1998 Latin American Pilgrimage

June 20.........Las Lajas, Colombia

Five weeks have passed since I arrived in Colombia and more than seven since I last wrote in this journal. Perhaps it is incorrect to call this a journal at all for I have not been adding writings with much regularity. Various recent situations have caused me to alter my plans and actions, and correspondingly, writing has not been on my agenda. Let me explain briefly.

My van and all its contents (including my computer) was locked for a week inside a big steel box deep within a massive transoceanic shipping freighter. Then it was locked within a building at the port of Cartegena, awaiting clearance by the slow bureaucracy of Colombian customs. I had no typewriter for ten days and did not write a word. The break from writing was, however, quite welcome. I needed a rest from the writing frenzy I had recently experienced in Panama City. Moreover, I planned to do some writing as soon as the van was in my possession again. But then the oppressive heat and humidity of Cartegena sapped my will and slowed my thinking (certainly I could have written then, but the hot wetness de-motivated me from most all endeavors). I spent my time in that lovely old colonial town sweating profusely, lazily studying Spanish, meeting some fine Colombian intellectuals, and taking five or more showers a day. I had the computer with me then but I never even opened its case.

Next I flew up to Mexico for ten days to help a TV production company from the United States make a documentary on the pyramids of Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. I had a sense that I would be extremely busy (and this was the case), so I didn’t take my computer with me to Mexico. Still more time passed with no additions to the journal.

The time in Mexico was interesting and exciting. Being frequently interviewed gave me practice in speaking concisely about sacred sites and my experiences of them. I had been wrestling with this matter for the past few months, but for a different reason. Doing slide shows in the Spanish speaking countries I had been traveling through had required me to use a translator. The process of English to Spanish translation forced me to speak slowly and in less detail than I do in the United States. Working with the documentary interviewer in Mexico called for a similar pace and simplicity of expression. The fellow conducting the interviews asked complex questions but I only had the time to give short and simple answers. This was quite challenging and I’m much interested to see the documentary when it’s shown on television (an Arts and Entertainment cable station) latter this autumn.

While in Mexico I also had the wonderful opportunity to enter two rarely visited places at the pyramids of Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. It was a stroke of great luck that made this possible. Besides myself, the managing director of the department of Mexican archaeology was also interviewed for the documentary. I was present at that interview, and afterwards asked him (rather intently I must admit) if he would arrange permission for me to enter the cave-tunnel beneath the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan.

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico
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I had known of the cave for some years but had never been able to gain entrance. Years go by with not a soul being allowed inside this enigmatic and forbidding place. A tunnel, seven meters down and 103 meters long, leads to a mysterious, clover-leaf shaped cavern directly beneath the apex of the towering pyramid (and remember, this is the largest and perhaps oldest monumental structure in the entire western hemisphere). Geologists explain that the cave tunnel is the result of a great pocket of air trapped in molten volcanic lava a million years ago. A spring once flowed within the gloomy cave and long, long ago - well before the massive pyramid was built above - humans visited the pregnant darkness as a portal, a connecting point to the spirits of the underworld. Myths and legends of the cave speak of it being the site of an oracle, a place having the mysterious power to induce in humans the ability to see into the future.

I had an immensely powerful experience within the cave and it was some weeks before I began to integrate and understand what had happened. While meditating at the chambered end of the dark tunnel, I felt myself ushered into a near future time of unprecedented chaos and calamity spreading across the earth. Geophysical upheaval, environmental degradation, and social crisis were interacting with one another causing a massive disruption of contemporary civilization. In the previous years of my pilgrimage travels I had had similar visionary experiences at other sacred sites, but none for nearly three years and none so clear and imposing. Experiencing the new visions, from the vantage point of the deeper maturity and spiritual wisdom of my increasing years, I felt less distracted by anguish and more calm in my perceptions. I was better able to receive the teachings, the transmission of the cave spirits. The essence of those teachings was that great difficulties are soon coming to our planet and that human beings should prepare themselves for that time and beyond. The suggested preparation was not the storing of food and guns in hidden boxes in the ground but the increased cultivation of an eco-spiritual consciousness and the communication of this to the young people of the world.

Concurrent with my reception of these visions I had been thinking about the matter of future crisis because of some of the discussions I had had with the documentary film crew. They had recently interviewed Richard Noone, the author of 5/5/2000, who spoke of his belief that the mathematics of the Great Pyramid of Egypt predict a time of great geophysical upheaval on the planet. Were there similar predictions found in the ancient civilizations of the western hemisphere? In this context, the interviewers had asked me to discuss the tendency of pre-Columbian mesoamerican cultures to engage in blood sacrifice. I explained that numerous archaic peoples of the western hemisphere had a belief that the present cycle of the world was soon coming to an end, and that only by the agency of sacrifice could humans hold off that time. (Because the method and frequency of sacrifice became quite extreme with the Aztecs, most modern people have been too shocked to search for the deeper meaning of the practice.) Personal bloodletting and later, human sacrifice, were, however, attempts on the part of humans to give to the gods that which was most dear and valuable to the humans themselves - their own blood and life.

Certain mesoamerican cultures actually believed that the end of the world could only be held off by the giving of human blood. Strange as it may seem, people were trying to insure the continuity of greater life by the offering of a smaller sacrifice.

The religious systems, astro-mathematical computations, and pyramid/temple designs and proportions of certain pre-Columbian cultures actually encode significant degrees of thinking and prediction about this matter of world decline and collapse. The great city of Teotihuacan, often described as the progenitor civilization of Mesoamerica, is a (recently being opened) story-book of this matter. The cave I had meditated within lay at the very heart of that city and, by extension, at the root of the mesoamerican predictions of a coming global crisis. Given my visionary experiences, it seems to me that I had somehow tapped into the same "future memory" that other individuals may have tapped into during their own time within the mysterious cave. What exactly the extent of any coming geophysical/social crisis may be, or when precisely it may be (5/5/2000 or 2012), I can not say. I am only able to comment on the uncanny similarity of my own visionary insights and the prophecies and predictions of numerous archaic cultures around Mexico and the world. The fundamental message of all these future insights is that human beings have fallen out of tune with the natural order of the earth; that the earth may soon begin to manifest some strong responses and adjustments; and that humans may perhaps mitigate the severity of these responses by seeking for a higher level of ecospiritual relationship with the earth.

My next excuse for not writing was presented by the "danger and violence" of Colombia. Several Colombians, foreign expatriates, and experienced travelers had warned me that certain areas I was planning on visiting were notorious for armed bandits, guerrillas and paramilitary thugs. There was a definite possibility that I would be robbed, kidnapped or murdered. With more than a little trepidation, I set off for a month of cautious wandering. Keeping mostly to the major roads (but these wind everywhere through the soaring mountains), driving only during the day, and keeping my equipment well hidden, a month of travel rushed swiftly by with no problems at all. It is true that I was stopped at a dozen police check points - usually in the most unexpected places and remote areas - but telling the police of my South American pilgrimage always resulted in their great politeness.

From Cartegena to Medellin to Popoyan I drove south through some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. The vistas over lush green mountains were as spectacular as any in Asia. The farm lands were as manicured and immaculate as those in Switzerland. The people, rural and urban alike, were as pleasant and inviting as the Irish. Additionally, unlike so many other places in Latin America, the highways are in good condition and the people of the countryside take a very evident pride in keeping the road sides neat and clean. Passing far too quickly through this seldom visited and much misunderstood country, I photographed the Christian pilgrimage shrines at Buga and Las Lajas, and the extraordinary pre-Columbian archaeology site of San Augustin.

Pilgrimage church of Las Lajas, Colombia
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Las Lajas ranks easily among the most enchantingly beautiful pilgrimage sites in all the world. It seems a scene from a fairy tale, for truly it has a loveliness that leaves one breathless. Sparkling white with soaring spires, the cathedral clings precariously to the side of a sheer cliff. This cliff falls to a swiftly running river which, in the space of less than one mile, does two sharp S bends through an impossibly steep mountain valley. Two long waterfalls jut forth amazingly from the jungle covered cliffs, plummeting a hundred feet to the surging river. Rains come and go frequently and lingering mists hide and reveal the church with the quickness of a magician’s hands. In concert with the ceaseless rumbling of flowing waters, church bells echo through the mountain valleys. I stayed for two nights in an old convent overlooking this scene and spent hours each day meditating in the church.

Las Lajas, Colombia
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In addition to its Christian pilgrimage shrines, Colombia also has an important pre-Columbian ceremonial center called San Augustin. Considered by scholars to be one of the most significant ancient sites in the entire continent, San Augustin is actually a collection of ceremonial and burial sites scattered over an area of 250 square miles. Much of the significance of San Augustin is due to its unexplainability. In particular, who were the people that lived here, where did they come from, when did they arrive, and what was the purpose of the extraordinary stone figures they so expertly carved? None of these questions can be answered with any degree of certainty. What is supposed, is that an archaic people settled in the rolling hills bordering the Magdalena River as early as 3300 BC. These shadowy people may possibly have been the ancestors of the stone carvers who produced more than 500 monolithic statues, sarcophagi, and petroglyphs sometime between the 6th and 14th centuries.

Stone statues at San Augustine, Colombia
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Regarding the purpose of the fantastic stone statues, archaeology can tell us hardly anything at all. Ranging in height from 20 cm up to seven meters, the statues depict a wondrous variety of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. There are reasonably realistic representations of human figures, smiling, frowning, and sneering monsters, and various animals such as jaguars, snakes, frogs, and great birds (I interpret all these as metaphors indicating the directionality or focus of shamanic trance journeying). Some of the faces of the statues are somber, others are serene and wise, still others frightening and ominous. Could these visages again be metaphors, this time telling us something about the ‘feeling tone’ of the spirit portrayed?

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The statues seemed to me to be so much more than simple sculptural constructions. The stones have a power beyond their visual appearance. They are hiding something within themselves. During the three days I spent gazing at, touching, and photographing the statues, I frequently felt as if I were in the presence of living beings with particular personalities. This was a familiar experience. Many times before in my travels around the world I have come upon carven figures, talismans, and ceremonial objects that have radiated a similar power. Researching the history of these objects, I have often found evidence that many had been purposely charged with spiritual and shamanic power through the agency of ritual and magic. These artifacts became batteries, memory banks, recordings of the powers that were directed into them. While nothing is known of the preparation or use of the San Augustin statues, it seems to me that they too are objects charged with - and still containing - mystic powers from a long forgotten age.

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While traveling through Colombia I also gave three slide shows, one in Cartegena and two in the beautiful colonial town of Popoyan. These shows were sponsored by an art society, a university, and a government department of cultural affairs, respectively. The local TV and newspaper media were enthusiastic in their promotion of the slide shows and the ensuing public response was highly positive. I had been using these shows (and the seven I did throughout Mexico and Central America) as trial runs for the big shows I was planning for the twelve major cities of the continent. The first of these big shows was to be in Bogata, the capital of Colombia. But then, several Colombians told me that I should wait at least a month. Something else was on peoples’ minds. The presidential elections were three weeks away and, furthermore, the universities were not in session. Many months will pass before I return to Colombia. But, I will return. And when I do, I will give slide shows not only in Bogata, but Cali and Medellin as well.

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 July 10...... Quito, Ecuador

Five days ago some robbers broke into my van and stole all my camera equipment (two cameras and eight lenses), much of my computer equipment, all my Latin America maps with sixteen years worth of sacred site research, the slide projector and slides I was using to give shows in Latin America, and many other things. The van was supposedly parked in a secure place with a security guard nearby, but still the robbery occurred.

For the two days following the robbery I was quite discouraged and seriously considered terminating my pilgrimage. This is the second time in the past fifteen years of doing this sacred site research that I have been robbed of all my cameras; the previous time was in Mexico some ten years ago. Both times I have felt as if my eyes were stolen; this being an expression of how deeply committed I am to the photographic and artistic documentation of the world’s sacred places. Lest some of my readers accuse me of feeling sorry for myself, I hasten to add that I do not make the often extraordinary effort required to produce these photographs for myself, but rather as an offering of beauty and love to all the people who see my slide shows, read my articles, and look at my web site.

Each day following the robbery I have gone prowling around various black markets and haunts of thieves in Quito, leaving messages that I will buy back my cameras from the robbers or whomever they have sold them to. I have also had the assistance of a number of influential people in Quito. An advisor of the president of Ecuador heard of my plight and asked the chief of police to set up a search. More than a hundred police combed the city for two days but they found nothing. It is believed that the cameras have either been quickly sold or that the robbers are keeping them hidden until the incident has been forgotten. I also sent a letter to the offices of Nikon in both Tokyo and New York. Over the past thirty years I have strongly supported that camera company by purchasing eight of its cameras and over twenty lenses, and by speaking about its fine equipment at all of my slide shows. I have asked that Nikon help me to finish my Latin American photography by either giving or lending me some replacement equipment. Hopefully they will recognize the quality and meaning of what I do, and will help me out with a few replacement lenses that I can not currently afford to repurchase.

Various people, upon hearing about the robbery, expressed anger and criticism toward the robbers. I did not have this response. I only felt sadness that I would be hindered in my work of gathering things of beauty to share with people around the world. I can not fault the individuals who participated in the robbery as they are simply the victims of a complex web of economic, social, and political situations that has resulted in poverty and poor education for the people of Ecuador. Upon discovering the robbery, I felt much the same as when I was robbed ten years ago in Mexico. I found myself quoting a passage from the Bible that says, Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do. Strange as it may seem, the robbery actually opened my heart even more. While I initially felt like running away and hiding for the rest of my life in a cave away from all people, this feeling soon left and I felt an increased commitment to bringing consciousness and goodness into the suffering world.

So, I will continue my pilgrimage to the sacred places of Latin America. A twenty-year old camera and lens is being sent to me from my storage box in Arizona and some friends have raised a bit of money to purchase one of the stolen lenses. New friends in Quito have gifted me with a super sturdy metal box for the van and I have received many wonderful email messages encouraging me to maintain courage and heart. Because my slide projector and slides were stolen, I will not be giving any more slide shows as I travel along. I would still very much like to do a large slide show tour of the major cities of Latin America but now, more than ever, will require financial help to do this. In this regard I have placed a new section on my web site discussing the assistance I need to continue both my research and my public speaking around the world. These past sixteen years of my pilgrimage have been graced with an incredible amount of support from hundreds of people. I am confident that this wonderful support will continue and increase.

(Sadly, there will be no more photos included with these journal writings. The camera I had been using to produce the pictures for the journal was also stolen. But, do not worry dear readers, I will continue photographing the sacred sites and those slides will make it on to this web site by the spring of 1999.)

July 30.......Ingapirca, Ecuador

Pilgrimage church of El Cisne, Ecuador
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It is cold inside the van and I have just put on my fourth layer of clothing. Midnight approaches and ten thousand stars are shinning brightly on the surrounding mountains. Glowing softly, 200 meters in the distance, are the ruins of Ingapirca. I am spending the night within Ecuador’s most noted Inca archaeological site. It is cold and the stars are shinning so brightly because I am at 10,365 feet (3160 meters). The Inca liked to live at these altitudes. Because I am studying the Inca and visiting many of their sacred places during the next three months, I will often be camping like this - cold but happy in my VW van.

As the afternoon passed into evening I wandered within and around the partially reconstructed ruins. Not much is known for certain about the site. The massive stone blocks forming the primary architectural structure are commonly assumed to have been placed between the 10th and 16th centuries by the Canari and Inca Indians. But how was the site used, why was its particular location chosen, and how to explain the unique elliptical shape of its primary structure? There are other Inca sites in Ecuador, even some further north than this, but Ingapirca is the most sophisticated and mysterious Inca site discovered so far north of the Inca heartlands of Cuzco.

I felt drawn to this site and to the sound of its name long before coming. It is often this way with me; some sacred sites reach out to me across space, through their pictures and through the sounds of their names. Long before I physically arrive at the places they occupy in physical space, I have been granted a prior energetic and psychic connection with certain sacred sites. Some people who have studied my work have suggested that perhaps these sites are calling me back, reminding me of a time, in a distant and mythic age, that I have known them before.

I meditated, napped, purposely thought, and juggled while at the ruins. Each of these activities allows a different perceptual vantage point onto the constellation of factors that comprise the full reality of a sacred site. By this I mean that we can approach and interact with a place through all our senses and various parts of our mind. The more channels that you open to sensing and knowing a sacred site, the more it reveals itself to you. The more you plug in, the clearer the energy transmission and teaching of the spirit of the place.

For lack of a better term, I shall use metaphysical essence to refer to that mysterious something that I feel was communicated - actually taught - to me at Ingapirca. Strongly now, after sixteen years and nearly 1000 sacred sites, I believe that each site has a certain quality or essence or character that gives rise to its particular metaphysical essence. Sometimes we can get an idea of what this essence might be by deciphering the myths and legends of the holy places. Other times there are no stories and we must feel and intuit these answers in our own beings. Ingapirca for me is a place where I am in the presence of elders, of ancient wisdom. The entire physical location - both the land and the human artifacts - are a sort of battery that contains and radiates the qualities of excellence, of long considered wisdom, of the tenacity and courage necessary to life’s great undertakings. While meditating, sleeping, and juggling I sought to tap into that source of wisdom; while thinking I sought to deeply understand the implications of its given teachings.

I thought for awhile about the curious contradiction between a salient concept found in many Asian religious philosophies and the new science ideas about the evolution of consciousness. Quite frequently in Oriental spiritual methods we find the strong directive that the spiritual aspirant should relinquish the desire for higher spiritual growth. The desire for enlightenment (satori, nirvana, moksha, samadhi, illumination, etc) is said to be a desire none the less and therefore inevitably binding. We are told by the ancient Asian sages that we must entirely free ourselves from all wanting. Poonja Ji, an Indian Guru I love dearly, once said, "Call off the search."

But I do not think we can ever be free from wanting higher consciousness. That wanting is an expression of that part of us that is very naturally evolving at every second of life. Evolution is a constant. Even though it may be too slow for us to perceive, every tree, every whale, every star, and every human are constantly in a state of ongoing evolutionary development. One of the most wonderful expressions of that evolutionary imperative in human beings is manifest in our yearning for a greater sense of personal meaning, for a deeper connection with the powers of life and the universe, for a more loving heart and peaceful mind. We can not stop this part of ourselves for it is the motivating root cause of our very being and the entire universe. Life is happening: it is growing, changing, moving forward in a zillion energetic ways. That lusty, zesty energy manifests in my own life as a tremendous interest in and inclination toward that mysterious thing called spiritual enlightenment. I want this with a passionate abandon! As the Scandinavian poet-philosopher Piet Hein said, "I want to know what this whole show is all about before it’s out."

But that’s bad Buddhism and Hinduism, isn’t it? Aren’t we supposed to free ourselves of attachment? Particularly the ‘Golden Attachment’, that of being attached to realization or enlightenment. So, here is the irony, the contradiction. The Very Useful Dialectic. I am convinced that we must think about these two ideas and somehow attain the philosophical maturity within ourselves so that we can contain - at the same time - these two apparently opposing ‘growth’ methodologies. Somehow we must integrate within our minds the idea that we must seek spiritual and mental growth/evolution with a burning passion at the same time that we must free ourselves of worrisome grasping and simply let the process take us. As I slowly travel southwards through Latin America this is what I feel growing within me. A broader philosophical maturity. An expanded mind that can more comfortably accept and contain the inevitable ironies and contradictions of life. That sensational writer Annie Dillard says it best, "Wherever we go in life, there seems to be only one business at hand, that of finding workable compromises between the sublimity of our ideas and the absurdity of the fact of us."

This day and night at Ingapirca have also been a time for me to think about (and consider the implications of) my currently increased inclination and need to create art with every moment and action of my life. This urge, this yearning, is lately burning quite fiercely in my heart and mind and soul. My daily activity has become prayer in action: from moment to moment I find myself seeking for ways in which I might put a little bit more love and beauty into the world. For I can not just wait until the big opportunities, such as when I do slide shows for a thousand people or make a great photograph. Lately I need much more frequent opportunities to satisfy this yearning.

But how many opportunities are there and is that really the issue? Upon reflection, I recognize that I am being called to a greater spiritual connection with the qualities of beauty and love. Let us imagine that these (and other) qualities have a sort of vibratory existence in the universe that we can consciously tune into via our intention. Through the power of our yearning and the focus of our intention we may forge an ever stronger connection with those universal qualities. Certainly these qualities are already within every atom of our being, but focused mental attention upon them amplifies their radiance in our lives. Beauty and love are calling me to themselves and so also are they pouring forth from my being. Now and then, minutes and hours still pass when I lose touch with these qualities but mostly I am held within their sweet embrace.

Sixteen years ago, at Izumo Taisha in Japan, I had a vision that told me the teachings I would receive from each of the long pilgrimages I would go upon. The final pilgrimage, to South America, would be for the "full awakening of love." Seven months into this South American journey and it seems my lessons are certainly pointing in that direction. Frequently it has been a challenge to let go to the actual manner in which the lessons have come - particularly with the two robberies and my temporary depressions - but, ultimately, I choose to look upon ALL my experiences as opportunities for learning. It will be interesting to see what further adventures and lessons the next six months of travel will bring. For I am only half-way through this pilgrimage. Back

Church of El Cisne, Ecuador
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