I arrive at the Chicago O'Hare airport at some ungodly hour after travelling all day yesterday, and spend several hours pacing up and down the causeways while waiting for the flight that will bring the rest of my group to meet me. I haven't seen James in years. He's the shaman who taught me to dream in a sacred way. I met him the day after I quit engineering and his humble but powerful teachings changed the way I looked at reality. I was excited to see him again and to meet his friends. . . They finally arrive, and we are soon enroute to Lima, Peru.
Lima is a crowded grey city filled with dusty corners, endless buildings, and cars, busses, and cycles that seem to compete for space on the chaotic streets. Our tour bus drives past the busy streets and outside of Miraflores to the Temple of the Sun. The ruins rise out of the stark desert looking for all the world like a small city built on the moon. Like a stranger in a strange land, I wander through the hallways of the ruin and pause to meditate in the stone niches, waiting for miracles. I am not disappointed.
I offer a quick prayer of gratitude and use my intention to connect my energy centers with the earth, air, fire (sun), and water (the ocean in the distance). Much to my surprise three Inca priests appear in the reality behind my eyes. "What can I offer here," I ask silently, in my mind. "Receive love and channel it outward," they inform me. I expand my heart energy and see a red spiral vortex form in front of me as I am flooded with reds and greens, and the understanding that I must love this dirty city and stark land. I send fiery bursts of light back to my clients and friends at home and all of the sudden I feel as if I will burst into a thousand particles of light. Wow! I can actually see purple energy flying off my hands while a pink energy surrounds the temple. This is all so new. I hardly know what to think of the experience.
Ica is our next stop -- a small, quaint town with a large plaza in the center and older stone buildings surrounding the courtyard. Here we visit the Cabrara museum -- two small rooms and one office crammed with stones that the curator, Dr. Cabrara, tells us are six million years old. In broken English and perfect Spanish he explains that the etchings on the stones show the rise and fall of humanity in prehistoric, historic, and post-historic times. The rocks show cures for cancer, and AIDS, he tells us, using cells derived from the placenta. I'm shocked when he says this because I've read of recent research showing how scientists are studying embryonic cells to learn more about cancer. Amazing.
We hop on the bus once again and as we journey into the night the energies of the land begin to shift and become even stronger. We are en route to the town of Nazca where strange gigantic markings have been etched in the desert floor. We will fly over them tomorrow but for now, weary and a little overwhelmed, we are content to fall asleep on the thin mattresses in the unairconditioned rooms of our "luxury" hotel. Sleep is good.
Breakfast is on the top floor of the hotel overlooking Nazca --Two flat breads, jam and butter. Pan y mantequilla y marmalada. . . My Spanish vocabulary grows when I'm hungry. Coffee with cream and sugar. Cafe con leche y sucar. Mmm. Anything tastes good now.
Soon we are on the bus to the Nazca airport and the energy is incredible. You hop in the small rattling plane, in groups of three or four and fly over giant patterns carved into the desert floor, including runways, spirals, space men, spiders, humminbirds. The archaeologists have one story. The spontaneous visions I am having create another version of reality -- interdimensional vortices spin onto the points at the end of the runways and I feel an incredible otherworldly love pouring into this place. Vague memories stir in the back of my mind -- visions from some other space and time -- and I am filled with a love so ecstatic for this planet that I want to cry. I wonder if I am losing my mind. As we sit at the cafe afterwards, munching on mangos and drinking cola from old-fashioned bottles, I try to merge the new realities I am experiencing with my everyday view of the world.
Dinner is back in Lima at Ichi Ban's, a sushi place where I wimp out and order the delicious (cooked!) Tempura Shrimp. Oriental food in Peru. . . this trip is scrambling my circuits already!
