I'll preface this with a little background that led up to the night where things got, well, intense. While working in Santa Fe New Mexico, I met a few folks that were deeply involved in ayahuasca, or purga, as some call it. It's called purga for good reason; you purge both psychologically, and physically. I'll get into that later... Anyhow, they asked me if I would like to come to a ceremony some day to which I gave an affirmative answer. I had confided that I was well experienced with psychedelics, which gave them confidence that I was a perfect fit for their ceremony. I went a dozen times, and to me it was rather light weight. Sure I had some cool experiences, vomited a bunch and so on, but nothing like what I will recount to the best of my memory... Here goes.
I was invited to come to a ceremony led by a Peruvian shaman. My friends had gone a handful of times to the jungle where he lived and brought him to New Mexico for a three day ceremony. Of course I said yes to their invitation. I was to follow a certain fasting-like diet for a day or two before. I don't recall what that was exactly, but it was pretty easy. Also, it was customary to wear all white. The ceremony was to start at dusk.
I arrive to the location a little early to help set u if needed, plus I wanted to actually meet the shaman, Jorge Gonzales. He was a short stocky man, who spoke no English whatsoever, but he fluent in his naive Indian language and Spanish. I go by with a little spanish. We set out the spaces for the folks who were expected to attend; vomit bowls, water, a mat to sit on. Shortly thereafter the attendees arrived, many more than I had expected; somewhere between 50 and 75 by my estimation. Women were to sit on one side of the room, the men on the other. I am not sure why this is the case, but must be tradition perhaps.
Jorge set up an alter of sorts comprised of some Christian statues. They seemed like mere props, for he did nothing with them what so ever. He lit some tobacco and blew the smoke into two jugs of tea. One had a blue ribbon around it, the other a red ribbon. Everyone was seated at this point. His attendants went around with some rose water (I think, or something like that) and some old spice. Each person in the circle were doused heavily with cologne and were cleansed with tobacco smoke. At this point, if you smoked tobacco, it was cool to have one, so I rolled one up. Once that was complete, the Maestro began filling small cups with the thick, black tea from the jug with the blue ribbon. Occasionally, Maestro would take a swig from the red ribbon jug. I though it peculiar. Once the attendants (my friends) came to me in the circle, they went to Maestro and chatted a moment. He looked at me for a moment, nodded in approval, and poured me a large glass of the red ribbon jug. Once I downed that vile liquid, my friend said the Maestro told them I cold have as much as I wanted. I was sure that amount was about all I could take. Nasty tasting stuff, tastes like fish emulsion smells.
Before the lights were turned off, the tea began to take hold quickly, and strongly, much more potent than the teas I experienced thus far. Psychedelic patterns began to be quite evident, the body rush was intense, but so far not a problem, and mildly enjoyable. THe lights were extinguished, and his assistant began singing some kechua songs ( ayahuasca mun ti nee, munta koona ki ya nee...) that at once were eerie and beautiful, elegantly simple. His attendants began moving around the room doing a strange little dance, blessing each participant I assume. I could feel my stomach getting a little weird, pre-vomit stage for sure. It went away for awhile...
The maestro sent another glass of tea over to me and I obliged, more out of respect than anything else, I mean the stuff tastes really foul. It took me a minute to get it down but I did eventually. The stuff hit really hard at this point. I all I could do was figuratively hang on. The without warning I vomited huge amounts of stuff, then immediately felt much better. I had learned to let it go in prior ceremonies, otherwise its pure suffering on many levels. The first thing to slip from existence, was time. I cold no longer tell how long I had been here, or whether this would ever end, this was eternity.... To be continued, gotta go read to the little one before bed
