His name is Jose. If this English friend looks tired, he is emerging from a session Wachuma. The first time I saw him, he spent the early morning, smiling at everyone in the street Sagárnaga totally open. I knew immediately that he was looking for something special. I turned to Don Martin: "You see this gringo who asked about him? I am sure he is looking for a magic man . By late afternoon, I went back there and oddly enough, I found sitting with Don Jose Martin, who hastened to tell me all exited that I could just see: "Let me introduce Don Jose, you can learn the Yatir he seeks." 
Jose wanted to meet men knowledge, as he calls them. He told me that earlier in the afternoon, he stumbled upon a gift that Guillermo had scammed him in a ritual offering sloppy and too expensive. " You should have asked me this morning, since I've crossed and I knew what you wanted. I would have also been warned against this Guillermo because this is not the first time he did that the gringos "I remarked. I felt the excitement and disappointment in him." C 'is true, "said Jose , I saw you too. I met your gaze but I did not know . "He then showed me a few photocopied pages of a book entitled In busca de las plantas sagrada (" In search of sacred plants "). By flipping, I realized that none of the locations suggested by his guide did not seem to match his search. Since I do not know some places listed, I asked advice from my future compadre Nasario donation, which in turn sought other Kallawaya this which created a little life around us. Our English friend was looking for a specialist in San Pedro cactus and beverage Wachuma. Apart from the famous street witches, magical places La Paz are generally quite specialized. To complicate the situation - and knowing that there exist 36 different ethnic groups in Bolivia - just in the Aymara language, there are more than 40 different designations for shamans and traditional healers. Each has its specialty: There's aysiri specializes in soul retrieval, the AKULLIRI qualified for divination, CH'AMAKANI working in the dark and sees spirits, ICH'URI, sort of divine priest, the JAMPIRI, more focused on medicine, AMAUTA, renowned for his wisdom ... so many strange names corresponding to activities related to the invisible and traditional knowledge. Finally, the only correct information in the book by José concerned the Valley of the Moon and Street Witches, where there is indeed the sacred cactus, without being able to meet the Wachumeros , those who master the use. Then I explain to Don Jose that connoisseurs Wachuma are rare in Bolivia and they cultivate discretion, unlike many of Huaringas shamans in Peru, more likely to trade their expertise from naive tourists. The list with which Jose tries vainly to move also contains some addresses of agencies that specialize in this bloody business, but my partner is adamant about this kind of activity and does not want to hear about it. Disappointed, he is beginning to realize that I know many people in this street where we sit. His questions become more personal and he wants to know where I am on my side, how long I'm here and I met. There is in him of the commitment, sincerity and a strong heart. But he also has a naive tendency to believe that shamans are like in the books he read, especially those Castaneda. Jose denies being attracted by the spectacular plants witch cinemascope. He has no regard for the external aspects purements visions and instead is actually the master mind of plants of interest. Anyway I know he is ready. I knew from the first glance. I point out that his company may be doomed to failure because it has only a month and a meeting with these traditions requires an investment much longer. I spoke to him of course of Kallawaya. I'm with them for months but outside of Grover and his family, and learn how much, everyone seems wary of Westerners. It is impossible for a foreigner to be initiated there. When Jose asks me why I stay with them, sitting all day, I reply that I do not know, and anyway, I seek nothing special. Note that we are in December 2008 and not until March 2009 that the door will open Kallawaya for me, very unexpectedly.
I talk to him also Camilo gift, this curandero northern Argentina I met in incredible circumstances, since it appeared to me in a vision when I arrived in South America (Cusco in June 2008), and another time in October 2008, during the four days I went into the underworld of the Uku Pacha at Candelaria at Don Martin. Fully awake, I sat in my bed. I saw in the night as if it was the day but in reality I was in the patio of the house of Don Camilo, a non-verbal communication very clear where he was as surprised as me to see me there . These oddities have occurred without the use of plants entheogens. I met Camilo flesh and bones after these events, there is barely more than a month. We recognized in El Alto and talked all these meetings in the subtle. This is where for the first time I got to know Wachuma. But Camilo claimed, the views of our subtle experiences, I already knew the spirit of the plant. Bad luck for Jose, Don Camilo is currently traveling to Cochabamba and it will not meet him. 
My English friend is becoming more attentive when I place my story. Like Don Camilo is a specialist of Wachuma, I explain the basics of plant and what I know. How the pick, how to prepare it, the requirements for its decision, its magical properties, its effects telepathic and visionary, his healing, the places where it takes us. My story leaves out the fact that because of the quality of our meetings in daydream Don Camilo tells me capable of transmitting these things because at the time, I did not realize they can bring Jose Wachuma world. This is the first time anyone wondering about the plant lover. I am happy to explain carefully what I know, and I think people and places that might be of interest and inform his approach.
Then I asked him to come walk with me in the street witches, to present a few plants such as Ayahuasca, San Pedro and other lesser known. Walking, to stand in stalls, I explain what he sees. It is best to pick your own ritual, rather than buying it here. This cactus five sides, is very rare and very powerful. It is used especially for such an operation. Its effect differs from others by such and such aspect. This cactus has six different sides, that there are seven There are even four sides, but they are even more rare that a four-leaf clover and extremely dangerous. Jose began to understand it is not enough to take the San Pedro fishing expedition like this, imagining that it is always the same substance and effect as it will matter. The number of sides that features the cactus is fundamental, as the place where it grows, the lighting of the sun, the sex of his land, presiding over the ritual in its preparation, etc.. I also say a few words of Mesa Nortena . And while we share, Jose said suddenly: " But you, man of knowledge I seek. Would you be willing to introduce me to the spirit of Wachuma? "Puzzled, I asked him to wait a further sign an agreement. He starts the day after spending Christmas in Peru, but must go through La Paz on the way home. That's where I give him my answer and we celebrate together the ritual of the vision which does not remain a prisoner of the eyes.
The conversation continues and we are now talking about more general impressions about his trip in the Andes. He told me that Argentines are quite racist towards Bolivians and they laugh a lot of their physical, finding them all very ugly. That comes from Western culture is about, "he notes, this dictatorship of appearances at the botoxée superficiality of life and its beautiful white teeth predatory. For José, however, the Bolivians are in fact a great, a great beauty. They are beautiful where, precisely, the Argentine family of his wife is making fun of them. This is not given to everyone, in fact, have a face completely transparent when the soul gives itself to contemplate with much light and strength, as can be seen on some pictures of my blogs or video of the Kjarkas. Since his arrival in Bolivia, whenever my friend crosses this kind of face, it feels like seeing a man or woman of knowledge . It is a view that I share fully of course. On the eve of his deep sleep, the people have always been the caretaker of an unconscious and silent arcanum final. From this point of view, Don Martin is a champion in all categories. It is also necessary for a people that actually exists, rather than just mass. It was just my first discovery in Bolivia, the dazzling, the existence of a people.
Back to Wachuma. This is an opportunity for me to explain why this is a topic that I avoid addressing too directly on this blog. Apart from Morgan, Nakul and Jose, I have initiated person making Wachuma and I do not think I intended to integrate the approach in our own lineage, the systematic use of entheogens. Some close friends maintain that the Western mind has reached such a degree of rigidity that there is more than gnosises chemicals that can find the fault. I believe that the spectacular nature of these gnosises is too entertaining for mind, who will find a new toy, a beautiful object of consumption and additional stories to tell. Other approaches, more sober and with less power, seem to correspond better to our needs, such as meditation without issues (as Vajrayana called "non-meditation"). And far from showing that we can understand the approach entheogen, a film such as Blueberry that only serves to encourage me to keep silent on this issue. The aim of the author of the film was to plunge the viewer directly into the shamanic experience, thanks to special effects and audience participation to the visions of the hero. The result is completely missed in terms of intention. Plants mistresses are not a trip and if the visions are a privileged language of entheogens, they do not constitute the bulk of this particular approach. They are instead that the externality of the shamanic experience, and when we observe how this magic spectacular continues to fascinate the candidate for the Soma, one can only deduce that the conditions are not met for a healthy use and respectful of these plants. Moreover, it is possible for everyone to participate in a therapeutic treatment made by these plants, their use requires proper initiatory and shamanic skills that are generally lacking for the user. This will be a patient, not a shaman which is taught manejo. For a critical view of the contrasting Blueberry Jan Kounen, I propose another film, much more successful on the sharing of shamanic experience and climate created. This exceptional film by Nicolás Echevarría, Cabeza de Vaca (1990), I often watch newcomers wishing to understand my work. Without following the ethnographic or historical fact, this masterful treatment surreal, manages to immerse ourselves in an atmosphere without sacrificing nothing spectacular views, but turned resolutely towards the internal dimension and transforming initiation. By discovering this film, I thought it could only be a work of shaman. I later learned that the Mexican director had a close interest in shamanism and had, among other things, created in 1979 excellent documentary on the famous healer Maria Sabina. Among the many lessons of this film, it is one that I used. After a lifetime experience as troubling as it is extraordinary, the protagonist returns to the "civilized world". His companions advised him to silence his experiences: " tendremos that contar mentiras "," we will tell lies. "Thus the hero is condemned to silence, while his companions say all kinds of outrageous and talk about cities of gold and women with three breasts. Those who lie, the West may think, especially when their fabrications are monumental, but he who saw the incredible silence them, knowing that every word would make him something to silence at all costs .
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