20.

Shamanic Incorporated Techniques

An old man who had lived all of his life in the amazonic jungle was
invited to Europe for a healing men gathering. The old man had not
even visited the capital of his country; therefore going out of his
community was a whole event.

When leaving, he showed great curiosity towards all the stories people
had said about the big cities, about transatlantic flights and the ways of
the occidental man in Europe.

In Paris the old man felt so good and learned everything so fast that he
looked like someone who has traveled and taken airplanes throughout
his entire life.

The tour around France was successful and it followed England.

In London he assisted to most of the programmed conferences, and

when asked for assistance in translation he answered:

- No, I want to learn English.

So much was his enthusiasm that he asked for simultaneous translation
headphones to listen to his own intervention.

After all these experiences, he went back to the jungle.

Months later, we visited him along with some friends, and we asked
him:

- How was your trip?

- Very good he answered Now I know how sacred instrument is
said in English.
- How? we asked dead curious.
- Shamanic Incorporated Techniques he said, in perfect English
with Anglo-Saxon accent.
21. Our mother is not a virgin

After a whole night of ceremony, the first rays of the sun enlightened
the tens of faces that dawned around the fire. A lady that had assisted
before was fixing her hair while she explained to her friend about the
prayer that came at dawn. The prayer to the womens water, to Mother
Earth and to the food.

- It is like the prayer made at church for the Virgin Mary only that in
here it is called Mother Earth she said.

The Medicine Man heard by chance and kept silent until the moment
for blessing the food came.

- Mother Earth is our real mother -, he said. It is not an image nor

an idea nor a person. It is the mystery itself. To our people our
Mother has not sinned and is not a virgin. Our Mother loves our
father Sun and they make a beautiful couple. They love
themselves truly, they have children and they are not ashamed of
the intimate relationship that they have. Our father deposits his
seed through rain inside our Mothers womb. Our Mother is a
woman that loves his partner and makes love to him-, he made a
pause and continued:
 - We have no problem having brothers that say that their mother is
a sinner and that because of her they were expulsed from
paradise. Let them say whatever they want about their own
mother, but not about ours. Nobody has expulsed our people
from paradise, we live in paradise and came here thanks to a
woman and not by her fault. Thanks to our Mother, who loved a
man and risked her life to give birth to us, is that we are here right
now. Our Mother is not a girl who has not met a man, nor she is a
woman living above in the clouds. Our Mother is a whole woman,
always pregnant and giving birth to life, and among all, she is here
in earth. She is Earth!

He smoked deeply the tobacco he had in his hands, he breathed. His

eyes had a look of indignation and grief. If one could look into the
center of his pupils we could find the severe look of hundreds of elders
who were tired of these confusions. He spoke again:

- It is where we come and take refuge, where we raise our children

and know love. Our Mother nurtures and us and takes us in all the
time and thus we learn what is to love a woman. That is why we
look for a woman to go along with us in life. That is why we want
our women to become real women, able to recognize their own
strength and to know that we men look all throughout our lives
for the wisdom that they are already born with. If we integrate
that wisdom in our lives, we can say that we are wise. That is why
our grandparents taught us that women are sacred. They are the
 ones who sustain life in this planet, and is to them that the
mystery gave the possibility to breed and shape our love.

He kept silent for a long time, and turning to see the lady who made the
comparison, he said:

- Our Mother is no virgin and we are proud of that.

22. Great Spirit, do not hide!

There was a Medicine Man who used to sing a song in his native
tongue. It was a beautiful song that gave much strength and always
gave happiness to the people that listened to it at his ceremonies. One
day I could not restrain my curiosity and asked him:

- What is the meaning of the song that you always sing?

- Something very simple -, he said. At first it says: tell me where
you are and then it says: look where I am-

That night I asked the medicine what this man meant to say with that
song. And I had a vision. In it there was a man that needed help
because something very painful had happened to him. The man wanted
to know where to find relief for his pain and went up into the mountain
to pray. He fasted for three days.

Starting the fourth day of the fast this man started singing, at the edge
of despair, Tell me where you are, tell me, and after singing for a long
time, a voice from above answered: Look where I am, look.

I was satisfied with what the medicine had showed and I decided to
relate my vision to the Medicine Man.
- What a beautiful story!-, he told me. The medicine has told me
stories alike. One day it told me that a man wondered to himself
Where is the Great Spirit? The elders at his insistence replied that
it was hidden, but this medicine was going to show him the way to
find it. The man went to the ceremony and ate it. At dawn, the
elders asked him: Did you see where the Great Spirit is?. The
man answered: The medicine told me. It is hidden and I cannot
say where it is hidden. The elders all looked at each other and
commented: There is no way to believe him. He has no power.
The medicine has not revealed anything to him. So the man took
the medicine in his hands and shouted in front of everyone
addressing the plant: Great Spirit, do not hide!. The elder
approved this and said: Now this man knows.
23. Lord of Darkness?

A very catholic man assisted to one of the ceremonies held in the

ecuatorian andes to celebrate the winters solstice. He was very
respectful during the whole ceremony. When it ended he approached
us and said:

- I thought that these rituals and ways of praying had no spirituality.

I know realize that everything I thought about the life of our
native nations was a big ignorance. I was always afraid to
approach these ceremonies because I was taught that these were
evil things. Most of all because a fire is lit in the center and it is
worshipped. And for me, fire worshippers are servants of the Lord
of Darkness.

Without thinking twice I dared to comment:

- I was many times told the same. But one day I decided to eat
medicine and to ask who the Devil was. And the medicine showed
me all the preconceived ideas that I had about this character. For
the first time I realized that the Devil has got many names, but
among them one of the most amusing ones was Lord of
Darkness. The medicine kept telling me:
Look at the incoherence, the Devil lives in hell, which is a place full of
fire. Therefore it is a very enlightened place indeed. Any spirit who
defends this place should not be called Lord of Darkness, because
there is no greater light source than fire. He should be called Lord of
Light.

Besides they talk about his evilness and the truth is that creation was
born without evil. The Universe was created for your own good and
knowledge, not for you to make mistakes, suffer and fall ill. Nothing is
bad in its essence. Evil is a creation of men. In all the marvelous
possibility of creation that men have, the biggest he has created is evil.
So there is nothing to look for in any other place, but within you. There
is all you want to believe in and what you want to create.

The old man looked at me distrustful and said:

- So, what you are saying is that the Devil is good?

- No -, I responded. Goodness is also a human creation-.
- So -, he said worried. Who is the Devil?
- It is our own creation -, I replied.