Barter Faire 2011

Day 2, Saturday

   Though Friday was very fun for all, the culmination of my trip comes on this night. 

   I somehow woke up around 7 am after going to bed around 4am…I was the first one up.  I wobbled out of the truck as I was a little groggy.  I got the fire started and the rest of my friends eventually unzipped their tents and joined me for a relaxing morning.  I didn’t realize I traded all of my weed the day before and somehow ended up with some stuff in my backpack I don’t remember getting.  I had rice krispies, 2 hits of blotter, 2 bottles of tincture drops and an array of other other stuff.

   Today, I knew I had to find a solid stash of mushrooms to take home with me.  As if on cue, a guy walks through our campsite saying “mushies”.  My friend waved him down and I purchased an ounce of cubensis for $100.  I put them into me weed jar as it was empty.  Thankfully, my friends were well stocked and they smoked me out the rest of the weekend.  I ate one of the pieces of blotter around noon and began to munch on some mushrooms. 

   I’m not sure what it was, but I was handing out mushrooms like pieces of candy.  I gave some to the vendor who made my girlfriends lunch, a few more to a passer byer and a few to a volunteer person.  The volunteer had never tripped before and I wanted to give him his first mushrooms.  Ironically, this guy was getting married in a week, I said congrats and handed him who knows how many.  While handing him the mushies, a kind individual offered to blast me off for free on DMT.  It took me a few seconds to decline as I argued in my head.  I told him that’s very generous and said blast someone off who has never done it before.  This kid and I hit it off well as we chatted for a while about all things Barter Faire.  We told the volunteer to do a mushroom or acid trip first, as he had no clue what DMT was or does.  We said this out of not wanting to scare him the very first time, as I see DMT being the strongest hallucinogenic I have ever encountered. 

   I’m not exactly sure how many mushrooms I ate, I found myself eating them freely as we walked around the faire.  We then came to our friends campsite that had given me the caramel the day before.  He didn’t know I had mushrooms on me as he said he wished he had some.  I pulled out my jar and he immediately proceeded to make some tea.  3 of us drank it down and I, once again, went back to the drum circle.  Like instant replay, I got lost in the music and flame of the bonfire.  My gf made the mistake of drinking some wine, then eating mushrooms…then getting sick.  I was a little concerned this would twist her  into a bad trip.  Thankfully it didn’t, but made her extremely tired and I walked her back to the suv.  I was running on all 4’s still and headed back to the drum circle with a couple friends.  One didn’t last too long as he went back to the campsite to go to sleep.  So now it was just me and one of my best friends.  I somehow kept volunteering myself to keep the fire going.  Every time it died down, I’d grab a person from the circle and ask their help in grabbing some more logs to throw on the fire.  I did this 4 or 5 times and the fire stayed strong as everyone stayed warm. 

   Watching people beat these drums was intoxicating…not to mention sounding extremely good when they all came together.  As I was bobbing my head, swaying my body, I look across the fire and see the same guy from the night before.  He was sitting with his head down, smiling, occasionally putting some kind of seed in his mouth.  He’d then throw one on the fire, close his eyes and look back down…I could see him smiling while doing this.  The drum circle began to dissipate and people started to thin out.  I knew if I didn’t seize this moment to speak with him, I would regret it.  I was completely oblivious to what my friend was doing.  He wanted to to come with him to talk to this girl he had been eyeing all night, of course one of the dancers.  I said sure and walked over with him as moral support and he started up a conversation.  As they were talking, I realized this shamanic person was sitting directly in front of me. 

   I wasn’t going to let this slip by, so I nervously knelt down and tapped him on the shoulder.  He looked me in the eye and I simply asked his name, told him mine and gave a light handgrab.  I told him I had noticed him the night before and wanted to introduce myself before the weekend was over and the opportunity was gone, he smiled.  I wasn’t sure how to ask him, so I openly blurt out, “are you a shaman?”  He was a little taken by this as he replied back , “am I a shaman?”  He said “yes, I am learning the shamanic path”.  I wasn’t sure what to say and thankfully he started talking to me…I really had no clue what to say next.  He asked if I was interested in the shamanic path.  I told him I had begun to truly understand what a shaman is and said “yes, I am”. “We need more as there are not enough” he said. He told me it’s a large amount of sacrifice and the hardest part was letting go of his ego.  I smiled and said “that seems to be everyone’s biggest problem”.  He smiled and we sat there staring at the fire listening to the few drummers still playing.  

   He got pulled away by an elderly person as I sat next to the girl he was sitting with.  I said “have a good night” to her and grabbed my friend to head back to the campsite.  I hopped in the suv, wrapped up in the blanket and layed down.  My gf was half awake and told her I had the honor of speaking with the shaman.  She woke up to that and I told her about our small conversation.  Thankfully, my gf understands the importance of this to me.

   I passed out at some point and for some reason, was the first one awake again.  We packed up early to beat crowd.  I again tried to explain how happy I was I got to talk with him…but again, they didn’t get it. 

   It was a great weekend and an even more amazing night as I look forward to again next year