Justin Levy

AyahuascaKundaliniShadow WorkPlant Medicine / Psychedelic Integration

Nov 23

Like most people, I grew up with a lot of trauma. My parents were divorced. My dad was loving but checked out, and my mom was a bipolar, alcoholic fundamentalist Christian. Luckily for me, my dad took me to see a real guru when I was a kid, and that meeting with Swami Muktananda put me on a path that would change my life.

Muktananda was a transmitter of the kundalini energy. Meeting him opened up the kundalini energy inside of me, a powerful force that poured lighter fluid on the chaos of my teenage years and led me into a profound dark night of the soul. Thankfully, at the age of 18 I reconnected with Swami Mukltananda’s ashram and found a guiding force in the spiritual tradition known as Kashmir Shaivism.

That wasn’t enough though. As beautiful as that world was, there were a lot of hidden agendas playing out there (what I would later know as the shadow), and people there were unwilling to acknowledge these forces so I left. But the Goddess kundalini was still alive in me and she soon led me to my next teacher.

In 2002 I met a teacher (Mestre Almiro), a master of the martial art of capoeira. Mestre Almiro had an incredibly disciplined and ferocious method of teaching.

He demanded a high degree of respect for the tradition and would rather kick someone out of the class who didn’t have integrity than keep them in and take their money. Although it rubbed many people the wrong way, his attitude was just what I needed and gave me a fantastic place to deepen my connection to my body and spirit. It took a decade of my apprenticeship with him in order for him to let me go to Brazil and experience his spiritual tradition (called candomblé) that is deeply interwoven with capoeira.

In 2008 I met my third primary teacher, a medium and healer who was an Ayahuascero. He was another strict teacher who provided a great container to deepen my relationships with Ayahuasca, mediumship and kundalini. Unfortunately, he also had a shadow side (like we all do) but was unwilling to explore or even acknowledge it.

My medicine comes from my many years of immersion into these traditions, and the relationships with the spirits I’ve built over the years. It is also deeply rooted in the understanding that our shadow sides are not to be feared, but to be loved and integrated into the whole of our lived experience.