Templates

I just spent an amazing week with a wonderful Middle World shamanic teacher from Seattle.  My husband came with me for this one, and I was so glad :-)  So many amazing shamanic colleagues from around the world were there to be in circle with us, and I was so glad to be able to share his enormous heart with my dearest shamanic friends.

We were exploring mediumship with our ancestors, and using an ancient technology called Seidr to do it. This is written about in the Icelandic sagas, specifically in chapter 4 of the Saga of Eirik the Red. For those of us with Northern European ancestry, this is an ancestral practice which speaks to our blood. The first time I returned to myself from sitting on High Seat last year, staff in hand, I thought, "I've been doing this for a thousand years".  Apparently I really have.

This week, I saw again and again the templates that we create with our thoughts, the ways in which we inhibit ourselves by narrowing our possibilities.  When one sits on the High Seat and sees through the eyes of the volva, the seer. As each seeker came before us three on the High Seat, as the answers formed, I could see how we think a reality into existence that is so much smaller than the reality that is possible for us; we carve a narrow way with them, when a beautiful, broad avenue is available to us if we want it to be. The templates that we "think out" ahead of ourselves are the spaces into which we create our world.  Make them big!  Make them roomy; large enough for your own dreams and with some extra capacity for the dreams of spirit to fill in, as well.

The spirits have enormous love and compassion for us.  They want us to succeed and to unfold in a beautiful way, to meet the purpose that we have crafted for ourselves in this life, in these bodies head-on.

Peru Diary 3

New poncho and new hat :-) Ana said, "The Apus like bright colors!" We found them both at what I can only describe as a "big box store for artisinal textiles". It was HUGE. and overwhelming. The little old man who sold me the poncho also fixed the neck opening and enlarged it a little. Ana said - "get it, it's a steal!" so I did. 

Had a great dinner at a little restaurant called Pachapapa. I ordered a sampler plate with alpaca kabob, stuffed pepper, five kinds of potato, each different and unique, tamale, and a little salad. We had a YUMMY pitcher of "chicha morrado", or fermented cooked corn, apple, pineapple and cinnamon. Only fermented enough to give it a bit of foam, hardly any alcohol. Like super-duper grape soda but better. 

It *poured* rain on us as we ate outside - "nievo granazo", "snow grains", or "hail". Then turned into a thunder/lightning downpour. We got happily soaked and then eventually moved inside into the restaurant for delicious chamomile tea, then walked home in the rain and slogging water. Have to press close to the walls when the cars go by it's so narrow.

Love!

Peru Diary 2

  Yesterday I arrived at about 7:30am. I checked in and spent most of the day sleeping and acclimating. My US teacher, Ana, took me to dinner at a restaurant just down the hill called "Jacks", and it is yummy. 

We are in the heart of the old city of Cusco, in the San Blas district on Cuesto San Blas street. All the buildings here are built on ancient Inka foundations which were then built on top of in the 16-1700s when the Spanish were here. Our pension is funky in a really good way. It reminds me a lot of Pension Pertschy in Vienna: crooked hallways, thick walls, tiled floors and the lobby used to be the courtyard. It's been glassed over, but not by much; it's somewhat drafty but there are propane heaters to keep us warm :-) My room is on the second floor and has a skylight, so I woke up pretty early this morning with the sun. It rained and rained last night and the sound was very comforting. 

I was a *very* wise boy to book my flights a couple of days in advance of our travels: I am strangely lightheaded at moments and sort of queasy in the morning until I get a little food and coffee in me. Yesterday the moment I emerged from the airport after getting my luggage and into the cordoned-off parking area where people greet their loved ones, Rodolfo, Adolfo's younger brother and business partner in their trekking business spotted me and waved, "Jeffrey!"  It was immediate, and I wondered if Ana had given him a picture of me. But no: she'd told him I look like Santa Claus. I've been asked twice now on the street if I'm Santa Claus :-)

The people here are tiny: I tower over them, which is kind of fun but strange. They are unfailingly kind and friendly and radiate a sweetness that I really wish I could import back home. Our hotel is right next to a painter in the Cusco School, and his teeninsy shop is *filled* with beautiful oils in the Renaissance style of many different varieties of Mary and the Angels. Apparently the Spanish taught painting as a way of communicating with the Quechua-speaking people here about Christianity. If I can get a picture, there is a fresco at a nearby church with a reproduction of the Last Supper, and in the middle of the table is roast Guinea Pig, a ceremonial necessity here. Of *course* Jesus had roast Guinea Pig at his final meal! To say that these paintings are incredibly well-done (even today) and luminous is a total understatement. 

Here are some links about the Cusco School of painters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cusco_School

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopo_Archangels

Apparently the inclusion of so many different Archangels (a lot of whom I've never even heard of, and I've done a lot of reading about them) dates back to the syncretic practice of including "the winged dieties that pre-date the Spanish" when the local Cusco School painters were creating their works. 

This is a really cool place. And very, very high. 

I'm glad I still have two whole more days to settle in before we begin our travels. My fellow students, both teachers, arrive tomorrow. They did not have the luxury of more days off since they are basically begging this time away from their districts. As soon as I can clear off my phone a bit, I'll post pictures :-)

Love,

Jeffrey