The following are highlights of my visit to the Huichol Sanctuary, which was located south of the volcano, north of Puerto Vallarta.

My husband and I saw a tour advertised as an 'archaeological' tour. We signed up. The hotel dropped us off at a pharmacy on the main highway to meet with the guides. We waited for about 45 minutes, but no one showed up. I was beginning to think that there was some miscommunication and possibly the guides were not notified that we signed up for the tour. I was considering calling the resort to arrange to have someone from the hotel come pick us up. Just as this thought passed through my mind, a man strolled up to us from the highway. He said, You are going on the sanctuary tour. We said that yes we were. He said, 'Don't be anxious, they will be here soon to pick you up. They just stopped to get breakfast and it took them longer than they had anticipated'. He chatted with us for about 15 minutes, telling us how much we would enjoy the sanctuary and that is was a very special place, we would learn a great deal.

Two men pulled up in a Suburban. As they got out of the vehicle, the man that was chatting with us slipped away. The guides started to apologize and we told them it was OK, that their friend had stopped and told us to keep waiting and explained to us that they were getting breakfast. They looked at the man as he disappeared around the corner and asked one another if either knew this man. Neither recognized him. They said that they had stopped to get us breakfast, but they had talked to no one. They were puzzled as to how he knew. The journey had begun..

Carlos and Alex explained that usually they have quite a few people that they take on the tour every day, today we were the only ones that signed up for the tour, so it would be more of an private tour.

The sanctuary was south of a volcano, called 'The Sleeping Volcano', situated north of Puerto Vallarta. The ride was about an hour to an hour and a half. We went back into the jungle over a rough dirt road.

A red tailed hawk met us at the entrance of the sanctuary. The hawk accompanied us all the way in and all the way out. The hawk would wait in a tree just a head of us. As we made our way through the hawk would fly a few trees ahead of us each step of the way.

I have never seen so many butterflies in my life. They were all so colorful. My guides later told me that I had a butterfly riding on my shoulder almost the entire length of the sanctuary. It occurred to me later that butterflies symbolize transformation, and this was certainly a place of transformation.

There are more than 10,000 symbolic carvings on the rocks throughout the sanctuary; we took photos of some. One was two ears of corn and a depiction of the planet Venus. Carlos gave us an explanation that these were the 'years of the corn' and that Venus is the 'planet of love' and that is why this carving came into being.

We came to a beautiful waterfall and pond. All around the waterfall were huge square stones that could be used for seating. One stone wall had a place in which I stood. The guide, Carlos, told me that the place in the wall was to stand in and hold my hands up on the rock above my head. I did this.

In a few moments a 'being' came to me in laughter showing me how I had my legs and arms too stiff, that I would block the energy. He was more like a whisper of a spirit - he appeared almost like a 'stick' person. He seemed to touch the back of my knees and tell me to 'soften' my stance.

He showed me to hold my hands out at angles to my body while I had them on the rock above me. When I did as he showed me, a series of 5-pointed stars appeared and seemed to imprint my stance - to make me remember this way of standing. I was told that it was very powerful. He, the being, explained that the energy was spiraling through up through the earth and down from the heavens aligning my own energy system. I occurred to me later that this stance is often depicted in Mexican and Egyptian art.

After the stars, most of the symbols were of creation - wombs, symbols that would bring one's mind to the thought of manifesting or creating. Then I climbed up on the side of waterfall and meditated for a while. The Coyote once again approached me chuckling and told me to bend my knees and put my feet on the ground or I would leave my body and not remember what I was to be shown. The stones are so large that I had to sit on the edge of the stone to get my feet to reach the ground.

I felt that these stones were remnants of ruins. These stones were perfectly square, stacked on one another around the waterfall.

These are some of the stones with carvings. There are more than 10,000 discovered carvings in this sanctuary.

A spirit deer, which was royal blue in color, moved to a ledge on the other side of the waterfall. I could then clearly see the Coyote, when he was across on the other side of the waterfall. He looked the size of a man. He walked like a man, but looked like a coyote. He carried what looked like a beaded pouch and on the pouch was a drawing of the blue deer. I felt that this pouch was to hold herbs, that it was a medicine pouch.

The two spirit guides then started showing me so many symbols. One of the things that the deer told me was that the ears of corn, one with 362 kernels, the other with 365 kernels and the planet Venus that the carving told a story of the Earth's history. The 362 kernels represented the days of the Earth before the Earth and another planet, which appeared to be Venus, collided. It may not have been an actual collision, but these two huge planetary bodies definitely impacted one another in a very impressive manner. The picture I was shown looked like a planet entered out Solar System almost as if it was hit like a billiard ball. It seemed as if two planets were impacted, both Mars and Earth. This could be completely symbolic, and could easily have some other meaning, and was not meant to be representing an actual event. I have no idea. The whole Universe interests me, but I don't have the education to analyze this based upon know facts or anomalies that haven't yet been explained. The vision showed that this encounter knocked Earth off its orbit. After this event, the days on the Earth numbered 365. The picture I was shown almost looked as if Venus was hurled from a blast in another solar system and impacted Earth with a close brush. As I said previously, it looked as if Mars was affected by this as well. Also other lesser heavenly bodies were impacted by the waves of energy released from this event.

I was shown many symbols. I mentioned to the Coyote that I wished I had someone to write all this down, what I was seeing because I could not possibly remember it all. He told me that when it was time, I would remember - it was not necessary to write it down.

He instructed me to show my guides, Carlos and Alex, one of the symbols I saw before we continued our exploration. When I finished the meditation and descended the waterfall I showed them the symbol. It looked like a triangle with flames coming out of the sides and one big flame at the top. They were stunned. Alex, was skeptical and asked if I had been there before. Apparently he thought that Carlos was having me play a trick on him. At the same time, Carlos was almost jumping up and down with excitement. He excitedly dragged me up the hill to show me the next rock carving. It was exactly what I had drawn for them in the sand.

We continued our journey through the sanctuary with the red tailed hawk keeping a few feet ahead of us in the trees, as if he was leading our party.

I saw a circle made with rocks on the ground. When I stood looking down on it, it looked like a wagon wheel with a thousand spokes of light, it was very powerful. It appeared to be an energy vortex. There were items in the middle of the circle of rocks, such as feathers and a dream catcher. One interesting observation was that the roots of the trees in the jungle traveled along the top of the ground. The ground was completely covered with roots. The exception was this circle of rocks, the roots went around this power spot further enforcing the circle.

When we arrived and left the sanctuary we did a ritual of creation at a certain rock.

The night before we left Puerto Vallarta we went to a restaurant called Le Kliffe. My husband and I were enjoying the view while watching what we thought were humming birds up in the vines above us. When the assumed humming birds came closer, we realized that they were very large almost hairy-looking black bees. They looked 'fluffy', flew hanging their legs below them like bees, and made a buzzing sound.

Another couple came and sat at a table close to us. We started chatting and continued for about 45 minutes, at which time I excused myself to go up the cliff. When I rose from my chair, I heard this buzzing from the back of my neck. I reached to the back of my neck when my fingers touched one of the softest things I had ever felt, like fine baby hair.

One of these huge black bees crawled out from under my hair and flew away. I looked at it in stunned amazement, as did everyone else that witnessed this. The woman at the other table told me that it had been under my hair the entire time we had been talking. She thought that my hair was blonde on top and black underneath. She said she thought it was some weird San Francisco style. We all shared how surprised we were that I didn't 'freak out'. I didn't yell. I wasn't fearful at all. I just watched the bee as it walked out on my shoulder and then flew away.

I am sure that this was part of the ';journey'. Our information is stored, spiritually, at the back of our necks. I believe that the bee was exchanging information with me. I have searched the Internet for such a bee. I have written experts online inquiring about such a bee. When I talked to the Huichol Shaman, he told me that this bee was a 'shape shifter.'

After returning from Puerto Vallarta, I was listening to a radio talk show. The host was interviewing a student of Carlos Castaneda. He told her that when he went to study under Carlos he had anticipated sitting all day and meditating and doing chants or something like that. Instead, Carlos Castaneda had him doing exercises, called Tensigrity passes. He had an instruction video he was selling that taught the passes. The passes are for shifting ones' energy. The host commented 'Why does the video have a bee on the cover?' He stated 'This is where these Shamans received their information, from the bees.'

One of the many thoughts that come to mind after this encounter with the spirits of the Huichol energy is that I have never seen such spirits before. I didn't have any judgment as to whether they actually existed or not. The artwork generated by the Huichol spiritual seekers is unique and very colorful. I really accepted what they created as artistic renderings, not anything that actually existed. I couldn't help but wonder if the guardian spirits of specific nationalities, manifest in a specific and unique manner.

I guess I digress here, the whole point of my pondering on this is why would I see the spiritual symbols of the Huichol Natives? Could I have imagined this experience as far as the spiritual guidance is concerned? I was questioning this myself. I couldn't help but wonder if I wanted to see something so I just imagined that I saw something. The mind is an amazing piece of work. I asked this question often during the rest of my stay in Puerto Vallarta. When I had the experience with the Bee, I felt that it was an answer to my question. I believe the answer is that what I saw was valid. Certainly I could misunderstand the message I was given. I saw so many symbols that it was like warp speed fast forward video. I guess you can see that it is easy to second guess one's self when working in spirit. I know what I saw and I tried to provide a good description of what I saw. I also told you what I thought some of the communication meant. It is easy to misinterpret images and spirit communication. One of the biggest enemies of good spirit communication is the ego. It is so easy to discount a spirit message, only to find out later that spirit was correct as usual.

So this is my Huichol experience. I am in contact with the people in Mexico, and plan to do a return trip with a group. I want to visit the Sanctuary. Teach some techniques in the Sanctuary, which would take advantage of the wonderful energy, and do some investigation of the surrounding area. If you are interested in joining me, just drop me an email and I will put you on the list.

One more bit of information regarding my experiences with the Huichol, the sanctuary, and the spirit guides who channeled information to me while I was in meditation at the sanctuary. While there I prayed for a family member suffering from drug addiction. Upon my return to the Bay Area I visited him at a rehab center. While we were visiting, he said he wanted to tell me about a dream he had. Please understand that he was sequestered from contact with the outside world, so he had no idea I went to Mexico. Much less did he know that I visited the Huichol Sanctuary, or the experiences I had there. I told him to go ahead and tell me his dream. He said that he had a dream that a deer was flying around the top of the rehab center. He said it was one thing that a deer was flying around the top of the center, but the strangest thing of all was that the deer was BLUE.

I was stunned, momentarily. I then told him of my visit to the sanctuary. Of my prayers, and my "vision" of the spiritual guide, the Blue Deer.

I believe that this "dream" was a confirmation of my experiences at the sanctuary. After I left the sanctuary I often reflected on what I saw and heard. I wondered if I imagined all of this, or was it real? I tend to be more skeptic that argumentative with spirit that may be I should be, but that is my nature. I often receive confirmation of my spiritual experiences, and they really help me to realize that the spiritual messages are very real.

Since this experience I received a wonderful visit from a woman Huichol Shaman, her name is Guadalupe. I had just returned from a visit with a loved one who is very ill. I was emotionally and spiritually drained upon returning home. I decided to take a short nap. Shortly after falling asleep I heard chanting. At this point my sleep became an "out of body" experience. I saw this woman coming down the hall swinging red and green beads around in a circle in front of her as she approached by bedroom.

She came over to me and guided me to the end of my bed. As we sat she held my hands in hers, and her deep eyes looked upon me with such compassion and love. The meeting was like a Grandmother to Mother. I knew she was very wise. I had never seen her before, but I knew her name was Guadalupe.

I asked her if my loved one would recover. She couldn't answer me, I assumed that there was no answer.

She guided me to my kitchen. After we stopped a group of her students streamed in through the front door. She directed us to go into the back yard.

When we arrived in the back yard, they all did a ritual. I assumed it was for the healing of the situation, and my loved one.

When the ritual was over I woke up. I was profoundly touched by this grand woman and her students reaching out to me in my grief.

In the next couple of days it occurred to me to see if I could locate her on the internet. I found her. She had passed in 1999. I felt so blessed and comforted by her kindly reaching out to me from spirit to provide moral and spiritual support . I borrowed this picture from the memorial page devoted to her and her wonderful work.

If you would like to read more about Guadalupe, follow this link: http://www.nierica.com/shamanism/huichols/guadalupe.html

One of the lesson I learned from this experience is that each spirit that approached me responded to my challenge as to whether they came in the name of the Holy Christ. The Christ is certainly all-powerful and commands respect from any time space and dimension.

I also learned that no matter what one's religious affiliation, if you request assistance from spirit you just might be as surprised as I was at the response.

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