It was 2006 when I met a Mandaza – a Medicine Man from Zimbabwe. During a community ceremony he gave me a reading and advised me to go to The Mountain to receive a message. I had no idea where that was but I felt compelled to go find that mountain. It took several months of listening until I was having the intuition that the mountain was in Peru. Soon after, I met a Peruvian healer in Toronto through a series of synchronicities who invited me to come to Peru. AND SO THE JOURNEY BEGINS, a few months later I went to Peru to find my mountain. I went to see Hebert in Aguas Calientes where he prepared me for my journey by introducing me to the land with my first Despacho ceremony. This ceremony was my offering to mother earth and is an ancient tradition in the Andes. Then the rest was up to me. I needed to discover which mountain and then to do my own ceremony to receive the message that Mandaza spoke of. Over the next few days I wandered around the area to scope out which mountain. I also asked Hebert if we could do some more ceremony. He said to me: “I don’t know…we had a good ceremony” I think I was feeling like I needed more preparation for my ceremony, I asked a few times. By the final time, he seemed annoyed and told me to go to the hot springs and cleanse myself!! I felt hurt and had a cry in the hot spring and then I realized that I was being greedy and giving away my power and that Hebert was doing me a favour and had some serious integrity!!
The next day I went to climb Machu Pichu mountain. Interestingly, when I got to about the middle of the climb up I was called to the most perfect spot for my ceremony. I was a bit surprised but I followed my guidance and began my ceremony. I found a perfect place to meditate on a ledge which overlooked the sacred site and which faced the beautiful and breath taking Putucusi Mountain across the river. I began meditating. After a while, I impatiently wondered if I was ever going to be able to receive the message. Then I thought, “I need to open my eyes”… That is when I started to see things and receive messages from certain creatures! The biggest message that day was regarding my choice to go to the middle of the mountain. I thought: Oh middle of the mountain is a symbol of the middle world!” In Andean cosmology the middle world refers to this world we live in. I realized the middle world is an integration of the upper and lower worlds. This was an important teaching for me where I had spent years caught up in the upper worlds. Here I was getting a message to come down from the mountain top and live in the world. I asked for a sign that I had received my message. I then looked up to the top of the mountain and I noticed a puma carved in the rock. The puma is the symbol of the middle world. I was amazed and full of gratitude.
When I came down from the mountain I saw Hebert., he asked me “how was Machu Pichu”? I said there is a puma in Machu Pichu Mountain. He said, “Yes” and then started to give me a teaching about Puma. He then gave me a teaching abut Putucusi mountain which was the mountain I was feeling so connected to as I looked at it from my perch. Little did I know I would climb it a year later and in between would travel to India to discover that there was another mountain connected to this Mountain! Stay tuned for Part 2!..
