Strength In Simplicity : Part 1 - The journey begins

What do an ubiquitous cosmic serpent, a past-life lover rediscovered here and now, a giant swan as a personal space shuttle and a personal visit from Lord Shiva himself have in common?

Well, it may seem a bit ridiculous, but before I get started, I must say I feel an obligation to say hello to all of you on Evolver, it has been a while since I've "showed my face" around here. I have come to realize now that many of the words which came so easily, turned out to have very little substance, there was no true wisdom backing them, much of it was just the regurgitation of transcendent ideas I had felt particularly drawn to, and adopted as my own. The tricks of the ego are boundless, and this being of mine is still often times easily deluded by its trickery. But regardless, it is nice to be back, and see many of the same faces with wonderful pearls of wisdom gracing the front page.

The last I wrote anything on here it was a poem that I had been writing on my bicycle ride home on a day that i felt particularly "enlightened." There was that trickery again. I was about three rites of passage deep in the munay-ki, things were becoming vibrant everywhere I looked, and everywhere I felt and breathed, my eyes needed not be open, because my whole being was, and is still, being awakened. But before I get too far ahead of myself here, I will start from the beginning.

I had had another wonderful day of massage school when I hopped on my bicycle to start the 15 mile ride home in the howling February winds, and I decided to take a little refuge from the cold at my favorite little coffee shop. While I was perusing the community message board a bright sign caught my eye, seeming to push its way out from under the mess of posters littering the board. "The munay-ki," it read, "make the transition to HOMO LUMINOUS," it offered, "energetic transfer, rainbow body, fire ceremonies." A million thoughts raced through my head at once. Among them was, "I've heard of that on Evolver," or "this is just what I need." So I wrote down the contact phone numbers and drank my coffee while studying my human anatomy coursework. The wind continued to howl outside and I braved the weather once more to make my way home.

The next day at school my teacher and mentor, we'll call her Ms. Murphy-D, gently reminded me again of her shaman friend who she insisted I must absolutely get in touch with. When class was over she danced out of the room chanting his name, "Greg, Greg, Greg," her pitch rising and falling like the beautiful voice of a bird. I had already intended to contact Greg but once I saw the Munay-Ki with it's promises of salvation from the ravages of the coming apocalypse, my fear-addled heart went running straight for the quick-fix. I fished the phone numbers out of my pocket the next day and called up Christina, a woman who'd trained with a shaman in Nepal. I liked her energy, and I wanted her blessings and the rites of the Munay-Ki.

Meanwhile back at school I had developed an interest in a young woman who was in the massage class that was about to graduate. She shared wondrous stories of her mushroom trips in college and her adventures around the globe and her various theatre projects she was involved in. And with her I shared my heart-warming homemade soups everyday, and my mushroom stories as well. We would extend our class breaks doing headstands in the library and when our classes merged for a joint-lesson or hands-on exchange, she became my personal massage therapist, working on my heart and soul through the medium of my skin, gently thawing my frozen emotions and bringing me back to earth. She would become fascinated with my endeavors with the Munay-Ki. "Ceremony is important," she would say. "It keeps us connected with our ancestors."

Coming in Part 2 : My first journey, chakra cleansing and energetic transfer. Wild dreams of past lives and power animals show me the gentle side of ferocity.