Itzhak Beery: La Limpia, Prophecy, Palm Wisdom, and Ushai (the Fifth Element)
Photo credit: Pete Babick, 2023
Itzhak teaching La Limpia at Amaroo Sanctuary in Mindo, Ecuador, 2023
Transcription
Itzhak Beery in the Amazon Basin, January 2023
La Limpia, Prophecy, and Ushai (the Fifth Element)
Rattle (Jenny) 00:00:00
Jenny 00:00:08
Hi everyone. I’m Jenny LePage, and welcome to the conversation about spiritual awakening, planetary shift in consciousness, adventure, healing, and finding your life path.
Before I transport you to the Amazon River, listening to a booming thunderstorm roll by in the distance with all the sounds of the jungle around us, first, I would like to introduce our guest, Itzhak Beery.
Itzhak Beery is a leading shamanic teacher, healer, speaker, community activist, and author of three Amazon bestsellers books. He is the founder of ShamanPortal.org, The Andes Summit, and co-founder of the New York Shamanic Circle, and he is on major global spiritual centers’ faculties. Itzhak received the 'Ambassador for Peace Award' from The Universal Peace Federation and the UN.
I have had the great opportunity to study intensively with him the past 2.5 years, including intensive workshops, online trainings, and two trips to Ecuador. Our last trip was an apprenticeship training trip for practitioners, and I am so, so grateful to bring these powerful healing tools to my practice, and, also, I’m thrilled to share Itzhak’s wisdom with all you right now.
Ok everyone, hold on, Here we go!
Jenny 00:02:14
And here we have Itzhak Beery, and we are sitting on the RioAguarico in the evening in the Amazon Basin, one of Itzhak’s favorite spots, where you can watch the sunset. There's a storm rolling in. All the creatures around us are singing together, and it is really nice to be here with you.
Hi, Itzhak.
Itzhak 00:02:43
Hello. So nice to be with you, Jenny.
Jenny 00:02:47
Itzhak is one of my favorite people. I'm learning so much from him. We are on a trip right now with a group of healers from the United States and a few other countries around the world. And Itzhak has brought us here to be with several tribes in the Amazon and the Andes, teaching us traditional healing practices. La Limpia ceremony is one of them. Itzhak, can you talk about why it's important to share the practice of La Limpia with us?
Itzhak 00:03:27
Well, the Limpia ceremony is one of the most simplest and yet complex healing traditions of the Andes. In many cultures actually you have different type of Limpia, which means it's the purification of the energy field outside the person or surrounding the person and also within the person. The ceremony that I teach is I studied with a few shamans from the High Andes of Ecuador around the Otavalo area. It's a very distinctive ceremony that is built on a few distinct parts that together they are creating a whole healing environment where a person returns to balance. There is the first section of the Limpia is the gazing or the ability to see the energy field around the person and see what is it he coming or she's coming for the healing without the person telling you, so that you're receiving information before you even start.
Then, we learn how to create the altar, the centerpiece of the shaman’s work table, where he or she [is] absorbing or receiving the energy that allow her to continue with the healing. And on the healing table, you have your huaca, your sacred object. That could be crystals, that could be bells, that could be bones, that could be the healing stones. Each one of them have a specific emotional and spiritual connection to the shaman herself that and give her the power to do the healing. Um, and then there are two different ways or three different ways the shamans usually do diagnostic reading, which is very important because without the diagnostic reading, it is like going to a doctor that just give you pills without checking what you have.
And, so, we are using techniques of reading with the candle and candle flame. We are using egg reading where we are rolling the egg on the person's body and cracking it open and putting it in glass of water and seeing the formation of the egg in the water. And then also palm reading where we can tell what the client challenges and gifts and obstacles and life purpose through looking at the hand. So, all those three diagnostic tools sometimes use singularly or sometimes they use all of them. Gives us a beautiful picture of the present condition right now, at this particular moment, and that give us an idea of what kind of tools to use and what kind of procedure we do in the Limpia.
Traditionally, after the diagnostic, you do the cleansing of the energy field and extraction of negative energy from the body using trago, which is the sugar cane rum, and then a bunch of green leaves, aromatic or not, to brush the energy field. Sometimes you use feathers to do that and smoke or smudging, and then the rolling of the eggs on the body to absorb the negative energy and sometimes sucking the energy from the body to extract negative energy, which is usually blockage energy in the body.
And after. So, after we remove the negative energy, we are now in a position of blowing or bringing new energy to replace that energy that was taken out. And for that, we're using agua de florida, which is a perfume made out of citrus flowers and other perfumes. And we're using carnations or red and white carnations or red and white roses, and that is to bring good energy to replace the old energy.
And then after we create the wholeness, we are using stones, and the stones are here to create an energy field around the person's body, to crack open the back of the shoulders, to stimulate the lymph nodes and to shake whatever energy seal in the body, to remove that, to send it away. And, after the protection ceremony we are doing… using sound and the sound of bells. Sometimes we do bells or other instruments to shake the energy and with a high pitch bell we are using to harmonize the body, create a body that flow in the same vibrations. And then, we are sometimes using spears to create more balance in the person's body. To create more resolve or energy of the warrior. To send the person strong and powerful.
Using tobacco to send the blessing to spirit with blessing for the person. And then at the very end we are using ocarina, like a small whistle to sing to the spirit to return it to the body because the soul of the person to return. Because as we do the ceremony, people usually disappear into the ether, which is what we want them to do, to reconnect to spirit. And that song, the whistle is usually a whistle that is imitating a bird. And the shamans of the Andes are called birdmen, and they wear crown of feathers and they whistle behind their neck, call on to the spirit or the soul of person to return with the sound of the birds. And, when we do that, after that, we are giving a person to rub their hands with beautiful, smelly seven essence of the Andes, which he brushes over her body to bring harmony and beauty to their life.
Usually, the ceremony could last between 20 to half an hour, sometimes more, depending on the person's conditions and what needs to happen. And it leaves the person in a state of harmony, clearing of the mind, groundedness, and for many cases, it removes migraines, headaches, back pains, all kind of different physical conditions that are really the results of emotional imbalance.
So, the whole ceremony is about recreating balance in the person's body to harmonize it, to return him to oneness, to return him to connect to the four elements which we're using in the ceremony in the earth, the grounding, the fire, the water, and the air. With that, a person feels more connected to nature and feel much more powerful.
Jenny 00:13:44
Thanks, Itzhak. You have been doing these Limpia ceremonies, studying them, practicing for a few decades now, and you have talked about how you have seen miracles happen and amazing healing. Can you tell us a little bit about some of those stories?
Itzhak 00:14:12
Well, I had a woman once, she was a heroine addict for eight years, and she tried to clear herself from that. And she came to me for two sessions. And after two sessions, she was totally recovered. Amazing. And she found her calling, and she became what she wanted to become. She moved to a town where she wanted to leave, and she never thought she can. She got the professional that she wanted to get and totally healed. She sent me her sister, who was clinically depressed. And with that sister, in one session, she returned to college and she got herself cleared. I had people who came with back pain for 20 years, and this back pain disappeared. I had people who had urinary tract issues that were clear, people with cancer that could not walk, and they walked. Um, or people who were clinically depressed, who were, you know, after few sessions, got their life back together. It it's quite calm. I mean, for me, it it doesn't look like miracles because it's the whole premise of this work is to return a person to balance. And when you return a person to balance, then, the body heal itself. Or you're returning a person’s soul back to where it needs to be. And they understand their life purpose. They get permission to pursue their life purpose. With the clearing, it helps them to feel more confident, to really pursue it with no guilt feeling, without no feeling that they are not talented enough or strong enough or they don't care what other people say about them.
Yes, I've seen you can say miracles, but for me, it's not so much miracles because I understand the process of that. And so maybe for people from the outside, it looks like a miracle. I had a woman who she's a Broadway music composer who got stuck, could not move her career. And with two sessions, she was up into her craft and she was working, completing her project. And it's amazing.
So, it is about giving people or allowing people to reconnect to their sole purpose, and through clearing of the energy field, to remove all these obstacles.
Jenny 00:18:04
You have talked about bringing a soul back to where it needs to be. Can you talk about what that means? What is it when you talk about a soul coming back from somewhere into the person's wholeness again?
Itzhak 00:18:27
In my experience—I'm on only authorized to speak for my experience—I really don't believe in anything. If I experience something, this is the truth for me. The soul is an energy that is unique to each person and each person comes to this world to experience a life from that point of view and reconnecting a person to that particular life purpose—it's probably the best gift you can give a person. Because when a person knows that this is his challenge or her challenge in life, it gives her a place to start working toward. And sometimes a person already know what it is. But because of cultural pressure, because of the way parents treat them, they do not pursue it. In many ways sometimes it's like a curse.
When another person from the outside see it through the palm reading, through the candle, reading through the egg, reading, through all of that, it validates a person and it give them the courage to pursue it in spite of all the obstacles that they had. And if they know that there are gifts which you can see in the palm, which are written three months before you were born, which is the map of your life, it gives you more determination to pursue it, to go after it more validation. And that's the inner voice that most people have. But let it go. And the thing about that is that when a person knows that he was born for something or feel that or even doesn't have the words to it and if they don't pursue it, they feel depressed, they feel anger. They feel resentment and anger to people around him because he or she herself are not able to get to it. And that's very frustrating. And this frustration goes into other people all around you.
Jenny 00:21:25
What a gift.
Itzhak 00:21:29
It is a gift. I think that that's the best gift you can probably give someone to give, to validate or to show him the path that their life, of their soul purpose, their soul wants to be recognized or to experience. What else there is? [What else is there?] Right?
Jenny 00:21:54
You've been talking about palm reading, and, Itzhak, you have a book that you are working on right now coming out about palm reading. And I've been studying with you a bit and it is amazing. I've been finding, so helpful for people. Can you talk a little bit about your book and a little bit more about palm reading and how that works?
Itzhak 00:22:23
So, palm reading is an art form or divination form that is thousands of years old. And you can find it in India, in China, in South America, and of course, it's gypsies. And other places in Europe. It have a bad rap because some people associated with magic or gypsies or charlatans or things like that. But in South America, in Ecuador, at least two of my teachers use that regularly for divination. Actually, there's one woman in Brazil, in the Amazon, too, and it turned out that three months before, three to four months before the baby is born, there is a surge of energy in the brain that start by, nobody knows exactly why. And that surge of energy starts spreading around the body, creating the nervous system, but it's also creating the limb and it's creating the palm [palm’s] major lines and it create also the fingerprints.
And the fingerprints of the major line don't change. And they are the imprints, as I understand, that shows you the map of your life or the blueprint of your life. And then there is a question, of course, about if that's the case, your life has already been written for us. Or do we have a room for change? So in many ways, yes, our soul came to experience certain things but you have to choose in what way you achieve that. So, from that part of change and choices, that is the part you need to work on. And that's the healer way of helping the person to navigate their canoes, their life canoe [life course].
But the North Star is there. There is only one North Star. There is only one unique life purpose for each person that they came here to experience. Now, not every life purpose is something that you like. Most time, if you recognize, if you are able to recognize the narrative of your trauma, the trauma shows you: What do you need to work on? In other words, if you always been shut down, not allowed to speak your mind in every situation in your life, most likely your life purpose is to be a public speaker. That is the issue that you need to work on. And, so, every time that you speak up, there is an obstacle. But that is exactly the issue that you need to work on. If any one of your listeners who wants to know what their life purpose is, map your trauma in life and then see what is the narrative, what is the… how do you connect the dots between them and then turn it around and see what is your life purpose?
For instance, people, as you know, with long index finger, they came here to experience authority, and most likely they don't like authority. They probably are very critical of anybody who is in an authority position. They most likely always feel that they don't have an authority and so authority is really the issue. What they came here to is authentic authority.
If you know that, don't put yourself to work as a secretary. Don't put yourself as a working as a secondary person. You'll have to figure out how you own your own authority, not to get mad at anybody. Or if you are an introvert, right, find yourself a position that you need to go deeper into you. Or don't look for jobs to be an extrovert because that will really not work for you. So, all of those issues, the way to look at…besides if you know how to read a hand, but, in a way, you want to know what your soul purpose, you take a look at the hand. I ask you in in my workshop, I ask people to take to journey and remind yourself of ten different traumas in your life, and then connect them. Find one or two words that describe them.
Jenny 00: 28:18
And that leads us to our life purpose.
Itzhak 00:28:21
That would be your life purpose. Now, that doesn't mean sometimes that you have to be a healer or a truck driver or a nurse, because a nurse, which is a service or healer in many ways, can come to her life purpose from authority. And it's nothing to do with service, nothing to do with being a healer, but she might want to be authority. And, so, if that's the case, and I've seen that what she needs to do is to become the head nurse, so she doesn't really do the service, but she is more the administrator, she's more the organizer, she's giving the direction. So, she is with her life purpose, doing service work. So, it's the place where you come to do your work, not the work itself. You could be a bus driver and do a healer work because you can welcome every passenger. You can ask them how they do, then you can remember their name. That's healing.
Jenny 00:29:39
So, it doesn't matter what we do, just how we do it.
Itzhak 00:29:42
Exactly. From the place where you come to do this work.
Jenny 00:29:48
It gives people peace.
Itzhak 00:29:50
Yes, absolutely. Sometimes you see people who are doing mundane work with work that nobody give them any credit for and they are truly happy because they do it from the place of their heart or the place of their soul and they feel fulfilled.
Jenny 00:30:16
This is going to be a good book. Do you have a name for this? Do you have your title picked out yet?
Itzhak 00:30:21
The working title is Shamanic Palm Reading. Or maybe Palm Wisdom.
Jenny 00:30:29
We'll find out soon.
Itzhak 00:30:30
Yes. And in that book, I bring also different, different takes from the shamanic perspective. Like the four elements, the sun and the moon. The stars, the rivers of life, the river of heart, the river of life, heart, mind. So, it's all part of it. But, also, some stories about palms that are how shamans relate to the palms. For instance, of what is the thumb? The thumb is the representation of God because God connect all four fingers. Each finger is each race, the white, black, brown and yellow or red. And all humanity is one palm. Right. The palm is also a tree.
Our hands in the shamanic tradition is representing of a tree. It comes from the heart or from the body or the earth, and it grows from the blood of the mama. And it creates a tree. And the palm. And the palm is the trunk of tree. And then all of these are the branches that are calling to Taita Inti for the sun. So, there's that.
And there's the element of the three worlds: the lower world, middle world and upper world, or childhood, midlife, and future. So, there's so much symbolism with that. But one of the things that I also discovered, is that not every person has five fingers. Sometimes they have six. So, there's a lot of discoveries within that book, that kind of in many ways, rediscovering our relationship to palms. Most people don't even look at their palms. They are always busy working with their hands, but they don’t really pay attention to this all this information that are in their hands and what is symbolizing.
For instance, we count to tens, right? All our systems are built on ten, why ten? Because we have ten fingers. And why 20? Because we have 20 fingers, right? The Mayan, their system is counting by for 20 20 naguals. So, it's so much embedded in our cultures in many different ways. And I look at in the Hebrew tradition. Yud, which is the name of God is the ten fingers. Hay, which is God itself, is representing the five. So, there's a lot of within our culture, in our prayers, that is connected to our hands. There's so many language that is connected to hand. It's such a beautiful way of but it's also an incredible tool. And I think that that's what's so important. Because when a person know how to read it, and a client come to you, you don't even have to ask too much. You look at the hands and you already know the picture if this is earthy hand or is it a fiery hand or if it's a watery hand or if it's air. So, each persona is already written in their hand. So, if somebody comes to you with a fire hand and you start to talk philosophy, you're going to lose that person. Or if airy man or person comes with long, long fingers and all philosophies and ideas and you are very grounded and you talk to him business, you lose him.
So, it's a way to meet the person wherever the person is, without making him wrong or not. Or, if you go deeper into it, you remember the idea of relationship. If a person is independent and not needy, you know immediately in your relationship, so you don't have to waste time with the wrong partner.
Jenny 00:36:20
So, you can look at partner palms.
Itzhak 00:36:21
Yes.
Jenny 00:36:22
Family dynamics.
Itzhak 00:36:23
Yeah, that's one of my favorite now is to work with families. I told you. I had this…a couple of weeks ago. A woman who brought me identical two identical twins. And it was fascinating to see that identical twins have identical hands with different markers, which means they are identical, but each one of them have a different life purpose, similar, but different. And the similarity and the difference of them make it very difficult for them because they feel very connected and very apart. And, so, they push and pull, push and pull, push and pull, push and pull. When you explain that to the parents, they are able to give room for these two to grow independently, not the demand that they both will be identical. They have to find the differences between them and nourish them, encourage them. So, it's beautiful. It's really resulting.
I think it's mandatory in many ways for parents, when they have a child to do a reading right after they're born. You already know what the person would be.
Jenny 00:38:00
That's so helpful.
Itzhak 00:38:02
I did it to all my kids and all my grandchildren. And, so, I know there's one person who's just totally independent and there's nothing you can do. And you could see that in all his life. He's doing whatever he wants. There's nothing wrong with it.
Jenny 00:38:28
That's who he is.
Itzhak 00:38:29
It's wrong with it if the parents don't like it, but it's nothing wrong. If you know that, there's nothing you can fight. The more you fight that child, the more angry, the more separations will be, the more problems in the future.
Jenny 00:38:49
It helps everyone.
Itzhak 00:38:50
Absolutely. And if the if the if the parents are very independent and the kids is very needy and that he's looking for love and intimacy and acknowledgment and appreciation and they don't give it to him, then you create problems with that. He always will feel abandonment. And but if they recognize and I had a mother like this not long ago that she had totally separate lines of relationship and she have a child who is incredibly dependent. Needy. Needy. Needy, needy, needy. And it drives her crazy. So, her work to learn how to give up herself without losing herself, that's almost her life purpose. And now she knows. Now she knows. Even if she doesn't like it, she gives time for her daughter to snuggle with her, to read her a book. Even if she personally, sometimes feels dislike, not liking it.
But if she will reject her daughter, her daughter will become more dependent on her, more needy, and more angry. And that anger could develop later on to separation from the mother. And then that daughter will find somebody who she can be intimately close to. So that's why it's so important to know the life purpose of a person as early as possible. So you can create the condition to meet their life purpose, not to go against it.
Jenny 00:40:53
So helpful. You mentioned the thumb being the God Finger and you've talked about it being connected to Ushai, the fifth element. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Itzhak 00:41:08
So, in the Andes tradition, they recognize the importance of the four elements within our body: the legs representing the earth. These are the roots of a tree that are going deep into the ground and create groundedness. And then above the earth you have the fire. The fire is the place of power, the cauldron of fire, that bring passion, action to the world, and transformation, and then above that you have the cauldron of water, and the cauldron of water or is the cauldron of emotion. All that area is an area of change. It’s constant, constant change. Like the lungs, kidneys, liver. All of them. Heart. The emotions. Could be one moment you'll be angry, one moment you'll be loving. It's always changing. And then from the neck up is the element of air, which is like the salt thought philosophy, the ego. That place of spirit in a way.
But the element of earth is the element of the feminine energy that comes from Mother Earth. From the lava, from the gravitation, from the life-giving forces. The element of the fire is the element of the masculine energy. The more fire you have in your pelvis, in your sexual energy, the more you can boil the emotion cauldron of water. And the more steam in the emotion, the more excitement there are, your emotions. the more steam comes through your throat and goes into the crown of your head and go up and meet the fifth element. The fifth element is the Ushai. It is all the four elements together. The culmination of all that energy. It contains all the female, male. Female, male, and nothing. All genders. And, so, some people call it ether, but it's not really in that tradition. It's really more of the oneness of all elements. It's the element that contains everything. And when we do the Limpia, the idea here is to reconnect the person into the Ushai. into the fifth element, by grounding the person, building up fire in the locomotive. Boiling the water to create excitement so there'll be a more expression coming through the throat, the head to the Ushai to reconnect with that energy of power, of unity. And when a person connects with that, oftentimes it is not a place of words. It's a place of being. It's a place of God. It's a place of reconnecting to the cosmos. And there's nothing more beautiful than when you are one with the cosmos.
Jenny 00:45:25
That is so important. And it seems really important right now in this time on planet Earth where we have so many people who feel challenged, and we see all the changes happening and challenges and struggles. And, that seems to be an opportunity, a great opportunity for us to connect with a higher force and bring in a sense of spirit where we might not be feeling that.
Do you notice that the people that you are helping, that you're working with, that you are supporting, that they find a little bit of hope and direction in connecting them with this Ushai, with the Fifth Element?
Itzhak 00:46:28
Right after the Limpia, that is where people experiencing that. There's a sense of happiness. There's a sense of lightness. There's a sense that this huge black energy removed from you, that you're free. And it's hard to describe, really, in words. It's really more of a feeling. But most of the time when you are in the magic part of that, creating the environment of the Limpia, people connect to that. And the way you can see it sometimes is they forget to come back. After the ceremony, it's almost like they want to stay there. And sometimes you have to wake them up. I mean, the whistle behind the neck. That is really a calling for spirit to come back, calling for the soul to come back.
Because they are at the Ushai. They are becoming one with and they don't want to come back. I don't blame them because this is the best place to be. Yeah, that's the beauty of that.
Jenny 00:48:10
And then how do we integrate that and walk into our path?
Itzhak 00:48:18
The issue really is how do you integrate that feeling or that knowing that experience that you're receiving the Limpia and come back to your everyday life? That sometimes can be an issue. But as far as I know, Limpia do change people's lives. And they remember that experience with the Ushai or with that Oneness. And they slowly, slowly start to change their consciousness or the way they experience life or the awareness that they put into life and start to integrate it into their life with small things, the way they respond to people, in the way they see people, in the way they pursue their work without the consideration of what other people thinking.
But it's a process, but I can see how fast it happens.
Jenny 00:49:32
So, they're coming from a place of wholeness, they feel more connected and then they're bringing that into their daily life.
Itzhak 00:49:44
Yeah. I think that one of the things we talk about, this life purpose, is that if you are married to somebody who want to take vacations all the time, or is a salesperson, or always find an excuse to go somewhere else if you look at their hands, or if you don't look at their hand, but if you accept that they have a different life purpose than yours and allow them to experience that and not nag them, but find ways that they will experience your life purpose.
So, I think the best marriages or partnerships with people is when you recognize the other person's life purpose and you support it, not try to change them to support yours. And if they support you and you support them, then you can have partnership.
Jenny 00:50:58
That's a good partnership. Itzhak, you feel so inspired to share and teach all this information that you are downloading to your students right now, to people who are listening and people who are studying with you, reading your books, going on trips with you, taking your classes, following the shaman portal. You have talked about when you first learned La Limpia, for instance, it took you three years. And you're really teaching this information at a pace that it feels those it feels really…mandatory that you pass this on, that you that you spread this into the world. What is it that makes you feel so compelled to share so much?
Itzhak 00:51:56
Well, when I started 27 years ago, I was really lucky. I never set up to actually do that or learn it. It has really happened to me. Um, but at that time, there was still…There are still some of those still alive, but they recognize that the indigenous teachers, they recognize that their sons and daughters don't want to do that anymore. And they, in many ways, decided to pass their knowledge to people from the west, from the north. I was one of them. And I recognize how important and how magical…it was magical. I saw it as just magical at that time. It is. And how fast, or what happened in the last 25 years, that those information can get lost. And my mission was to, or my legacy, would be to record as many as possible information or teachings or practices or way of thinking, philosophy to preserve it.
I'm not doing it just to preserve theirs, but I also do it to preserve ours because I believe that their knowledge and technology of the ancient or the indigenous world, it is so important to preserve humanity. I think it's so easy for people in the west to think that pharmaceutical companies were always there, that oil companies were always there, that electricity was always there, that iPhone was always there, that Britney Spears was always there, that all these Hollywood movies were always there. That's not true. For thousands of…whatever…hundreds of thousands of years, people lived in beautiful harmony with nature. They learned how to preserve the environment, to live in harmony with it, so they can have whatever they need for their living. They learned every secret of every plant to heal their body, their soul. And that technology what makes us humans. Living with nature, not separate from nature.
And I think that if we don't remember that, where are we going? We're going to a dead end. Totally destruction. You could see it here, right? You saw here, you saw the oil fields and you saw here the palm oil from the river all the way to Shushufindi. It's disgusting. They're cutting the forest. They're making the indigenous people here slaves for their landowners. And all the oil companies are employing the indigenous people and giving them Coca Cola and potato chips. Replacing yucca and replacing the good food that they have here. The wholesome food. It's kind of ridiculous.
And, so, I think that my commitment is really to help and preserve the Amazon and the Andes way of living, the traditional way of living for them. But it's also for us to remind us where we come from, that there's an alternative way to globalization and colonialization, and to corporate greed and to all of that. It's paramount for humanity to remember the connection to nature and how to live in balance with nature, with harmony, to honor that beauty that we have here and the resources that we have here.
Jenny 00:57:41
You talk a lot about how we not just want to choose one or the other. Not just living the traditional life, not just living the new life with all our technology, but really joining that mind and heart and bringing some of the technology of the West that might be really helpful for the people who don't have that and trading some of that, sharing the heart that we don't have so much in the West, and that we need both.
Itzhak 00:58:16
So, in South America, in the Andes, there is a prophecy of the eagle and the condor. This was taught to me by Alberto Taxo from the Andes who passed away of this year, unfortunately, He died of in results of the COVID. The prophecy claim or prophesize that there would be a time which starts in 1993 or around that time and would last for 500 years. The previous pachacuti, the previous 500 years were 500 years of occupations of the Western world or Europe or the white man, person in South America and the colonization of the tribes. And those 500 years were genocide. 90% of all South America indigenous world were decimated.
Jenny 00:59:43
North America too.
Itzhak 00:59:45
Yes. And it was decimated by the disease of biological warfare that they brought with their ships. And it was by gunpowder and horses, which the natives here did not have. But these people here had technology and architectures and cities and technology that was incredibly powerful, even sometimes more powerful than the European. This is—we don't really learn much about. So, 500 years after the occupation of the killing of Atwalpa, the last emperor of the Inca, 500 years later, 1993. This new, around that time, which actually started a little bit before and continue now, the shamans of the Andes and shamans of the Amazon recognize that the time has come to share their information with us. The prophecy means that the Eagle, the people who the Eagle represent, the people of the west, the people who have technology and wisdom and warfare and military and corporations and all this technology, will share their information with the People of the Condor.
The people of the Condor is the people that work, that come to do their work from their heart, which is what the connection to the Earth. And so these two birds, the prophecy said, that they will learn to fly together in the blue sky in dance of harmony and cooperation. And the prophecy said that it basically will be the return of the feminine energy into the world, which is…Doesn't say that women control the world, but it means that the heart and the mind will start cooperating.
Jenny 01:02:12
We need that.
Itzhak 01:02:14
Absolutely. We need to make a decision that comes from heart and mind together, not just mind, which is represented by the corporations and oil companies and palm oil and pharmaceutical and the military and the big corporations or the multinational corporations that are basically all they care is money. And money represents the eagle.
The condor represents community, represents rebirth. It’s only eating what's already dead. They don't kill. They live in communities. They eat only what they need and leave the rest for others. They don't build, they nest on the cliffs, as you saw there. So, it is two different energies. And these two energies are also within ourselves, within each of us. And when we talk about, in Limpia, about the balance, recreating balance or recreating the unity, is creating the unity of the masculine, the feminine energy within each of us.
So that dance of the Condor and the Eagle have to come from within us. But it's also what the world is going through now. And I truly believe that as bleak as our current political situation is, the world is moving to this direction. We are in that beginning. So, if we have 500 years of Dance of Harmony and cooperation. You can see now that there are more women now in Congress, in Senate, in politics. There are more equal rights for gay and lesbian people. There are more acceptance of mixed marriages. The world is changing. And the old world, that last Pachakuti is still holding on with their nails and teeth, trying to hold on to old belief system, to what worked 500 years ago, but it's not no longer viable in this new patchakuti. That's where we are now. That's why what all these pirates and dictator like Trump and Netanyahu and Aradwon and the guy in Philippines and North Korea, they're all representing that old musculine energy that are afraid of dying, afraid of losing their powers and they are doing anything they can.
But I'm optimistic that the condor and the eagle will fly together and be dance of cooperation and harmony. There's no other choice because that world of masculine that is also represented by the Christianity and Judaism religions and Muslims, other major religions, representing the past. It's representing old way of thinking and we already know, I mean, there's such a drop in people going into organized religion. They are looking for alternatives. That's why our work is so important because every year, we have more and more people who are doing shamanic work every day, doing more spiritual and what we call alternative—although I don't think that it's alternative, I think the other world is alternative.
We do the real work, and we are reminding people that they are physical and spirit beings. They are masculine and feminine. That there must be a balance between the masculine action and the heart or the mind and the heart. It must. Because too much of war does not give us anything. Too much of corporation doesn't give us anything. You give us death.
Jenny 00:01:54
And here we are right now with the Seiko pāai tribe, the Secoya people who are such a small tribe, 3000 people who have been pushed from their own lands as refugees here in Ecuador. And there's only seven families who are still practicing the traditional ways and traditional medicines. And everybody else is in a small community that is really kind of run down and the land is taken over by the oil companies, and we have this really special opportunity. You've been bringing groups down here for about five or six years now to this particular family that we've been staying with that have so generously and beautifully opened themselves and continue to do that the more time that we are spending here. And at first, they weren't so sure. They weren't so sure about inviting people in, because sometimes people have come in the past and there's so much history with being taken advantage of and people not really giving back and sharing.
But here we are right now and having such a beautiful experience of sharing. Sharing medicines and food and stories, and we also bring some technology and a sharing of assistance in a way to help them become more empowered and fight that front line, like the solar panels that have been brought here, which happened a little bit previously, but more buildings, more supplies that they might need, a horse to help carry wood from the forest back to the home. And what's happening here is that we're really touching each other. A couple of nights ago, we were sitting around the table with our small group and with the family that we are here with, and we all shared songs together and we all sang together.
And we see that they are opening more and more, the more that they trust us and see our intentions and see that we can be supportive and that they also can share their medicine and their knowledge with us so that we can learn and heal and help other people and learn how to support them also.
Itzhak, you have a wealth of experience and knowledge all throughout this area, throughout the Amazon, throughout the Andes, this whole region. And I'm wondering if there is anything you would like to share that we haven't talked about yet in this conversation.
Itzhak 01:10:11
Well, how many hours do we have?
Jenny 01:10:13
Laughing
We'll do more interviews. Just this one for now.
Itzhak 01:10:24
I think that we need to be selfish. And selfish means that we'll have to learn how to provide for our children and our grandchildren a honorable life. A life of life, not life of death. And I think that if we can support the people who preserve the forest, the Amazon, the Andes or any indigenous culture, I think that we are doing it for ourselves, we are doing it for our grandchildren. So, they will have the animals that still exist, the water that still exists. The air not for ourselves, but for the generations that will come after us.
If we give up on the forest, if we give up on the water and the air, what are we leaving our children? Nothing. It a few bottles of plastic. Is that your legacy? I salute those seven families who lives here along the river and fighting the oil companies. And they still doing the yaje ceremonies to remind people of the old tradition. They keep their language in spite of the Spanish language school, they are dressing up and using the language they do arts and craft to keep their tradition, because these are all secrets, this is all ancient knowledge.
Like today, we were speaking about the curan [spelling?], the blow gun. I was 25 years ago with the Shuar. And then it was so simple and so accessible. And here, 25 years later, it's almost gone. They don't even remember, the elder here, 80 years old, remember how to do it. But he did, probably 50 years ago. So, like, how do you put two shunta trees together to create a blow gun? That technology is gone. Or how to cook great food that is nourishing from the Amazon? That's gone. Or how to work with the fish or how to work with the animals here? All that balance between nature and human are gone. Or almost disappearing. 25 years ago when the people were still living in a ceremonial house like the one we sleep in, that one, my group donated money to create their tradition. They never had that. So that is a great contribution. Contribution for us and for them too.
So, I believe that the more people…well..I'm not talking about tourism. I'm talking about people who have consciousness or people who have an appreciation for the Amazon. They're not people who come here to fish or people come here as tourists to eat their potato chips and Coca Cola. I'm talking about people who come here with consciousness of preserving the balance between the condor and the eagle to support the people here who basically stand in the front line of civilization. Without those people, if those people gave in, succumb to the oil companies here, all this tradition would be disappearing. All that languages, all that stories, they have such a beautiful creation story that are enriching our life in language and literature and imagination.
The problem for us is that we think that the whole world needs to speak English. Languages are disappearing in a speed way and every language in the Amazon that disappear…My teacher, Ipupiara, there were like 3000 people, he died the last shaman of their tribe or the last person speaking of that language. The Ou ou aou [spelling?] tribe. It's sad because every language has different poetry, different images, different story about life. What are we going to talk about? Michael Jackson? How about a Hollywood movie? The Avatar? No, I mean this is totally plastic culture. Talking about plastic culture, I think that we also are in the United States recognizing more and more that our culture is really hollow, that Native American have much deeper Tradition that answer more of the human yearning to be connected to, nature, to be part of nature, to understand the climate, to understand the bird, thinking, to understand what it means to walk in forest and experience that energy in the negative ions that are forming and feeling good, that the body needs that. So, I think more yearning to be human, and that's why we have more people now running to the forest to drink ayahuasca, to do other medicine, to experience something that is a bit more on the spiritual level, not just on the plastic, use it and throw it culture.
And my goal in bringing people here to the Amazon—and I do this for quite a few years, is to… it’s really hard to convince people to change their ways. It's easier when they come here and experiencing it. Like you said, sitting here in their little hut here and singing songs in all different languages, and seeing the joy that they have and eating the yucca and he fish soup that is so delicious and so nourishing. And you really feel like the food here is totally real. It's whole.
Jenny 01:18:32
So good.
Itzhak 01:18:33
And it's delicious. It's nothing poor about it. The fish here, everything is here is like wholesome. And to experience just sitting right now where it's close to 10:00 at night and the river is flowing and it's dark and beautiful stars, and you're reconnecting with the cosmos and you sit in this quiet, and that quiet is healing with all this oxygen here. People who come here, the first two days, they get headaches because there's so much oxygen. And their nervous system really gets nourished and quiet down. And they truly start breathing.
Jenny 01:19:25
They get back to pregnant time, right? [When people are moved by the fullness of time and not the artificial time of the clock]
Itzhak 01:19:27
Exactly. All of a sudden, you can sit hours and just watch the river and see sunrise and sunset and the whole day passed by and it's so enriching you…. So quieting your soul. It reminds you that you don't have to run from one appointment to the next like crazy chicken with no head. It reminds you who you are, really. And I think that when you come here and you experience that, it changes the whole way you are living your life. Many people who came here to these trips did change their lives. They sold their companies. They started nonprofit organizations, real estate company, a guy, two of them, they quit their corporate real estate companies, and they started to build houses for the needy. So, there's a lot of that change. People change jobs, change locations. They see what's important, and they don't want to give it up.
Jenny 01:20:47
So, they're bringing that back. They're bringing that heart back.
Itzhak 01:20:51
Yes. That's the beauty of that. And they will continue to enroll people into that consciousness and into that mission. I think that we are really in the front line now. Without Basilio’s family and all the other seven families, the corporate palm oil will be grabbing this land in no time. They're fighting, and majorly, they're fighting the evangelist. The Christian Church is doing a horrible job here. They're converting indigenous people who lived off the land peacefully for years. They fill them up with sins and Jesus and all that crap stuff. They separate families, the young people, from the elders. Don Cesario, he's 108. Still the most powerful shaman of the Amazon. His son is priest, and his son now forbid him from doing ceremonies because it's evil. The Evangelists here claim that because of those people who are doing ceremonies here, COVID begin. They believe that every time that we do ceremonies, there's a rainstorm. That you ruined there businesses there.
Jenny 01:22:44
But really, we're connecting more with the earth and more with what is real, more with spirit.
Itzhak 01:22:52
And I hope that people who come here as a healer, the healer group, will bring this medicine to their clients, and their clients will experience that even in offices in Colorado, or New York, or London or Romania or whatever it is.
Jenny 01:23:13
Wherever.
Itzhak 01:23:14
But even the touch of that would remind those people the importance of this medicine, to keep this medicine alive and the connection to nature. And then maybe they will come here one day, they'll experience this beauty, and they maybe commit themselves to help preserve nature in our world.
Jenny 01:23:42
Let's hope so.
Itzhak 01:23:46
I hope so. I mean, that's what I'm doing it. Besides I really love this family. This family is so joyful. It's so. Genuinely beautiful. I don't even know how to even say that. The way they raise their children here and the way they raise the trees here and the intimacy that they have with every plant, every plant that we think that it's just a weed is a temple,
Jenny 01:24:27
a life.
Itzhak 01:24:28
Yeah. It's amazing. So beautiful.
Jenny 01:24:33
Well, I certainly am inspired and changed by these experiences that we have and so excited to bring more and more of it back. Back to the land of the eagle and bring a little condor home to that home. This is home now, too. And share, really create that bridge between the worlds and.
Itzhak 01:25:02
I sure enjoy your company here.
Jenny 01:25:04
Oh, it's so fun, Itzhak. It's the best. Well, thank you.
Itzhak 01:25:11
Wasn't the mud bath we did today?
Jenny 01:25:13
Oh, we did a great mud bath today down by the river.
Itzhak 01:25:17
And the flower bath.
Jenny 01:25:18
Oh, so sweet. So beautiful and so much fun. We have so much fun, too. Not always so serious.
Itzhak 01:25:29
No, I mean, I think that the cause is very serious. But the way to achieve that is with a lot of humor and fun and stories and joy to fulfill all our senses with that beauty, with that amazing Amazon
Jenny 01:25:52
Life.
Itzhak 01:25:55
This river is so beautiful. The Aguarico. So beautiful, Like life itself.
Jenny 01:26:06
It is.
Thank you, Itzhak. It's so great to have you here today for our interview. And we will certainly all try to pass on what we can and learn what we can to become more conscious and to connect that eagle and condor, bring a bridge into a new world, into a new culture that's already underway.
Itzhak 01:26:37
Amen
Jenny 01:26:38
Amen.
Itzhak 01:26:39
Aho
Jenny 01:26:40
Aho
Together 01:26:42
Hu Yai Yai!!! (Giggles)
Ocarina (Jenny) 01:26:47
Jenny 01:27:08
Thank you everyone for listening. I hope you really enjoyed your visit to the jungle, and thank you again, Itzhak, for sharing your decades of insight from the Amazon and Andes.
This wraps up our first Amazon mini-series that we kicked off the podcast with, and next week we are going to take a pause from interviews and introduce what this podcast is all about. Thank you so much to everyone who supports this show. You can donate through the link on the podcast player or at jennylepage.com. I appreciate it so much. Thank you everyone, see you next time!
Drum (Jenny) 01:27:55
