A personal story on mysticism and Amazonian magic

After so many ceremonies, it’s fair to say that not all of them are huge awakening moments. Most ceremonies are cleansing and recalibrating the focus on my personal process to continue in clarity. The time before I started an apprenticeship, I was helping out with the facilitation at ‘El Purguero’, Ron’s center. It is not rare that plants approach people in a ceremony to invite them as a student to come and work with them. These conversations can get really hilarious if you observe your personal ego answering to the conscious energy of different plants and spirits that desire to engage with you on a personal level. Maybe I can share 2 silly examples from my own experience, they play out over the same night.

That night we just had a circle amongst friends, so no retreat setting. I was still sitting in my bubble while Ron started to go around for each individual to cleanse and seal the experience of the ceremony, by soplaring with his pipe of Mapacho. Ayah came to me and told me that if I would consider learning from her that I wouldn’t have a thing to worry about. She will take care of me. My ego goes: ”Yeah right, so drop my clothes, throw away my papers and material belongings and run bare naked in the jungle.” Ayah: “If you wish, sure.” 

By the time this was said, Ron arrived at my seat to give me my cleansing and protection. Right after we sat together and shared our equal experiences on having these invitations from plants during ceremonies. We took it lightly and had some fun joking around the idea of taking it to extremes.

At that time I was still in a strong grasp of my critical mindset and rationality that I inherited from my atheist background. These kinds of experiences were things I easily discarded as something I was simply imagining. Later that night, back in bed, I was still floating around with some mantras in the background. With my headphones on I stepped in a bubble that would take me on a journey to visit some weird dimensions and place our own fantasy can’t even imagine. And at the same time of having such a mind bending experience, you have a chat with Ayah, going over the steps and layers that I would need to take and peel off to arrive to a set of agreements on how it would look like, for me, to take on an apprenticeship as vegetalista or healer.

Back then I loved gaming, specifically Playstation. I remember going over all kinds of material belongings and actually pretty fluent. Putting myself in a position to visualize how it would feel when I would take all these material things away that kept me in the life story that was currently living, back home in Belgium. Until we arrived at the Playstation… I observed how my mental aspect or rather identity was disagreeing like a teenager to let go of games. How silly this even sounds to me now, after all these years, hahaha!

A couple of weeks later, we got a new group in. Some very nice people who all connected deep through that week. Without realizing that the invitation of the plants would become very real this time. The second ceremony we had that week was pure magic, even Ron was blown away by the love and high vibrant energies and beings that came through that night. The ceremony had its usual way of opening up the dream space, only this time we drank a very special brew out of Ron’s collection. Black Ayahuasca, or Yanahuasca, A vine that has been growing for practically 50 years or more. Combined with Huambisa - Chaliponga (Different source than Chacruna for the visions). This definitely has an effect on the potency of the brew, because an old vine contains a lot more information through its own life experience. 

To me the brew held a very strong earth energy, connecting to the astral realms and the animal kingdom. At that time I wasn’t a very grounded person. It has always been one of my main tasks to ground myself regularly and cleanse my roots, so I could start growing in life with clarity and focus, reaching for stars with my feet firmly on the ground. I started to feel very uncomfortable very fast. I ran on and off to the toilet outside for 6-7 times, without any results of purging. I started to touch and massage my digestive system and asked Ayah what was going on. I felt very insecure and didn’t know what to do with myself. Her voice came to me, “Take your shoes off and put your feet on the ground. Relax, breath deep and feel, truly feel. Do you really have to go purge or are you still collecting energy before being able to let go?”  So I dug deeper into myself to find out what was keeping me from letting go. Until the question came to me: “Do you really desire to work with us, plants? Do you want to know what it feels like to do this work?” I said yes! Being scared to allow myself to be a vessel for other energies, was very scary at that time and I didn’t even comprehended what that would contain. The feeling of purging disappeared and flipped to butterflies in my stomach that announced the start of a psychedelic rollercoaster through a psychedelic jungle, mainly existing out of huge mushrooms with very vibrant colors. It felt like I transformed into a bird flying through this strangely new dimension I witnessed.

When things calmed down and felt stable again, I noticed that I was hearing Ron’s thoughts. We had a funny disturbance in the circle that night. One of our visitors was having a waking experience of experiencing god part of himself and screamed it out for the whole jungle. 

“GUUUUUUYS, YOU NEED TO SEE THIS. WAUW, THIS IS IT. IT’S EVERYTHING! I’M EVERYTHING!  WAUW! YEAH! I’M SO HAPPYYYYYYYY!”

Repeating himself over and over until we got annoyed about it and Ron took him outside. 

Then I noticed that Ron was also aware of me hearing his thoughts. And we started to telepathically divide the work. I wasn’t allowed to sing at his ceremonies, because it is his space. Very important to Ron and always respected that. He would go out to make sure the guy was in a safe spot and good to be sitting by himself out of the Maloca, where he could continue his praising for his own divinity. Which was lovely to witness, but equally disturbing for others on their journey.  

A couple of minutes later Ron came back in and carried on with the ceremony. As soon as he started to sing and use the chikapa again, I started automatically drumming on the rhythm of his Icaros that were filling the Maloca. At the same time I felt energy from the group coming through my feet while beating along the rhythm of the vibration. And guiding that energy into my digestion system keeping it together with my fingers like a bag of energy that I was to transmute and process for our group. In my mind I asked Ron for a break to grab a Mapacho. But it was a very direct NO. You’re working, finish the job before relaxing, we keep on going till the end. By then we were in the ceremony only a few hours and it felt like a fulltime job of very hard labor. But with rhythm and a certain flow that was pure magic. Being a vessel for all these energies to help others cleanse to become a better version from themselves. Wasn’t only costing energy it was an equal exchange of energy of giving and receiving, taking darkness out and filling the emptiness back up with light.

At the end of that night, Ron started to do his closing round of soplars and I witnessed him, for the first time, standing in such awe and strength, a high frequency of love and gratitude for everything in life and on this planet. Usually sitting with Ron in the ceremony feels like getting ready for a battle. That night I saw Ron without his armor and weapons, completely out of the perception of a warrior. Just pure light and his loving essence.

He was very gentle with everybody and gave them extra care for each individual. I almost started to cry out of gratitude (Back then I wasn’t always allowing certain emotions to come through). We closed the Maloca and went for a tea, had some nice chats with the whole group over a cup of tea in the kitchen. All of a sudden I started to lose my focus and dazed in a very disorientating space. Couldn’t keep my head in the process of using my hand to go to my bag, take a Mapacho and fire and light it up. Nope! My body didn’t function anymore, at the same time I felt like my digestive system was about to erupt like a volcano. I asked help to get me to the toilet and if someone could light one up for me. As soon as I hit the toilet I started to purge for eight people and myself at the same time. And on top of that feeling the deepest gratitude I ever experienced so far for everybody and everything. Even for the people that I experienced trauma with and all the other bad things that happened to me before. Such an awe for all my misery. Because thanks to this, today, I am who I am and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

After that I finished my tea, the rest of the group was enjoying each other's company, while the jungle started to whisper in my ears. “Join us…” … “Come outside and walk with us through the forest…”. After this ceremony I have never felt so complete as that night, almost like witnessing the true potential of my own being, was a blessing. But this still meant a lot of work needed to be done to get to this part fully integrated in my current life. Only that wasn’t a concern that night and I enjoyed the sweetness of the gifts and blessings that night. Walking into the forest, whistling and singing to the plants, the spirits and the stars. Finally home, where I belong…

Up till today this experience has been one of the most profound experiences I ever had so far in my own healing process and up till today I’m still integrating this. The integration of my higher self into my physical being as it is today, with all the knowledge my soul gained through life experiences. Not being this amateur that just started his work with plants. But rather a very old soul that started to remember his true essence and reason for standing here today, in this peculiar time.

Hope you enjoyed this story!

Love and gratitude to all of you,
Nick