Welcome Aura!
Glad to hear you're yet experimenting with your eating. I'd love to hear more about your time in Africa and living off the land!
Hi Thoth, Jessica
my experience in Africa has been a burning one. Not necessarily in a negative way as fire is a mystic tool; but surely was a deep and life changing one.
In Kabbalah (the science of conscious receiving) the continent is associated with the red color (blood), the planet Mars (fire), the left pillar (feminine aspect, the mother), the severity and might (that is fear in its own negative side and power, in its positive).
Well, this summarize what I have experienced while there..
I'd say, if one of you guys wants to "spiritually" and fisically cleanse, then Africa is a must-go.
Its land and its people are sharp, soil burns, life cycles are raw, bright and warm (passionate) as the sun rays, sweet and insidious like the moon and its shadows..
As a new day rises in the savannah, if you are an attentive listener, you can hear Africa's heart beating all around you: you can "touch" the oxygen triggering chemical reactions and burning inside animals and plants to keep the Flame of Life alive in the bodily temple of their soul : you can smell the fresh blood of prey animals nourishing the ground beneath, while the noises of a pride of lions devouring fleshes are like a religious mantra recited on the altar of Nature.
I went to Africa as a fruitarian. I was weak, spiritually and fisically. I went there, in the land of narrowness narrowed by my own beliefs.( the right place to start, now I would say.)
Because of them I did not fully enjoy nature, local tribes and culture, real wild foods. I starved myself, my body, my mind, unconsciously trying to starve my ego. But at that time, the fear, the pain and the suffering were so overwhelming I just could not see all that.
A spoilty, white, in my late twenties, supermarket and tecnocomfort addicted with NO survival skills at all in the middle of the eastern Africa savannah trying to live on fruits alone..
"Thanks" to the British settlers, some farmers (the converted evangelical ones) were given grafted mango seedlings and GM papayas. Because of the severe drought that was and is affecting those areas in the recent and present times, papayas plants did not yield much due to the short roots while well established mango trees were more abundant in fruits. I had a mango monodiet for a while until papayas became available again. Sometimes, I have been offered local sugar bananas and salty coconut water.
There was plenty of coconut palms over there but as a fruitarian sweet_and juicy_fruits only, I did not allow myself to "sin" eating a seed and eating the fat (oh my goodness"!)
I rarely ate avocados since I regarded them food for carnivorous beasts.
I wanted to live with a tribe but I chose to stay with an evangelical family because they were mostly vegetarian while the tribal people were into meat_eating a lot and I could not stand them killing and cooking meat all day..
Despite having been converted into christianity and "civilized" (westernized) several generations ago, the evangelical family still preserved its tribal heritage and (some) traditions, beliefs and tales which I really enjoyed.
I was not aware then my ego was slowly dying away together with my fisical body. This "death" was necessary to get rid of the selfish consumerist consciousness of mine.
I thought I was advancing on my spiritual path because have found a violence_free diet.
I think I can say I criticized people habits/thoughts/diets the most when I was a fruitarian.
I never been so egocentric as on a fruit diet. I spent most of my day trying to source ripe fruits, unable to share it with anybody for the fear of not having enough for my daily monomeals.
Africa slapped my face as a mother would do to her restlesses child and the sound of it - like a sudden thunder in a dark sky - scared me to death, flashing in front of me the weakness and faults of my unsustainable way of life and dangerous beliefs.
I spent many, long nights awake, in prayer, when I really believed I was going to die in an open shack, maybe killed by some wild buffalos roaming in the fields nearby or eaten by some ants or simply by that "mysterious" sickness that was afflicting my body since months, unable to walk or even stand up.
I also tried to dry and water fast, thinking I might give my body a chance to heal but could not go more than 1 or 2 days..
But, despite all of this, I found much love. Not in my 40kgs body, almost left to the bone, but into others, under the fat and into the hearts of "meat eaters" who cook foods, kill, and devour corpses..
I realized I was the one who couldnt and did not know how to give love to others. I was constantly surrounded by nature, freedom, love and abundance of good natural food, I just could not see it because blinded by my own beliefs. I discarded the locals experience and traditions because I believed human beings were originally fruitarian that degenerated into meat eaters after being exiled from the Garden of Eden. Despite my personal dislike for priests who preach and teach false religions based on erroneous understanding to remote tribal people, me, the fruitarian, when not very sick, used to preach strong and well fit africans how and why to eat a fruit diet, kind of converting them into the Fruit Gospel of Truth.
All this, highly disrespecting their willing to help, their knowledge, culture, intelligence and feelings.
I hated myself for having chosen to go to Africa to starve myself in such a miserable way.
My recovery phase was filled with hatred and fear not to be able to run or walk normally again.
But still, I could not see the whole picture.. I blamed Africa and its "3rd world fruits", not me and my unsustainable life, habits and dogmas.
Humbleness; this is what I lacked to assimilate the most while there, but unfortunately for a fruit gluttonous like me, it cannot be found in food and especially in man manipulated fruits seeds sold in supermarkets..
Africa is not a poor country; on the contrary, it is a very rich one that's why its treasures are well hidden and are found only by those regal souls (keter) who have the knowledge(chochmah) and wisdom (daath) where to look for. Only after that, they'll be able to get a full understanding (binah) by conquering its very true nature.
Topic: Aura (Read 16348 times)