l u z e n c a n t a d o r a (enchanted light)
paintings by A l e x a n d r e S e g r e g i o
Excerpts from Enlightened by Hoasca :: Enchanted Journeys with the Sacred Tea
by Annelise Schinzinger
from the Issue No.78 of Shaman's Drum magazine, 2008
Countless moments of ecstatic joy, sublime bliss, and cosmic "ah-has" have punctuated my trajectory with Hoasca. However, it is the deep, transformative inner work facilitated by the tea that I have come to appreciate most, and that I want to highlight in this article. This plant teacher has an uncanny ability to focus attention on aspects of our lives that are ripe for growth and healing. It has certainly helped me face and transform negative personality traits and habits, such as self-doubt and blame.
Looking back now, from my present age of fifty-two, it seems like lifetimes ago that Hoasca helped me overcome a debilitating eating disorder. During my early twenties, I suffered from bulimia. It was painfully obvious that I needed to put an end to my destructive cycle of bulimia - and that it was up to me to do so. But I needed a reason and an awareness far greater than my myopic self, in order to break my addiction. I found it ironic that the spiritual group I was drawn to in Brazil uses a sacrament that prompts purging as a form of psychospiritual and physical cleansing. It didn't take long before I grew disgusted with the correlations between my purging in sessions and my vomiting at home.
In a few sessions, Hoasca had managed to instill in me a deep appreciation of our ultimate interconnectedness and a deep reverence for the sacredness of creation, compelling me to have more respect for the living earth and myself. Hoasca also helped me see that my behavior was an offense against nature, and I was struck with the need to assume full responsibility for my thoughts and actions. The profound psychospiritual insights facilitated by the tea, as well as my newfound appreciation of our Divine nature, made it possible for me to face and heal my eating disorder.
I have learned that the spiritual state of consciousness facilitated by Ayahuasca empowers us to confront and shake loose the shackles of self-defeating beliefs, and to reprogram our behaviors so they are conducive to personal and planetary health. The tea functions as a truth serum par excellence, helping us face our inner demons and the probable consequences of our addictive behaviors. By bringing memories of traumatic experiences into consciousness so that they can be relived, the tea heals and transforms the emotional defenses that underlie our imbalances and addictions.
This sacred tea has the amazing ability to take us on transformative journeys through unresolved past experiences. Sometimes it invites us literally to get under another person's skin and experience that person's feelings. For example, a friend who had betrayed his wife told me that he had experienced merging with her being and feeling the agonizing pain that his actions had caused her.
Hoasca engenders a profound sensibility that helps us connect to all creation and that seems to awaken our compassion and concern for the welfare of others. As we learn to trust the expanded state of consciousness and the exquisite sensitivity that is induced by the tea, we are able to surrender ever more deeply, allowing us to shed layer after layer of protective armor until we discover a fresh, untainted being underneath.
Working regularly with Hoasca helps us become aware of and grow familiar with the transcendent nature of consciousness. Many times, I found myself, and even the entire group, in an all encompassing field of clear light. Once, in a small ceremony held on the banks of a tributary in the Amazon, I saw a marvelous being of light, and I was transfixed by her wisdom, beauty and clarity. She appeared as a feminine presence who knows all and who has full access to everything. She taught me that consciousness can access everything - past, present, and future - in the timeless now, allowing us to be present in one time or another, all depending on our focus.
One obstacle to becoming more aware and present is that the Western mind has been conditioned to focus on the finite, material orientation of reality, thus emphasizing our physical manifestations. We have created the illusion of the primacy of time in order to facilitate consensus reality. In contrast, Hoasca opens us to other realities by facilitating our access to other realities by facilitating our access to past lives and future occurrances.
One of the marvelous transpersonal experiences afforded by the tea has been the gift of experiencing Gaia as a sentient living being - and as an extension of myself. Hoasca is sometimes referred to as a "religion of feeling," because it opens us to the realm of feelings, enabling us to sense and feel more deeply. By engaging the senses, it not only primes the body to experience colors, scents, sounds, textures, and tastes more fully, but also helps us open and attune in subtle ways to the Divine presence inherent in our bodies. Over the years, I have been given many opportunities to embody Gaia - both in her feminine glory and in her pain.
The first time I experienced Woman as an embodiment of Gaia was on the wedding day of close friends, celebrated in a session in Sao Paolo. In an expanded state of consciousness, I experienced the awesome, pristine, virginal beauty that suffused Gaia's paradise of forests, rivers, and waterfalls before the heavy-handedness of humans upset the balance. I was invited into the sacred place accessed through the inner garden of Woman, and I was shown that it is the portal to Gaia's womb.
During that session, I realized an old truth - that the human body is the temple of our consciousness in physical existence - and a new truth - that as guardian of the womb, the source of creation, the woman is the guardian of this treasure. I was shown how women are given the responsibility of embodying and taking care of this sacred garden, the chamber of creation, and how it is a blessing for spirits to be invited to dwell in the garden of creation with Love.