Time line Peru

After arriving in Lima, a seven hour flight from Atlanta, Georgia, USA, I met up with Meg and Patricia, my co-leaders on this Journey into Peru. I use the word "into" intentionally..we were doing much more than being "in " Peru we were going "into" the heart of this beautiful place of light and dimensions of the mind and spirit.

Our first afternoon we all went down to the beach, La Playa, in Mira Flores. The Ocean in Lima is great, dark and mysterious. There were some 4-6 foot waves so of course I had to rent a surfboard and a wet suit and paddle out. What a great metaphor for my life these days.Paddling out into a new Ocean for the first time is moving into the unknown. Of course all Oceans are related but each has it's own unique feel and energy.There is always a touch of anticipation and anxiety entering a new break for the first time. As I made my way through the white water and out toward the break I was back home once again with the Mother, the Sea. I stayed out for a couple hours playing with the waves and taking in the stark beauty and contrasts of the Lima shore line. There are no beaches there, at least not sandy ones. The Beaches were all cobble stones with tall stone and dirt cliffs rising above the coastal hiway across from the beach. The water was like a warm summer afternoon in California..maybe 65 degrees.

While I was surfing my friend Iva Peele and her cousin were taking pictures of the local surfers with Iva's pin hole camera. You see Iva has this cool camera and a get up of Angel wings, real ones ,feathers and all and a stark white mask that she travels with taking a series of Angels on the edge all over the world.Surfers are always into the unique and creative so there was no shortage of volunteers to don the angel garb and pose on that rocky beach. When I came in from the waves there were great stories of the whole production and a cast of characters hanging out with the Angel women.

The next day was the opening of our Journey into the mystery of Peru, past , present and future. With no idea of what lie ahead I said lets go to the Cathedral in Old Lima. The Cathedral of San Fransisco is a beacon of light on top and hell below. There are 500 year old Catacombs beneath this beautiful Church that hold the bones of 25 to 50 thousand native Peruvians from the time of the Inquisitions.Before we ever saw the remains Iva stopped and asked me if I felt odd here, yes, I did and the feeling was not one of light and beauty. She immediately got a terrible head ache and wanted to leave but I was interested to find out what was beneath this Cathedral that felt so heavy and suffer able.The further we walked the more amazed and intrigued I was with the great adobe wells filled with thousands of bones all stacked and organized like a proud display of the old Catholic Church. It was sick, twisted, sad and insane all at the same time. This was a mirror of human darkness. To make it even stranger as we walked around we ran into a Cardinal with his entourage of Priests all taking in the history and glory of the Church. God from God , Light from Light , True God From True God. This was the underworld, for real, and we were walking through the history of the humanity with all our suffering, fear and insanity displayed out for all to see.

At one particularly beautiful display of skulls I stopped, took a braid of Sweet grass out of my medicine bag, lit it and gave all my love and light to these beings who became subjects to the legacy of Human meanness and power gone mad.That was enough, we had to get out of there and again on our way out we walked into the Cardinal and his crew as they prayed for the souls of their Church's victims.I needed Sunlight, air and the blue sky to cleanse me of the feelings of hopelessness and Hell that welled out from those Catacombs.

We stopped outside and I took out my sweet grass again with some Agua de Florida and we all said prayers into the light and cleansed our selves.

Walking away I knew this journey into Peru was going to be a great opportunity for me to let go of my personal Hell and my own connection to the Inquisitions that I have waged against myself and my life.There was nothing in those dark corridors that has not been present in my life by my own doing. I have judged with out compassion, I have feared from ignorance, and I have moved with those in power when I knew that their ways were not ok but went along anyway.I accept my inheritance of Human suffering and blindness and I will not be defined by it or settle for it. Through out the last 12 years I have unraveled my attachments and relationships to the world I was born into. Life has so much greater love and opportunity for us than our minds ability to understand or control.

That was just the beginning of my twelve day initiation of spirit with the Spirit Of the Lightning and Apus of the Inca world. The rest of the story will come later...for now I need to remember that accepting what is with out question is the way of a world gone mad, the truth is within us and it is from with in that the dream of Heaven will be reborn on Earth. Peace be with you all..Vaya con Dios, Lee