I have friends who say they heard the call from the Amazon rainforest in their childhood days, it seems they always knew they would visit; that wasn’t my experience. The jungle seemed very far away and exotic to me as a young boy growing up in the colder, greyer climes of the UK, it never occurred to me as the place that would deeply move me more than any other place on Earth.
But then again, I didn’t see my move from Britain to San Francisco until the invitation arrived in 2006. Within 6 months of training as a volunteer facilitator in my homeland, I was California-bound with my wife Sand to take up a role in the Awakening the Dreamer team, and just 3 months later we were hopping off a small plane in the Achuar community of Sharamentsa.
Back then, and on subsequent visits, we were both deeply affected by the jungle itself. However fertile your imagination might be, it will never match the fecundity of that habitat. The overwhelming impression that confronts us, again and again, is of the irrepressible force of life and of its myriad forms. Creepers crossing the forest path and the incessant buzzing of the birds and insects, buds everywhere and multi-colored butterflies, there is life happening busily all around; incessant growth, unrivalled diversity, never is there nothing happening. Perhaps at an unconscious level I’m being regenerated, maybe the dormant parts of me are being kicked back into life, from the stupor they fall into in more familiar concrete surroundings. Or maybe the forest is one of the portals through which Pachamama herself speaks most loudly.
Just as rich is the encounter with the forest’s indigenous inhabitants, in Ecuador’s south-central Amazon region it’s the Achuar people. Here we meet people free of the pre-occupations and internal burden we carry with us, even into their territory. Simple but wise in their ways, unaffected in their own manner and unaffected by their large, loud and sweaty visitors (that’s us), they perfectly model another worldview. Meeting them as families, more formally with whole communities or in spontaneous games of soccer (the kids love soccer), we get a precious insight into presence, connection and simplicity. There are other more mysterious dimensions to these people too, on one visit an invitation to visit the local shaman lifted completely the pain of a chronic back condition I had experienced for years.
Its impossible for me to visit the forest without deepening my resolve to serve the invitation these people made to the Pachamama Alliance 15 years ago; “go back to your own place and change the dream of the modern world.” The Achuar way of life is threatened today more than ever and our work to change the culture that drives this threat is more relevant and important than ever. Each time I fly back out of the forest I vow to do all in my power to help protect this place, these people, both such great teachers for me.
Now, you can imagine that Sand and I consider ourselves outrageously blessed to be journey leaders, and to offer you an opportunity to journey to Ecuador and visit these teachers with us. Life is calling each of us in many ways, if you are being called by the rainforest or by the wisdom keepers that dwell there then we would be privileged to be your guides. We have a trip leaving on 22nd August, already filling up and with a number of facilitators amongst the guests – perhaps you will join us.
Jon & Sand Symes
