The Apprenticeship.

In 2 days I begin an 8-month—aiming at 2 year–medicine apprenticeship at my sacred oasis of Kumankaya in Mexico...

I’ve alluded to this before. Now, let’s address it head on...

How This Came To Be.

I was summoned. I wrote about this in my Marosa recap.

We’ve spoken about glimmers: aspects of reality that shine to you. The term I use for a very strong calling or a very shiny glitter is being summoned.

A profound pre-verbal realization, 

“If I wasn’t playing it small, if I wasn’t operating out of fear, if I loved myself fully, if I answered the call life is giving me—THIS is the direction I would go.”

I would take it further. It feels like an energy other than my own shows up in my psyche and declares with devastating force and clarity:

"This is your Path. This is your Sacred Task on this planet. This is what you have been training for. This is what your life has been building toward. If you wish to Rise, this is what we ask of you."

Sheeeeeeeeesh. 😅

It felt like Marosa, my deepest wisdom, and my highest potential all showed up in my psyche and CALLED ME IN.

They SUMMONED the BEST of me. Demanding that the Great Man show up. Calling me into a new level of service, self-mastery, courage, capacity, grounding, and vision than I’ve ever played at before. 

Basically—stop f*cking around.

It wasn’t a matter of knowing what decision to make, it was a matter of mustering the courage to make the decision that I know I must.

I’ve been taking groups to Kumankaya for almost 5 years. I’ve got a long and winding history with the center, particularly with Remi and Ashley, the owners and master healers. They know more about my depths than most people on the planet. They’ve seen me in my glory, my pain, my confusion, and my potential.

I am no fool. I do not call just anyone my Teacher. That word has weight to me. And I realized there is no one else I would step into this initiation with.

A Few Reasons Why.

• Part of me has always craved a monastic lifestyle. I’ve repressed it for far too long. I built the 100 Days project—particularly the WARRIOR100—to honour this calling. Most of my interests and areas of study revolve around monastic contemplation and self-mastery work.
• Kumankaya feels like a monastery. A medicine monastery. Remi’s 20 year background in Christian monasticism certainly helps create this vibe.
• I view Remi and Ashley as living masters. Stewards of an ancient lineage thousands of years old in the Shipibo-Conibo ayahuasca healing arts.
• I love facilitating retreats, and I’m good at it. For 8 months, I get to do that full time. What an brilliant opportunity.
• I believe master plant diets are one of the most advanced forms of medicine in existence. I want to study them fiercely.
• I realized ~1.5 years ago that I want to be a father. I want to give my children the gift of the man I will become through this process.

A Smattering of Final Thoughts.

I fundamentally disagree with the notion that a monastic lifestyle is an ‘escape’ from life, or ‘running away’ from society. I view it as running toward Life. 

Unfiltered, undistracted engagement with Reality as such. 

The Hippocratic Oath is ‘Above All, Do No Harm’. If you truly believe that modern lifestyles are contributing to the collapse of civilization and the biosphere (aka ‘net negative’)—you might reconsider the social & environmental utility of a monastic way of being (getting closer to ‘doing no harm’).

I’d flip this right around: I believe most (though not all) of society is an elaborate construction to escape from matters of fundamental importance. A shape-shifting labyrinth of trivialities.

Yes, my apprenticeship is not permanent, and I will ‘return to the world’ after it. But do not mistake my fierce engagement for mere escape. I am not running away. I am honouring the deepest calling I have ever been given. 

I believe medicine work, particularly the Shipibo cosmovision and healing art, is one of the most sophisticated forms of medicine that exists, and has ever existed, on the planet.

It is a radical and comprehensive bio-psycho-spiritual overhaul. This is not an attack on modern medicine. This is in addition to it. Amazonian plant and animal medicines are profoundly powerful healing modalities, and in order to study and practice with them deeply, this is what I must do. So, I am. Simple.

What Comes Next?

While this apprenticeship is my priority for the next several months, I will continue to write here with the remaining time and energy I have. Aiming for ~1x/week.

I expect the nature of these pieces will shift toward Amazonian plant medicines, master plant diets, the philosophy of medicine, and the like. But who knows! Only time will tell.

But for now, I must depart, for I have been summoned...

With love,
EB. 🌿🍵