Two thousand years ago, a great shamanic teacher taught the masses about the power of forgiveness, but few at the time understood what he was saying. This was his way of talking about detachment, about getting to neutral, about clearing all the debt and baggage that kept us stuck in tired out patterns. Through example, he reminded people that they were forgiven of their “sins”, the times when they had missed the mark in their aims and endeavors. In so many words, he was saying, “get out of guilt, get out of endlessly punishing yourselves, get out of your self-destructive patterns”. By the same token. “forgive your enemies and forgive the debts that are owed you”. He knew that too much debt restricts growth and that debt must be forgiven to reset the game of life. He was a trained shaman and knew what was important on the shamanic path.

In early March 2012 I traveled to Real de Catorce, a tourist mining town in Central Mexico, arriving with a group of my shamanic students to do some ceremonial work in this high desert region. I have been going to Real for the last twenty five years and this was our annual pilgrimage lasting for several days. The town lies close to Mount Quemado, most sacred pilgrimage destination of the Huichol people, in the news recently because of a huge protest over an effort to mine the mountain by a Canadian mining company. Fortunately the protest was successful and the Mexican government issued a stay to all operations on Quemado.

After performing our ceremonies and prayers we always visit the Church of Guadalupe, a church that lies just outside the village, built in sixteen hundred by the Franciscans with indigenous labor. Although there is a large Catholic Cathedral in the center of town, I like to visit the little church because it was built by and for the indigenous people and therefore has unique qualities. It is situated with a view of Mount Quemado and is surrounded by a colorful and quite beautiful cemetery. Rather than Jesus hanging on the cross over the altar characteristic of most churches in Mexico, this church has a big picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe over the altar instead. Clearly it is a church dedicated to the feminine face of spirit rather than the masculine.

People often confuse envy and jealousy. Envy is wanting what someone has and jealousy is wanting to possess someone all to yourself. With jealousy there is a feeling of ownership over the other person accompanied by a feeling or desire that they not show someone else attention, love, or affection. The jealous person feels that the object of their desire should show that attention, etc. only to them. If they think it is going elsewhere they feel enraged or overwhelmingly upset to the point where they feel they have to interfere or interrupt the activity. They may also accuse their love interest and try to punish them in a variety of ways, haranguing them, beating them, or giving them the cold silent treatment. In truly severe cases the jealous person may be imagining everything. In other cases their partner is in reality showing attention to others and may even be trying to make their partner jealous. Whatever the case, jealousy comes from a feeling of being deprived and a feeling of being overlooked or put down in favor of someone else. In other words jealousy indicates deep insecurity, lack of trust, and lowered self-esteem. Jealousy is a product of the dragon of self-deprecation, the fear of not being worthwhile.

In our last article we wrote at length about the collective dream that has enveloped the planet and how that dream in many ways has become a nightmare for people everywhere. We talked about how the collective dream functions like a forest fire sucking up everything in its path to feed itself and continue on its relentless path.