Becoming Chacaruna.
First and foremost, I have always considered myself to be an actor and a storyteller. In fact, I have studied drama extensively, including for Masters degrees with RCSSD & RADA.
More recently, I have embarked upon a quest to understand the nature of our own reality and our inherent ability to cross over into other realities. I have studied Psychology (B.Sc Hons) with the OU and Forensic Psychology (M.Sc) with Goldsmiths. I have learned hypnosis and NLP with Paul McKenna & Richard Bandler (MP.NLP, Cert. Hyp & Cert. DHE).
I have also undertaken various courses in shamanism with Simon Buxton & Chris Waters (see below). As such, I am a full and certified mesa carrier, having progressed around the year-long, shamanic ‘medicine wheel’ with the Spirit of the Inca group three times (to date). I have led courses in journeying, shamanism, and the Munay-Ki in Portugal and Bristol.
I continue to broaden my understanding through further study and journeying. I have also learned a great deal through travel, most notably to Peru in 2015 & 2016 and Egypt in 2017 (see link here).
A ‘Chacaruna’ is an Incan term meaning ‘bridge person. It refers to someone adept at helping people cross from one reality to another. I consider this to be something that I have done since I was a child. I would wrap my school scarf around me and become a pint-sized version of Tom Baker, Doctor Who’s 4th Doctor. I would lead friends across a playground, which became all of time & space.
Introduction to Shamanism.
Soon after the break-up of my civil partnership, I went on a retreat led by my friend, Susan Earl. Susan ‘opened sacred space’ and conducted a fire ceremony as part of this retreat. I found the ceremony comforting as a way of ‘letting go’ of the past. I realised that modern society had lost this sense of community. I re-discovered the simple wonder of sitting together around a fire under the stars and vocalising what was in our hearts.
I asked Susan where she had learned these skills, and she told me about ‘the Medicine Wheel’ – four residencies over the course of a year with the ‘Spirit of the Inca’ group. I researched the subject and was surprised to learn that the roots of shamanism predated all organized religions. Although, the standard religions had clearly plundered many of its ideas and teachings!
At its heart, shamanism is about entering an altered state of consciousness to commune with the spirit world for the purposes of healing and enlightenment. At this point, I wasn’t sure I believed in a spirit world. I considered myself an atheist, particularly after reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Since my psychology degree, I had been pretty certain that the brain was an organic computer. Like a computer, once you switched it off, in our case, through death, that was it. That’s all folks!
Yet I liked to maintain an open mind, and I admit that I was a bit intrigued by what it would be like to enter an altered state. I noted that the anthropologist, Michael Harner (cf Harner’s book The Way of the Shaman), had sought to condense the teachings of shamanic communities worldwide and re-package them for the west. Hence, his UK representative, Simon Buxton of ‘The Sacred Trust’, seemed like a good place to start my quest to deepen my knowledge.
Neoshamanism.
The Sacred Trust.
I attended Simon Buxton’s introductory workshop and was surprised that the key element, ‘journeying’, was quite easy. Simon explained that you never had to attend another course once you understood the basic concept of journeying, you could go off and do it yourself. I think that’s quite something for a workshop leader to say – that you don’t need to attend further courses. There’s no secret knowledge – here are the basics!
For those who decry ‘neoshamanists’ as purely motivated by making money, it’s hard to square their opinion with Simon’s attitude. Simon explained that very few shamanic communities used hallucinogenic drugs, such as Ayahuasca, to reach an altered state but that the vast majority simply used a drum. I have written a blog post about journeying – Journeying for Newbies (click on the link here). The blog has clear instructions, but it is just a simple matter of visualising whilst listening to the steady beat of a drum.
Simon made it clear that your experience was your own and that no one would interpret it for you. No ‘priest’ would explain its meaning. That was down to you.
Our first journey was to find an animal spirit ‘guide’. Again, I’ve written a blog piece specifically about this – Animal Spirits for Newbies (click on the link here). I was not very surprised to find that a wolf was mine. I had always had a great affinity with these noble animals.
Next, we had been asked to bring along a fist-sized rock, and I had found mine near my flat on the shore of the Thames. We were taught how shamans ‘read’ rocks by interpreting symbols they find on them. We made a few attempts at doing so.
The following day, we memorably created the shape of two boats and mimed rowing, as those who required healing lay centred in the ‘boat’. I have no empirical evidence, so I cannot divulge if these people derived any benefit from the ceremony but, at the very least, it was a lovely piece of theatre and a reminder of how a community might come together to offer love and support to someone in need. I can imagine it was lovely to feel ‘held’ in this way.
Whilst I enjoyed Simon’s course, I didn’t expect to do much more shamanic work, but when my friend Susan said that she was going to go around the Medicine Wheel again with a different shamanic group, the Spirit of the Inca, I thought that I would join her, at least for the first course…
Spirit of the Inca.
A couple of nights before the course started, Susan rang to say that her husband had a job abroad and could not go, as she would have to look after her children. The night before I was due to attend, I was in a real slump of depression. I remember I spoke to my mother on the phone and that I was in tears. I told her I didn’t feel like I should be this low and that, after the course concluded, I thought I ought to seek medical help or counselling.
Having no idea what to expect, I headed off to Glastonbury. It was quickly apparent that this would differ from Simon Buxton’s course. The Spirit of the Inca group was an interpretation of the teachings of the Q’ero Incan tradition of Peru, which stemmed from the work of the psychologist and medical anthropologist Alberto Villoldo (cf Villoldo’s book Shaman, Healer, Sage). The course leader was Chris Waters, who radiated warmth and a love of what she had felt called to teach.
The teachings and rites undertaken over the course of the Medicine Wheel’s year would lead to the creation of my own ‘Mesa’ – a bundle of 13 healing stones. Again, you can read more in my blog – Mesas for Newbies (click the link here)
We had been asked to bring three stones for this first course, and one of these was the rock I had picked up for Simon’s course – I guessed that it had more significance! In short, the three stones began by representing ‘wounds’ from our past but, through the ceremony, became transformed into healing stones with which we could work. I maintained scepticism, but I did not doubt that it was a beautiful concept to transform something unpleasant or hurtful from our past into something hopeful.
I learned about chakras – seven energy points in the body. Again, you can read more in my blog – Chakras for Newbies (click on the link here). Like most people, I was vaguely aware of their existence from popular culture, but I had no reason to believe they truly existed. The weird thing was that I quickly came to sense blocks at these chakra points in other people, and I seemed to benefit from others working with mine.
I learned about illuminations, where we envisaged pouring light into chakra points and felt a real sense of calm and contentment during and after this process. At this stage, I put it down to phenomena I did not understand but one I was happy to exploit if it made me feel good.
I was a little saddened that there wasn’t much journeying on the course and that those we undertook did not seem quite as vivid as those I’d experienced on Simon’s course. My previous experience in hypnosis and NLP interested me in exploring altered states, which was my primary motivation for exploring shamanism. I was later to discover that the Q’ero are one of the few shamanic groups who do not journey but that they still had much to offer.
I left the course having found it interesting but far from certain that I would continue around the medicine wheel. Then, a funny thing happened. I began to realise that I was no longer depressed. I was still sad that my civil partnership had broken up but I was no longer crippled by sadness or regularly in tears – something had fundamentally shifted in me, and it had done so without recourse to protracted counselling or to modern medicine. Perhaps there was something in this ancient stuff?
That being the case, I thought that I might do the next class, and then I found myself on the next and the next. Indeed, I continued with my mixture of scepticism and intrigue for the rest of the year, completing the Medicine Wheel and, ultimately, becoming a full mesa carrier.
I never thought that I would return to the Medicine Wheel, but I have done so twice more (to date) and found that my understanding of these ancient healing practices has deepened. I have also continued to shed those things which no longer serve me.
Peru 2015.
The Spirit of the Inca group organises annual trips to Peru, which afford the chance to visit these traditions’ birthplace and meet the shamans themselves. A big draw is a chance to see the glorious ruins of Machu Picchu, which is probably on most people’s ‘bucket list’, and it does not disappoint. This extraordinary citadel dates from the 15th century and was probably a royal retreat. Watching the sunrise over the mountains is a memory I will never forget.
It is also quite something to receive the Munay-Ki (the ceremonial rites of this tradition) from the shamans at such sacred Incan sites. You can read more about these rites in my blog post – Munay-Ki for Newbies (just click the link here). Or you can read my book about the rites – Journeying Through The Munay-Ki (available from Amazon here). Or you can read about and watch a preview of my book here.
I also met the great teacher and chacaruna, Jorge Luis Delgado, for the first time on this trip and visited the legendary Aramu Muru doorway, which he discovered and helped promote.
If the ‘Way of the Shaman’ (the Spirit of the Inca’s Medicine Wheel course) helped heal old wounds and made me feel more comfortable in my ‘new’ world, the trip to Peru made me fall in love with life again. To be surrounded by such beauty in the company of such great master teachers was a wonderful experience.
I returned to Peru in 2016 with the Spirit of the Inca group and was amazed to see many of the same sacred sites but through new eyes. Every trip is different, new friends are made, and some extraordinary experiences are undertaken. On this trip, I experienced Ayahuasca ceremonies for the first time. You can read more about that experience in my blog post, Ayahuasca for Newbies (click the link here)
Munay Ki & Beyond.
Having received the traditional rites on the Medicine Wheel and, again, in Peru, I decided to take the Munay Ki course, which goes into more detail about the shamanic ceremonies and empowers you to pass on these rites to others. Another Spirit of the Inca course I attended was held in Glastonbury in August 2015.
In this course, I learned about the power of Pi Stones. You can read more about these doughnut-shaped rings of power in my blog – Pi Stones for Newbies (click on the link here). The mystical Isle of Avalon is the perfect setting to learn about the rites, which conclude with ceremonies that encourage us to dream of a new world into being. What world would you dream of?
I went on to lead my own courses in the Munay Ki in Portugal and in Bristol and have plans for future workshops.
In 2016 I travelled to Egypt with a group of shamanic friends, and the experiences I had there were life-changing. You can read about a number of my Egyptian exploits in some recent blog posts. Uncover the secrets of the astonishing Serapeum in the 5-part series, The Serapeum of Saqqara (click on the link here). Read about The Mysteries of the Great Pyramid in my 3-part series (click on the link here). Or, learn how I came to be Battling a Djinn in a 5-part series (click on the link here).
Every day, I continue on my path of exploration. I wish you much Munay, as you continue upon yours.