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…

Tuesday, 7/31/18

Today is a brief break from the incredibly full and rich activities here at beautiful Lake Atitlan in the heart of Guatemala. The past three days have been intense, and I haven’t had a free moment to check my email and FaceBook, or write in this journal. In addition to Dona and me, a dozen guests showed up for the weekend. Amazing people, every one! Saturday I did a 3-hour presentation in two-parts on “Awakening into Quantum Consciousness.” Sunday we held a ceremony of Awakening in Carolina’s beautiful Temple of Illumination (see photo). And yesterday (Monday) Carolina, Maia, Baba John and I hiked and climbed to the top (1,892m) of the nearby mountain, Cerro de Oro (“Mountain of Gold”), also called “The Elephant,” to see a Mayan altar and spectacular views over the Lake. Tomorrow we’re going across the lake in a boat to visit with some of the participants of the past weekend, receive some body work, and do shamanic journeying with ayahuasca. I’ll catch you all up as best I can…

Ceremony in the Temple of Illumination

Saturday, 7/28/18

Today is the big day, and the reason I was brought here to Guatemala–my weekend seminar on “Awakening into Quantum Consciousness.” People start arriving in 2 hours, and there is much to set up and prepare…

Yesterday was so beautiful–perfect temperature, quiet and peaceful. Dona and I went swimming in the lake, and laid around on the grass watching the clouds.

Thursday, 7/26/18

A lot in the past few days! I’ll try to catch up…

Dona and I spent all day Tuesday flying down to Guatemala City, where our host, Carolina, had told us she’d be putting us up for the night at her mother’s place. She picked us up at the airport as soon as we’d cleared customs, and took us for a late dinner at a local restaurant Pinche where she knew the people. We got there just minutes before closing. After a delicious dinner Carolina took us to her mom’s—which turned out to be a fabulous luxury green hotel—Terra Esperanza—in the middle of town! Our room was one of three on the 7^th floor, with a big common sitting room and wide balcony overlooking the city. We were rather blown away, but the best was yet to come…

Yesterday morning we met for breakfast in the hotel’s café/restaurant Kardamomuss, with Carolina’s mother and sister, both named Lucrecia, and her utterly charming 8-year-old daughter Maia. A beautiful statue of Madre Esperanza graced the center of the restaurant. Esperanza means “hope,” which is the major theme of the whole family, and the name of the hotel. The name of the restaurant referenced Cardamon, an incredibly healthy spice locally-produced from seeds that is claimed to be “a panacea for every illness or medical disorder.” Dona and I agreed this was probably the best breakfast we’d ever had in our lives!

Carolina’s mother told us that the property had originally been a family farm where her husband had grown up. They’d met at the age of 14, married at 18, and had 40 happy years before he died suddenly in front of her of a heart attack, 14 years ago. During their time together, they’d built this amazing “green” hotel/residence/office building, all with local labor and materials.

Lucrecia (the mother) gave us the grand tour, from the swank swimming pool with all-around floor-to-ceiling windows, the well-equipped gym, spa, and healing facilities, to the rooftop garden that could have been a lovely landscaped back yard until you looked beyond the border flowers to the city all round and far below. Several major volcanoes were visible on the horizon, including one called Fuego (“fire”) that had famously erupted last month, much like Pompei, sending pyroclastic flows down the slopes that killed a number of people. They were still cleaning up ash from the eruption. A news report said:

Eruption of Fuego

June 4, 2018: A volcano southwest of Guatemala City has erupted for the second time in five months, sending a deadly plume of super-heated rock and gas into the rural communities below. At least 65 people have been killed, but the death toll is expected to rise.

When the Fuego volcano erupted in February, it produced a one-mile-high plume of ash, but yesterday’s eruption was of a different sort. On Sunday afternoon, the 12,346-foot-tall mountain erupted, hurtling a column of ash a full 3.7 miles into the sky. The explosion also triggered a deadly pyroclastic flow—a hot, fast-moving plume of rock and gas—that engulfed farms, streets, cars, and entire homes at the bottom of the southern slope.

The Fuego volcano is located about 25 miles south of Guatemala City. In 2012, the volcano triggered an evacuation of 10,000 residents, and in 2015 it forced an airport closure. This is the deadliest eruption in Guatemala since 1902, when the Santa Maria volcano killed thousands of people.

After the tour of “mom’s place,” Carolina, Maia, Dona and I ran a few errands around the city, visited an art gallery, and hit the road for the 3-hour drive to Lake Atitlan where we’d be staying at the La KzonA eco-resort. During the ride we were engaged with Maia’s wit and intelligence in running word games, mostly between her and me, regarding who (or what) we’d accept as students in my Wizard School. We even had a competition of  wicked laughs and mad cackles, which Maia won hands-down with an uncanny impression of the cackle of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. We stopped at a market to pick up food and supplies, where a total stranger named Lily came up to me, saying I reminded her of Jesus, and lamenting to Dona that she wished she could have a boyfriend like me. She gave Carolina her phone number, and invited us to come visit her. Maia said it was good we had tinted windows on the car, or there’s be a crowd of women chasing after me!

After harrowing encounters with buses and trucks on the narrow and sometimes unpaved road, we finally arrived at Cerro de Oro, the tiny lakeside village near the resort in Lake Atitlan. Lake Atitlan is a caldera lake and what remains of the original volcano are three semi-dormant volcanoes: Toliman, Atitlan and San Pedro. It was after dark as we were shown the lovely stone cottage right on the lake where we’d be staying. Carolina even set us up with WiFi so we could do email, FB, and catch up on Rachel Maddow and Steven Colbert.

This morning I made omelets, we took a wade in the clear lake, and I caught up on my email, FB, and writing this journal. Carolina picked us up around 1:00 to take us to the little farm in Santiago where she, Maia, and her husband David live. Dave is back in the States this month, and Carolina had to supervise the avocado harvest, but Maia proudly showed us all around, introducing us to her horses, ducks, dogs and peacocks—and to her father’s beautiful free-form sculpted and painted adobe that comprise their rooms, temple, and other structures.

Afterwards we stopped at the market in Santiago to get a few items, and then we climbed aboard one of the two main forms of public transportation: a pick-up truck (flete) with high sides around the bed where people stood all packed together and hung on for dear life. Although this is supposed to be the rainy season here, it hasn’t rained yet all summer, and isn’t expected to during our stay. But on the way, a sudden downpour would have drenched us, but the driver tossed up a big blue tarp, which I caught (being in the front left corner of the bed), and everyone spread over us all. We got off at the Charismatic Catholic Church Carolina had shown us earlier, and her guardian/groundskeeper Manuel met us and walked us home.

And so ends our first day at Lake Atitlan…

Monday, 7/23/18

I watched the news today…oh boy! Fires raging in Yosemite and San Marcos; the east coast flooding; lethal temperatures skyrocketing in the southwest (here in Austin today it peaked at 109 degrees); buildings collapsing; boats sinking; drownings; mass shootings… And Rump is stripping security clearance from all the Intelligence people who are exposing his traitorous collusion with Russia. Damn!

Our plane leaves at 2:28 tomorrow afternoon. Glad we’re going away for a month to a nice safe tropical paradise surrounded by active volcanoes…

We’ve spent most of the day pulling everything out of Dona’s closets and my suitcases, doing laundry, and sorting out what we need to take and what we can leave here ‘til we return in four weeks. Everything we plan to take for all that time has to go into one carry-on and one “personal item” for each of us. We each have a carrion rolly-bag, I have a fat briefcase, and Dona has a backpack. We’re all set now.

Dona hasn’t seen very many movies in her life in the Renaissance, so I brought a few to show her. Last night we watched “The Princess Bride,” which she’d never seen before. What fun to share it with a virgin! Tonight I’ll put on “Taming of the Shrew” with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

Saturday, 7/21/18

When I was in Vegas having dinner with Morganne Baum, she mentioned a movie I hadn’t heard of, called “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women,” about American psychologist William Moulton Marston, who created “Wonder Woman” in 1941. I thought it was a current film, and I looked forward to seeing it with Dona. But it turned out it actually came out last year; how could I have missed it? So we rented it and watched it last Tuesday. A beautiful and sensitive dramatization of the polyamorous love story that inspired the creation of the most famous and enduring superheroine of all time.

Thursday Dona and I drove over to visit Wolf and Kat at their beautiful home in Round Rock, about a half hour from where Dona is staying between shows (she works at the various Texas Renaissance Festivals and Faires). We had a lot to catch up on, including making the full catalogue of MG’s Goddess collection available in print form, and producing the series of “Golden Goddess Guides” she’d envisioned, based on her 13 weekend Goddess seminars she conducted at RavenHaven. We went out to dinner at Threadgills, which Maureen had recommended as having the “best food on Earth.” It was really good!

In just a few more days we’re flying off to Guatemala for four weeks! We are so excited!

Wednesday, 7/18/18

I’m now in Austin, TX, with Belladona, after a great week at Starwood. I flew here on Monday the 16^th, and we’re enjoying a week of personal time together before we take off next Tuesday for a month in Guatemala. I’ve been too busy traveling and dealing with several extremely intense crises to keep up with my journaling every day, so here’s some catching up…

Starwood was wonderful as always—about 700 people this year. I did two major presentations on “Awakening Into Quantum Consciousness,” and two panels—on the Grey School of Wizardry and “Trumpocalypse.” The main event was the great Bonfire Saturday night, after the concert. An elaborate fire-lighting ceremony with torches and fire-dancers ignited the two-story house-sized fire, which erupted with fireworks as everyone ran (or walked) around it in a wild rumpus of laughing, shouting, and dancing to the bank of drummers.

It is my custom and joy at outdoor Pagan gatherings to spend the evenings wandering from campfire to campfire. When I come into the circle of firelight, all in my robes, floppy pointy hat, and lighted staff, I am always welcomed with a pipe, a horn of mead, and a bowl of stew. We sit around sharing stories, songs, and conversation, and then I move on. Isaac Bonewits’ song, “The Wizard” (http://www.witchvox.com/music/bardic/dt_bc.html?id=117) could have been written for me…

One of my dear Starwood friends is a Wizard named Wil Strickland, who looks so much like me that people are constantly mistaking him for me. He has his little wizard’s gazebo set up at “The Slacker’s Den” campsite, with his throne and a circle of seats, where he holds court to share wisdom and conversation. Liz and the other folks there always make lotsa food for night wanderers, and it’s one of my favorite places to hang out.

Starwood Fashions: It was up to 110 degrees at Wisteria, and the event was clothing-optional. So fashions ranged from nothing at all to quite flamboyant. Here are a few of the most popular styles in evidence:

Women: Frilly bras & panties only; sexy lingerie with no underwear; top-free or completely naked, often with lotsa jewelry (a la Deja Thoris); belly-dance outfits; Faerie costumes (with wings—especially little girls); barbarian or jungle girl (leather and fur bikinis, beads, feathers); creative and imaginative fetish wear…

Everyone: Sarongs (most common outfit for both men and women); elaborate tattoos; Starwood T-shirts; beautiful robes, ritual regalia, pointy hats (more at night, when it cooled off a bit)…

Sunday was for breaking down and packing up, and most of the guests left. The hard core of staff and a few speakers gathered in the evening near the still-smoking remains of the bonfire for a pot-luck feast of leftovers from everyone’s campsites. A conversation ensued among some guys about the “consent protocols” that have become a significant issue of late (I had people all week asking my permission for hugs!). A lovely woman I’ve known there for many years but never hooked up with walked in on the conversation as it turned to the whole issue of flirting, courtship and seduction—traditionally non-verbal arts which seem to be getting lost in the current culture.

While everyone stood around comparing notes on proper and acceptable verbal agreements, negotiations, and forms of consent, the Lady and I looked each other up and down, smiled, raised single eyebrows suggestively, flicked our eyes, nodded, and left the circle hand-in-hand for a mutually delightful evening. All with barely a word being spoken. And no one else had any idea what had just happened. Decades ago, in the ‘90s, Morning Glory and Talyn used to do very popular workshops on “flirting and courtship rites for Pagans,” and I think we need to revive something like that for our current community, who often seem pretty clueless…