A
Mystical Marriage In Machupicchu
Getting Hitched On Top
Of The World ~ by Leah George
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Cusco,
o Cusco, land of sacred green valleys, land of mysticism, land of the Inti
Raymi (fiesta of the sun), land of the Inkan ancestors and of the mamchas
and papachus. This is the land that captured my heart and spirit,
the land where I met my compañero para toda la vida (life companion),
Monito.
I met Monito
while I was visiting Cusco, looking for an adventure in what is called
there “mystical tourism.” I sought Monito out because we had a mutual
friend who recommended Monito to me as a spiritual guide for people who
want to experience the sacred plant, San Pedro, a hallucinogenic cactus
that has been used for centuries in the Andes Mountains for cleansing ceremonies,
to connect with the Pachamama and la naturaleza (Mother Earth and nature)
and to open the sixth sense and discover things you’ve never understood
before.
I decided I
wanted to try San Pedro right after my thirtieth birthday after several
years of difficult times, struggling with depression and chaos when several
people in my family died in rapid succession, including my mother.
Feeling lost for a long time, I set out to explore other parts of the world
and have new experiences in order to grow up and hopefully get unstuck
from the past so I could move renewed into my future. As a person who never
experimented with drugs, and who doesn’t drink, my decision to try San
Pedro was based on what I’d heard about the spiritual journey and how the
plant can help you to make the connection to the bigger world beyond what
we know in our day to day lives.
I suppose every
San Pedro experience ends up being different than your expectations, but
mine was off the charts. I fasted for 24 hours before meeting up
with Monito to travel to Pisaq where we would have our full moon San Pedro
ceremony. We drank the plant in liquid form when the moon reached
its peak, and we traveled to the beyond together, falling in love during
the journey.
I know that
San Pedro isn’t supposed to work that way, although the plant certainly
does make you more sensitive to your environment, but there are many things
about Monito and my relationship which don’t fall into traditional notions
of the way things should be. Our connection has made me a believer in destiny,
attraction of the spirits, and pure love, and therefore, when we decided
to get married almost one year later, we chose to have a spiritual ceremony.
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The positive
energy of the universe must have been smiling on our union, because we
managed to pull off something unheard of. We secured official permission
to have our marriage ceremony inside Machupicchu,
an apu (sacred mountain) and architectural wonder, a small Inkan city replete
with temples to the sun, moon, and condor, built on a great mountain above
a river, which also happens to be the eighth wonder of the world.
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San
Pedro was not part of our wedding ceremony because during our lives together,
Monito taught me that his ancestors believed in another world far away
from the material world in which we live, one which your reach by opening
your third eye or using your sixth sense. San Pedro can help you
get there by making you more sensitive, but it is not necessary.
We did, however,
decide to have our ceremony on the full moon because it is optimal for
new beginnings, good fortune, and fertility, not to mention that the full
moon marks our anniversary of the day we met. Monito’s brother Josè,
who is a shaman in Cusco, performed our ceremony, a reflection of pre-Inkan
spiritual practices. Our family members and guests were asked to wear white
to maintain the positive energy and because white represents the mixture
of the 7 colors of the rainbow. The rainbow flag was the banner of
the empire of Tawantinsuyo, the name given to this land in the Andes before
the Spanish colonized.
Ours was no
ordinary wedding ceremony where the guests get bored by the formalities.
They didn’t have a chance! We married next to the solar clock, known as
the Inti Huatana, a term that means in Quechua the indigenous language,
“the place where they tie the sun.” The solar clock is a sacred spot within
the Machupicchu complex, and the ancient stone still lights up every equinox.
Our families and friends stood in a circle around us and the Inti Huatana
to maintain a united force of energy, sometimes holding hands, sometimes
with their eyes closed, sometimes dancing, sometimes walking seven times
around, as instructed by Josè. Our friend Kathia translated Spanish
to English so that everyone would be accomodated. Four ceramic bowls filled
with palo santo, mirra, saumerio, and alusema, which are woods and incenses
with cleansing and protective properties were set at the four cardinal
points outside the circle. Josè also used various perfumes
such as Agua de Florida, Agua de Kananga, and Agua de Rosas, which he spat
alternatively at us and our guests in three different directions in order
to send away the negative, call on the positive, and neutralize to maintain
an equilibrium. |
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Josè
called on our guests to close all negative thoughts out of their minds
and to send all of their positive energies to Monito and I as we joined
our futures together. He sang and chanted in the ancient tongue Chavin.
Josè drove away the negative energies and called on the positive,
using his intricately carved chonta sticks, bara silvador, and huaco silvador.
Monito’s other brother Aquiles and my father Warren and aunt Marcia each
represented our separate familiar lineages and distinct cultural heritages,
as Josè spoke about how our marriage represented the union of our
distinct cultures. Aquiles placed my ring on my finger, and my dad
and aunt put Monito’s on his. Our rings are also special - they’re
identical, an eclipse of the sun and moon, a representation of the union
of the masculine and feminine, made for us by an hermano/friend Tito.
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| Monito
and I stood in the center of this circular force of energy, radiant in
our love for each other. We dressed in white with crowns of white
mountain flowers on our heads, each holding a carved wooden stick called
palo quemado to ward off negativity. We were barefoot on a violet
manta scattered with flowers, behind a ceramic offering bowl filled with
fruits of the earth such as maiz (corn), quinoa, potatoes, chunyo, choclo,
and habas, which we later threw into the Villcanota River.
I was filled
by the vibrations of all of the positive wishes of our guests. The
Inkas believed Machupicchu was part of the navel of the world, and Monito
and I stood alongside the Inti Huatana, I felt an energy much greater than
myself. I felt the presence of loved ones who couldn’t be with me,
like my mother, and Monito’s mother, who have passed away, as well as other
dear friends, and I was conscious of my tiny place in this huge universe.
Before the
ceremony was over, something marvelous occurred. Monito and I were blessed
by the appearance of a rainbow, while there was no rain to speak of during
the rainy season for us at Machupicchu. The rain was over by Putukusi,
the mountain across the river, but all of our guests stayed dry as we viewed
the colorful splendor of the Pachamama and what felt like nature’s approval
of our eternal union.
Our ceremony
ended as Monito’s brother Aquiles and my brother Jake placed commemorative
necklaces with the sun/moon eclipse symbol around the necks of our guests,
followed by hugs all around. And of course, what ceremony would be complete
without the kiss, although, to be honest, we kissed several times before,
during, and after the ceremony. Our wedding wasn’t that rigid!
Now our lives
are back to normal, only now we’ve been married in Machupicchu. How
many people can say that?
If you would
like to contact Leah Click Here |
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