A few months ago, I was honored to sit in ceremony with the medicine of Noya Rao. In the Shipibo tradition, she is the pinnacle of Master Plant Teachers — the rare and mystical “Tree of Light,” also known as “The Flying Tree” and “The Path of the Truth.” It’s said that there are only 3 left in the whole world…
As the Ceremony began, the Shamans blessed all the medicines and asked me to come forward. I made my prayers and took one serving, and she started working on me right away.
Noya Rao shimmered into my consciousness as this immense, tall, towering, heavenly tree of light, covered in white rainbows of all kinds. And then for the next 9 hours, I was quite aggressively “pounded by her majesty.”
I lost track of my body as she took over my eyes, my ears, my senses, my limbs. I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t see straight — as she took me deep into her DNA, into her cellular structure — all I could do was lay there and be present to her breathtaking beauty.
I tried to adjust my human senses to witness the inner neural networks of her living structure — thousands of white glowing rainbow mandalas dancing joyously in her palace of pure lifeforce.
And when able to, I would summon my willpower to place my hands on my chest to make sure I was still breathing. I was surprised that I was. Mostly, I couldnt even do that though — so deep was I in the terrifyingly glorious inner landscape of Noya Rao.
As the shamans sang songs from another universe, I felt like the Tree was making love to me so thoroughly and so intimately I could barely stand it. I was at the mercy of her unearthly beauty.
For about a third of the ceremony, I also felt extreme fear. In usual life, I’m a strong, dynamic, competent woman who acts and leads. A lot of things and people count on me, and so I channel my warrior energy and stay strong.
However, in this space, everything that I usually push away and suppress came up full force and I felt legitimately terrified for several hours — scared that I was going to die like this, here in a wooden cabin at the feet of Mauna Kea — fear of not being a good mom, fear for my family’s fate, fear of failing my dharma, fear fear fear…
Scared of dying without ever truly living or loving again…
And what does happen to us when we die?
How do we reincarnate?
All the acute personal fears expanded into collective existential angst — and then when fully felt — became curious questions — which then opened into a portal of a different dimension of knowing… Yes, we live, we die, we are reborn, we reincarnate, we recycle, we spiral, we remember, we forget… And then we sweetly remember again…
For the last third of the night, I felt like almost a human again, and I was finally able to see straight and move. With tremendous relief, I turned over and laid on my stomach, and it was the most blissful feeling in the world! I relished this ordinary miracle of being able to stretch and feel the soft warm cushion underneath me.
Like after having a NDE (near death experience), I felt full with the grand gratitude of being incarnated into this human body.
And I had a vision of riding a gold-lined, fiery edge of light — that we all who are living right now — are at the crest of the wave of the totality of humanity.
We are our Ancestors’ Dream.
We are the Living.
We are the Ones who can enact change in the Here and the Now.
And what a massive and precious opportunity it is to complete cycles of karma and rise into and contribute one’s Dharma, for the benefit of all sentient beings!
We are the Ones upon whom rests the golden mantle of the present ~
We are the Ones who can redeem the suffering and mistakes of the past ~
And we are the Ones who shall create the Future that our Future Ones shall step into ~
And so it is with great love ~
That I ask of you, of us —
— to please do our best to be the Forces of Love, Goodness, Wisdom, Kindness and Compassion that we are dreamed to be! ~
— that we get out of our own f*cking way
— that we heal and purge whatever needs to be healed and purged
— and that we empty our cups and be the pure vessels of Divinity that we are meant to be! ~
We are so lucky, so fortunate, so blessed! ~
And so it’s time now, my brothers and sisters, my Soul Family ~
To pledge allegiance to your Soul ~
To live a Soul-centered life!
To let Soul — sit on the throne of your own authority —
— and guide your path, your days, your nights, your life and your destiny!
The Soul always stands for Truth.
The Soul is that True, Infinite part of you that never dies and never deceives..
So I invite you dear family ~
To pledge allegiance to your Soul, every day!
* * *
I wept from the profound relief of not being dead — and rather, instead finding myself more healed, and more conscious and more grateful — of the rare and precious treasure it is to be an incarnated human.
May I use this body, this lifetime, and this opportunity wisely and well! ~
May we all! ~
* * *
The Ceremony came to a close.
I sang the Mahalo Oli (Gratitute Chant).
I bowed in praise of the presence and the majesty of this medicine.
* * *
Noya Rao kept me awake until 3am. I was no longer deeply “inside her.” Now, she was the Master Plant Teacher communicating with Jade Human. She mostly spoke in images, though I also heard and felt her voice within me.
To summarize, her message to me was this:
“NOW YOU KNOW.
NOW YOU SEE.
NOW YOU HAVE GLIMPSED MY MAJESTY.
SO SEE HOW UNFITTING IT IS FOR YOUR HUMAN FAMILY
TO COME AND DESECRATE ME.
MY PLANT FAMILY. MY TREASURES.
I AM SACRED.
MY HOME IS SACRED.
MY FAMILY IS SACRED.
WE ARE NOT TO BE DEFILED.
YOU MUST LET THEM KNOW.
YOUR KIND MUST ONLY APPROACH WITH UTMOST RESPECT.
WE ARE BEYOND SACRED.
WE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO ASK FOR HELP TO BE PROTECTED,
BUT YOUR SPECIES IS YOUNG, AND OFTEN UNWISE AND DENSE.
THEY LACK CONSCIOUSNESS.
THEY LACK LIGHT.
AND SO I SHOW YOU, A GLIMPSE OF OUR GLORY.
EXPAND YOUR CAPACITY FOR LIGHT.
EXPAND YOUR CAPACITY FOR TRUTH.
EXPAND YOUR CAPACITY FOR LIFE.
WE HAVE WISDOM & TREASURE TO SHARE
WITH THOSE WHO APPROACH US
WITH UTMOST REVERENCE AND RESPECT.
WE GIVE OF OURSELVES, SO THAT YOU MAY BECOME EN-LIGHTENED.
SO THAT YOU MAY BE OF LIGHT
AND A FORCE FOR LIGHT.
FOR THOSE WHO HARM US,
THEY HARM THE WHOLE.
THE WHOLE OF LIFE, OF WHICH THEY ARE ALSO A PART.
AND THEY MUST STOP COMPLETELY AND IMMEDIATELY.
YOU MUST TELL THEM.
SHARE MY MESSAGE.”
I agreed with her, and I told her that I would.
I have been integrating this experience for many months,
and now, on this Autumn Equinox, it is the right time to share it.
That we may cultivate our Light amidst the Darkness.
So now you know.
We must come into right relations with all of existence,
especially Mother Nature and our Plant Allies.
Please take all of this to heart.
Thank you for listening.
SAT NAM.
PS – For those who are called to be with her and support her message, I will be hosting this Medicine Ceremony, as well as Ancestral Empowerment Ceremonies, in an integrous way, in Hawaii and in NYC. PM to be on the waitlist. Sat Nam.
