me...
time passes...
one night i go shopping after tandom spanish/english not wanting to go back to the house... i have treasures to buy and really i just want to not go back to the house.. so i go into this small market on the way home and i get talking to this wonderful vendor called Julia, pronoounced hoolia... she expains about the meanings in her jewellry and about what different stones mean.. and i am intrigued... i ask if she knows the shaman at saccyhuaman and she says she knows him well.... i ask if she can arrange a meeting and find out how much this will cost and she says it is no problem and to meet me tomorrow or the next monday at 5;30. ok..
it is now monday nite and i go to find julia, thinking she will have the information for me... it is about 5;45 and she is on her way in a taxi to her shop to meet me.. when she arrives she tells me to go with her, and her husband and small child to the home of the shaman up at the top of the city near saccyhuaman, and because of her oozing warmth, and the fact that her husband and little one were in tow. i went.
night is upon us here by then and the view of the city is beautiful as is the Cristo Blanco scupture which lights up the night.. leading up tot the shaman´s home are rows of walls made of blocks of clay.. similar to those packed to build their houses... at the tops of the walls cacti have been planted and it is clear that it has been designed for privacey from the world... julia and her husband exit the taxi with the little one and i wait , thinking i may need a fast escape and not sure what i have gotten myself into... she calls his name, and calls and calls... in front of julia and roughly built lean to has been constructed and holds a worn, dusty sheet appearing to be used for privacy... on the clay section facing us is a menu, so it may be some sort of restaurant by day, but certainly not by night....in about 6 or 8 minutes the wife of the shaman appears and julia explains why we are there... the wife tells us will be out shortly and we go into the yard, walking right on tightly packed clay.. the yard is small, unkept and purposeful.. in the centre a circle within a circle has been outlined in different sized stones.. some round and large enough for sitting and others smaller. in four or five places large cone shaped pieces of wood, grey with time, stand about 4 feet tall in various places around the circle. in the center, ambers hide in the grey ashes of the night before.. there is a mound of grass with a vase of flowers mostly carnations in unnatural colours of purple and yellow... and a large flat stone about 2 and a half feet by 18 inches... we wait.. it is dark and getting cold and i am not dressed for the night here.. periodic rain spatters on and off and we wait for the shaman... soon he does arrive and julia and her husband engage in apparent happy talk and i am out of the picrture... the little guy runs freely with other children home from school, or ready for school and three mangly dogs... one with a sky blue eye...
the shaman stokes the coals and throws on some sweet smelling wood that smells like the sweetgrass you occasionally breath on the island... it is comforting.. i am cold... we are all handed coca leaves to chew and i am told not to swallow them.. hmmmm.. ok ... so i chew and i swallow and i don´t get the collect it in your cheek thing....
after a while we are cold and he invites us into his home... it is a large square space about the size of the dining room at home with dirt floors and very modest wooden tables and benches on one end.. several flat places that look like beds.. one with a dirty sleeping bag and kids sprawled in front of a chattering television... there is a stove, or maybe just elements on one side and something in the corner.. a sink maybe.. dinner is cooking and it is late... the shaman beckons us to sit on the benches and offers the sleeping bag for comfort.. accepted... then as we nestle around the table he spreads the coca leaves on the table... then he motions to julia to look at te flat leaves in front of her and her husband and the little mountain in front of me.. i am asked if i have a mountain near me.. and i tell them of the lacloche mountains... he tells me i have three children...
time passes and i sit quietly.. later money is discussed and i decide that since everything lined up the way it did that it is supposed to happen.... so it is arranged that i meet julia the next day with the money and prove my serious intent...
we all walk together down the long path hoping for a cab or some form of transportation to get be back to Santa Monica the neighbourhood on the far other side of town ... we hop a bus and then a cab.. and i am silent from the experience...
the next day, which was tuesday.. i carry on my usual life of spanish and the boys...they are enraptured with the guitar and our joy together continues...
but on to the shaman story.... i meet julia at two, give her money and then leave to arrive back at 3 to take a taxi up to his home.... this time freddy, her son about 22 who is studying the five year tourism course at the local university, comes along as my interpreter .. so there are the three of us being cabbied up to saccyhuaman..to the shaman´s home..
arriving there it is about 3;30 and we walk into the yard and settle on a bench waiting for him...with daylight i see more stories... there are 3 or 4 boxes of empty large beer cases in a corner beside a new clean statue of a dancer.. there is no plan for items spread across a table next to a guitar case... the music for the ceremony....on the one side of the circle a barb wire fence has been erected and some version of cloth is draped from post to post in one section for privacey.. in another area a section has been fenced off for horses...
shortly after he arrives... he is weathered and kind, not layered in traditional garb ... his hair is long and held back in a ponytail tucked deep inside the back of his coat.. he is all the colours of the earth...in his hand he carries coloured grocery bags , i expect from the local market, which freddy explains are the offerings to the pachamama..
we sit together on little stools turned on their sides in front of the big flat stone.. the insense is lit and guitar strumming starts to fill the air... a saddled horse wanders through the field behind the barbed wire and i feel it is you , cath , watching over the event.. the sun is out and the sky is clear...we begin to eat the coca leaves and handfulls of them are spread over the flat rock.... we are pass three leaves to each other , blow our breath on them and eat those leaves as we are collecting our special pile, one on top of each other , in our hands.. eventually the shaman, asks me for my pile of leaves which he takes in his hand and holds up for julia to see.... her eyes sparkle at mine... gold... your energy is gold , i am told and apparently this is good....
at this point i have swallowed most of my coca leaves, which i am not supposed to do.. i notice that both julia and freddy, have growing mounds in their cheeks , and i wonder if this will affect the blessing....
then he asks me what the name of my mountain at home is again and i tell him again, Lacloche.. so he calls my mountain to combine with the energy and goodness of these mountains.. as i said , it is a sunny day... but all of a sudden.. a big whirling wind came around us.. like the wind that comes over mindemoya lake when we have to run for the lawn chairs on the dock... and it whipped around for several minutes.. we covered the coca leaves and waited... he smiled and so did julia.. it was a good sign that lacloche was present..
the ceremony has begun... and he opens the first package of one sheet of wrapping paper and begins to fold it into patterns... representing the four directions and triangles on the sides, top and bottom.. then he places it pattern down on the coca leaves on the stone and begins to place treasured objects on top of the paper... one by one.. first a round flat sunlike piece of something from the ocean.. on top of it a bowl of beads, then he tucked all of our piles of coca leaves under the bowl.. i am asked to make a wish for anything... so i do...holding my hand tightly on top of the bowl... then i take my hand away and he starts adding other special things from the bags... candies, cookies, spices, a piece of gold and silver for gilding, 700 euros in crisp bills.. (counterfeit) strings of various colours ... which are put onto the withered , rust coloured foot of an alpaca ... it looks more like a chickens head... and the foot is wrapped in gauze.. then he dips the foot in wine, and then beer and spatters it over the pile...
then with the pile high with treasures, he folds the paper and takes some ties from around his neck and ties the package into a nice tight present.. the fire in centre of the circle has been started and a beautiful smell of sweetgrass fills area... we are turn away from the offering and face the old clay house... all this time soft enchanting music of the mountains is being played and the shaman whispers words from time to time and signals to the mountains and heavens to send goodness and cleansing energy..
i am quiet..
i learn that my auras are light blue, red and yellow... blue for wisdom and thought, red for the essence of my being and yellow for my energy in my work.. he tells me that i work out of love and that great happiness is coming and prosperity.. good thing.
we dance around the circle , spinning and moving to the drum...after awhile we sit down and i am offered coke while the shaman drinks beer mixed with coke.. as the evening gets cooler more and more spirits are brought out i continue to drink coke.
at elevenish we get a taxi home, the musician, julia and me....how do i feel? good, fine... no real difference but happy to be blessed..
and this is the story of the shaman of Saccyhuaman.
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