The Vortex

 Arriving in Guatemala, I already knew where I was heading…indeed; there aren’t so many places that offer the kind of sphere I am pursuing. Besides that everybody I was meeting kept glorifying San Marcos, its wonderful location on Lake Atitlan, its incredible atmosphere filled up with magic. I mean, it’s not everywhere you get a place that combines the four element s in such a wonderful way: sitting by a lake, flanked on steep hills, facing volcanoes, the whole things at 1000m high altitude. Earth water air and fire mingle their creative energies and gave it its nickname: the vortex.

You get there after a 45 min boat ride on the lake, after 4 stops on isolated indigenous villages rooted at the bottom of steep mountains almost canyon like sometimes. Disembarking on the small quay,  the first stroll take you around the tiny village hidden in a lushy vegetation where many hostels, cabanas and retreat centers have established as well as many expats that never left, as sucked in. San Marcos is THE spiritual place where you will encounter all types of people, workshop, events, and festival almost all year round. It’s all about changing, discovering, consciousness, alternative and natural medicine, bodywork and so on. The short term travelers stay in hostel; others rent a house and share the price. Ok, San Marcos is not the cheapest place, especially coming from Mexico, it’s basically all doubled.

Meeting people is easy enough although there isn’t really a community spot or a one place to do so. It’s more about doing workshops and being social. Maybe what lack here would be something more community style. Yes, here money kinda flies quickly and things on donation are not so common if you ask me. That would be the downside. The upside is that you could literally get your hands on everything you’ve been looking for with a bit of time and money: learning about creative writing, dancing, yoga, tarot, mayan astrology, getting a psychic reading, doing cacao ceremonies, learning energy work or body work and so on. It’s the place to fill up your basket before moving on… if you do.

I arrived there at the beginning of the rainy season. I have always dreamed of experiencing a rainy season, and I take it this is a fairly nice place to do so. As I was arriving, lots were leaving, the activities slowed down slowly until it really calmed down around end of June. But god I’m happy in a way I wasn’t there during high season. So much is always happening, so many interesting people and things that you eventually lose track on the way. Well, I do at least.

Fernando’s

 But I had my den where I kind of secluded myself on purpose. I really found my little haven that I could call home for more than 2 months. A room that felt mine, that is AAAWSOME!! I had heard about Fernando, that guy from Mexico leaving somewhere 20 min uphill from the village, building his house that he was “running” more in a community style. After a loaded hike up, I managed to find the place along a trail leading up the mountains. I arrived in a splendid location with a view I could not imagine. Fernando was there, working in the garden. I first met Sergio, the “guardian” that led me around. Quiet a character, Sergio is an old men from Guatemala city that had been living around the lake for more than 35 years. But not a local, since been a local here require indigenous blood! Fernando is in his 60s, small, skinny, dark skin, dreads and hearty fellow. He showed me a room and said that I could stay if I wanted. Hell yeah. Cold showers from the river under banana trees, candle light for reading, a landscape out of science fiction dinosaur movies, didn’t think it twice.

That place gave me so much, I also learned to be more intimate with all its secrets and mysteries… still don’t really know who is the real owner, how things work, who comes around looking for easy money and foreigners belonging to grab on the way… but I do love it.

So much potential.Yoga on the roof, ceremonies behind the veranda, sunbathing on the balcony. The kitchen view is mind blowing. Its bench is built into the bar table with a huge opening overlooking the lake and the volcanoes. It’s also where you throw off everything organic  through, as underneath are just coffee fields. Pretty cool to just throw stuff out the windows, always enjoyed doing it. Basically, the magic of the place was its simplicity. Comfort is really not there, it leaks, the sink get stuck, the balcony is still shaky and so on…but so alive.

I spent almost all my stay alone. First with Fernando and Sergio. Then Sergio left. Sergio was quite somebody, a broken soul shattered by life.  Living the life to the fullest, in his way. Painting when he needed a bit of money that he would spend right away on booze and fun. That was he issue, he was alcoholic. Fernando offered him a free place to stay when he picked him up wandering the streets. After 7 months here, he never changed. He was just Sergio, full on Sergio, with his incredible stories wandering life like a desperados looking for himself. I could see his heart, I could see this kid living inside, holding on broken dreams. I liked him.

Then that was me and Fernando. He would never come down. I would be in charge of bringing food back. I had to come down every day at least once, get my body moving and socialize a bit. I met lots of people, had few strong connections though. But since I’m a bit exclusive and can only be fully myself around home, having true connections can take time for me.

But that was ok, as I had a pretty intense program, fully dedicated to it, spending all my energy on it, on my own, in my den up the hills. So I didn’t really did any workshops, neither  joining many parties or social gathering.

Cacao shamanism

 In San Marcos, you will find Keith, the Cacao Shaman. An old American character that a few years ago was led by the cacao spirit on a special mission: re introducing cacao as a spiritual medicine. Although intensively used by the Mayas, doing research he realized that no shamans or traditions were currently using cacao at all. The knowledge and tradition was gone, until recently… So there he is, leading 3 cacao ceremonies per week where you drink 42g of a very special cacao. Indeed, cacao has many different properties. In southern America, it has lots of caffeine for example. The cacao spirit has been leading him to plantations where the best properties are gathered for inner work and opening the heart. As a reference, Lindt has 1% of the properties of raw cacao and organic cacao would have from 40 – 70% of the one he uses.

I tried it, seriously awesome for any creative/inner work. He ships all across the world, check out his website.

Dr Bill

 If you are looking for some psychic magic in your life, Dr Bill is your men.  A doctor bridging spiritual and science together with some interesting devices and techniques.He also gives private psychic readings. So I got one, why not.

Pretty cool when you need a bit of push up and extra confidence in your path. As any psychic, they read your BS, so you always have a sense of knowing what they tell you. But having someone reading your aura, talking to your guides, checking through your chakra as everything is recorded is FUN. I learned some interesting things. For someone a bit less connected(or not on the right channel !), strong revelations / guidance could come out I imagine. It was interesting to compare with the last one I had in California. This one was definitely more intense and deeper although the same pattern came out. I loved when after the whole session, he picked up the Numerology book, checked me through my birth date and read out the description of my Life lesson number, which was repeating all what we shared during the last hour. Same when Ben (his apprentice) came in and read the lines of my palms. I like magic. Life is all about magic, it s all about being able to see it…

“La bolsa o la vida”

 After a wonderful inner journey on acid (I’m not turning into an acid head. In San Marcos, spiritual plants are not really present and I haven’t had a journey with the infamous LSD, THE psychedelic that brought the Mind and the Heart out in the streets in the 70s and took human psychology to a higher level with for example the model of the 8 circuits of consciousness), I decided to take a friend on a hike to watch the sunset from up top. After an hour hike through coffee and avocado trees, we reached the top of El Moron, overlooking the whole lake. Then I wanted to try a shortcut that follows a steep ledge almost disappearing through the vegetation.

On the way down, a guy appeared out of nowhere, small and robust, swinging his machete behind a broken smile, saying: “La bolsa o la vida!”. It took me a few cosmic seconds to realize that the theater of life was now playing the drama part… He asked my friend to throw her bag in the bush, which she did. He then noticed I had one to ( I was further down) and asked me the same… before I realized that the smart part of myself had put inside my passport, credit card and 10 ground of cash ( at least!).  I instinctively replied I couldn’t t throw my bag, I had my passport inside. That was before he got angry and before I started running down. Or rather sliding down on my butt and stuffing my belongings in my pocket before I threw my bag off clearly so that he could get it. A bit stupid you might think pretty fun I will say. I felt like Indiana Jones caught up in a new adventure finally shooting adrenaline up the brain ahaha. Ok, I had a girl with me and I am so thankful she was a happy adventurer too. I felt a bit bad taking her with me but heck, couldn’t now what was going to happen.

We came down with lighter pockets but a full story basket. I lost the second camera on this journey (sorry mum).That is why there are so few pictures with this post. I did try to travel back in time afterwards but the effects had already worn off .

 Mystery me

 I know I can be pretty mysterious, so let’s try to uncover some of my mysteries…

This journey has been an incredible journey through the self, but the work I did in San Marcos marks a huge step that brought me lots of understanding of the eternal question I run after: what the heck is all that reality about and who am I in the middle of it!!!.

I won’t get into details but in a nutshell I’ve combined the teaching of Seth (a channeled teacher spirit to which the whole Seth material is dedicated) with semantics and tied the whole things to a model of Reality I’ve been using: the 8 circuits of consciousness. So every day, intensively, with the support of cacao and coffee molecules, I dived into my belief system to break it down and rebuild a better one. In case of you didn’t know, the one you think you are is just a stack of BS, mostly outdated. Who you really are is that essence behind that manage (consciously or not) these BS to filter and create the experience of them: your life!

As human robots, we use concepts and meaning that we tie to words. We then access reality by  using these concepts, as a navigation map. The idea of semantic is looking what you put behind what you always took for true, and change it to a less limitating one. It’s literally redefining yourself. You can apply it to anything you can imagine: your emotions, your body, your skills…YOU!

I have to start sharing more of what I do, since there is one thing very important to understand: this is not a hobby, a funky period of my life, an experiment or one of my new crazy idea I would drop in a few months. This is becoming ME. In fact, this whole journey is putting me in touch with who I am. And I stop questioning it. I am all about tracking back the source, the origin, that deep mystery where everything comes from. I have that drive, the occult energy that makes me want to peer into the darkness and step in the unknown. Shaman, explorer, inventors share that same essence: they go where the others don’t. Whether you jump a cliff or dive into the Self, its all the same: taking the step off the map. We all do it of course, to some extent. It’s a bit like inviting the very essence of life into your experience: the mystery.

This being said, I won’t share too much details but I can just mention that I know where I am going, what I need to do and what I will do with it. In a general sense of course. Lucky you, you will all be included in my quest, since  in the end, I get my fulfillment through external confirmation: yours! I want to see that fire lighting up in your eyes.

Define yourself or be defined.