San Pedro

San Pedro
The sounds of the children playing down in the valley reverberated up to the ancient Incan ruins as I sat in the sun waiting. I could hear the door open in the small mud brick houses as the mothers stepped out side to call their children. I could hear the laughter of the children as they ran through the fields. I could hear the steps of the donkeys and feel the breeze on their tough hide.

More importantly, I could feel the “I am” of everything around me. I could feel the leaves of the small yellow flowers “be”, at my feet. I could feel the connection to the “I am” of the stones, and the earth. The haze in the clouds at a distance smiled their “I am” over my way. The connection of all was suddenly obvious, but it wasn’t felt on an intellectual plane, I was felt deeply through all of my five senses. The San Pedro had done its work.
San Pedro, the sacred “father” plant is a cactus grown in Peru that’s been used for centuries as the complement to the ayahuasca or sacred “mother” plant. The effects began much more subtly and took much longer for me to feel. I actually went back for a 2nd cup of the chunky dried up herb. I couldn’t swallow it all, as the spoonfuls of the plant added to water and lightly stirred were not very pleasant and very difficult to get down. The mixture was pulled from two different recycled clear jars, one of the male version of the plant, the other, the female version of the plant. A unique mix was for each individual was determined by the shaman.

The group left the Incan site relatively quickly, it seemed that some had not yet finished their “work”, as the effects of the San Pedro are not as violent and intrusive as the ayahuasca but the effects lingered for a long time.

As the bus pulled up to the hotel, many got off, as this 3rd day of fasting/eating very light was taxing on the body. I was among the group that continued to on to see the shaman’s shop in the town of puno. I knew I wouldn’t have time for shopping later, and as much as I was hungry and tired, something told me to stay with the group.

The minute we entered the small dark shop, the smell of the incense hit me. It was intoxicating. The music playing in the background was creating a time warp. It felt like we had stepped into a wormhole and were being sent elsewhere. Hard to describe this, as the sensations were distorting my ability to think clearly. It did help us all shop though. I suddenly “needed” some of everything he had in the store. My head was swimming with the connectedness to every tiny object in the shamans lair, eagle feathers, condor feathers, racks and racks of music, stones, pipes, gems, jewelry. It felt like every object was reaching out for me, it was overwhelming.

Very quickly we all noticed that the store was having an effect on us, was it the combination of san pedro, music and incense? Fatique? Hard to tell. Bwanaque had to sit down almost immediately. Tyb had to sit down and chose to balance on 3 legs of a 4 legged chair. I finally had to step out of the store and get some fresh air to calm the energies swirling in my head. The fresh air was great, and then out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the plant essence we had spotted at Isla del Sol, Ruda! My friend! That plant helped many of us climb the small but steep hill from the water to the top of Isla del Sol. Our guide would grab a chunk of leaves, we would crush it in our hand and smell the essence for renewed vigor and adapting to the high altitude. What a great find. I rushed back into the store and bought the Ruda and another plant essence used to finish ceremonies called Agua de Kananga, another floral essence.

My head felt like it was clearing and on the ride back to the hotel we talked about past lives and Siruis B and all sorts of fun things. It felt like the San Pedro was finishing slowly. Yet when I got back to the hotel, I was still feeling the spaciness of the San Pedro quite strongly and as much as were told the effects could last 8-10 hours, I was impatient to have the spaciness that lingered from the shaman’s shop disappear. I made a call to the US and left a message for Sifu to make sure that I was totally grounded and all the way back. I wasn’t taking any chances with this, as that feeling wasn’t something I had felt at the Incan site, but had only appeared in the shaman’s shop.

Shortly thereafter, with some food in my stomach, I was completely back to normal and smiling at the thought of the great Oneness that pervades all sentient life.