The dream that sent me to the jungle
🌈 Written by Moni Rainbow Hawk 🌈
I have been called to share the dream that sent me deep into the jungles of Peru in 2023.
In the dream, I met the master teacher, Noya Rao, for the first time.🌳
This dream was the answer to a question that I was asking to the universe. 🌎✨🙏🏽
➡️ ➡️ ➡️ What is the educational path that I need to take that will help me be a better healer for my clients?
1. Should I continue my education with the Berkley Herbal Center to become a certified clinical herbalist or not?
2. Should I go to the Peruvian amazon to study plant medicine from the Shipibo-Konibo or not?
3. Should I study more massage & take a course in deep bodywork or not?
Each option felt in alignment and it was SO extremely difficult for me to decide on a path.
Naturally, I did what I always do and,
✨ asked for a dream that night. ✨
🐍 Here is my dream, on the night that I asked for it, on May 31st, 2023.
I was in Peru with Wexa Metsa (the Shipibo plant doctor I was considering traveling to study with in the jungle).
I was with a group of 12 or so people.
We stood outside his family home.
When we went inside the house, Wexa Metsa was telling people what plant they would diet with.
Everyone was assigned a plant but me because before he could assign me one, I asked him in Spanish if I could go into the jungle first and meet all of the plants to see which one wanted to work with me. 🌿
He said, "Sure, of course."
We were then instructed to get into a single file line and get on our hands and knees.
We had to crawl through a door that would take us into the jungle.
I was the last one in the line.
When it was my turn to go towards the door, I saw a huge beast blocking the door. 👹
The beast disappeared, but then a big silver snake appeared. 🐍
The snake lifted its body and looked at me right in the eyes.
😵 I freaked out! 😵💫
I turned around immediately and scrambled my way to a couch.
Wexa Metsa came over and tried to calm me down.
He told me the snake could feel my fear. 🐍
He said my fear was very palpable and the fear itself would kill me - not the snake.
He told me to try to relax.
I felt a strong voice screaming inside my chest, "How can I possibly relax?!?!"
I tried to relax, but was dissociating and leaving my body.
I closed my eyes and started to breathe.
The snake came on to my arm and began wrapping itself around me. 🐍
I did not know how to not have any fear. 😳
Suddenly, I calmed down and the snake became a puppy's tail tapping me on my arm. 🤭 🐶 🤭
The puppy began snuggling me and I was happy to snuggle it back.
I looked to Wexa Metsa and said, "I think I am ready to go to the jungle is that okay?"
He said yes. 🌳🐍🌿
I got on my hands and knees and crawled through the door.
On the other side, I was a little bit late to the meeting. ⏰
Everyone had already gotten their 🌿 master plant 🌿 that they were to work with on dieta.
I asked Wexa Metsa if I could still choose my own.
He said yes, and the two of us went for a walk through the jungle.
Wexa Metsa introduced me to a plant and showed me its big green leaves.
I said, "Not this one."
He showed me a different plant, and I said no again.
Then as we are walking, I looked up and to my left.
I saw these strange tendrils of light glowing up a brown surface...
It looked like a glowing mycelium network climbing up a tree.
The light had this captivating silver glow that put me in a trance.
I was amazed and enchanted.
🌳 The tree then spoke to me. 🌳
It said, "My name is Noya Rao." ✨🌳✨
I asked Wexa Metsa, "Is this Noya Rao?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, ✨"This is the one!" ✨
He agreed and I woke up.
✨ When I woke up from this dream, I was in awe of how precise and clear it was.
... I was also terrified. 😳
I have had a pretty big fear of snakes my whole life. ❗️🐍❗️
The message was clear but that didn't mean that it was easy to accept.
That morning I ended up googling Noya Rao to see if it was a real thing because I had never heard of Noya Rao before.
Through my google search I found that Noya Rao is in fact a tree found in the Peruvian amazon AND...✨🤯 IT GLOWS IN THE DARK! 🤯✨
Noya Rao, I learned that morning, is a highly respected master tree that the Shipibo-Konibo people diet!
🌈🌳 It is said that when you diet Noya Rao, the tree will assist you in finding your own personal light and true purpose in life. 🌈🌳
Noya Rao, also known as "flying medicine," is a tree that teaches you about your own "path of true light."
When dieted, it will also show the dietero their own deep shadows and fears in a very noticeable way.
Brining up the fears will teach the dietero how to navigate their emotions better and walk a path of true integrity.
🐍 I also googled to see if there was a snake associated with Noya Rao.🐍
I read that when you walk to visit the tree at night to see its glowing leaves on the ground, you should be careful because a poisonous snake lives on it.
One bite from this snake will kill you.
🐍 STRONG MEDICINE 🐍
🌈🙏🏽 Now, if you don't know what a dieta is, a dieta is essentially a very deep inward time where you are in absolute devotion to learning from your master tree or master plant. 🌿🌳
Dieting plants is an ancient healing technology that has been used by the Shipibo-Konibo and other tribal peoples for centuries.
The diet is a way for individuals to study the foundational codes of life itself.
During the dieta, one must refrain from things such as sex, socializing, stimulating foods, and salt.
Dieta is traditionally done in isolation under the care of a curandero(a).
Ayahuasca is a medicine deeply interwoven with many master plant dietas, but does not always have to be. In fact, Wexa Metsa's families will do extended 3 month to even year long dietas and Ayahuasca is not involved. It is all about learning from you master plant or master tree in dreamtime.
💤 😴 I learned from Wexa Metsa that dreamtime is the primary place where his family works with the plants. 🌿🌳
Often times during dieta you are detoxing so much that you become very weak and all you can do is sleep and dream deeply.
My actual time dreaming in the jungle was very profound and by far my favorite part of the dieta.
In dreamtime it was as if each spirit in the jungle knew how to communicate with me, reach me, and teach me in that space.
For example, the huge tarantula that lived on the roof of my tambo would visit my dream space and then, the next day, it would be inside when I woke up! 🕷🕸
(Tambo: a small hut in the forest where we live in isolation over the course of the dieta).
Also in the mornings, Wexa Metsa would visit us privately in our tambos to listen to our dreams.
When he listened to our dreams, he could see how well (or not well) we were connecting to our master plant or master tree. 🙏🏽
🌈✨ One of my big take aways from going to the jungle is how incredible the medicine of dreamtime is. 🌈✨
Recognizing that:
1. It is possible to be given a dream when you ask for it.
2. Plant's and tree's communicate in dreams.
MAJOR blessings.
✨ There is magic in the universe! ✨
Being contacted in this dream by Wexa Metsa, by the jungle, and by Noya Rao shows me that we are part of a highly intelligent web made up of human and more than human energies.
There is no doubt a profound interconnection between dreams, plants, and places in nature dreaming us into being all throughout our lives.
I offer great thanks to the jungle for dreaming me into being. It is there that I did some of the deepest work of my life.
I offer great thanks to the master tree, Noya Rao. Thank you for protecting me as I journeyed to learn from the shadows and the light.
🙏🏽 Thank you beloved reader for taking the time to remind yourself of the depths of magic that dreamtime gives us. 🙏🏽