For the benefit of the reader who has just discovered this 2nd instalment, although this article stands alone as a story, the reader would gain further insight into this article by first reading Part 1

Some Ecological Context

Peru, as a country, has over ten different ecological systems, split into three distinct geographical regions. The Highlands (where this story takes place), The Coast, and The Amazon.

I remember after my first night in Lima, the capital of Peru, popping out early in the morning to grab a long black from the local cafe and noticing all these puddles of water on the ground.

At breakfast, back at the hostel I was staying in, I commented on this, saying “Wow! It must have poured down last night.” At which point, all conversation stopped, and everyone looked at me as if I had two heads. My first thought was that maybe I had inadvertently said something offensive, as my Spanish then, was not as good as it is now. Responding to my bewildered look of confusion, one lady replied in English, “It never rains in Lima.”

The puddles were a result of the overnight humidity.

Incidentally, up in the hills around the inland side of Lima where an exponential growth in development is evident, local ingenuity has capitalised on this, whereby residents hang up blankets, fitted with drip tubes to collect water from the air.

OK, So on with the story.

Pisac, Sacred Valley, Peru

The town of Pisac is nestled within The Sacred Valley in Peru and where I was to do Huachuma ceremony with a Lakota Shaman friend of mine.

It was mid October, and weather wise in Pisac, this meant that the chances of a torrential downpour on any given day was a 50/50 chance scenario, it had been raining all day, and ceremony was tomorrow.

Where I stayed in Pisac

The next morning, I awoke to an absolutely glorious day. I packed my day pack for an all weather contingent, just in case, and we set off to to the riverside where the approximately 10 hour long ceremony would begin.

It was an absolutely beautiful part of the river, where rocks and pebbles of amazing pastel colours decorated our side of the river bank.

The Spot

On the other side of the river, the terraced mountains rose into the skyline.

You would be hard pressed to find any section of mountain in Peru that’s not terraced.

Sacred Valley

Depending on the individual, a Huachuma journey can last from ten to twelve hours. So before you drink, you need to make sure that you want to. Setting intention through meditation as preparation, is a good way to get the most from your journey.

Huachuma, whilst still very much “mother” energy, like Ayahuasca, is a much gentler, warmer and loving energy, it is after all, connected with the heart chakra Anahata

From a place of love, your mother may still grab you by the ear and say, “Now listen here!” Likewise, Ayahuasca can do that to you too, if you need it. Huachuma, on the other hand is more like a ten hour hug, so I was quite looking forward to the journey.

Much of what transpires over the next 10–12 hours is usually quite personal in nature, and is not to be shared. Post ceremony reflection gives you complete gnosis of what is not to be shared. Luckily for the reader who has followed me thus far, this particular experience did not fall into that category.

These bees were in a complete state of ecstatic frenzy, mining their fluffy gold. Swarming around me, as I took some photo’s, quite unperturbed by my presence.

Time, as a personality, is quite fluid in this state, and cares not one iota, for the laws of physics. For this reason, I can’t tell you exactly when this happened, only that it did.

Whilst gazing into the terracing, on the opposite side of the bank, like one would with a magic eye picture, suddenly the rows of rocks, collectively forming the terracing, opened up to me like rows and rows of tapestries. Much like the Bayeux Tapestry

Just as the 2D image from the magic eye picture comes out at you in 3D, so too, this world that we think of as 3D, when you recognise, that every individual thing, is simply a pixel, within a bigger picture, comes out at you in real 3D.

Relegating, what we had previously thought of as reality, to a rendered state, not unlike the example of the magic eye experience.

It was like learning to read for the first time.

Terence McKenna said:

We're a little bit of eternity sticking into three-dimensional space and, for some reason, occupying time in a monkey body. But when you turn your eyes then inward you discover the birth right. The existential facts out of which this particular existence emerged. And it's a great secret. A great secret and a great comfort. Because it means mystery didn't die with the fall of Arthur or the fall of Atlantis or the fall of anything. Mystery is alive in the moment, in the here and now. It just simply lies on the other side of a barrier of courage. And it isn't even that high of barrier, it's just is a barrier > high enough to keep out the insincere and the misdirected.

I Got it. I really, totally, got it.

What I read though, that was for me only. That I can’t share.

Sorry.

Once You Know How...

Once you have had this experience, which ever way you manage to do so, this ability stays with you.

Whether you’re gazing at a cloudy sky, the stars at night, a hedge, or a brick wall. It doesn’t matter.

Once you know how to read, you can literally (pun intended) read anything.

In Closing

I would encourage any reader who would like to develop a further understanding of this experience, to engage further with magic eye pictures.

Well, that’s my tale.

I hope that this was at least intelligible, to the reader with no psychedelic experience from which to draw reference from, as when I was writing this, I struggled at times, to find, within our language, the framework to duplicate, literally, what was in my head.

If you are such a reader, I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below, and of course, I always love to hear from the psychonauts out there.

Peace.