I had known about this festival for a few years and always wanted to attend. It wasn't until a friend of mine Eric was like arn't you going to EGA. I was like what the rock is EGA?? I had put all my eggs in the one basket by hoping that Shine on would deliver some healing that i needed....sadly it pushed me more into oblivion. I needed something sweeter and nurturing to the soul.
I grabbed my gal pal Nat for an adventure to bush for the psychedelic festival. The environment was so beautiful and there was only 700 people there from parts of Australia and other parts of the world.
I was in my usual hyper festival mode and was bursting at the seems only to realise that i needed to chill out a bit. It was a more calmer vibe with less booze and drugs, no music (well only for two hours every night) and an intellectual crowd.
When i was telling people i was heading to this festival many people turned their nose up at it....What do you mean psychedlic? You mean illegal drugs? ooooh trippy! Yes people illegal drugs that have been used for thousands of years and are still used today......ummm what has the legal drug ever taught us??
I was actually surprised at how many people were having a joint or a beer. I expected and maybe wanted a timothy leary bandwagon of loons solving the worlds problems in rainbow colours. Instead i found not many people tripping but taking the plant life very seriously. There was scientific debates and keen beans on their lap tops frantacally typing away the latest facts from the speakers. It seemed like a pretty sober crowd that were really wanting to learn, grow and evolve.
I found the whole space so warm and comforting. Everyone really seemed to care about one another and the toilets were always clean! I have never seen this at a festival!! NEVER! They even had dunny men come and empty the loo's a couple of times a day....amazing!! Nat and i could smell the shit truck as we camped just near them....
Here is a little run down on our adventures
Day/Night 1 - We got lost on the way to the camp site. This is what we do best but i do believe the directions were not that clear. There is a few dirt roads around this Swanpool area....We roll in and see the amazing space. It is green and lush with a stream running through it.
We set up maybe one of the best tents i have even seen!! No poles needed and it just springs out of its bag and its ready! I was totally in love and could see many festivals and adventures in the future with this tent.....maybe i could steal it when Nat is asleep
We strolled around listening to lectures here and there on DMT, LSD and the effects of certain plants that are teachers of the universe.
The whole place was full of fantastic art, stalls and eating areas to chill out at. The space was large but it was not cluttered. I was actually looking forward to buying more stuff as i am usually trashed at the other festivals i go to and do not buy anything.....Alas there wasn't much to buy fashion wise. There was lots of books on sale, herbs and other bits and bobs.
This amazing space was created for visual artists to display their work. It was very grand, a visual sound delight.
We headed off to bed for an early night
Day 2
We thought we would start the day with some healing and yoga. We couldn't find the yoga so we hung around in the healing tent hoping for someone to touch us. To fill in time Nat and i swapped a massage, we told stories to people passing and offended an American with Nat's Colon irrigation...the word irrigation always paints a nice picture. I had an amazing Reki session that was a bit emotional and clensing.
We cruised around watching speakers teach keen beans how do cook this, distill this and then drink this. It was a great space to share knowlege but sometimes i found that it was a bit male dominated and scientifc. What about the beauty, connection to nature, the universe and spiritual side to hallucinogens. I really felt that is was getting a bit too text book and a little dry......Mono tones dribled through the microphone of scientific nature, EEG waves, molocules, dna.....i love all this stuff but i could also read it in a book. I wanted life experiences, what they had learnt, what was next and undiscovered mysteries! I finally got this with Margaret Cross. It was a beautiful circle discussion with no podium and microphone. She was very earthy and spoke from the heart. It was a workshop about the femine in sharmanism. It was so nice to see so many men attend the circle. She spoke about the connection to one another and to the planet. That we are the earths conciousness, she spoke about the importance of loving yourself. That it was not good enough to say the world is so beautiful and perfect and that we are a peace of shit! We are not seperate from nature and the animals but all a connected conciousness. One person brought up that the earth also thinks and feels, she can feel ugly too. That really made my mind open a new area, to think that our thoughts are linked to hers and we are all very much one. I knew this about us being one but to think that the earth is also part of our conciousness was interesting. It made my heart heavy to think that she "Gaia" would think that she is ugly and not perfect. I then thought how i think that of myself too. My mind and heart felt like it would nearly explode. The discussion were fantastic and some of the idea's of feminie and masculine were challenged. This was my favourite workshop for the weekend as there was a sense of unity and everyone felt free to express how they felt.
After that i felt ready for the Mexican Sweat lodge. Nat and i had to drink water non stop all day and finish eating four hours before the sweat lodge at 12am. I was excited and a bit nervous as my nose is always blocked and i seem to have a smokers cough, even thou i don't smoke. I had heard that 32 Volcanic rocks would reach 60 degree's. I was stressing myself out and thinking how much i hate the heat but then convinced myself that i had been in sauna's that hot before and that everything would be fine. 
11.30pm
We strolled down to the sweat lodge from our camp site. It was freezing and i was now looking forward to getting in that hut to warm up! We hung around the fire waiting for instructions to head to the tee pee and change into our birthday suit and sarong. It was so nice to be released of our clothes and wait to enter the dark hut where we could begin the ceromony.
We were blessed by Fernando our leader as we entered the"womb" hut and had to crawl into the dark space around to the right. I crawled around in the dark and finally hit Nat and the water bottle. We derobed and sat on the earth. We spoke about honoring the earth, fire, air and water.
The first round of rocks was a comfotable heat and i enjoyed the sweat pouring out of me. All you could see was the glowing rocks and hear the beating of the drum.
The second round of rocks came in with Eric whelding a shovel with a burning hot rock. He sings out "Grandmother coming!". I loved it, every time he bought a rock in he yelled out that saying. It made me feel at ease and i giggled a bit every time it bellowed out of him. The second round was hotter and when i held my legs my hands would slip off with all the sweat.
The third set of rocks came and the hut started to really heat up. I thought this might be the hottest and when fernando waved a fan infront of the coals a huge rush of hot air rushed around the space. I thought i would lie down for a bit and chill from the heat but i was constantly wanting to sit up to face the heat. In this process my sarong was totally soaked and it was not really protecting my behind. I was very much one with the earth!
The forth session of rocks came in "Grandmother coming!!" ooh Grandmother you are very hot! We sat there for the last session as the heat breathed apon us and i breathed through the heat. I was so proud that i had not whimped out and that i had handled the heat really well. My nose was perfect and my lungs were doing great. The only problem i had was the sweat dripping into my eyes and not having anything to wipe them. We then went through cool down before we grabbed our wet sarongs and threw them around our naked dusty bodies to crawl out into the world again. Fernando's beautiful wife was waiting near the door and welcomed us back into the world. The world was glowing and stars looked amazing. This is one of the amazing things about this place seeing clusters of stars that you never see in the city.
I totally embraced the outside world with nakedness and stood looking at the stars with my sarong drapped around my shoulders. A guy did come up to me and did begin to start talking to me oblivious that i was starkers and had been though an intense session. I tried to snob him as much as i could and move back to the stars. We remained hot for about and hour an a half. We lay on the ground looking up at the stars. There was some suss ones that would move around the sky.....UFO's i yelled out.....look now its over there....
Others really didnt have my excitement.....i was like how can no one here talk about aliens but its ok to talk to tree's?
We were all planning to jump in the river but we all got a bit cold. Except for one guy he jumped in the lake and then wished that he didn't. He came back looking sheepish and muttered....urr now i feel dirtier then before.....poor bugger....glad i didn't jump in!
That night i had the heavest sleep ever!
Day 3
I felt pretty buggered when i woke up....drained but full at the same time from the night before. This was our last day in this beautiful space. I felt sad that i had to leave this place, leave nature and go back to the man made city! I also couldn't believe that i had not touched any substance at all....wow!! sober judge...which was so worth it because i was naturally high the whole time! The people were beautiful, the kookaburra's laughed a lot and there was always plenty of yummy hugs going around. The day was full of workshops and lectures and we made our way over to learn more shaman goodness.
We went to see Peter Bowden who spoke about plant spirit medicine journey. He spoke of all the animals and we did a drumming meditation. I really enjoyed the crowd talking about times they had on different plants and what they learnt from their experience.
One lady spoke of taking SanPedro. She said that she was sitting near a river next next to some Eucalytus tree's in South America. She said they spoke to her and asked if there was any Eucalptus tree's in Australia. She and Peter spoke about that everything has a memory and ancestors - tree's, animals etc... She answered the tree's and said oh yes there is many big old beautiful Eucalytus tree's still in Australia. The tree's showed her that they were excited and happy to hear that there was more of them around. She began to feel sad that these tree's would of never heard the sound of the Kookaburra and with that thought the stream she sat beside made the sound of the Kookaburra. Apparently water spirits can mimic sounds.
I loved listening to this experience as it totally blew my mind but at the same time made a lot of sense. The feeling of being connected, family and it all being a very small world. I was glad we were in an environment where this type of conversation was taken on, not judged and totally embraced. A lot of other people piped up and also told similar experiences.
After that workshop we headed over to Peter to get a personal drumming healing session. It was a fantastic experience as the drum felt like it was beating through my whole body, even individual body parts like my heart and throat. He told me what the drum had told him and he was so spot on with everything.
This is Nat on the table getting a drum healing from Peter
This was our last experience before we had to pack up and head back to the big smoke. I was a bit sad that i could not hang around for Rak's "Be in it" which is when everyone takes a trip at midnight and goes on a journey together. It would of even been great to watch!! Next time i will be in it!
I can not believe that the next one is not till 2013!!
Hello 2012 is a pretty huge year you think it would be perfect for this festival??!
The drive home was nice and we pulled into a few hick towns only to be told we were not welcome and stared at by the locals......My red hair and Nats Magenta's hair didnt go down too well.....bleach blonde would of done the trick!~
Finally dinning at Seymour's KFC - fine dining! I orded a burger and Nat wanted the two piece feed only to hear that they were out of chicken....ummm its kentucky fried chicken.....chicken people...apparently someone forgot to order it! mmm such a beautiful weekend of grand experiences, fantastic healings and beautiful people!
Till next EGA!!!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
GINA XXX
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