Unexpected gifts
After almost four years wait I finally got to Peru in 2022. This trip was much anticipated and all of my research and preparations only elevated my excitement for the trip.
Traveling with a small group of mostly shamans led by a shaman and guided most of the trip by shamans, this journey can only be described as unique. That is saying a lot compared to the multiple volcano trips I have taken; going rogue in places that were not especially safe, snorkling with sharks and riding a storm in the smallest most overloaded fishing boat I’ve ever seen. Peru is magical.
Peru has magnificent and sacred sites that are world class like Machu Picchu, the entire Sacred Valley and Lake Titicaca but for me, none of those astounding sites compare to Amaru Muru. A little known site that has no real history associated with it which adds to it’s mystery. It is known locally as the Gateway to the Gods and used by local shamans in their own particular and varied ways.
I arrived to find a few people wandering around the red rocks. I was waiting with another member of my group for the rest of the group to join us after their hot and brutal hike over the red rocks from another site over the hills.
After seeing everyone arrive I was glad I did not take that hike! And the time afforded me was used to just sit and gaze at the Amaru Muru.
The approximately 6 foot tall carved “T” shape gateway is centered between two very tall (more than double the height) carved/scraped half-round concavities. The dimensional “T” has ledges at elbow height and on the wall in the center is a palm-sized navel; a round bump that hits about at belly button height.
Carved into the straight cliff-side of a hill of red rock facing Lake Titicaca, not too far away but out of eyesight. At its base is narrow ledge that is at least five feet high; soft grippy shoes help to scramble up to the gates.
The arena in front of the site has a large flat altar stone. Our shaman guide, Edgar examined the whole area for any left behind offerings of stones, crystals, burnt leavings, inscribed symbols in the dirt etc. I appreciate his thoroughness. There was a lot of ‘stuff’ tucked under the elevated stone altar that he removed to energetically clean the space.
Our experience was made all the more pristine by his actions. This was not the only sacred site visited where peoples discourtesies were left behind. Once cleaned and cleared the altar stone was ready for us.
Each shaman placed their mesa on the altar. Edgar had a small white skin drum with a lion painted on it, which is unusual as most shaman in Peru use flutes instead of drums. Edgar told me that he acquired the drum in the Amazon. I was to discover that it was a powerful tool for calling in the ‘gods of the gateway’.
Each person took a turn in the gates, waiting to be directed by Edgar; first the left gate, then the right gate and lastly the center “T”. At each gate we offer cocoa leaves asking permission to step in and each person asking their private question or just opening to what may come.
I was the third person to step up. I made my offering to the left gate and faced the cliffside tucked into the tall cylindrical gate. Edgar came behind me and beat the drum and the reverberation off the red stone was so loud I felt it in my bones. It felt like I was in there about two minutes and I began to feel a kind of buzzing all over my body. Then Edgar tapped me on the shoulder I was escorted to the right gate past the center along the narrow ledge.
I made my offering of leaves and faced inward again to the cliffside. The drum startled me again and seemed to sound much deeper than what I heard in the first gate. Edgar held the drum at my head and moved it down to my feet beating all the while; I did not notice this at the first gate. My senses became heightened and I began to shiver.
Then, tapped on the shoulder again I went to the center gate, the large carved ‘T’. Edgar pushed me down to my knees; I knew I needed to do that but I strangely couldn’t move so he helped me into position. He pushed me against the back wall and put the navel at my third eye. Two drum beats was all I heard.
I was there for what seemed like three minutes and I focused intently on my third eye and the navel touching. I remember nothing else. Edgar then returned from ushering others into the other two gates and he pulled me up to standing, placing my hands on the side walls and my forehead against the back wall. He began to drum again from my head to feet.
The drumming was not just loud it was all around me; like outside as well, echoing in and around the nearby hills and mountains. The drumming was filling the sky. For a moment there was only drumming.
Then Edgar left me to attend to the other gates. I said, I am ready. I felt the rock begin to move.
My hands were going into the rock and it was warming up. I felt my forehead melt into the rock and the top of head was touching the roof of the indentation of the “T”, which I knew was impossible physically but it was true nonetheless.
I went out, as they say. I was in the rock, completely dissolved into the rock but I could feel myself standing in the gateway. I leaned into the rock with all of my body, pushing against but allowing at the same time. I began to see visions; all of my artwork I ever made flashed before me like one of those flip books where the image is the same but is moving.
At the same time I’m watching all my artwork being shown to me I am hearing the titles of each piece. It was beginning to rock me to the core. In a split second I thought wait how long have I been here? Later my roommate told me that I was in the gate a long time; longer than the others she witnessed.
Then I felt Edgar touch my hands that were part of the rock and try to move them down to the little ledges at the sides of the gate. I did a total body jerk and spoke out loud in another language and I felt my head kind of pop out of the rock but my body was completely married to the rock.
I could feel Edgar’s surprise. Later my roommate told me he was trying to get help from our leader but she was still involved in conversation with another group member. He asked my roommate for help bringing him his flower water spray bottle, a powerful shaman tool for cleansing and releasing.
I began to shiver again and then I was shuddering uncontrollably. I was talking louder and louder. Edgar spun me around and forcefully took my hands. He sprayed the flower water into my hands, a lot of it, it began to pool in my palms.
He took my hands up to my face and said breath. I talked back to him quite emphatically. I could hear myself and while I don’t know what I was saying I did know that I was not completely happy leaving the gateway.
Edgar encouraged me to breath again and I did. I took such a deep breath that my eyes watered from the flower water. I was ranting at him in another language. He gently took my head in his hands and made me look into his eyes.
He was speaking to me in his native tongue, Aymara I believe. I began to calm down. He was moving his head up and down in a positive way speaking in a more and more comforting way.
When I finally ‘saw’ his eyes they were the brightest green eyes I have ever seen. He was moving his head up and down, up and down. I was shuddering uncontrollably but I finally stopped speaking.
Edgar asked my roommate to help me down off the narrow ledge. I could barely stay in my skin! I sat on the stairway that leads into the arena with my back to the entire group.
Water was pouring out of my eyes. Someone handed my a new large bottle of water and I drank it down in two. Our group leader handed me a mesa, I don’t remember but I think it was her mesa. I was shuddering still, breathing, trying to relax and remember.
Soon I heard Edgar drumming again as he continued to move people in and out of the gateways. Then I heard flute music; not uncommon at sacred sites in Peru as locals try to make a little money selling flutes or just playing for donations.
This music at first completely pissed me off. I wanted to be left alone. I didn’t want flute music foisted on me, I needed peace and quiet. I couldn’t yet walk away.
Soon after I drank all the water I began to calm down and the flute music began to soothe me and then the flute music began to carry me back into my body. Into my body sitting on the red rock stair beside the Amaru Muru. I found gratitude.
I was still crying. Well, not crying; the water continue to flow from my eyes for a solid 24 hours. I stayed in my hotel room the next day. I wore sunglasses inside even at dinner that night because my eyes were so swollen and I had no control over the flow of water. I have never experienced anything like it.
To this day I know that I have not completely understood what happened at the Amaru Muru. About six months after the experience just described, my own guides told me that I had a new guide that came home with me from Peru.
Aeshar
His name is not pronounceable but it begins with AE and I was invited to find a suitable nickname for this new guide that would assist me in my day to day life. After much deliberation and research I chose the name Aeshar, which means Gift of God. I meet him in meditation every day.
I am so grateful to Edgar for his assistance and to Aeshar for arriving when he did. It is appropriate that Aeshar is the first video of channeled artwork that I did for my YouTube channel as his arrival was a profound and vulnerable experience and sharing what I do with the world is also a shared vulnerability that feels extremely profound.
I am quite certain there is so much more to uncover about my experience at the Amaru Muru but I am in no hurry. I am willing to allow it to unfold as it will. Oh, and the day after the experience I thanked Edgar for his assistance at the Amaru Muru and I noticed that his eyes are a soft brown color. Embrace the Mystery.
