Paul Sivert processing the fulfillment of the legend…
The Dream Change Coalition and the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies presented a weekend workshop to celebrate the fulfillment of the Legend of the Eagle and Condor. This legend anticipates the union of the materialistic “North” (Eagle) Mind and the spiritual “South” (Condor) Heart. The union forming a new sense of consciousness for all, exhibited by a beginning of new “Fifth Pachacuti” – a time of partnership, love, and healing, and a transition to more sustainable Earth honoring ways. I attended this workshop with my wife, Sandy, and the following is a summary of my experience.
I am seated in a dark room with five hundred other people who had come to share in a sacred event. The workship moderator has just started a shamanic journey experience. Nine shamans from Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil are moving about the room drumming and shaking rattles to facilitate a shift into another realm of consciousness. I journey down into the lower world of Mother Earth, Pachamama, through an opening in a canyon. As I begin my descent into the lower world, I have also become aware that I am engaging the spirit of a very large pink and red flower. I journey into the center of the flower down its long green stem, going further and further into the lower world. I feel a large green snake, the anaconda. The anaconda greets me but eventually the anaconda eats me and I feel the presence of a very small boy inside of me. I become aware that I am with child and, feeling the presence of this boy inside of my being, I get in touch with what it’s like to feel another life inside of your own. The journey ends with this awareness that something new and alive is inside of me but there are no instructions and no awareness of what I am to do. After the journey, the workshop ends for the evening and I return back outside to a campus that has lost its electricity due to hurricane Floyd. In many ways we are confronted with the challenges of our own darkness as well as the darkness in our rooms, groping into suitcases for things to prepare for night’s sleep. Needless to say, I continue to experience many other visions during the night knowing the little boy is connected to my purpose of healing others.
On Saturday night there was a fire ceremony. I was greatly moved by the diversity of this particular fire ceremony. The fires were arranged in a traditional Mayan pattern, one large fire in the center with four smaller fires, one in each direction. There was a trail of red carnation petals leading from the central fire to each of the four fires in the four directions.
I brought a chungo doll to be an offering from nature to the fire to represent our own personal purpose for the new Pachacuti. I am wandering in the woods near our cabin looking for articles of nature to make my chungo doll with. After much frustration, I find a piece of bark that I am going to carve my chungo doll onto. Unfortunately, I can’t carve a figure so I decide to carve a heart, chungo means my heart to your heart. As I am carving the heart, I knew that I was going to cut myself with my penknife, which I did – not only once but twice. This reinforced my own beliefs that, at times, not only do I put my mind into my work, but also my heart. The blood that came from my hand covered the heart of my chungo doll, thus my chungo doll was ready for the fire.
There I am standing at the fire of east, which is the direction of vision. As I place my chungo doll into the fire I feel a sense of loss, but also at the same time a sense of gain. I am gaining in my own understanding how to do my own shamanic healing practices. As I have done through the years, all of my work comes from my heart to the heart of the client. The goal is to open hearts to greater insights, visions, awarenesses, and new adventures.
It is now Sunday, late morning, the presentations have been completed. The shamans have performed hundreds of healings. In fact everyone who attended the workshop received a healing in some form. Now it is time to conclude our celebratory weekend with a second journey. My journey, of course, is right back to the huge green snake, the anaconda. The anaconda begins to wrap its large heavy green moist body around mine, squeezing me, squeezing me tighter and tighter until my mouth opens and out flies the baby. The baby takes the form of a yellow frog with purple spots on its back. I immediately know the frog is a symbol of my continued support from the spirits to heal and teach others how to heal. My heart to your heart – Chungo.
Afterthought: In my journey, the anaconda was more than just a large snake. It was a symbol of the great Inka god, Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl is a creation symbol in Inka and Mayan traditions. Now I’ve come to understand the importance of the anaconda symbol. The god figure Quetzalcoatl continues to reinforce the knowledge in each of us to use our power to change our dream, which in turn alters our world.