I would like to offer you all a warm greeting from Blue Morpho. This newsletter is designed to reflect themes of interest of the reader, so I am asking for feedback on any topics that you would like to see addressed in the following months. Amazonian Shamanism is an ample topic with many facets that we can develop through this medium to open our understanding of this ancient system of spiritualism.

First of all I want to thank all of our guests that came to our new camp this year 2006 and the guests from the first half of 2007. Thank You from our entire staff and shamanism team! Shamanism is something we practice together and the opportunity to form groups and share the wisdom and medicine in and out of formal ceremony is continuous blessing.

Don Julio Llerena Pinedo: Master Shaman (Medico Vegetalista, Palero, Ayahuasquero, and Maestro de la Ciencia Magica) and medicinal plant expert has recently passed away at the age of 89, but before passing pledged his alliance to the lineage and mesa. Don Alberto received the inheritance of Julio's medicine and guides in accordance to a 35 year pact of medicine between the two and his spirit is still present and supporting in ceremony. Don Julio apprenticed directly under the tutelage of the Doctor Spirits (Genios of the medicinal plants) of the Jungle during isolated diets in the highlands outside of Pucallpa. In his collective experience he has over 1,500 ayahuasca ceremonies and has healed thousands of patients from the Peruvian Amazonian regions and worldwide.  Julio is still with us in Spirit. Our medicine pacts live strong even if he has left his body behind. It was a blessing to work with one of the world’s true masters and receive his teaching and guidance. He will forever be held in our hearts and thoughts as our Spirits continue to work together.

2006 was an amazing year. 2007 is proving to be even more amazing.  The apprentices and I went to Cusco in late January to teach them about Inkan meditative and invocative shamanism. This practice uses different elemental energies to ground and commune with nature spirits or through astral realms using the stones as dimensional gateways. The trip was very successful taking the apprentices each to new levels.

In early February we completed the Lake House, a meditation/yoga/arts and crafts center overlooking the swimming pond. It is beautiful and peaceful sitting on top of a small hill allowing for views of colorful sunsets. Many guests have already found it a wonderful place to relax, pursue inner processes, and express creativity.

After four years of continuous groups, building, moving, ceremonies and apprenticeships, Blue Morpho decided to take a long needed and deserved break. From March through the first half of May Blue Morpho rested. We started the break with a special diet and then continued as we traveled to different places. I went to the USA to visit family and then to Thailand, Cambodia, Egypt and Jordan to explore other spiritual practices and sacred sites. The travels proved very important as I came to an even deeper commitment to Amazonian Shamanism and returned with renewed vigor and tremendous love for the jungle, its plants, trees and medicine. Don Alberto went home to Jenaro Herrera to be with family and work on his farm. Daniel, an apprentice, went to India and practiced Yoga and Sanskrit mantra. Mimi, an apprentice, went to London to be with family.

We are back holding groups and the ceremonies have elevated to a new level of medicine, light and clarity. This last group, concluded just a few days ago, experienced many healings including the transcendence of depression, addiction and the finding of the heart and the focus of the mind. Every guest grew spiritually and moved into deeper communion with light and love. It was awesome to experience the clarity and wisdom of the medicine once again transforming lives. The ceremonies continue to not only change the lives of our guests but our lives as well, creating deeper communion with the medicine spirits, the infinite, light and love.

We have agreed to participate in a documentary about our work with ayahuasca and our lives as shamans. We had been receiving many offers from different companies and finally elected Keith Arnowitz, an independent film maker and previous guest. He came on his first trip in mid 06 to grow and transform. After experiencing the magnitude and tremendous healing power of ayahuasca shamanism, he decided that he would like to document our work. He comes from a place of integrity. He wants to present our practice of ayahuasca shamanism in the purest light without secondary motives. The spirits and I agreed to the project to illuminate how ayahuasca works and to straighten out confusions that the Western world holds about ayahuasca and its uses, practices and healing capacities.

I Ask For Your Help:  We are updating our web page including the pictures. We want to be able to show the beauty of the camp and the groups as they are today. We are sensitive that previous guests may not want to appear on the webpage so I am asking you to send us a short e mail if you are in agreement to appear and any pictures that you think would be nice for the web page.

SPECIAL NOTE:  The Peruvian Government is beginning the initial steps to legislate and control the native shamanic practices and traditional medicine in Peru, especially the use of medicinal plants. Shamans from all over Peru, natives, mestizos, and foreigners alike are coming together to form associations to lobby the government seeking fair treatment, the right to practice traditional medicine and shamanism. If we do not convince the government of our sincerity and responsibility the practice of shamanism could be outlawed soon. WE ARE ASKING FOR EVERYONE’S SUPPORT that has felt they have benefited from our work.

We are asking that everyone write us an email that we can present to the Peruvian Government. Please make the subject of the e mail, Peruvian Government

We would like the e mail to include:

1. Your reason for coming to Peru
2. When you visited Blue Morpho
3. A description of your experience at Blue Morpho
4. A description of us including shamans, apprentices, and staff
5. An estimation of the amount of money you spent in total on your trip to Peru
6. If you would like to come back
7. How many people you have told about your experience recommending Blue Morpho or travel in Peru

I know that many of you are busy in your daily lives, but we really need the support of all of our guests to be able to stand a chance with the government. This will not only help us but will preserve the culture of shamanism in Peru. WE NEED YOUR HELP.

I wanted to personally thank everyone who wrote us letters for the government after our last Newsletter. We are collecting them and will present them to the government when our turn to lobby arrives. They will be needed and very influential in the direction of the legislation to come.

We now look to the future for our continued success.  We give thanks for all the wonderful change that has come and welcome the change that the future will bring. We come together to aid others from our own connection to Spirit and open the space for others to grow in theirs. Together we experience the transformation from the invisibility of spirit to its pure manifestation. Let us continue, together, to breathe life into these ancient studies and maintain the shamanism cultures still living in the hearts of the locals and us.