Monday 8/20/18

“All good things…”

Friday afternoon Carolina and Maia picked us up for the long drive to Antigua, where we stayed for two nights at the lovely home of Carolina’s mother, Lucrecia García Granados.

Lucrecia’s great-great grandfather was Miguel García Granados (1809-1878), leader and “Philosopher” of the 1871 Revolution to overthrow the corrupt Presidente, General Vicente Cerna. After the liberation of Guatemala City, he became the 7th President of Guatemala, 1871-1873. During his presidency García Granados initiated and supported many liberal reforms, including education and the arts. In 1872, he invaded Honduras, where he decreed freedom of the press, established separation of church and state, and expelled the Jesuits.

García Granados designed the Guatemalan flag which remains almost identical to his original version, produced in 1871. Like George Washington on our American $1 bill, García Granados’ portrait appears today on the Guatemalan 10-quetzales bill.

Continuing her illustrious family tradition, Lucrecia has established a project fostering the education of girls. Her program is called Associacion de Supracion Educativa (see Facebook page). This is a mentorship program to improve the lives of Guatemalan girls, and give them tools to build their way through education. Lucrecia is looking for godmothers to sponsor these girls, who are eager to improve their lives, but do not have the means for adequate education. Lucrecia says, “With your generosity, you give a helping hand to one of our girls, and with effort she will be able to climb as high as she wishes.”

Saturday we celebrated Lucrecia’s 73rd birthday, starting with cake in the morning. In the afternoon we all went up in the hills to a beautiful park, Cerro de Santo Domingo, with its several fine museums and a spectacular overview of Antigua. A number of craftspeople were selling their wares, and Dona bought a beautiful shawl from the woman who wove it.

In the evening we went to Osteria, an outdoor Italian restaurant owned by Lucrecia’s friend Francesca, where we were joined for dinner by her dear friend, Patricia, who is also Italian, and a real hoot. We feasted royally, managing to go through three bottles of prosecco [an Italian champagne analog]. Conversation was an animated gesticulating mix of Spanish, Italian and English, with Carolina translating some of the Spanish for us. I haven’t laughed so much since Dona and I were in Mexico last Jan. with Jiva and Diego. Eventually Maia crawled up onto the table and fell asleep. The best line of the evening was her sleepy voice, “Why am I on this table?”

[Answer: “Dang! We were just about to start the autopsy!”]

It was 11:00 and they were putting the chairs on the tables when we finally departed.

Monday we went for lunch at another outdoor restaurant, Amos, where Carolina’s niece Monica’s boyfriend Sebas was playing guitar. Afterwards we said our tearful farewells to Carolina and Maia, who headed back to Santiago. Lucrecia drove Dona and me on to Guatemala City, putting us up in the guest quarters of her private apartment in her grand eco-hotel, Terra Esperanza. We watched nightfall from the hot tub and swimming pool on the 10th floor, with its all-around panoramic view of the city and distant volcanoes. Unfortunately, the actual sunset was occluded by storm clouds and lightning. Lucrecia joined us for dinner in her restaurant, Kardamomuss. Afterwards Dona and I caught up with episodes of the Rachel Maddox show before bed.

This morning I woke up in considerable pain from the horse incident on Sat. 8/11. Lucrecia arranged for a massage for me in the hotel gym, which really helped! I had a FB phone chat with my Grey School apprentice Nicholas Kingsley, who informed me that, once again, rumors were circulating of my demise—this time from being knocked off the horse. I told him to let people know that rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated, as Mark Twain once said.

Tonight we watched a beautiful sunset over the mountains beyond Guatemala City from the hot tub and pool. Lightning flashes in the south heralded a light rain that soon followed. A poignant farewell to a beautiful country and beautiful people! We are so blessed!

Tomorrow morning a taxi will be here for us at 4:45 am, to take us to the airport for our 7:00 flight back to Austin.

Friday 8/17/18

Today is our last day at mystic Lake Atitlan. This morning we’re packing up, and Carolina will be picking us up around 2:pm to take us to Antigua—the next leg of our Guatemala sojourn. After a weekend in Antigua, we’ll head over to Guatemala City, stay at “Mom’s Place”—Terra Esperanza—and catch our flight back to Austin on Tuesday.

The last couple of days have been amazing! I’ve been impeded a bit by sore ribs and an aching back from getting knocked off that horse, but I can’t let a little thing like that slow me down! Besides, Carolina told me that horse had thrown both her and Maia a few times too, so I don’t feel so bad. And I do appreciate all the love and healing that so many folks have poured out to me via FaceBook. Thank you!

Thursday morning we caught the 10:am boat from Cerro across the lake to Pana, had a light lunch, and then took a tuctuc to the Natural Reserve, where signs with silhouette icons and arrows pointed the directions to the various things to see: campground, flutterbys, playground, coatis, waterfalls, monkeys, Nessie and Yeti… Ri-i-ght. We took the trail to the Mariposa (flutterby) garden in a big geodesic dome. Beautiful flowers and even more beautiful tropical flutterbys competed for attention, and we took photos of as many as would hold still long enough. The zebras, monarchs and others were quite cooperative, but the legendary iridescent blue morphos (commonly regarded as the most beautiful flutterbys on Earth), were total teases, flying right around us, but never landing for more than a few seconds, and then with their wings folded so only the dull underneath was visible. Between us, after many attempts, we did manage to catch a few pics…

After the flutterbys, we climbed on up the canyon over hanging bridges across small waterfalls to the monkey observation platform, where we did see a few spider monkeys high in the trees. Then we decided we were ready for the zip lines.

There were two options for zip-lines: one involved a few very long rides down the canyon for nearly a kilometer (.6214 miles). The other option involved a series of eight shorter cables zig-zagging back and forth across the canyon. We opted for the latter, and we got ourselves all outfitted up with parachute harnesses, helmets, cable tows and pulleys. What we hadn’t considered was the long steep climb up to above the spectacular high waterfall at the top of the canyon. Dona is really not a climber, and after my fall off the horse last Saturday, I also found it a struggle. The first part of the climb took us back to the monkey observation platform, where the guides brought bananas to entice the monkeys down from the treetops, along with a coati-mundi. That was fun.

It took us a while to reach the top of the trail to the highest cable platform. We had two guides—one to go in front, and one to follow us. The first hooked himself to the cable and flew off. Dona went next, I followed her, and Carlos (who spoke a bit of English, and was very solicitous) followed me. There’s nothing quite like the rush (OK, maybe sky-diving, bungee-jumping and hang-gliding…of which I’ve done the latter two…) of flying high above a jungle canyon hanging from a tiny cable! Eight times we did this, returning finally to the visitor center where we started. I loved it, but Dona didn’t have such a good time, unfortunately. The climb really did her in, and on top of that, the harness under her butt was twisted and quite uncomfortable; evidently Carlos was shy about adjusting it properly between her legs.

After the Natural Reserve, we took a tuctuc back to the dock in Pana and caught the next boat to San Marcos, where we were to meet up with Nadia Petrova, who would be hosting us for the evening. Unfortunately, we accidentally got off in Tzununa, where we had to wait a half hour for the next boat to San Marcos. Nadia met us there and took us to a Japanese restaurant, Alalla, where it was weekly sushi night buffet, with heartful live music, including Sweet Honey In The Rock’s “Listen more often to things than to beings;” a song that Morning Glory used to sing often. Nadia’s ex-husband, Mark Elmy, met us there, and we were shortly joined as well by Baba John Bushe, who keeps showing up unplanned and unexpected. How does he do that? As I mentioned previously, San Marcos really is “Syncroni-City”! John showed off his newest tattoo, after previously getting my Astra Star Goddess on the inside of his left forearm. Now he had my jewelry design of Cernunnos on the inside of his right forearm! Wow—what an honor!

After dinner we took a tuctuc to Nadia’s beautiful home atop a huge rock overlooking the Lake. Like everyone else we’ve met around the Lake, Nadia possesses astounding knowledge in her areas of interest and expertise, which in her case involves healing herbs, ointments and unguents, lotions and potions, crystals, medicines, food, massage, and sacred geometry. She truly is the village witch doctor! Born in Bulgaria, she spent her 20’s in Paris before coming to San Marcos over 30 years ago.

We had an amazing evening with Nadia and Mark, who is a Mayan Astrologer, and he gave Dona and me detailed and uncanny analyses of our lives and purposes based on the Mayan correspondences of our birthdates. It reinforced from a different perspective what Nirguna had told me earlier about my mission at this crucial turning point in my life. We talked long into the night, about the whichness of what, and how to unscrew the inscrutable. Mark is from England, and was initially trained in a Druidic group over there. It turned out we know a few people in common—as seems often to be the case in our travels. After Mark left, Nadia gave my back and ribs a treatment and adjustment, and showed us to our lovely B&B apartment with a balcony overlooking the lake and the three giant volcanoes on the other side.

Thursday morning I awoke in time to take a photo of a lovely golden dawn over the lake. A bit later, Nadia fixed us all a huge breakfast, and we walked along the beach over to Mark’s place, where he conducted a Mayan ceremony of gratitude for the day, called 1 K’at on the Mayan Calendar. About 17 people attended the 3-hour ritual, and it was truly beautiful, invoking all 20 Nahuals, each in their 13 aspects, with offerings of gratitude to all. Many aspects and elements of the ceremony were familiar to me from my own experiences with traditional Pagan rituals from many cultures. So much of these “ancient ways” are universal—the central altar or fire; homage to the Four Directions; the Great Above, the Great Below, and the Center; and always, in whatever language, Mother Earth.

Here’s a bit of Mark’s description of this day on the Mayan calendar—from his website: https://thefourpillars.net/

Whilst K’at does represent the net which gathers the harvest, it also has an association with what it contains, the seeds. Here, on the day 1 K’at, we see the new seed planted for the next harvest.

In the cycle of re-creation, the soil of the field has been turned and the tilled, infused and fertilised by the wisdom of the ancients. The threads of creation are being gathered ready to join the new to the old on the day Wajxakib B’atz.

The energy of 1 K’at can be seen as being about gathering together and embracing the new time. Life is a continual cycle of birth, death and rebirth. We have the possibility to reap an abundant harvest, but right now in order to do that we need unity. It is time to put aside differences and work together to plant the new field if we are to enjoy abundance on the future.

K’at signifies a net and represents gathering together or bundling. Here, in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, to this day many crops are harvested and carried in nets – oranges, lemons, avocados to name but a few. Through this we see one of the positive meanings of this nawal, that of abundance and harvest. K’at is a great day to draw things together, whether this means gathering in your crops, collecting ideas and opinions for your projects, or inviting people to a social event. It is a day of prosperity and the bounty which comes from the Earth, a day of gardeners, but also of merchants.

Carolina showed up for the ceremony, and afterwards we went back into San Marcos for lunch at Marybel’s restaurant, Samsara. Like all the restaurants we’ve enjoyed in San Marcos, the floor is a landscaped garden with paths and little patios where chairs and tables are placed here and there. Above are canopies and awnings, and walls are open all around. Polite and well-mannered dogs wander in and out, unattached to any human owners. Marybel joined us at our table; she’d just been leaving, but a serendipitous phone call delayed her ‘til we arrived. The news was that she’d been approved for the house she was trying to buy! She plans to expand Samsara, and add a drink stand for her shaved-ice fruit delights as well as a place where Joe can offer his awesome VR experiences to paying customers. I think that could be huge!

Down at the dock, we separated—Carolina to head back to Santaigo, and us to return to Cerro by way of Pana. And now we’re packing to leave for Antigua. We will carry with us forever our fond memories of Lake Atitlan and all the beautiful and magickal people we’ve met here!

Monday 8/13/18

“The Mists of Atitlan”

Today is a strange and misty day over Lake Atitlan. Dark and rumbling clouds scour the sky, and just now a small sprinkle of rain dotted the stone walkway in front of our cottage. But the strangest thing was the total disappearance of the other side of the lake, with its volcano. The far edge of the lake looked like the sharp horizon of the ocean on a clear day. And then a few minutes later the mist across the lake turned into ragged filaments, and the volcano reappeared. Now you see it, now you don’t.

Disappearing volcano – Now you see it, now you don’t.

And then around 5:30, amid streaks of lightning onto the lake and all around us, followed too quickly by deafening thunder, the rain came down, and the lights in the cottage went off and on. But it only lasted less than an hour, and now all is quiet and still.

We’ve had no Internet since we got back yesterday afternoon, and no idea why. Clicking onto the Internet icon took me to a page in Spanish that I couldn’t understand (the site couldn’t translate), and our phones wouldn’t work either for outgoing calls, so we couldn’t call Carolina. Finally today Carolina phoned us, and we were able to receive the call OK. With her translation, helped by Manuel, we were able to figure out that the fees we’d paid for Internet down here had expired, and needed to be renewed for the next few days until we leave Cerro de Oro. Working out exactly how to do that took awhile, but eventually we were able to extend the service, and now I’m trying to catch up!

Wednesday Dona and I plan to go back across the lake to Panajachel to visit the Reserva Natural Atitlan on the northern outskirts of town. The main trail can be walked in an hour, and leads up to swinging bridges over a waterfall, then down to a platform for viewing local spider monkeys and coati. There is also an aviary, butterfly farm and herb garden. A major attraction is zip lines spanning canyons and forests, the longest of which extends nearly a kilometer! We hope some of our new friends on the north shore will join us… And we want to finish our interrupted visit to the Museo Lacustre Atitlan to see the rest of their exhibit of ancient Mayan artifacts from the drowned village at the bottom of the Lake.

We’ll stay Wednesday night at Nadia’s in San Marcos, then on Thursday morning her husband will be conducting a Mayan ceremony. Then we’ll return to Cerro de Oro Thursday afternoon, and pack to leave LaKzonA Lodge the next day.

Friday Carolina will be taking us to Antigua for the weekend, then back to Guatemala City, and flying back to Austin early on Tues. the 21st. 

Sunday 8/12/18

I’m moving a mite slow today. I got knocked off a horse yesterday and I’m still a bit shaken. At Carolina’s home in Santiago, Casa de Dragon, I was riding her magnificent black stallion, “Blackbird,” and we were galloping back to the stable when he went under a low-hanging branch I didn’t see to duck, and it whacked me in the head and knocked me off onto my back. Rather took the wind out of me, and left me with a few scratches, aches and bruises. Nothing appears to be broken, however. It could have been much worse… 8-year-old Maia nursed me diligently, cleaned my wounds, and put colorful emoji bandaids on them all. When we got back to LaKzonA Lodge, Dona smeared me down with Arnica gel, which worked amazingly well to take away the aches and bruises from the fall.

OZ on Blackbird — before.

And Maia nursing OZ – after. 

This morning I had a productive Skype meeting with the Grey School Administration. People are really responding to our new offer of a monthly tuition subscription! At 10:00 Carolina came by with Maia, Angela and Eric to take us all to Cerro Iquitiu Parque Ecologico Municipal in San Lucas Toliman where we hiked up to an old-growth forest atop a mountain, Cerro Iquitiu—“Heavenly Mountain.” A bit of a hike, but the trail was well-made and maintained, with log steps and a great lookout spot. The forest was so lush and primeval, with a much lower temperature from mist rolling mystically up the mountainside. Gigantic trees with fluted buttress roots were covered with a profusion of vines, ferns, bromeliads, orchids, lichens, mushrooms and moss. And what a contrast between the huge trees and the many tiny things—fuzzy black “spikey no-touch” caterpillars (as Angela called them), miniature flowers, seeds, nuts, berries, acorns, broken blue eggshells…

Cloud forest of the Heavenly Mountain.

When we got back to LaKzonA Lodge around 3:00, we discovered that our Internet connection was gone. Even our cell phones wouldn’t work for outgoing texts or calls—though we could receive them. We’re totally cut off from civilization, and we can’t even call for help!

Thursday 8/9/18

During our 4-week stay in Guatemala, Dona and I are being hosted by Carolina Godoy at her beautiful LaKzonA Lodge near Cerro de Oro on the south shore of legendary Lake Atitlan. The steps down to the crystal-clear lake begin right outside the door of our charming stone cottage, and we awake each morning to bird calls, laughing children, a profusion of brilliant flowers, and colorful flutterbys. The facilities for our weekend seminar were fabulous! The Lodge is beautiful in architecture and very comfortable for those who stayed there; and we enjoyed delicious home-cooked meals, with veggies fresh from the garden. With her irrepressible and adorable 8-year-old daughter Maia, Carolina is a gracious, delightful, wise, witty, and knowledgeable host, interpreting for those of us whose Spanish is minimal, and coming up with great ideas for further explorations around the Lake. We are immensely impressed with her organizational skills in putting everything together seamlessly. I’ve been journaling online of our adventures, and I couldn’t recommend any place more highly!

Maia and Carolina at LaKzonA Lodge

Tuesday, 8/7/18

“Too much of a good thing” is how Aldous Huxley described Lake Atitlan in his 1934 travel work called Beyond the Mexique Bay.

Yesterday was another full day in Pana. Carolina joined us at breakfast in the Regis (included in our stay), and we soaked for awhile in the hot tub before heading over to Joe’s place via tuctuc (little red golf-cart-like vehicles that seat three people cozily and serve as taxis everywhere we’ve been around the Lake). Right in back of his house, an enormous boulder the size of a step-van had rolled down the mountain like a titanic bowling ball and smashed through the neighboring house. It was still there, being impossible to move, and the house was pretty wrecked. Déjà vu! Do we detect a theme here?

The boulder and the house it wrecked.

Joe’s studio/lab is a complex of electronics, computers, cables, monitors—and virtual reality equipment. It looks, in fact, like the setup in the van in the movie, Ready Player One. He hooked us up with helmets, goggles and control wands, one for each hand, and activated his holodeck, where we were able to choose from a couple dozen portals to enter incredibly detailed 3-D virtual worlds—such as outer space, the ocean depths, the Jurassic era (with dinosaurs!), the African Savannah, a Japanese fantasy landscape, and many others—complete with animated creatures. But that was only the background. Our hands and the controls we were holding them in were also visible in the virtual worlds, and with them we could grab, toss, and otherwise manipulate objects from a wide selection of options to engage ourselves in the various realms. This equipment is still in the early developmental stage, but it was easy to envision how it will evolve in the immediate future—as well as the further implications and possibilities over decades, centuries, and millennia…

Joe’s virtual reality lab and studio.

Joe’s lady Marybel joined us shortly before Carolina had to leave for a 2:00 workshop. Marybel owns a restaurant in San Marcos called Samsara. She’s getting ready to introduce a new dessert involving shaved ice made of frozen fruits, yogurt, etc., so she whipped up a batch for us to try. It was delicious, and should be a big hit. Joe Goerbert is one of the world’s top business planners; see www.brainhive.de. The blog holds information about the Guatemala project and volunteer program.

We had to catch the last boat back to Cerro de Oro at 5:30. Carolina had arranged for a tuctuc to meet us and take us back to the Lodge, and here we are. Today is a relaxing downtime. We took a little dip in the Lake, and I’m catching up on this journal.

Sunday, 8/5/18

Yesterday morning (Sat) we hiked back down the mountain to Paxanax (pronounced posh-a-nosh), called the “Beverly Hills” of Lake Atitlan, and met up with Deva Nirguna, who led Dona and me on another long hike up to his place, Atitlan Arte Vista, a gorgeous retreat center he built himself (www.AtitlanArteVista.com). Nirguna is a prolific artist as well as architect, and his erotic paintings were on display throughout the labyrinth of rooms. He especially wanted to go over my horoscope with me, as Jupiter is now coming into its 6th full return (at 75 years), and it portends the beginning of a significant new phase of my life, focusing on writing and teaching. Shades of my aya trip the night before!

Nirguna also told us a miraculous tale, and showed us the evidence. Around 8:00PM on Sunday, April 23, 2017, a Volkswagon-sized boulder had rolled down the mountain and smashed right through the house, taking out a bedroom where a guest named Chris Campbell was lying on the bed writing on his laptop. Chris must have been teleported to safety, as he awoke on the ground 20 feet below, virtually unharmed, while the boulder lodged in the wall and floor with the bed crushed under it. Chris is Managing Editor of Laissez Faire Today, and he wrote up his account—with photos: “How to Surf a Boulder.” Google it.

This morning, we took a boat with Nirguna to Panajachel (called the “New York” of the Lake), where we checked into the Hotel Regis, with its hot springs. We spent a couple of hours in the hot tub, then went out for lunch. While we were eating in a little café, a man walking by overheard us speaking in English and came in to buttonhole us about the Bible. I told him, “Sorry, not interested. We’re Pagans.”

But he persisted: “What do you know about the Bible?” I told him I’d read it cover-to-cover in several translations, which was why I was Pagan. He really didn’t get the hint, and I regrettably had to get rude and tell him to just go away. Later, walking down the street, we passed him with a gaggle of other missionaries, all dressed in cheap suits and ties so as to blend in, no doubt.

We were checking out the Museo Lacustre Atitlan (located inside the Hotel Posada de Don Rodrigo), the local museum of underwater Mayan archaeology, with its collection of artifacts recovered from Samabaj, an ancient Mayan ceremonial center discovered at the bottom of the lake near Cerro de Oro, when I got a phone call from the parapente para-gliding people with whom I had a flying appointment tomorrow (Monday) morning. The weather now was perfect, but looked bad for tomorrow, so they wanted to go right away. We rushed back to the hotel where they picked us up, dropped Dona at the beach where we’d be landing, and drove up to the top of a nearby mountain, above Santa Catarina Palopo, where they spread the parawing out on the ground, and geared me up with harness, helmet and emergency parachute (in case of a water landing?). However, there was insufficient wind to lift the parachute wing, so after waiting a while, they decided we’d have to run to get it in the air—like Charlie Brown trying to fly a kite. So—after one false start where I stumbled and scraped my knee—we ran off the cliff like the Roadrunner and caught the air for an exhilarating 20-minute flight across the mountain face and over the lake, landing at the beach in Pana where Dona was waiting. This was way high on my bucket list—something for which I’ve waited over 500 years! That leaves sky-diving and hot air ballooning…

Paragliding over Panajachel.

Coming in for a landing (photo by Dona)

Now we’re back at the Regis, where we’ll meet Carolina and Joe in the morning, and take a boat back to Cerro de Oro. 

Saturday, 8/4/18

After another night at Felix’s place, we had only coffee in the morning at the Moonfish café, as Friday evening we were scheduled for an ayahuasca ceremony with Jam. We took a boat with Felix to Santa Cruz (the “Santa Cruz” of the Lake…), where Jam met us at the famous dock restaurant and scuba dive shop, La Iguana Perdida (the lost iguana). The map painting included the famous Atitlan lake monster, Xocomil.

Map of Santa Cruz area. Note lake monster, Xocomil.

We took a long hike up the mountain through the jungle to a remote ceremonial temple/site where Jam led us in an awesome ayahuasca ceremony, in which Jam and Felix kept up a joyous and haunting musical background of voices, singing bowls and didgeridoo. Jam’s knowledge and skill as a medicine wizard was most impressive, establishing an atmosphere of perfect love and perfect trust. Dona tripped on Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, and had beautiful happy visions of lights, colors and forms she could only describe as “psychedelic.” Felix said she was like “a fluffy koala.” My own experience was perhaps a bit odd, as I spent the entire trip immersed in a vision of composing and writing epic love stories from myth and history, trying to get the wording just right to convey the deep continuity of Love through the ages, and how it shapes our lives, cultures, and Destiny…to this very moment—and beyond.

A flower in the forest. Dona in the jungle.

From Wikipedia: “Ayahuasca”

Ayahuasca is an entheogenic brew made out of Banisteriopsis caapi vine and other ingredients. The brew is used as a traditional spiritual medicine in ceremonies among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin.

1. caapi contains several alkaloids that act as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Another common ingredient in ayahausca is the shrub Psycotria viridis which contains the primary psychoactive compound, dimethyltryptamine (DMT). MAOIs are required for DMT to be orally active.

In the 16th century, Christian missionaries from Spain and Portugal first encountered indigenous South Americans using ayahuasca; their earliest reports described it as “the work of the devil.” In the 20th century, the active chemical constituent of B. caapi was named telepathine, but it was found to be identical to a chemical already isolated from Peganum harmala and was given the name harmine.

Some Westerners have teamed up with shamans in the Amazon rainforest regions, forming ayahuasca healing retreats that claim to be able to cure mental and physical illness and allow communication with the spirit world.

From Wikipedia: “Psilocybin mushroom”

Hallucinogenic species of the Psilocybe genus have a history of use among the native peoples of Mesoamerica for religious communion, divination, and healing, from pre-Columbian times to the present day. Mushroom stones and motifs have been found in Guatemala. A statuette dating from ca. 200 CE. and depicting a mushroom strongly resembling Psilocybe mexicana was found in a chamber tomb in the state of Colima. A Psilocybe species was known to the Aztecs as teōnanācatl (“divine mushroom”). Aztecs and Mazatecs referred to psilocybin mushrooms as genius mushrooms, divinatory mushrooms, and wondrous mushrooms.

After the Spanish conquest, Catholic missionaries campaigned against the cultural traditions of the [natives], dismissing them as idolaters, and the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, like other pre-Christian traditions, were quickly suppressed. The Spanish believed the mushroom allowed the Aztecs and others to communicate with devils. In converting people to Catholicism, the Spanish pushed for a switch from teonanácatl to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist. Despite this history, in some remote areas the use of teonanácatl has remained.

Thursday, 8/2/18

We’re visiting wonderful people in each town along the north shore of Lake Atitlan, which can only be reached by water taxis. Starting in the west, we went from Santiago to San Pedro on Wednesday, where we received fabulous deep-tissue acupressure healing massages from Angela. I love massages, and try and get them as often as possible, but this may have been the best ever. While Dona and I were respectively waiting our turns, we spent a few hours hanging out in the garden with Angela’s husband Eric, and a few of their friends who dropped by. From Deadheads to former business executives, each of these folks had a remarkable back story of what they used to do, and how they came to Lake Atitlan.

Angela’s Tree Ladies…

Felix met us at Angela’s and accompanied us on the boat to San Marcos, a lovely little town where we met other ex-pat friends and had great conversations in charming little open-air restaurants. It reminded me of the ex-pat community of artists, poets and literati in Paris in the 1920s. Felix had told us on the boat that San Marcos was the “Amsterdam” of Lake Atitlan, and that the synchronicity factor here was off the chart. Sure enough, as we walked by the Restaurante Fe we ran into Deva Nirguna just coming out. So we decided to eat there. The food was fabulous! Shortly John and Esther showed up and joined us. None of this had been previously arranged. Felix said this happens all the time here. Truly the place could be called Synchroni-City!

Dona’s Lonely Planet Guide to Guatemala says:

San Marcos has become a magnet for global seekers, who believe the place has a spiritual energy that’s conducive to learning and practicing meditation, holistic therapies, massages, reiki, and other spiritually-oriented activities. … It’s an outlandish mélange of cultures—evangelical Christians, self-styled shamans, Kaqchiquel farmers and visionary artists—against a background of incredible natural beauty. Someone ought to make a movie about it.

Felix put us up in a cottage he’s house-sitting. Apparently this sort of arrangement is common, as many people have built charming little summer homes around here which they only visit occasionally. Today we had a lovely luncheon visit with Esther at her house, all beautifully landscaped with gardens and rock walls, as is so much here. Baba John came by to show off his brand-new tattoo on his forearm of my Astra, Star Goddess jewelry design that he fell in love with at the workshop! #whereisastra

Esther at her home in San Marcos.

Baba John’s tattoo of my Astra Star Goddess design.

Wednesday, 8/1/18

Happy Lughnasadh from Guatemala! Today we’re taking a boat across the lake for a week of adventures on the north side with some of the wonderful people who came to my seminar. Carolina is going with us for the first day as our colorful native guide and coordinator of our itinerary. First, we’ll be seeing Angela in San Pedro for some body work, and lunch. Then we’ll take a boat to San Marcos to stay with Felix until Friday, when we meet up with Jam in Santa Cruz for an evening of shamanic journeying. On Saturday we’ll be visiting Deva at his beautiful retreat center in Paxanax, Atitlan Arte Vista, for a Saturday afternoon healing ceremony for the lake and his analysis of my horoscope. Sunday through Monday we’ll be staying at the Regis Spa in Panajachel, where I’ll be taking a parapente (paraglider) flight above the lake—something I’ve waited over 500 years to do! There’s a little museum at the Hotel Posada De Don Rodrigo a few blocks from the Regis where they have Mayan artifacts retrieved from an ancient settlement now deep beneath the rising waters of the lake. Next Monday we’ll be visiting with Joe, and then back to Cerro de Oro and La KzonA…

Hanging out with the workshop folks…