A few years ago, Elizabeth Gilbert became a sensation with her book, Eat Pray Love, in which she gorged herself on pasta in Italy, dipped a toe into the spiritual waters of an ashram in India and found love in Indonesia.

In a similar vein, Dana Micucci shares the gifts of her soul-searching adventures as she travels to seven ancient, sacred sites in her new book, Sojourns of the Soul: One Woman’s Journey around the World and into Her Truth, published by Quest Books.

However, Dana delves much deeper into the rituals and customs of seven of the world’s most ancient and sacred cultures as she encounters Anaconda snakes, Caymen crocodiles, poison-spiked trees, and hostile governments, while pursuing a multitude of fascinating mystical experiences that lead her to a great personal awakening.

Dana explored these seven sites over a 14-year period, traveling as a journalist on assignment writing about the art and customs of each ancient culture. But the lessons Dana culled at a soul level from each of her personal encounters were more meaningful and intriguing to her than the content of her magazine articles. When her insights and stories demanded to be written as a book, Dana complied.

In Sojourns for the Soul, Dana shares the fascinating details of her outer journey and the equally rewarding insights and lessons she learns as she embarks on her empowering and amazing adventures.

Dana’s journeys took her to the Australian Outback, the pyramids of Machu Picchu, the tombs of Egypt, the heart of Tibet and more. She came to realize that each of the seven sacred sites she explored held a deeper personal meaning than one might imagine — each correlated with one of the seven chakras in her body. As she moved from sacred site to sacred site, she realized that each chakra was, in turn, being activated in a new way.

Randy Peyser: What prompted you to begin traveling?

Dana Micucci: I have always been a seeker. Early on, I decided to become a journalist. I had reckless ambition and a high tolerance for risk. I knew that I had to explore the world and to be as free as possible. Therefore, I decided that I didn’t need to be confined to my apartment in order to write when I could be out experiencing the world.

Randy: Where did your first sacred journey take you?

Dana: I had been commissioned to write an article about Aboriginal art, so I went to investigate the ancient rock art paintings throughout the Australian Outback.

Randy: What did you discover in Australia?

Dana: The Australian Outback took me into the root chakra where I learned how to experience a deep connection with Mother Earth. The Aborigines are the oldest continual living culture on earth. They are connected to the Spirit world, to the dreamtime myths and legends, and they have highly-sensitive energy bodies, which have become very well-honed because they live so close to the earth.

The Aborigines believe that during their dreamtime, their ancestors sang the world into existence. They know the land very intimately, and can travel what they call, “song lines,” or what we might call, “lei lines.” These are the energetic, electro-magnetic fields of their landscape. They can travel without a map, compass, or GPS system just because they are so finely attuned to these earth energies.

They also sing their paintings into existence. Their art is rustic and primitive looking, yet imbued with spiritual power because the artists go into trancelike states when they are creating their art; they connect with the earth and with all of her sacred creatures.

Randy: Was there anything that surprised you about their culture?
 
Dana: The Aboriginal people don’t have a word for “time.” Time is not linear to them. That’s why there are concentric circles in their paintings. After just a few days in the Outback, my watch broke. I took this as a message that while I was there, I would be outside of time.

Randy: How did it feel to be there?

Dana: The Australian landscape felt timeless and serene to me, and at the same time, it felt fluid and dynamic. I felt incredibly connected to the natural world in my body in a way that I never had before. I was awakened to my own divine essence and my own infinite connection with Mother Earth, nature, all creatures, and the cosmos.
 
Randy: What did you learn from the Aboriginal people?

Dana: I learned that we can go on shamanic journeys and vision quests and go floating out there and connect with the cosmos, but we need to bring those frequencies down through our bodies and root them into the earth. We are conduits and pillars. We are vessels connecting heaven and earth. Our mission is to create heaven on earth, so we need our bodies. We can’t be spacing out and leaving our bodies to be spiritual.

Randy: Where did you go next?

Dana: I went to Angkor Wat, Cambodia. That’s where I explored grief and despair, which are some of the emotions associated with the second chakra. This was a difficult journey, yet it was exhilarating. At the time, Angkor Wat was a dangerous place to travel. Landmines were still active, and when I arrived, some British anti-mine personnel had just been kidnapped.

Randy: What did you discover there?

Dana: I was continually confronted with my own shadow. Our country had bombed the heck out of Vietnam during the war, and here I was, a privileged journalist traveling through that region. I felt guilty. I also felt anxiety, fear and anger, as I talked with some Cambodian students who had lost their families at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

I asked these two beautiful girls in their twenties how they felt about all of this, particularly about the role of the Americans coming in and what had happened. I was amazed when they said, “What’s done is done. We love the Americans. It’s time to move on.” These girls felt incredible hope for the future in spite of the trauma they’d gone through. They appeared to be in a state of forgiveness and acceptance.

Randy: What were the lessons in that for you?

Dana: These were lessons in surrendering my own anger, doubt, fears and my shadow, and to realize that in this world of duality, both the light and the dark exist. We need to move beyond this into the state of oneness, into the heart, into the place where the duality is dissolved. When we can turn off our worry, anxiety, depression, fears, judgments, and all that constant chatter, we can step into the eternal Now and the synchronicities can flow.

Randy: Throughout all your seven journeys, were there any common themes?

Dana: Yes. The theme that linked all of my journeys together was that of transformation. It’s the transformation of the self at the deepest level. All of my previous perceptions and limiting beliefs were challenged and anything that kept me from stepping into my true divine essence and power was blown away.

Randy: When did you actually start writing your book?

Dana: I began writing the book after my Peruvian journey during my adventure with the sacred plant, Ayahuasca. In one my sessions with this sacred plant, I heard the words, “Get it down.” I felt a sense of urgency to get these wisdom teachings out there, to share them with people.

Randy: How did that particular adventure unfold?  

Dana: I was in the Amazon with the Peruvian shamans. I was with a very experienced teacher in a sacred ceremonial space. I had never taken any drugs, but I knew that the shamans used sacred plant medicines, like Ayahuasca to amplify their psychic and healing powers and to open to other dimensions.

Ayahuasca is the mother of all plant medicines. In fact, it is often called “Mother Ayahuasca.” It has similar chemical properties to LSD in that it can blow your consciousness into higher states. However, in addition to its spiritual appeal, it also wreaks havoc on the body and leads to excessive vomiting and a loss of coordination. It can also cause death if the dose is improper or if a person is not in good physical condition.

When I took it, I was nauseous and started seeing visions. Jungle creatures and the faces of people I knew came to me. Then much to my dismay, pieces of furniture came to me. I told my guide I was disappointed. He told me that shamans spend a lifetime engaging with this sacred plant medicine, and he encouraged me to speak to her, and to get to know her and the spirit of the plant. He told me that I had to merge with her.

The next time I had the opportunity to try Ayahuasca, I asked her to be gentle with me, and she delivered. This was an extremely beautiful experience. The physical symptoms weren’t as bad this time and they subsided quickly.

At one point, I saw a crystal goblet pouring golden light liquid into my crown chakra. In this liquid were the faces and bodies of people I knew. When they were altogether in this liquid, I said to myself: “This doesn’t make sense. Why do they have separate bodies? Why should they be separate?” Then I heard a voice saying, “We are all one.”

We’ve all heard that phrase before, but I really got it. I felt like I was floating in the cosmos. What we think of as outer space was happening inside me at a point of light. This was a huge expansion of consciousness for me, and I experienced a deep cellular understanding of unity consciousness. That’s what the gift was for me from Mother Ayahuasca. That was my 7th chakra experience where we access the spiritual knowledge.

Then I had a final gift where a jaguar appeared to me in a vision. She was a formidable beast and I asked her why she had come to me. She said, “Don’t be afraid of your power.”

That is a message for all of us. Not one of us should be afraid of our power but we are at times.

Randy: I am curious about what adventure connected you to your heart chakra?

Dana: That was Tibet, which reflects the heart chakra of love and compassion. There is such oppression there. Of over 6,000 monasteries, only six remain. Most monks have left Tibet for asylum in Dharamsala in Northern India with the Dalai Lama or they are imprisoned.

They continue to be arrested, imprisoned and tortured while calling for Tibet’s independence. There are surveillance cameras everywhere, including the monasteries, all to ensure that no one speaks the name of the Dalai Lama, or even carries a photograph of him. He is Public Enemy #1.

Even as their culture is being exterminated, the Tibetans demonstrated such faith and hope. I saw Tibetans twirling their prayer wheels, which are filled with prayers on rolled up parchment papers. They’re not only praying for themselves; they’re praying for the world. That’s what prayer flags do when they’re blown by the wind — they scatter mantras of peace, love, wisdom and compassion throughout the world.

The Dalai Lama believes that anger is never justified. The Tibetan Buddhists say that anger arises from a misguided perception of separation. When I am challenged in my daily life, all I have to do is travel back there and see the Tibetans in their incredible demonstration of faith and hope. Then it inspires me to ask myself, “How is this conspiring on my behalf?”

Randy: These are amazing stories. Please share another.

Dana: I participated in a very powerful ritual on my journey to Mayan land. This is where I learned about the true knowledge of myself as being a spark of the divine, knowing that I am divine, and that we are all God.

This ritual was led by Hunbatz Men, a Mayan elder, and it related to the phrase, “In Lak’ech, A Lak’en,” which means, “I am you and you are me.” In other words, there is no separation.

For this ritual, there were twenty of us gathered in a circle. Each person had to turn to the person next to them, one at a time as the rest of the circle looked on. We had to say to that person, “In Lak’ech.” And the other person would look back into our eyes and say, “A Lak’en.” That person would turn to the person on the other side of them and repeat this process.

One by one, we repeated these words for about an hour, going round and round the circle. By the end of that ritual, we were all weeping as we recognized the divinity in each other. That’s what “Namaste” means; “I bow to the divinity in you.”  

Hunbatz Men, being the great teacher that he is, had his pouch of sacred stones and copal. He would shake his fist at us as we were exploring the energy around the sacred pyramids and say, “People, do your work.” By that he meant that the discipline in our work is something we all must do if we desire to raise our consciousness to continue our spiritual evolution. The Maya knew this. They believed that they could become gods if they raised their vibration.

When they believe they can become gods, they believe they can become “Kukulcan,” which is the Feathered Serpent god, equating with the earth energy. The feathers equate with a bird, which represents heaven. The Feathered Serpent unites heaven and earth within itself. They believe that through their diligence, devotion and spiritual practices, and work, they could become Kukulcan, the divine being we already are. We have to remember. It is a process of stripping away what we’ve forgotten.

Randy: Since you’ve studied with a Mayan elder, what are your thoughts about 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar?

Dana: 2012 is not about the end of the earth or about death and destruction; it is the end of life as we know it, as we all move collectively into a higher consciousness — hopefully, with a more peaceful, just and unified existence on this planet. My belief is that we can create heaven on earth. We all play a part in this in our own way.

Many people are being challenged to accept their gifts and step up to the plate. We’re all mystics, magicians, lovers and ambassadors of life. We can all make a big difference. Every day brings us a remembrance of our divinity — the eternal presence in all beings — and to our eternal connection to each other. We are all on an infinite journey toward wholeness.

For more information about Dana Micucci’s book and workshops, visit www.DanaMicucci.com

Randy Peyser is the author of “Crappy to Happy” as seen in the movie, “Eat Pray Love, www.CrappyToHappy.com  She also helps people find publishers for their books. www.AuthorOneStop.com