When you travel to the pristine rainforest of Ecuador, you are immersed in the breathing forest, the living energy.  Tribes offer ancient wisdom in shamanic immersions, ceremonies, and shared lifeways.   I want to share a bit with you.

Immersion in Traditional Shamanic Ways: Dreaming

Spending eight days with  the Sápara and Achuar, two tribes whose survival is threatened by oil and mineral extraction, was beautiful and illuminating.  Pachamama Alliance, focused on “protecting the source, inspiring the future” organized our very unique trip.  

Morning dream interpretation time, after healings and a river swim, offered much insight into their ways of being, acting, and responding to external threats. The famous Sápara shaman Manari told us, 

“Corporations and oil companies want us to believe they have lots of power. We need to change that. You can choose to emphasize the harrowing parts of your dream—the buffalos massacred on the plains, the oil spills polluting water in the Amazon basin—or the beautiful images of all the birds and insects singing, all the humans dancing. Remembering the beauty gives you power.”

He continued.“Indigenous people don’t want to aggravate others. We just want to share our life ways, guided by a principle. Our way is not to curse or confront, but to create reality in creative way. We want to bring our message without causing harm.”

In the Sápara communities, he explained, “we create the present as we want. This is dreaming.” 

In other words, it’s up to us to live in parallel universe or not. It’s up to us to transform destructive stories into creative, loving ones.

The Power of Our Thoughts and Words

We all know that our thought process (intent) proceeds action. The moment we focus our intent, messages are sent throughout the body. Most of us try, also, to avoid negative and critical language. The Sápara have more to say…

Shimanu, another of the community’s shamans, told us “People who believe in Trump have lost connection with the natural world. Their thoughts can create much harm. It is a different perception when we see ourselves as part of the whole.” 

He reminded us that thoughts do not last forever. We can be very powerful, yet also must be humble.

His brother Manari added, “Words are energies. It’s better not to speak or think about Trump: that dissipates our power. We can neutralize his power by notdrawing attention to him.”

This is certainly a reflection I have had almost daily, wondering why news media report every tweet. If everyone ignored the tweets and the back flips, life would be saner and he would be more isolated. Food for thought!

Dreaming Our Healing

We came away with two ongoing questions for our dreaming, questions I share with you to use in your own dreaming: 

Who am I in relationship to humans? How do I communicate, how do I relate to and work with others? How is my structure unfolding?

What am I internally, spiritually? What is my spirit here to do? How do I integrate my two parts, brain and torso/heart, as I walk my spiritual path?

Ask your body to connect with the true essence of the questions, to find a new perspective to interpret what’s around you. Listening to your body’s intuition is listening to spirit.

The true context of our dreaming is that family spirit is one. We’re all part of it, part of the family. We are dreaming a communal experience. Manari reminded us,“Humans think they are special, more intelligent. But this comes from our mind, out thoughts. We are not special, we are a part of all.”

The Lungs of the Earth

“We come from Ecuador to say we must stop the destruction of the Amazon rain forest.”

 “As you may go to church or temple or mosques to connect with your deity, we grow up listening to the messages that come from our symphony of trees and plants, the oldest and most original species still living on Earth. Think of us as the first responders who arrive before an impending catastrophe.

Experience Manari's gentle energy and listen to his TEDx talk, "Our Vision of Space and Time" (in Spanish).

Learn more about indigenous response to climate change  here, in an article by Manari Ushigua, a leader of the Sápara nation, and Belen Paez, his life partner, who directs the Pachamama Alliance in Ecuador and coordinates the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative.

Meg Beeler—Author, Shamanic Guide, and Spiritual Mentor— helps clients heal soul and spirit, find luminous presence, and move energy to remove blockages through mentoring, training, healing, and ceremony. She is a lifelong explorer of shamanic, animist, and meditative consciousness who practices Earth-centered, nature-based, ancient wisdom ways, and studied Andean mysticism extensively with the Q’ero in Peru. Meg is the creator of Energy AlchemyTM, founder of Earth Caretakers Wisdom School, and author of Weave the Heart of the Universe into Your Life: Aligning with Cosmic Energy. Meg lives on Sonoma Mountain in the San Francisco Bay Area. www.megbeeler.com