Memoir: MACCHU PICCHU

We were standing with our chins resting in a stone box, chanting OM. This simple act was created by the Incans to help open a human to their higher power and the Divine. It was a heavenly experience working with the higher chakras in this way. Magic was dancing all around us, every direction we turned.

A blissful day unfolded before us, filled with awe-inspiring views as we arrived at the Sun Gate above Macchu Picchu.

We had hiked the Inca Trail, the hardest physical task I have ever performed. Four days had been taken to walk this ancient land. At times we were stepping sideways onto ever so steep stone steps. Imagine their abilities putting this wonderland together. I cannot fathom. If you were panting, you were walking too fast. Eventually, a porter even takes my fanny pack. The time on the trail was subsidized by coca leaves, chewing almost constantly, a mainstay for energy and relaxing the digestive system. We were also ever so grateful for our doctor friend who brought along liquid oxygen. And was also our great entertainer, singing songs at the drop of a hat, to fit the situation, some made up. He was also the first and only one of us to sacrifice himself on the human altar.

We were coming more to the Rain Forest as we trudged on. More and more butterflies, birds, and plants were becoming most incredible, wild begonias, orchids, and ferns of all kinds. It became more necessary to linger, to observe every level of fauna in its glory.

The energy was building, nature was exuding her aliveness, enveloping us as we ascended to our last destination, The Sun Gate, overlooking this village of ancientness, that has gone long before and now we can barely imagine who they were. Yet, we gaze in wonder. How has this become what it is?? The mysteries are abounding!

The guides and porters leave us at the Sun Gate to descend down to Aquas Calientes, the town below which holds our hotel with showers.

With exhaustion and equal elation and awe, my 4 companions and I sit close in a circle and give thanks and gratitude. We soon move to an outcropping of rocks in the sun to rest and process all this has meant so far.

The next morning at 6:30 we meet our guide at the bus to go back up. A different group we are altogether, bedslept, showered, we were civilized citizens again. Mixed feelings coursed through our veins of also missing the ruggedness of what we had experienced the last few days, except for the intense bites that stayed with some of us for months.

We explore a wonderment of stone, all different sizes and shapes fitting together, done by ancient man with no machinery. The waterways, elaborately winding, artfully efficient, presented with such wisdom. I loved the astronomical connections, of the reflections of the planets and the stars in all the different stone hollows holding water, the celestial mirrors. The places where the light from the sun and moon shone through spaces at certain times of day or year. Many, many symbolisms awakened our senses that September day of l998.

It’s a place one would be so lucky to stay the night, to begin to feel the vibrations of that other time, without the tourists around. To be able to hear how much more they have to share with us. Many have listened, and many more are beginning to allow the understanding of what is lasting from our ancestral brothers.

By Patricia