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August 12, 2005

Spiritual Cleansing

A few days before our wedding we were invited to an ancient shamanic cleansing ceremony. It was to start at 8 or 9 at night and finish around 12 hours later. We were really interested but a bit put off because we were told you should go with an empty stomach, and that didn’t sound like fun. Ignoring all the sound advice we stuffed our faces at dinner and shared a bottle of champagne with our honeymooning friends, then decided to go for it anyway.

We had been told that to take part in the ritual was a life changing, enlightening experience. It is your chance to ask a question to the cosmos and take medicinal herbs and juices that connect you with all nature and spirits and answers will be brought to you.

We got driven to the hut deep in the valley with around 25 other people and all sat in a circle around a fire. We were introduced to the shaman and his friend Santiago. Santiago was a very important man apparently as he was the ‘firekeeper’ which meant he had to hussle around the fire all night and waft it around with a wing ripped off some poor bird. Another important role description Santiago was granted was ‘lookeeper’; he was the man to go to and ask if you felt the urge to do your buisness. Unfortunately, sometimes he said no.

Other rules were introduced in the beginning. No talking – this is a personal experience with you and nature. No leaving until it’s over in the morning – to allow the cosmos time to answer your questions or something. Only walk clockwise around the fire – no clue what thats about.

After the rules the fun stuff started and we all got a swig of the cactus juice. After that we all got to take turns shaking a big rattle to the sound of a babys heartbeat. That takes so long that by the time everyone has done with the rattle the cactus is in full swing and everyones caked. Not that you can talk to anyone else about it, you’re just sitting there in silence zoning out to the fire. The shaman did a good line in talking for the WHOLE night. Very impressive, about 10 straight hours chatting away with no answering back, in both spanish and english too. The Cactus was affecting me so much I was convinced I could understand both english and spanish equally well, though now I’m not so sure. There was plenty of chat about nature, and ‘we are the water and the trees’ and ‘when you look at a tree you are looking in a mirror’. For 10 hours. 10.

About an hour after the cactus went down the ‘cleansing’ began. This turned out to be most people in the circle making a big fanfare about wretching up the cactus juice. And this went on for hours. No doubt the stuff made you feel sick, but I wasn’t too keen on throwing up, even though they did give everyone a very cute little puke bag and tissue. So the Shaman is still talking... ‘we must remember our heartbeat as a baby, boomboomboomboom’ and behind him there’s ...’bllleeeuurrghhh’ from five people yakking into their little bag.

I didn’t have a watch on but what I’d reckon to be about 1am I was getting pretty tired. We were then invited to take our own personal time by the fire. And a leapord skin was placed down and one by one people got up to have their half an hour at one with the fire. During this time the person, sitting cross-legged in front of the fire, was given a sacred stone to rub over themselves then they hold it up to the shaman ..... who then takes a massive gobfull of liquid and spits it all in their face! I think at first the liquid was water but when that ran out he was grabbing other bottles. At one point he complained because he’d taken a mouthful of hot chilli water, yet still had no problems spitting it in the face of some poor bastard. Me and Jono never made it over to the leapord skin to have our spiritual time with the fire.

Luckily the morning came and they provided some fruits for breakfast. When we made it back to our hotel we could finally talk to each other and figure out what we’d thought of the whole thing. Turns out Jono had a far better reaction to the Cactus and had hallucinogenic visions of the roof of the hut beaming open and everyone being sucked down into the fire. Also the shaman making a few arian references, rubbing bare chested young boys with sacred stones and looming over and spitting on them had given a kind of Neo-Nazi Youth Brigade feel.

The cosmos never answered my question and Jono forgot his.


Posted by Siobhan on August 12, 2005 05:40 PM
Category: Ecuador
Comments

Congratulations Congratulations !!
I missed the date but its never too late to have a celebratory glass of bubbly! You both look gorgeous! I hope your day was magnificent.

Hugs Julia

Posted by: Julia Collins on August 12, 2005 11:13 PM

Hi - Just visiting Tracey in sunny Rochdale. Had a look at your fabulous wedding photo's - congratulations to you both, keep enjoying yourselves - soon be back (hahaha). Tracey waiting for christmas. I also hope to see you soon and toast the bride and groom.

Best Wishes Chris

Posted by: Tracey's Mum (Chris) on August 23, 2005 07:58 PM
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