Follow my journey as I publish some of my life experiences. You may discover things that you did not know. In Africa, two essential questions are asked when meeting a stranger traveling on the road: “Where are you coming from?” and “Where are you going?”
There was a tribe who traveled from the North to the South of Africa in search of peace. As they traveled and met strangers on the road, who asked the question, they would answer, “We are on the journey of Asazi, we don’t know where we are going, we are following the advice of the spirits, we trust that they will lead us to peace, however we know where we are coming from.”
These stories are about my “Journey of Asazi”. Because I know where I am coming from, I am following a path guided by my spirit, and the final destination is unknown. These stories are for me to make sense of my life and to offer others a perspective of “where I am coming from” and where I am now.
The shaman works with what he knows and experiences, not what he is told to believe. He interacts with the spiritual deities. He does not have to believe in them; he knows them and co-operates with them to bring healing to a specific situation. They do not control him. This is very important to understand because shamanism is not a system of faith.
It was Saturday night, the first of February 2003. We were expecting our child to arrive any day now. We had done all the preparations necessary to have a water birth. This was most certainly the day that my life changed. I became a father. It was a powerful experience for me and the focus and direction of my life changed instantly. Rustlers Valley view from Adams Birth Place. Philippa and I had been living at Rustlers valley in Marimba House which I had built. We were living an organic lifestyle and doing our best to stay “off the grid”, and so our approach to the birth of our child to come was to have a natural birth. We were both against any kind of
My first experience with Ayahuasca was in 1996, in a Tipi in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains in central Southern Africa. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I had been told that Ayahuasca (or ‘Ayawoshca’ as it is known by some South Africans) was the mother of all psychedelics and that it was an experience beyond any other. I had been experimenting with the use of psychedelics in combination with shamanic rituals such as Trance Drumming circles, Vision Quests, Fasting Dances, Sweat Lodges, and other healing ceremonies. Things most people had never heard of at the time. We were working with San Pedro Cactus and Fresh Psilocybin mushrooms. It was life at the edge and my wish was to be
Rustlers Valley was an infamous South African community that sprang up in 1992 with the Annual “Rustlers Valley Mountain Music Festival” later to become the “Rustlers Easter Festival”, which drew thousands of people by the year 1998. The festivals were created by following the trend of the Glastenbury festival each year. “Where the f#@* is Rustlers Valley”, was the first advertising campaign, and it worked well. Many people came. It was a time of absolute anarchy, “mystical anarchy”, when many people felt as I did and were questioning our world. It was an expansive time in my life. I connected with many teachers from emerging shamanic cultures. Those who follow traditional and cultural teachings and those who were awakening to the concept of the inner
My journey with ayahuasca began in 1996 and has continued to influence my life until now. I have not spoken publicly about my personal experiences with ayahuasca; however, I now find myself where I have more time and will begin to write my story. My son is in the Amazon as I write this, and I have many relative reflections coming to the surface of my memory about the path I have chosen to walk. But before we talk about ayahuasca, I would like to give you more information to provide a better context for this story. In writing it, I uncovered many memories of past events that make more sense now than when they happened. It has been an interesting time of reflection during
