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