The hues radiating from the horizon were pulsing as if the ocean was on fire and these were flames caught in a wind. The first stars began to appear behind me as I looked over my shoulder towards the stage on the small paddock next to the beach. People were dancing, and moving around, the music caught in the sound of the breaking waves brought into shore with the swell and tide. I looked out back towards the horizon, the LSD flowing through my blood now, my consciousness tweaking, elevating, and uplifted by the symbiosis of the natural world and this ritual, Flight to Light which had brought me into contact with ancient traditions (First Nations style sweat lodges) and offered up some of the best electronic dance and live music I had seen since The Gathering 1996/1997. Often when in an elevated state of consciousness the right brain takes over from the left, or if one can be so aware, there can be a parity between the two as both hemispheres work together. I can’t tell you which hemisphere coaxed the words that came out of my mouth, or how I knew what it was I was doing. I do know that it was effective.
I called to the star cluster from where I sat on that rock and made my intentions clear, I wanted to connect with Matariki. No sooner had the words left my mouth than there was a bright and powerful flash of white light in the echoing hues of the sky out over the Tasman Sea. From across what I believed then to be the furtherest reaches of deep space a pulse wave slammed into my body an INSTANT later. Looking back on this experience now, so many decades later, I know that this wave hit my etheric body, then slowed down and crept into my ‘denser’ physical body till I could the electrical tingling sensations pass over and within my body as if I was a pool of water that someone had dropped a stone into. The waves bounced off each other till they got smaller and smaller, til every cell, and my DNA had been encoded with this energy. My monkey mind went completely silent, I entertained no thoughts, I was completely present, embodied, riding these waves as they rose and fell in my bodily awareness. The feeling of expansion was enormous. I felt deeply rooted in a stillness that lifted my sense of self-identity out of label, name, and human existence, and into a feeling of connection to everything. The rocks beneath my bones, the ocean below me, and the dying light were alive, witnessing my presence. What was imbued in me was everywhere. Everything was conscious, holding space for me to feel their awareness touch mine so that I could be connected to existence in a way that aligned me with a sense of respect and acceptance of life being ubiquitous. Prime Creator is in all creation.
My ego death sharpened my senses and allowed my true essential self, that is a sliver of Prime Creator’s awareness animating my avatar to shine through me. My clothes felt cumbersome, heavy, and hot so I went to my friend’s vehicle where I was sleeping and took them off, walking naked over to the stage area to dance with my friends and fellow revellers. People began to approach me, none surprised to see another naked body on the dance floor as they wanted to talk to me about my experience at the festival, share a hug, or tell me that I was glowing under the stars. Man, it was wild for the first few hours. There were no hallucinatory moments, the acid seemed to have faded into the background of my awareness, and the exultations that oscillated in my body superseded any feelings of tripping. Hours of dancing later, I went to find Ratu and ask him what he knew. Why did he say that it was time for Matariki and me to connect? What did he know? I felt out into the night and picked up on his energy across the other side of the river where there was a campfire and someone camped out. I walked over the bridge and down along the river, now dressed. The heat that had been with me dissipating as the night went on, but the calmness and deep sense of grounded connection strong in my being.
Ratu introduced me to a young man named Patrick who had hitched down the coast and was camping on the riverside for the night. Patrick said little or nothing to me, just smiled as he handed me a tea when I sat by the fire with him and Ratu. We sat there in silence for some moments, my desire to ask him How? Why? Losing its impetus to my inquisitive mind. I didn’t need to know, for he did know, and I felt great comfort in this. My respect for the man and his spiritual prowess is forever lodged in the silence we all shared as we watched the festival kick on. From where I sat I felt pulses of love and acceptance, peace and harmony radiating from my inner being, out through my muscles, bone, and skin as if I was a tuning fork constantly being struck over and over again, my bare feet grounding the energy into the land around us. When the feeling began to wane, I thanked Patrick and Ratu and headed back to my friend’s van, climbed inside, and drifted off into restful slumber. I awoke early the next morning to find Patrick had left (before the sandflies arrived no doubt) and Ratu asleep in the sweat lodge. My heart was filled with a sense of wonder and bewilderment, and my association with the Pleiades star cluster was deeply rooted in my very DNA.
