Down with the Sun

Moving to Belize has been a long, strange trip, and we’ve only been here two months! Physical, spiritual, transcendental (seriously) and jarringly real everyday work are just a peek into this exotic new world. I’ve had raw, life-changing awareness around my identity, family, friendships, my marriage and my businesses.

We synchronistically moved to Belize on a Cancer New Moon eclipse, blessing our new beginnings of hearth and home. Into our second week, as the Moon waxed to a Capricorn eclipse, we had some dead and hazardous trees removed from our property. Two of the trees we removed were uprooting concrete and screwing with our home’s foundation. True to the Capricorn energy, clearing the trees was deliberate action towards our home goals of restoration and transformation. We bought this property with the intention of restoring it and creating an oasis of inspiration and peace. 

The perfect storm of the Full Moon and uprooting of these trees unearthed some powerful energies on the property that had lain dormant for lifetimes. No exaggeration. Every morning thereafter, I would wake up with a weird sensation of energies that were not mine – a restlessness totally contradicting the pure joy and excitement of being in this beautiful, new place. I heard voices and whispers. I saw dark shadows and energies frequently out of the corner of my eye. We were not alone and whomever was making contact did not feel benevolent. I shared this with Dennis and he was sensing it too- in a very Dennis way; much more logical and pragmatic. He knows not to question the unseen anymore. Together we’ve had too many tangible paranormal encounters.

Astrology side note ~ Eclipse energy triggers about six months of lessons in the respective astrological signs. So, what I’m about to share is ongoing and I expect to continue playing out, and eclipsing our circumstances over the months ahead. 

Personal side note ~ Cancer is my rising sign, my mask in the world, how I dawn on people, hence the identity eclipse mentioned earlier taking place personally for me. Capricorn is on the cusp of both my 7th house (intimate relationships) and 8th house (all that is mysterious and my hidden superpowers). Again, basically everything is shifting, inwardly and outwardly, consciously and unconsciously. 

No big thing, right? I knew moving to Belize would be a pivotal point in my personal evolution, I just wasn’t sure how it would play out. Undoubtedly, it’s karmic. 

After the weird energy was released onto the property, I did all my usual tricks, ceremonies and magic to shift it. I’m consciously and energetically capable of transmuting heavy energies into light, it’s the alchemy of what I do with clients in Soul Pathology on a daily basis and I love it. However, this was much bigger than me and Dennis even knew it. 

I sent an SOS to the Universe one night as I looked up to the stars (a little telepathic intention setting and signal for divine guidance). No sooner did I signal assistance, I learned of renowned shaman, Mrs. Aurora who happens to live in the neighboring village of Maya Center. She is a traditional Mayan bush doctor, the great niece of  Don Elijio Panti under whom she was tutored.  

Another massive synchronicity~ In my upcoming Belize Rainforest Retreat, our guest healer is Dr. Rosita Arvigo who studied extensively with Don Elijio. Yet another sign that the Universe rises up to meet us with the exact medicine and resources when we are willing to tune in, ask for guidance, trust the responses, and take action.  

On to the action plan: Over the past month, Mrs. Aurora has guided us in healing what we unleashed through extensive Mayan ceremony alongside physical, herbal and spiritual cleansing.

Go ahead, let your imagination run wild – tinctures, oils, smoke, eggs, limes, salt, prayers, incantations, the list goes on.

On my first visit with Mrs. Aurora (Dennis did not go with me), I sat in her office dehydrated, from a terrible combination of a week-long Montazuma’s revenge situation and the angry spirits provoking me. Somehow, seemingly devoid of fluids, sweat was streaming down my face. Acclimating to the Belize climate and bacterias is no joke. She turned her ceiling fan on high and handed me a crystal ball. Next, she asked me to twirl it around in my right hand. 

As she toggled her gaze between me and the crystal ball, she said there was a darkness and series of hexes around my aura, intentionally imposed from outsiders, all of whom were not from our property nor were they dead! 

Okay Mrs. Aurora, so you’re telling me I’m cursed? Fantastic. 

Deep inside, the intuitive voice within and my physical body had already warned me of this. The body and spirit together are brilliantly intelligent and will attempt to get your attention in many ways, sometimes we just don’t want to believe what we hear. Her words sent chills down my spine. She went on to tell me that I had brought the dark energy with me into her office, and she didn’t like it at all. She wasn’t mad, just very serious. Obviously this was not Mrs. Aurora’s first dark demon rodeo!

We visited about my work, my gifts, negativities, dark energies and the strange occurrences on our property. She tuned into some key experiences and interpersonal interactions that I had been avoiding confronting, hoping they would organically shift. She also confirmed that Dennis had taken on some burdens, heaviness and energetic hooks (life-force feeding) from people in his past that needed to be removed.

She told me I couldn’t do this work alone because it wasn’t safe. She handed me a grocery bag of herbs, a piece of notebook paper with very specific ceremonial instructions and said,

 

“We’ve got to send these energies down with the Sun.”

The Mayans believe that when the Sun, believed to be a deity, sets each evening, it goes into the Underworld. It is reborn and purified each morning in the Sky World. 

More trust and action: To date, Dennis and I have cleansed the house ceremonially 9 times on specific days and as the Sun sets in the West. As an aside, the trees we removed were all along the Western part of our property. Another synchronicity: 9 is my number, it’s all over my natal numerology code. In The Mayan culture, the number 9 is used in ceremony representing birth/rebirth (9 month gestation period) and is considered the Master of light.

During our ceremonial cleansings, Mrs. Aurora swats us with herbal bouquets, prays incantations over us and puts leaves covered in a pungent smelling liquid on different energy points of our bodies. She has a giant tree trunk with sprawling roots in the center of her sacred pavilion where she teaches and holds ceremony for many of the Mayans throughout the villages. 

As I sit on one of the thirty or so wooden stumps, Mrs Arora chants her Mayan magic incantation with one hand on the leaves and one hand on my head. She is dressed in a pastel smock with a butterfly pattern and her sacred ceremonial red cumberbun. My stare is fixated on this old, massive tree trunk in the center of the circle. The four corners, North, South, East and West are marked clearly on the concrete floor around the tree trunk with old burn stains from offerings and smudgings past. 

I almost immediately detach from my body as she begins chanting. 

This long, strange trip must have happened in 30 seconds. The constraints of time and space broke free. I felt a strange sensation, like roots were growing out of me. It didn’t hurt. It was natural and oddly organic. It was as if I was the large tree stump and each root was part of me, streaming a life force of past, present and future all converging into one. I felt and saw pure intelligence run through my veins encoding in my cells and DNA with light and massive downloads of information. I was the tree. The tree was me. 

I saw, felt and even heard my biology functioning as a euphonious, living organism, alive and beating in tandem with the heartbeat of the world.

I could feel Mrs. Aurora’s life force and knew that we had been here together before, maybe in some other life or dimension, but we had done this ceremony together before.

 

Dennis was next. Mrs. Aurora repeated the ceremonial process with him. She then swatted us both down with an aromatic bouquet of herbs and plants, again, chanting some sacred speech. 

She put the herbal bouquet into a plastic bag, double knotted it and handed it to Dennis. He reached for it with his right hand, and Mrs. Aurora nearly jumped out of her skin and said:

“No, no, no! Take it in your left hand and do not look at it, neither of you. I want you to drop it in the river.”

I asked: “Drop it in the river in front of our house?”

“No!” she proclaimed. Again, like this was some horrific act.

“Drop it in the river, upstream from your house. Do not look at it. Do not look back.” 

Dennis and I exchange a serious glance. We thanked her, got our notebook paper of instructions for the week (oils, herbal baths, smudging, eggs & lime rituals, salt and so on), wandered back to the truck and sat there quietly for the first part of the drive. 

We were planning on stopping by the caco factory on the way home for some chocolate. We drove right past it without even a word. This wasn’t really a chocolate kind of day.

Dennis broke the silence by saying: “I’m going to drop you off on the bridge over the Sittee River. Why don’t you get out and go to the middle of the bridge, drop the plants and I’ll meet you on the other side” 

This wasn’t really a question, it was more like, get these crazy energy plants out of the car ASAP!

I walked to the center of the bridge, beautiful water flowing clear down at least 50 feet below. I struggled to get the bag untied with one hand (my left hand, of course) and not look at it. Doing these rituals correctly is tricky! Once the knots came loose, I dangled the bag furiously over my left shoulder praying it would just loosen up and the herbal bouquet would fall out. It wouldn’t. I fought and fought with it. It was as if whatever badd juju came off of me was not happy about leaving. After about 2 minutes of struggle, it broke free. I hustled back to the truck, got in. 

Dennis said: “Man, this sure is a trip.”

I asked: “What do you think about all of this?” 

He laughed and said: “I think life is never dull with you.”

The energy has significantly shifted, but with each sunrise and sunset, significant awareness energetically, emotionally and spiritually continue to unfold. The property, in the past week has revealed more to us because we are ready and have proved worthy to receive it, as Mrs. Aurora explained. The messages by way of symbols long ago carved in trees, bats, bees, scorpions, parrots, toucans, iguanas, tremendous animal medicine and distinct voices.  Another story altogether.

 We have a couple more ceremonial cleansings, 9 times, of course that we will be undergoing over the upcoming months, namely a ceremony to clear some energy from a tree and then a ceremony where we will have Mrs. Aurora ask permission from the custodians of this land, offering a sacrifice and promise to the land. More on this next month, I promise!

Belize is truly a place where the ancient heartbeat pounds as the Sun rises and sets each day.  The ancestry of the Mayan land offers whatever medicine we need if we are willing to receive it and do the heavy, empowering work. It is the land of the hero’s journey.