Urban Shamanism

A Game of Discovery

As many of you know, Venezuela's recent history has been plagued by a compounded crisis. The origins of this crisis go way back, but I happened to be born in the period where the State fell into disrepair and the Constitution was shunned by those in power long enough to allow the most corrosive tyranny to take over the country and completely dismantle institutionality. Not the funniest of times, to be honest, but transcendental and formative. At this point, I look back and I have nothing but gratitude for this enormous test that I experienced, because it shaped me into the man I am now, but it required a lot of work, sacrifice and acceptance, which I got from my spiritual practice. One of the greatest tools for this was and continues to be Magic.

I've said that I began exploring Magic at the same time that I started getting seriously into Venezuela's political process through my work with the news and human rights. These were both difficult and expansive times for me because I was simultaneously exploring the dense tapestry of the tragedy around me and also truly beginning to See beyond it. It really felt like I was living two lives, one where I'd fully joined the conversation about what was going on with our homegrown tyranny and the havoc they were wreaking, the other filled with wonder and adventure, self-knowledge and symbolism. Back then I didn't know how to reconcile the two and messages from one intruded into the other in jarring, uncomfortable ways, but such is the case with every transformation, we're rough at first and must go through a process of pruning, hewing, trimming and grinding in order to soften our form. Only then comes the polishing, which is what I feel I'm experiencing now: mirror polish.

Although I was unable to finish my Mage chronicle back in 2016, the messages I received in the game allowed me to adopt new postures about the country's situation. Even in my first Ayahuasca ceremony I'd realized that all I needed to do in order to free myself from chavismo and its works was to forgive them, to bring them back into my heart and embrace them as brothers and sisters, but on the other hand, the evidence of their ruin were all too clear for me to see. The majority of Venezuelans have a general idea of the debacle we've been going through, but I had access to insider data and exclusive reports, detailed narrations of all kinds of daily abuses and much more. For instance, it was during that year that social violence reached a peak of intensity with widespread looting and lynching all over the country, and I gave myself the task to track all that to the best of my ability. It was harsh, eye-opening and powerful. Through the pain, the anger and the fear, however, I transitioned through deeper states of awareness and began to see why I was seeing all of that, why my country had to live through this.

It's apparent to me now that I had to go through that work in order to identify it for what it is: a story, something that a lot of people built together for generations beyond my reckoning. I could read it, and if I could read it, I could dismantle it. I was given the tools to do so and slowly turned my life into an adventure. The emotions were raw, the circumstances were difficult, but I'd seen a new path, a deeper world, and it moved in a different vibration that the crisis. Synchronicities abounded for me and I learned how to use them to my advantage. Sacred plants and rituals expanded my perception and opened my Intuition, so I could understand Surrender and Flow, so I could embrace Happiness again. The Wonder was revealed to me and I built up Hope, then Faith, then Knowledge, all of it through the Magic of breathing, decreeing, meditating, observing and acting.

There are plenty of films, shows and books where Magic plays a role, yet despite the spectacle of special effects and the grandiose narratives, no representation of magical work comes close to encompassing the degree of profundity and empowerment of the real thing. We live in a Universe of potential, symbols and patterns help us unlock that potential for our purposes. My purpose was to live freely in my own country and I achieved it, no tyranny holds power over me and no violence enters my home. That's what Magic can do for you too.

Night Rune: Fehu

Potent and numerous feline presence.

Daylight Rune: Nauthiz

Let go of everything that you do not need, cleanse that which is soiled, open places that have remained shut for a long time and extract new strength from unexpected places. Your flow is your form, the places you walk through sculpt you, the tests that you impose on yourself forge you. Put your perspective to the test, change your angle of sight, reconsider the sources of your information. Every coherence in your life teaches you to accept necessities. Oppression and repression are corrupt forms of discipline, you can cultivate more loving routines. Your debts constrain your movement, pay your dues. Severity is indispensable in certain circumstances, but avoid crossing over to insult even in the presence of the offense of others, keep respect on top, those who speak with the Heart do not have to raise their voice.