Back on the eve of Christmas Eve, I found a rare quiet, completely solo night to myself, and felt it right to go deep with the plants again. My previous Huachuma ceremony was my only to-date solo excursion with Grandfather Wisdom / San Pedro, and I felt like I learned volumes about the energies, especially when it came to me as conductor. I was ready for round 2.
As always, I set intentions and created a sacred space for going in. I felt it wise to keep intentions simple and direct this time, and asked the spirits to just show me truth – whatever that might be mean. I had hit a big wall mentally as of late, and was bloody sick of my mind’s insistence that *she* knew the truth. I wanted to consult with a higher source. With that, I gulped down the vile concoction, lit my candles, laid out the mesa (display of sacred items that are used as powerful portals in-ceremony) and hunkered down for the reveal.
Right away, my head kicked into turbo mode. She had a lot of input on this whole truth matter. And all of it, out of the gate, was pretty freaking negative and constrictive. She started making a laundry lists of all my blocks – the reasons I could not yet own the truth, and why it was only a dialogue in my head. Observer-me disagreed. We countered with a readiness, an openness, an insistence that no, higher self is ready to show herself.
Mind was having none of that. She showed her muscle in full effect.
I kept trying to surpass the mind chatter, to dive deeper into the present moment. But all my mind wanted to do was jerk me into the past or the future. I curled up by the fireplace, eyes closed and contemplative, but internally, a bloody war bubbled up. Here was some sample chatter:
“The problem is you’re too damn lazy to advance past where you’re at, you hardly ever workout or meditate and besides that those things don’t work, it’s just banter from wanna-bes that masquerade as gurus, and you know better but even still you couldn’t be a guru, it’s not your time, there’s karma to pay for and the like, and you don’t even believe in karma, so good luck with that, because sheesh we are such posers, such a fake little role-player, even when you think you’re being real it’s just a game just a game just a game.”
To which another I within would respond “That’s not true! SHOW ME TRUTH!”
We played this game for eons. A few hours or more. I had some poignant moments at the altar / mesa, but I started really illuminating the hamster in the wheel, spinning along in my humdrum head, trying to keep me from being present. I felt that anchoring myself deep into the present moment would take me right into the heart of Huachuma’s power, and that I could find my real answers there. So I scampered upstairs to the bedroom, turned off all the lights, slipped on a blindfold, and fell into sivassana – my favorite meditation pose. Lying on my back, palms up to the skies, body relaxed and surrendered.
The games continued in my mind, even in this sincere effort to just relax and escape the brain banter. Instead, she kicked it up another notch. This time, she hit me with a challenge.
“I’ll show you what’s true. I’ll show you I’m in control. I’ll make your cell phone ring.”
“Bullshit you will, I turned my cell phone off when I came up here.”
On cue, the cell rang, and I about freaked out. I didn’t pick it up, but stared intently at the unknown number. Then I yelled my demand.
“Leave a message, and it better be TRUE!”
The voicemail bell chimed, and my heart freaked out. I played the message and had to laugh at the irony.
It was static. Nothing but fuzz. 1 1/2 minutes of white noise. At least we were getting closer – that felt more honest than the nonsense that had been stewing in the mind space all night, so I felt like progress had been made.
Back in meditation mode, things really got dicey. I could not get around my mind. She would lead me down a rabbit hole, baiting me with what felt like a real-time revelation, but before I knew it I’d be spelling out a grocery list, fretting about the upcoming Vipassana retreat, lamenting the lack of Orion’s naked body in the bed, on and on and on some more. But as this volume exploded within, so did a few nuggets of wisdom.
“You can’t beat your mind at her game. You’re using your mind to chase your mind – she’ll find darker and deeper holes to hide in, and you’ll never cease this game. Don’t fight fire with fire.”
That, and:
“Use the tools you have in this illusion to *escape* the illusion.”
That one got me. I had avoided calling on the spirits nestled in my objects of power, because I have come to own the true illusion of this maya-world. But it struck me that these entities were no more or less real than, say, Orion. Or Mac. Or Pi. And i”m aces at using them to help me out of the madness, so why not extend this to all the manifestations I have gifted myself with?
Yes, that was making serious sense. And that simply meant I needed to take off the blindfold, go down to the mesa, and use Huachuma in the highest way possible. With eyes and heart wide open. Enough with the mind war.
I grabbed the book on my nightstand as I descended the stairs - “Enlightenment for Beginners” by Chuck Hillig. That seemed relevant. I then turned on the Adyashanti recordings Orion had recently burned for me – tuned in to the “Direct Path” dialogue. I had all guns a-blazin — tools to the hilt.
Truth was hitting me from all sides. Adya talked about the blazing obsession with truth the most sincerest members of the spiritual path tend to uncover, and I resonated like a mad-woman. He coupled that with the inevitable “aloneness” stage that hits fast and furiously, and I felt the tears flow as I knew that all too well. Then I thumbed through Chuck’s book. Holy cow did that do a number on my head. It is a brilliant unfolding of – OMG – the truth of who we are! The way we’ve projected every aspect of our worlds – the movie, the move screen, the projector, and the space between!
And yet, eegawds, I was not satisfied. Because it only felt like my mind was in the game – trying to insert herself into the “realness”, when in fact she was the ego-generated, and thus part of the illusion. And so I didn’t *feel* this truth – it was only be intellectualized.
But that would have to be enough. I spent 8 hours in ceremony, tearing down the walls of illusion, and the end result was both profound and meaningless. Yes, I owned into the core of my being that my mind does not hold the path to enlightenment – she will never share anything but relative truths. And yes, I once again confirmed that I am – we all are – part of one masterful, God-head awareness. And that I wasn’t any more or less enlightened than Jesus – I just wasn’t ready to step into that full realization. I could feel him, and all the other masters, calling to me, whispering “wake up wake up wake up” into my ear, and yet – that block. That ceiling.
I laughed it off and said thank you to my spirit friends for showing me all this and more. I couldn’t force it – another priceless message. My wanting truth wasn’t enough – I had to own my own integrity in every single moment, stay present and detached, and let grace do her thing – if, and when.
Tough lessons, but beautiful all the same. I climbed back into bed exhausted, brow-beaten, but a little bit wiser in the heart-space. And ready to get up the next morn and keep on keepin’ on.
“I run into your thought from across the room
Just another trick
Can I weather this
I’ve got a fever above my waist
You got a squeeze box on your knee
I know the truth is in between the 1st and 40th drink”
-Miss Tori A





