It was my first Huachuma ceremony. I had just sat in my 11th Ayahuasca ceremony the night before, and was still feeling the afterglow!
The huachuma ceremony was different to all the ayahuasca ceremonies I’ve attended. It was around midday, and the sun shone through the windows. There was less ritual to it, we were simply handed cups and invited to drink. We chose our dose, but were warned that we could take more later if needed so not to take too much. I asked for half a dose, due to my history as a notorious lightweight with psychedelics, and my small physical size. The half dose was a good call…
I was one of the first to start feeling some effects, which came on before we’d even left the compound (we’d been told to get dressed and gather some things for a hike). A light, warm, energetic buzz similar to amphetamine, and a subtle glow similar to MDMA but much less intense and stupefying.
We were led out along the river to another part of the valley. It was behind a mountain and there were no houses or people on the other side, giving the illusion we were really far from everything. The landscape was rocky and dusty but with patches of grasses, shrubs and cacti.
Someone gave me some coca leaves, wrapped up around a piece of quinoa ash paste. It tasted sweet and took the bitterness out of the coca, also it seemed to catalyse it and my throat felt numb and I enjoyed a natural, clean cocaine high while I felt the effects of the mescaline growing. It was divine and blissful!
We’d been instructed to find our own spot in nature and just to be at one with nature. We’d been encouraged to minimize verbal contact, but one other female participant and I found this part too difficult! We had a long, smiley, giggly chat by the side of the river, shared some cigarettes and some water while we chatted and blissed out. I felt a strong connection to her and her beautiful soul!
I looked to the mountain across the river. It had some fields and some woods up the side of it, and they started to shift and tessellate in and out of each other rather like an animated Picasso painting. I found I could stare at it and let it happen like that or I could choose to ignore it and see things normally.
Everything had a glow to it, and all objects had a soul. Each shrub, each rock, each cloud.
I locked eyes with a particular cloud to my right over the top of the river to the east. It was so bright I was awestruck by it, and it spoke to me without words. It came so close to me I could have reached out and touched it. We telepathically shared souls and I knew what it was like to be a cloud and the cloud knew what it was like to be me. We connected for so long, it was a profound and intimate moment we shared together. I felt so at one with this beautiful cloud. It was indescribable. He was very special to me! I don’t know how long we were together like that, but after some time the moment had passed, and he remained there unchanged (yet no longer close up) I took a photo of him before I moved on to wander off alone.
I kept walking, out into the “wilderness” (though it was a large open space, it was contained by mountains on three sides and a river on the other, so it was impossible to get lost). Eventually I could see none of my companions and it felt as though I were alone, it was just me and nature. I shared some similar encounters as I had with the cloud, with some of the plants and an aloe vera cactus. “Hello!” they appeared to say to me as I approached. “Hey come talk to me a while!” so I did. We didn’t speak words, but we had some telepathic communication.
Wandering some more I bumped into the facilitator. We chewed more coca as we had an animated chat about life and spirit, and eternity and things like that! He asked me to pick up a rock, so I picked up the biggest one I could. He said it was my heart, and that when I was ready I could cast it into the fast-flowing river to be gone for ever, ever in the eternal flow of life. I did without hesitation, and he congratulated me for letting things go and for giving my heart freely. I wanted to do the same for my husband and children, so I found three more rocks. These I found much harder to part with. But I wanted to make the same gesture for them, so I cast them in too; though it made me feel emotional.
I asked if I could choose my own bathroom as I needed to pee. He said sure, so I wandered out to find a spot. As the water exiting me hit the ground, I felt a profound connection to the cycle of life. I drink water that has fallen from the skies, I eat plants that have taken up water, and now I’m giving back some water to the earth, perhaps with some other nutrients in it. It was the most epic bathroom visit of my entire life! Lmao.
After a couple hours we made our way back to the compound, and I had thought the effects were beginning to wear off. We were greeted back at the gate by a rainbow in the sky and a condor circling around it. Such a magical ending to a magical hike!
I was rather grubby, and had another ceremony to attend that night (though I would not be drinking, but I didn’t want to still be high!). I decided that a shower would both freshen and sober me up.
Nope! As I stepped out of the shower, alone in my room, the effects ramped up into more of an LSD trip. Color and depth distortion was all over, so I quickly got dressed and went downstairs to the gardens. It mellowed out once I was outside and with other people.
I sat in a chair and gazed up to the sky. The moon was out, even though it was not yet sunset; it was a sliver of a crescent and looked so fine and sharp. Gum tree tops billowed in the breeze, and a hummingbird hovered around a small tree in the foreground. I was blissed out, and when someone asked what I was grinning at I sighed, “Everything!” and we all laughed. Everything was shimmering and sparkling, I was high af.
Dinner was called, and while I didn’t feel much appetite I really wanted the food, it looked so good. Once I started eating I enjoyed it, though it was a bit strange to eat while still so high.
Later after sundown and it was dark we sat in a fire circle to have an integration talk. It lasted an hour or two, and it was so cozy, it was the perfect way to let my residual high wear off.
On reflection now, it seems kind of dream like and difficult to remember like I can recall experiences I’m more familiar with. It’s definitely something I would like to explore again and I would love to experience it with my husband next time. I did not get what I expected from it, it did not seem to have the same insights or lessons like ayahuasca does. But it’s a deeply spiritual connection that really grounded me with the Earth and complemented my ethereal ayahuasca experiences very well.
Trip report from the Ayahuasca experience id had the night before link in comments ❤️