What's Your Jungle Story? (Part 1)
HEALING IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE
Q: What’s Your Jungle Story? (Part 1)
A: I received a call from an old friend this week, the first Peruvian shaman I ever worked with on my path of healing. Just hearing his voice brought back the taste of the thick-vined elixir into my mouth (iykyk). After our conversation, I began to hear some icaros, or traditional medicine songs, appear in my consciousness from the Shipibo tribe that had been a prior poignant soundtrack of my life.
The sounds and smells of the damp Amazonian jungle poured through my senses. I started to drift off recalling my first dieta in Peru, back in 2005, and my initial profound experiences around the archetype of the eagle that would later become very important to me. I went to the Amazon in my mid-twenties to heal early-stage cervical cancer with the best medicines on the planet; the pharmacy of the Amazon Rainforest. I got my healing, but the true gift was in my first encounter with my Being, an experience that set me forth on a path to discover myself.
A dieta, Spanish for “diet”, is a retreat where you are basically on pause for 10 days drinking nectars of various medicinal plants, attending Ayahuasca (the queen of powerful healing plant medicine) ceremonies, and only eating roasted platanos (bananas) and rice, in complete silence. All of this occurs after three days of travel; flying from LA, a stopover in Panama, overnight in Lima, a couple of nights in the neighboring town of Palculpa, a day-long taxi ride on unpaved roads, a jungle boat tour for 6-7 hours and then a two-hour hike to get to where we had traveled so long and far to “heal”. Clearly, if I was to come all this way, I had a strong determination to do so.
A MOTH TO THE FLAME
I remembered a particular night journeying deeper into the jungle. One foot in front of the other, walking stick in hand as I trudged forward in my rubber boots through thick mud. Torrential rain was pouring down and I was still at least 15 minutes away from my tambo, a thatched hut without walls. With only my headlamp lighting the way, it must have been around 1 or 2 in the morning, I was walking towards my bed, Amazonian medicine pumping through my blood. You had to be careful of tarantulas and jaguars just in case they decided to visit or take over your home while you were away. Somehow, I wasn’t frightened and had an immediate sense of acclimation to this exotic land.
When I finally reached “home”, I placed my boots just above the steps, took off my water poncho, walked straight to my altar, and lit a candle. An Amazonian Moth goddess was staring back at me, as moths in the jungle look more like the most exquisite butterflies back home. A few days earlier I had unrolled and hung a gorgeous canvas on one post of my hut, painted by a local indigenous artist. I placed my crystals around the candle and a few pieces of jewelry that were significant to me. My eyes closed in prayer and gratitude, and when I opened them again, I saw a live moth fluttering in circles around the fire…what an incredible sight!
I was enamored with her. Just as I was fully appreciating her beauty, entranced by our communion and the heavenly rains, she took a turn, folded her wings, and dove into the flame. I gasped as the candle went out and so did her life, just like that. I was staring at the stark truth of impermanence…
Read “What’s Your Jungle Story? (Part 2)” in an upcoming journal.
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