After having landed in bogota, I went straight to Salento, a small and cosy little town in the central coffee valley of Colombia. It is located at the foothill of Los Nevados, famous for its snowy peaks and the Cocora valley where grows the national tree: a palm tree that can attain the astonishing height of 60 metres.

 But my personal reason was different than mere tourism. A friend had told me good things about ayahuesca ceremonies happening around Salento. My contact was John, the owner of the superb hostel La Serrana just outside of Salento. I stayed there 3 weeks, attending one ceremony every saturday night… although not really satisfied.

 Indeed, attending ceremonies is not what I was looking for. Furthermore, these were insane: more than 40 people were lying down under a huge Maloca, doing round trip´to the bathroom with 10 helpers assisting them…ridiculous. Only locals. Not to mention that the medicine was so soft that I barely felt it, maybe the only way to keep such a big ceremony together. The only thing I really appreciated was the musicians. Absolutely unreal. Between 4 to 6 of them, singing and playing traditional Andean music. At dawn, chairs were lined up and the shaman performed the traditional cleaning on one person after the other.

 What I was looking for was more like a one to one thing, with somebody that would listen to me and maybe that would adapt something to fit my needs…

 As I was just leaving Salento, I asked John if he knew of such person and to my surprise he told me that indeed he had a contact that sometimes takes student, a very open minded and no so traditional shamanic practitioner. Ten minutes later, we were chatting on the phone and I discovered he was heading the same direction that I initially intended to take…the energy was flowing.

Let me introduce you Señor TUPAK

 Tupak Kalari is his indigenous name, not to mix it with the american rapper! We got to know each other in our first little adventure: a family had contacted him to come and help their daughter out of sadness and depression. I was now the assistant, helping and watching him conduct his art. His trick: adaptation and flexibility. I was rather puzzled and confused when I heard him talking and explaining how he is an energetic doctor and calling the grace of God before and after performing.

These kind of interventions are filled up with chitchatting. Just Imagine: you are invited in a colombian family where everybody lives together and come sharing his life, unfolding his own politic of the world at large while you try to see through this interweaving of cultural and religious BS that create tremendous personal and familial emotional  traumas that we came to untangle…So yes, you have to call for God’s Sake to blend in the environment and proceed efficiently.

As you will realize along that article, tupak is maybe one of the most versatile shaman you could meet…he does everything!

One of his best ally is Tobacco. He quickly ended up blowing powered tobacco, rapé, into the mother and the daughter’s nose. Five minutes later, I was playing the divorced husband into a family constellation. One hour later, I was massaging the two ladies. Three hours later, we were cleaning the energy of the whole house. After a whole day of intense energy release, we left with not enough money to pay even his transport up to the city. Yep, asking for donation and working with poor people is not really lucrative…

 Energy and fire

 One thing I learned: fire is the only elements that cannot be polluted. Fire transmutes. As we checked each room, he poured some alcohol on the floor that he fired up to cleanse the air. We sometimes could see big swirl of energy going off, as a result of intensity.

The disappearance of fire as a source of heat and light is leaving our homes and cities as a whole, with heavily charged energies. No more stove, no more chimneys. – Did you know that just sitting by the fire was blood cleaning? – .

Advice: anytime you have an argument or any negativity to express, go outside or in a special room. That will keep you home spirit free and with good energies…

Shamanism is very serious…

Shamans are one of this kind of people showing amazing charisma. They smile all the time, talk to everybody, can’t help laughing and telling jokes. Getting on with Tupak wasn’t too hard, in fact, we become really good friend in no time. A friend, that’s exactly what I’ve been asking the universe. I don’t think I could have stayed for long with a traditional shaman, I’m too unconventional. I found the perfect match, as you’ll see in some pictures…

Work & ethics

He mainly works on donations, mostly don’t have a penny and lives by the day. Not like the greedy shamanic industry you often come across.He does things properly, his ayahuecsa for exemple is so well prepared that it tastes almost like spicy honey! He doesn’t really try to teach me his way but rather support my personality and just answers my questions when I have some. There is no real money deal between me and him. I cover most of our basic charges as he doesn’t have anything. When he does, he invites me out. But our real deal is even cooler:

He’ll teach me how to fly in other worlds and I’ll teach him how to fly off mountains!

5 years in the jungle

At 22 years old, he went to travel and make artcraft in the middle of the Colombian amazon: Leticia. It was there that he took his first time Yahe (ayahuesca in Colombia). The shaman told him that he was to be one of them and made him stay 5 years where he drank ayahuasca everyday three times a day … they don’t do things half way over there!

Tobacco

Tobacco is a highly shamanic plant, used for many purposes, energetic or biological. You drink it, you smoke it, you sniff it. Actually, tupak is more of a tabaquero than ayahuasquero.  He’s had really intense initiation with tobacco.

Rapé is the main one we use with people, it reviews your whole energetic body in a couple of minutes. So for me it’s absolutely normal to be giving massages and hugging people in the middle of the streets or just anywhere. Emotional release are almost immediate, I’ve assisted to pretty intense one that I was helping by massaging or drumming.

Seeing the invisible

This is the fun part, he sees everything, be it your soul, your energy field, your story, your past, your injuries etc. In some levels, he knows you better than yourself. From there, he’ll talk to you in a way to lever delicate subject or just to trigger you.

Impromptu healings

Here is a quick view of regular moments we share with people. As the day goes by, we meet people all the time, be it in the hostel, a park, a street or anywhere. Because he talks to everybody and picks up everything, he will quickly be blowing them rape to start the process. Then we use words to help the emotional release. If necessary, I end up doing family constellation in the middle of the scene, in front of somebody sharing his deepest secrets and crying in my arms and finally leaving us, feeling lighter and with a big smile…  It’s amazing.

Poporo

 A mysterious object used by the indigenous in the Cordillera de Santa Marta ,  the Coguis, descendant of the Mayas.  You could compare it as an astral agenda. There is a pen made out of a tree (macana) that you dip inside the poporo to collect a very special shellfish powder. Then you take that powder into your mouth onto chewed coca leaves. Finally you rub the substance onto the poporo to register moments, energies and so on. It also serves as protection during ceremonies. After 4 years of intense rubbing(!), it is time to offer it to nature and burry it. Doing so, everything will be reviewed and new informations will be shared…

Nobody can touch it beside its owner. Tupak spends HOURS using it, especially rebuilding the wholes left by diverse energetic attacks we encounter.

 Organizing energy

 Any time we get to a new place, he’ll spend some time (hours) to organise the energy of the site. It’s like making your room, you put things in order and take what doesn’t belong to it to it’s original place.

Yahé ceremonies

 We offer and organize ceremonias as we travel to touristic sites. He doesn’t charge much when it’s not on donation. Like the character, they are pretty flexible. We do it outside, find a nice spot in Nature, make a big fire and then people are pretty free as long as they don’t bum on the other’s energy.

He lets everybody having its own experience and don’t do any shamanic work during ceremonies, leaving the plant doing his job. He just organizes energies, call a few spirit to keep the place safe and probably work on other levels that I’m still unaware of.

 Cosmic orgasm

 Here I’ll get your attention..

He does Tantra. “the only time I’ve wasted my sexual energy was when I had my kid”. He knows a lot about transmuting energy and make it rise from the root charkra up to the Crown chakra, where lies the Divine orgasm.

 We’ve had quite a few girls with blocked sexual energies. If they are open, he offers them a cosmic orgasm without touching them. With breathing techniques and slight massages, he’ll work your sexual energy up the top if your energetic centers are ready… Yep, we laughed a lot at the campground!

My own work

I wasn’t looking so much for a teacher than for a guide or just maybe spiritual support. Indeed, I was getting into experience pretty intense that I felt the necessity to have some other world company to feel more secure. Flirting with reality, leaving to other dimensions and playing with my identity all on my own was quite something. Since you bring your own mood along your journeys, I had a hard time to feel relaxed at all.

Now my work shall begin, I have a friend, a guide, a teacher, Access to knowledge and medecinal plants… let’s journey!

Step 1 – Energetic field

He started to teach me to keep my center and gather my energy field. “your aura is open to everything, you are too compassionate and included in your environment, so you suck up every bits of negativity and many people feed on you”.

I don’t know in Europe but Colombia is filled up with all sort of Astral Eccentricities. They wander everywhere and some feed off your energy, especially at night when you are sleeping and more vulnerable. Until I know how to protect myself and have a stronger E.F, I am to put garlic on every energetic portals (chakras) every night before bed.

Food is also really important, raw food bring magnetism. Citrics cut visions. Lacteos make it foggy and weaken your aura etc. I am now more disciplined on my diet…for now!

[Behind any tale stand a truth - remember dracula –  Garlic repulses energetic “vampires”]

Step 2 – Other world journeying

After our first journey, he picked up what I haven’t even told him: “you need to journey alone!”

Yep, it’s just me, I cannot journey with others, my spirit is like that. As soon as somebody is around, part of my attention is on them. But it’s especially that me spirit is kind of shy and that to really be myself and connect with my worlds or Nature I need FULL isolation. Me and ayahuesca alone, brrrr….

I will start sharing my journeys into the new section Poetry & Alchemy.

 Magic

 Yep, it’s all magic spending time with tupac. Finally somebody to have fun with, as it’s mainly what we spend having when not eating ice creams! Finally i can share stories, talk about other worlds, spirits, energies, realities and so on.

I love when he lend me his eyes and describe his journeys or the whole world we are surrounded with but that I can’t see… for now. I love calling for rain, chasing the clouds, programming  a day etc.

What made me shivered the most was maybe when he captured the energy of a storm coming up and made three lightnings in a row…