time mapping spiritual transformation 3

8/9/2019 Time Mapping Spiritual Transformation 3

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Timemapping Spiritual Transformation:

The Soul-Healing Symbiosis of Shamanism and Evolutionary Astrology

The Astral Shaman

Through my interest and passion for shamanism, the celestial language of

astrology visited me, like magi from a distant, exotic desertscape. In 2004, I began an

almost obsessive relationship with the Mayan culture, their mysterious 2012 enddate, andtheir sacred 260 day count, called the Tzolkin. Simultaneously, I exposed myself to the

world of Amazonian shamanism through Jeremy Narbys groundbreaking book The

Cosmic Serpent, which linked the serpentine visions of the shamans and their indigenous

cosmologies with the structures of the DNA.

As the languages of astrology and shamanism penetrated every aspect of my

being, I learned that in most cultures, there had never been a separation between shaman

and stargazer. As the cultural mythmaker, the shaman would indeed need to maintaincommunication with the meaning of the cycles of the stars, in addition to his or her

transmissions with astral beings and the ancestral realm. In my own desire then, toemulate the Mayan shaman-kings and alchemically synthesize the languages of astrology

and shamanism, I was drawn early on to the models of Shamanic Astrology and

Evolutionary Astrology. Both perspectives focus on an archetypal, soul-centered

approach to understanding the karmic dynamics and evolutionary intent of the soul.

Having made odysseys through Asia, Central America, the Mid East, and Europe,

the Amazon and Andes were the last places I felt I neededto travel, those places thatseem to beckon our souls forward on their destined paths. I was curious to understand

the potency of my soul's quest in this land as my relocated astrology maps suggested anevolutionary invitation that could radically shift my life-direction. Would I meet animportant teacher? Would this become my second home?

I knew going down to South America that the Nodes in my chart would be themost amplified planets. The South Node represents our soul's history, where traumas,

behavioral attachments, but also intrinsic gifts lie. The opposite point of the North Node

is a kind of quest for our soul, inviting us into new experiences, unfamiliar territory that

will bring the soul into a more comprehensive understanding of itself and fulfillment ofits mission. Although locations with the nodes can be challenging because the soul's

karmic drama is intensified, I often find in my work with clients and my own life, that

these places seem to seduce us with necessary, integral lessons in our evolutionary paths.

In the 6 months prior to my departure, I began an intensive study of past life

regression therapy, utilizing cathartic psychodrama techniques and the foundational soul-map of evolutionary astrology. After my intensive workshop in this modality, and before

my journey south, I continued my shamanic work with mushrooms and in the winter did

two solo ceremonies, my preferred method of working with that medicine. These

journeys were profoundly different than previous mushroom ceremonies inthat I took


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less medicine, but actually went much deeper into my soul, as multiple previous lifetimes

appeared, often in very cathartic memories. The memories were visceral, in the sense of

"just knowing" what was happening in this other lifetime context. I wondered ifayahuasca would reveal more layers of these or other lifetimes, more lessons from the

parallel-universe, multidimensional drama of my soul.

I had wanted to explore pyschotropic shamanism in the Mayan lands, but

discovered in my travels there, that the practice of plant medicine, though common to the

ancient Maya, was rarely practiced anywhere with contemporary Mayan shamans. Thewidespread, traditional use of plant ingestion in the Amazon, however, and the

subsequent cosmologies developed from the symbiotic relationships with plants, inspired

me to visit the jungles. Though I had journeyed 5 times with Ayahuasca, I postponed

working with the Grandmother Vine of the Spirits for about 18 months prior to this trip tothe Amazon. I was ready at last to experience 'real shamanism,' with the Vine in its

home. I wanted it to be as pure as it could be.

Journey into the Past

In April of 2009, I joined my visionary artist friends from the West Coast duringtheir 4th annual retreat in the jungle outside of Iquitos. We would do 4 ceremonies every

other day over the course of 10 days, with two different shamans. Due to my intuitions

about the culture and history of South America, as well as my astrolocality maps in the

region, I thought I was embarking on what would become an annual trip.

As an astrologer, I am always very sensitive to timing and I knew that the

ceremonies were occuring during the Sun's transit through Aries. Since my South Nodeis in Aries, I was well aware that the Sun's transit over this position could reveal stuck

patterns in my soul and illuminate wounded or traumatic lifetimes. I was ready to

confront these issues and move forward. On a physical level, I sought to heal myproblems with digestion, and hopefully find their source.

There was about 10 of us participating on the retreat, including visionary painterDavid Amaringo, nephew of the famous Amazonian curandero/artist Pablo Amaringo.

The retreat had an integral focus - allowing much time for creatively channeling the

visions, as well as yoga/movement journeys, and my own sharing of astrological wisdom

through workshop and readings to my retreat friends. However, these highlighted aspectsof the ten days were at times overshadowed by some rather shocking experiences.

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Gathered in the dark maloca, or ceremonial hut, we began our second ceremony,led by our visiting shaman from Pucallpa, the deep jungle region of the Shipibo natives. I

was surprised by the deep pockets of uncomfortable silence the shaman allowed us to

expose our vulnerable psyches to throughout each ceremony he led. As the "cosmic

serpent" slithered her underworld intensity through my intestines, I prayed that the


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anxious irritation in my stomach was simply the Grandmother working her magic.

Finally, after a few healing songs, or icaros, and an exponential amount ofsoulclenching silence, I lifted my head to the shaman's speaking voice. Was I really

seeing and hearing what i thought i was? No, It must be a hallucination. Is that a cell

phone? Is he on his cell phone in the middle of an Ayahuasca ceremony?!

***

In one sense, I wasn't surprised, he had been on the cell phone quite a lotthroughout the week. But really? Not a westerner, but the shaman on his cell phone. My

ears could only translate the "Como estas?" and the occasional 'si' and 'bueno," though

my psychedelically drenched senses seemed to be bombarded by the incessant chatter.

At this point, I was grateful for my Gemini rising, which could access the trickster

archetype and just laugh internally at what iIwas not only witnessing, but actively

exposing my naked consciousness to. I shook my head in disbelief and just muttered

"Classic."

I also felt grateful for the amount of my own shamanic work I had done, and theconfidence I gained traversing altered states. Yet, I wondered about the others in the

group, how this would affect their journeys, and why we should all have to undergo such

anxiety in the middle of a supposedly 'healing' journey. The fact that cell phones could

even work , of all places,in the Amazon jungle blew me away, almost as much as theman with the Bluetooth traipsing though Machu Picchu just a week before.

We found out the next day from our translator that the shaman had called hisbrother, another curandero, during the ceremony. They like to contact each other when

they do ceremonies to check in and see how it's going. When I heard thisIhad to bracemy fiery Aries reactivity and yes, warrior ferocity. I thought, "You know, I may be

fantasizing about the shamanic archetype , but shouldn't shamans in the Amazonbe able to telepathically tap in to their family members while infused with vast

quantities of a plant medicine which was originally named "Telepathogen" by

early ethnobotanists? I would think that a healer would have a certain sensitivity

towards utilizing an intrusive technological device in such a sacred environment.

***As the 'retreat,' progressed, I watched the very challenging Venus

retrograde cycle in action, as confusions over money and the purchase of

appropriate food for ceremonies brought tensions between the retreat facilitators,

the group members, and the owners of the guesthouse where we were staying.

Though peace was relatively maintained, social friction did occur, typical of

Venus retrograde. I had foreseen some issues with this, but had not known how itwould play out. I learned an important lesson cautioning me towards how best to

use future Venus retrogrades, and kept thinking how many other group orientated

events would benefit from the foreknowledge of this kind of transit.


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Michael or the Buddhist Manjushri, except this angel was in fact an alien wielding

the flaming Sword of Truth. I was then immediately shown a series of alien,

robotic, and human beings running ferociously towards an object. I could not

perceive what this object was, but I was struck by the dire urgency in the

movement and the fact that the movement was towards something. Perhaps this

was Mckenna's visions of the Eschaton, the magnetic, singular point-of-no-return.Perhaps it symbolized a galvanized concrescence of intelligent, aware species -Man, Machine, E.T., Extradimensional, the Dead - all co-existing on the earth

plane in some kind of apocalyptic desperation at the acceleration of cosmic self-

reflectivity.

As the vision subsided, I felt an incredible loss, a disillusionment at the

desire for 'Vision.' In overwhelming confusion, hesitant to project meaningwithout feeling I had received it, I felt myself as a hedonistic Westerner seeking to

consume visions in the Amazon, when in actuality, I wasn't seeking visions at all; I

was seeking Meaning.

I simultaneously witnessed two sides of the mirror-blade. In one, I watched

that South Node in Aries impatiently demanding understanding, wanting to knowwhat everything means RIGHT NOW!. On the other hand, I also acknowledged

the Western or industrialized mind's longing for an authentic religious experience,

unmediated, connected with the invisible landscape of the sacred. The shaman on

the cell phone who tosses his plastic water bottle over the side of the boat into the

Amazon river had lifted the veil of my rose-colored projections.

Also, during the ceremonies, I occasionally reflected on the shamanicpotency of my friends and communities in the United States and how powerful of acollective ceremony we could all hold for each other, without the intense resource and

emotional investment of the excursion across the world.

Yes, I had exoticized the 'shaman archetype,' the 'authentic Amazonian

ayahuasca experience.' I had also been taken advantage of in Cusco just two

weeks before, when I sought out a journey with the San Pedro cactus. I had to

come to terms, after ingesting the medicine, that I had been given something akinto a placebo, a VERY weak dose of the medicine, from someone I trusted. Over

the rest of the day, I went off into the mountains alone and chanted mantras to

calm myself. Perhaps I had been too eager, too full of Aries passion to discover asense of home with these medicines, these "guides," the land itself.

As I examined my desire for Meaning, I thought of Timothy Learys's

statements about the importance of set and setting in achieving a healthy

psychedelic experience. I realized that this was why I like to do ceremoniesalone, because I could control the environment in order to create a safe space,


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where meaningfulinformation could be received. Without the secure container,

one's anxiety would override the potential awakening through a particular

medicine. The mushroom spirit taught me this in spades one year at Burning Man.

Again, the issues of being a loner and of being in control, of situations where I had

to defend or exile myself, those Aries past lives, came screaming through. And so

did the ruler of that south node, Mars. My Mars position in Leo echoed some ofthe same issues of needing to be in power and controlling my space.

Past life dynamics offer us perspectives into patterned behavior. Some of

these behaviors can be beneficial and used to teach or gift others, while some can

be detrimental to our souls' advancement, as we often unconsciously invite in the

same situations which harmed us elsewhere.

So maybe I was playing out negative karma from once being a conquistador

or doing some other harm in South America? I could not tell. But I was also

watching the transit of the volatile, shock-giver Uranus over everywhere i hadtravelled on my journey. And it would continue to follow me if I ventured

onwards into Bolivia to work with animals. My experiences in the jungle, in the

crazed marketplaces and noise of Cusco, in the diverse and darker agendassurrounding Ayahuasca tourism, in the inability to have a real, heart-centered

conversation with a local at Machu Picchu - all made me realize that I was not

prepared to handle more extreme energy. I was compelled to call the airlines and

change my flight. I had only three days to do this, and it was a lot harder than one

might think. I had to speak in Spanish across phone lines that kept collapsing

halfway through the conversation. It seemed to be another 'emergency' situation,

where i had 'to be saved.' While this was happening, I was furtively trying toconnect with a friend of our retreat facilitators, who lived in Florida. Would I stop

to see her and do rebirthing work with her? Would that help reveal more layers of

the soul-drama?

***The Middle Way

I remember when i returned from India many years ago, and was asked,

"How was India?" How can one possibly honestly answer this question without

making an unfair judgment? The same can be said for Ayahuasca. There are so

many different kinds of retreats, centers, individual experiences, shamans,participants, motivations that can be factored in to the quality of one's experience.

This also includes one's astrological transits at the time of travel, as well as the

energies over that area at that time.

Given this and though my energy and tolerance were low, I sought to have

a different experience with the medicine of the jungle before I left. After I


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finally changed my flight and decided to stopover in Florida, I returned to the

Amazon for an opportunity to work with the Temple of Light, which included 4

Shipibo grandmothers and one Elder male shaman. I would stay for just a few

days at the beginning of their 12 day ceremony, joining many Europeans. I sat

out the first ceremony, feeling exhausted and sick, and spent the first two days

there questioning my decision to return. What was I learning in all this mosquitoinfested madness?

During the next ceremony, which would be my only one at the Temple, the

grandmothers wove an incredible tapestry of healing icaros, constant, and at times

chaotic. It almost reversed the empty space of the other ceremonies with a

paradoxical, angelic cacophany, especially as a very seasoned ayahuasca journeyer

began to make a lot of noise.

This woman, who was just a few mats down from me, was inappropriately,

aka sexually moaning and groaning, and even asked another journey participantmultiple times to get her water in a very loud voice. There was an obvious

vampiric energy running through her. It was beyond challenging to maintain a

center through this as I my own experience was invaded by this energy. Again,feeling traumatized, I walked to the bathroom to relieve myself, and suffered

another horrendous choking. The stomach was purging from both ends and there

was no help in sight. In a state of severe shock, I had to guide myself through,

calm myself down again.

After the underworld rebirth emergence from the toilet, I walked outside of

the maloca and sat half-lotus under a tree, staring at the overwhelming majesty ofthe stars. I could still here the Moaner, but at least i had some distance.

I reflected on how the choking had happened twice. Just like my lungs: I

collapsed both of them. Without a doubt, under ayahuasca my ability to perceive

symbolic messaging remained acute.

With my prayer beads, I sent mantras to the Medicine Buddha, the buddha

of healing which all Tibetan doctors pray to before seeing patients. As I did this, I

could feel a more gentle kundalini slithering up my spine, my consciousness

spirally orbiting up each chakra. For a few precious moments, I felt the Buddha's

energy, a soft, compassionate hand come to my shoulders, affirming that it wasgoing to be alright, to just maintain equanimity, neutral mind, open heart. In this

moment, crystalline clarity vibrated through me, the minimalist tones of simple

epiphany.

My souls' history was ripe. It had been pulsating all around me throughout

my entire trip. I saw that all my travels around the world until that point had been


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on certain levels, extensions of the Refugee archetype, so elegantly described in

my South Node in the 11th house. I had been playing out soul dramas, stories of

exile into extreme situations for my beliefs, or escape from my tribe so that I could

at last express my own creativity. In this lifetime, I thought of my group shamanic

experiences in the Amazon, once with Santo Daime, with Peyote, and my church

experiences growing up in Catholic - I realized that each one had triggered anintense desire to leave the limited container of the belief system and the structureof the tradition and group-mind to forge my own gnostic relationship with the

Divine.

In both this lifetime and others, my soul had learned to guide myself, to

navigate the under and upperworlds with just my sense of faith that I would be

protected. Sitting there under the singing stars and gigantic jungle trees, I realizedI no longer needed to prove my ability to survive through uncomfortable

situations. I actually needed to root down, ground out, in order to listen to the

most harmonious path, and simply play along. This ability to co-operate withSpirit in a co-creative way, as opposed to force my version of what reality should

be, is represented by Libra in the 5th house. Libra, opposite to Aries, is the

balancer, mediator, and deep listener. As the sign of my North Node, Librarepresents the experiences my soul is seeking to feed upon and integrate in this

lifetime. In that moment of clarity amidst the maloca madness, I honored the

parts of myself that had recognized this soul-need for years - what we might call

the Virgo parts. These are the humbling forces in us, the ones that compel us

towards simplicity and daily practice, not just the extreme ecstacy of the Piscean

peak state.

In those moments outside the maloca, I understood that to become a master,

I could not continue to thrust myself into situations of such an extreme nature.

What I sought to master over the course of my lifetime was the realms of music,

astrology, and chi kung. All of these arts require an attention to balance and

intention to harmonize.

During one of the journeys in my 10 day retreat, I hadbegan sketching thebackstory for my fictional memoir of a past life character who had been persecuted for

the emergence of his creative process, specifically his writing. Simultaneous to this

character emerging in my consciousness was the appearance of the outline for my

astrological book due out hopefully in 2011. I realized that this would not be an annualtrip. My work would be different than anticipated. The medicine had spoken in a tongue

I had not expected to hear, but in a voice I could not ignore.

The first act of deep listening with my soul was to listen to the message of

the medicine, even though it told me something very different than what I had

expected. It said to go home and "plant" myself. To do the hard work of writing a


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book, a long-time ambition of mine. The medicine said that I must begin to think

in linear terms, a challenge of mine, but a necessary one to become a translator of

cosmic information intended to teach and heal others.

***Timemapping Spiritual Transformations

Plant medicines all have a somewhat trickster nature. We as humans have

for so long been entranced, bewildered, and frightened of the loss of control oncewe enter the mysterious rabbit hole of plant consciousness. As we begin to build

relationships with different plant entities and chemical doorways, we discover that

different medicines will offer us suprisingly varied experiences, even, as with

Ayahuasca, a very unique experience each time.

Since beginning to study the patterns in the planets, I have been cultivatinga linguistics in which we can timemap our transformational journeys. For

instance, I began to experiment during my Amazonian retreat with noticing the

relationship between the house position of the Moon in a given night and the

overarching thematics present in one's journey. Since the moon moves so rapidly,

she represents the contents of our shifting moods, and emotional energies. I

noticed very revealing correlations which could also be used in helping to specifyour intentions for certain ceremonies. This has led to a whole section of my book

where I explore techniques for timing spiritual transformations and shamanic

ceremonies. My goal with utilizing an astrological map of ceremonial territory is

to help clients and students to astrology understand that there are indeed morealigned moments in time and places on earth to do the shamanic, healing work

one intends.

***

The World Arises with our Thoughts

Astrology, like travel, is an appreciation for the cosmic symphony ofsynchronicity. The meaning of one's life can be found in the studying of one's life and its

"meaningful coincidences" as Carl Jung called them. Co-inside-dance. For me,

synchronicity is thedance of impermanence in the perception of interdependence. With

both astrology and travel, we often fit the puzzle pieces of our life together and formreflective mirrors of luminous wisdom to help enhance our self-awareness, accelerate our

personal growth, and inspire our appropriate contributions to planetary evolution.

In honoring synchronicity, it is important that we language our experiences in

humble gratitude, while recognizing the truth of a situation. Perhaps in my tip to Peru, I

had to exorcise the shadows of my Aries nature, to prove to myself that the power andmeaning I had sought in a physical place, the Amazon and Andes, and through a


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curandero or shaman, was already existent within me. I also, like many westerners, had

fallen into a trap of projection, a common psychological placebo that if I went to the

Amazon, then I would find realshamanism.

Indeed, I found the parts of my soul which needed to find me, and so instead of

finding "shamanism," I found true healing. If my experiences in Peru and withAyahuasca did not occur with their extreme nature, it may not have driven me home early

and awoken me to the next stage of my work. Within 2 days after being in South

America, and just one week post-Amazon, I found myself in Ft. Lauderdale, for a 6 dayintensive rebirthing seminar with Rebirthing co-founder Sondra Ray. Here, on my

Jupiter line, I learned from a powerful teacher, I gained insights into the patterns present

from my birth trauma, and my areas of core wounding and personal lies became quite

clear. My rebirthing workshop and wisdom received, the focus to create the book I amcurrently working on, new relationships formed, etc. - all would not have occurred if I

had not left when I did. This is the humility we discover in reflection, review, and in the

appreciation of synchronicity's angels.

And in the end, looking back, it was all perfect. I have now begun really trying to

evaluate experiences from a death-bed perspective. If I was to look back, in my dyingmoments, reflecting upon my experiences occurring now, how would I advise myself to

act and what would I want to change? I am certain that I would advise myself to both

trust my intuition and listen to the wisdom of the celestial language. Just like the vision

of my higher self in ceremony, I would counsel me that through all of it, to accept whatis, recognize its perfection, its necessity, its interdependence. And in embracing the

fullnes of the now as it is, to integrate the lessons learned to help liberate all sentient

beings from suffering.

For astrological guidance and relocational coaching, please visit VerDarLuz atastralshaman.com

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