La Casa Buena

February 20, 2009

La Casa Buena

By Pamela Livingston

Deep in the Amazon forest, there is a house which for now I will call La Casa Buena, because like a new baby I know it is good and special, even before it has a name. It sits up above the little river Aucayacu, at a great bend where the currents spiral and twist, lingering to suggest possibilities, like transformation.

Above the water, in the very same place, another house once stood-where a great healer lived and worked. His name was Don Julio LLerna-vegetalista, palero, ayahuascero and teacher of many-he was renowned for his goodness. Two years ago, when he died I was in ceremony with his son Jairo, who took his father’s place. Since then I’ve continued to learn and to grow and be inspired by certain rare qualities which inhabit the most natural people and most loving of hearts, I have learned that the medicine of Ayahuasca loves best the simplicity and freedom of nature, a ceremony pure and positive as the song of a bird-humble, yet powerful and without doubt.

I have gone hunting with Jairo, and have seen how he sets his intention and simply fulfills it-one shot between the eyes-to feed his family.

The medicine is strong here, where peace and kindness surround it with family, cooperation-people taking care of people. I’ve often thought about this place that it is the most civilized place I know.

My archeologist friend tells me, and I can feel, that there have been high civilizations here for thousands of years, without even a pebble to show for it. I’ve often thought how interesting it is, that the mark of a high civilization is not jewels and gold, which more often suggest something else: excess, collapse, and violence-but something simple and invisible which lives on. Ayahuasca shows this harmonizing factor, makes it visible-seen, felt, and heard, to help us learn again to be free human beings, to be able to survive as our ancestors have survived through challenges which are given anew to each of us in different ways.

It is a privilege to know these sparkling people, who recognize that Life is the jewel. It is a privilege to work lovingly with the medicine of Ayahuasca, and to be able to welcome you, if you are interested to come, and to heal or to experience for yourself, La Casa Buena, in Aucayacu-one days journey away from Iquitos Peru.

La Casa Buena

If you enjoyed reading La Casa Buena, you might also want to read another great article by Pamela titled;

Magical Things, the Cloths of the Shipibo Indians

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Magical Things, the Cloths of the Shipibo Indians

By Pamela Livingston

Shipibo Woman with her cloths and bags

Shipibo Woman with her cloths and bags

Magical Things are the Shipibo cloths, made by the beautiful ladies and girls who you see sitting in the shade at the Plaza de Armas, Iquitos Peru, their fingers quietly working with the colored threads, casting spells. Don’t walk by too many times without looking, as there might be something here for you, and you are so close!

Nowhere else in the world will you find these designs, made by hand with the patience of centuries; if they look familiar, it might be because they speak to you of a deep current within your own heart or memory. More than visual, they are energetic and are known to be the expressions of healing songs, used in ceremony by the ayahuasceros, or lullabies of the Mother. Wrap yourself in the healing colors and patters.

I think every house in the world would benefit from a bit of this ancient code on the wall or bed, from where an unraveling of the magic would occur; a movement of healing energy would enter.

Each artist with her bag of beautiful things has much to show, and it’s worth looking. It’s as if the earth herself was revealing treasures to you from under the soil, one after another, just for a minute, and then they disappear again. So if one speaks to you, buy it! You might never see it, or hear its song again.

Beauty brings health; so bring some of this beauty home with you. It teaches a freedom which is orderly at the same time, in the highest way-a natural order, recognized since ancient times by people in the jungle to help them live in peace and kindness and balance.

They are still here, smiling and offering these gifts. They come up from Pucallpa with their babies and bundles, hoping to sell, so that they can go back to loved ones, a long, long ride away on the riverboat, with a bit of needed cash. The cloths often take a month or more to make but you will enjoy the living quality for your whole life.

So a big Thank You, to these lovely people, may they continue to be able to make and to share their magic!

Magical things, the cloths of the Shipibo Indians

Magical things, the cloths of the Shipibo Indians

Magical Things, the Cloths of the Shipibo Indians

If you enjoyed reading Magical Things, the Cloths of the Shipibo Indians, you will also want to read another great article by Pamela titled; La Casa Buena

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