Summer Solstice: How to Remove Magic Poison Darts

In the Amazon jungle, sorcerers are hired to shoot invisible poison darts at people that lodge in them, fester, and make them sick. The darts are called virotes (vee-RO-tayz). They are typically a form of envidia, which translates as "envy" but it’s a catch-all term for "wishing ill on someone," or wanting to "bring them down." One of the most common healings is for the shaman to remove virotes. Shame is our version of virotes.

Shame becomes the high, cement wall built around the small garden of conditional love. Racism, consumerism, willful ignorance – these take place in this self-created garden. Shame is designed to shrink our inner life, douse our inner fire, and shrink people’s love of life. When it is successful, people become less connected to the Great Spirit, less powerful in their personal life, and are more easily manipulated. I tell you: The creator of everything from black holes to the black puma, from the petunia to the possum, is not interested in you living in that small garden.

As we approach the summer solstice, we are in the center of the south on the Celtic medicine wheel. One power of the south is ebullient, delightful, unconditional love, for everything – life, the body, others, and ourselves. That love-power can help remove virotes.

Here’s a self-healing you can do: Stand under the bright sun, muse on its unconditional love for everything on earth. Then ask the sun to remove the virotes in you. (Virotes are a source of energetic "cold," so the sun is a good healer for this.) Don’t forget to turn around and ask the sun to work on your back, pulling out and burning away these cold intrusions. I find many virotes in people’s backs.

Then choose someone you are angry with, or that you despise, and ask Spirit to remove any virotes in them that It will. Or a more general prayer you can make on their behalf: "Spirit, help them find their way out of any small garden of shame." (Give this job over to Spirit as a prayer and a blessing, please don’t try removing people’s virotes yourself without solid training.)

Unconditional love takes practice, it’s not just a belief or catchphrase. The more you practice it, the more natural it becomes for you. Here is a good short phrase you can use as a prayer or mantra. Look out at the world – the whole world – and say: "All is holy, as am I; All is blessed, as am I; All is loved by God/Spirit/Creator, as am I." (Reference: Paul Selig). This simple phrase can carry a lot of power.

During these solstice days, may you stroll with sunny ebullience in the garden of unconditional love.