Last year, I became highly interested in my ancestral roots, and it’s been incredibly healing to finally deepen my connection with my native culture. Mexico City had been on my list of places to travel for a while, and as I was considering places to visit for my birthday this year, I decided to take advantage of the fact that CDMX is only a three-hour flight and fairly inexpensive compared to Europe and my other desired destinations. When I travel, I always have an intention for my trips, and my intention for this one was remembrance, reconnection, and ancestral reunion.

As I was planning my trip, I was seeking some kind of spiritual or shamanic healing experience. Since my intention was to connect spiritually with my ancestors and the land, what better way to do this than to participate in an Indigenous ritual? I eventually came across temazcals—a pre-Hispanic sweat lodge ceremony intended for spiritual purification and rebirth.

After searching for the best temazcal experience I could find in Mexico City, I found Huitzi and Maria and their Zapotec temazcal ceremony. Huitzi was born in a small town in Oaxaca and comes from a bloodline of naturally gifted healers. He trained Maria, who now coordinates and translates the ceremony alongside him.

Arriving to the Ceremony

When we arrived, we walked through a gate to find an eco-sanctuary on the other side. This land was part of a nature preserve in the middle of Mexico City and truly felt like a portal into another world. This sanctuary was a co-op called Ectagono which is made up of different projects that each had a mission to protect nature and wildlife. I don’t think I can explain it in words, but the land itself had an energetic feeling of being very sacred. This is where Huitzi and Maria perform their temazcal ceremonies.

Pre-Ceremony Activities

We were each given a cup of cacao to activate our senses and open our hearts. Our guides then invited us into the medicinal garden to gather pieces of plants that we were called to; these would later be taken into the temazcal with us.

Before entering the temazcal, our shaman, Huitzi, taught us about the ceremony and the beliefs of the Zapotec people. Like many of the Indigenous groups in the Americas, they had an Earth-based spirituality, honoring the spirit that lives in every living thing and the lessons they teach us. For example, the serpent is an animal that cannot move backwards and can only move forward. We, like the serpent, also cannot go back and change the past. We can only control what we do now to move forward in our lives.

As Huitzi was speaking of our ancestors and our connection with nature, I became overwhelmed with emotion and started crying. I think part of it was because everything he was saying was so beautiful and I deeply resonated with it. But another part of me felt reconnected to a piece of myself that had been lost—and we weren’t even in the temazcal yet.

We then stood in a circle as Huitzi called upon the four directions while blowing a conch shell, a common practice in shamanic ceremonies. And before I knew it, I was crawling into the womb of the Earth.

Inside the Temazcal

We sat inside while Huitzi brought in steaming hot stones we called abuelas, thanking them for the wisdom they were about to share with us. Once the entrance was sealed, we embraced the heat, inviting it to bring up whatever needed to be healed and released as we sweat. Inside, as Huitzi chanted and played music, I found myself involuntarily swaying from side to side as if the energy in my body was being activated. It felt as if my ego was no longer in control, and I had returned to a primal version of myself. My consciousness had traveled back hundreds of years in time.

The longer we endured the heat, the more intense the emotions got. Looking back now, I realize that Huitzi’s chants and drumming sent me into somewhat of a trance. I became less focused on the physical sensations and more open to the spiritual experience and psychological journey my mind was on.

At one point, Huitzi—who by this time had been completely taken over by the spirit of a jaguar—went around to each of us, speaking to our souls, reminding us of our truth and what we are meant to do in this life. As he came to me, he placed one hand on my head, the other on my heart, and said that I had the ability to read the stars and speak to the trees, emphasizing that I have a deep understanding of the sacred nature of our universe. He obviously had no idea that I study astrology and spirituality, and this absolutely broke me.

Later in the ceremony, Huitzi turned up the heat again, invoking even more emotions. We were instructed to take the plants we chose from the garden into our hands and put our intention into them—what did we need their help with? When we were ready, we placed them onto the hot stones, which created a medicinal steam unique to all of us, which we all inhaled.

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any hotter, Huitzi increased the heat to the point that pushed our mental and physical limits. My body became restless, and I wanted to leave. All I could do at this point was pray and quietly talk to my ancestors because in that moment, I felt them with me. I asked for their strength and thanked them for everything they had endured and for the life that I am able to live. Lying on the floor now, I repeated over and over, “ya no quiero tener miedo”—“I don’t want to be scared anymore.” After a few minutes, I heard them say, “No tengas miedo, no va a pasar nada, estamos aquí contigo”—”Don’t be scared, nothing is going to happen, we are here with you.” A sense of calm came over me, and I was the first one to emerge from the Earth’s womb—reborn and free.

Huitzi was waiting outside and ensuring I was okay, gave me a hug, and told me “todo va a cambiar”—“everything is going to change.” Still crying, I walked over to the outdoor shower, which poured cold water over me—one final cleanse of the energies I had released. Again, I could hear the voices of my ancestors ensuring they were with me. I was given a cup of tea, and with shaky limbs I made my way to the medicinal garden to sit and be with the plant spirits.

There was no separation between myself and the nature around me. As I sat there for a moment, still in a semi-state of altered consciousness and with tears in my eyes, I noticed a figurine of a warrior woman holding a bow and arrow right in front of me. I smiled because I knew it was a sign of the energy I was being told to embrace.

Embodying the Warrior

A big part of my journey has been learning to be okay with being “different.” I’ve only recently been comfortable talking about my passion for astrology and spiritual healing, and there’s still a part of me deep down that fears being an outcast. This fear isn’t even a rational one, given the fact that my friends and family all support me and know exactly who I am, but there’s a deep wound my soul carries from my early life, and most likely past lives, that doesn’t feel safe expressing my truth. Huitzi saw this wound during the ceremony and reminded me that in order to move forward and make my dreams come true, I need to embrace my authenticity and love myself more than anything, and everything else will fall into harmony.

From an astrological perspective, Saturn moved into Aries this past weekend, initiating the era of my Saturn Return—a two-to-three-year period that each of us endures around 30, 60, and 90 years old. It’s a time when we may be challenged to be disciplined, mature, and committed. With Saturn in Aries, my karmic lesson is to embody the warrior, the pioneer, and to take action rather than overthinking the process. I am a sensitive and quiet person, and I like to let others take the lead while I stay in the background, so the Aries archetype does not come naturally to me. I now know this is why I was called to do this ceremony.

Towards the end of the ceremony, even though I was ready to leave the temazcal, I was waiting for someone else to go first. I felt the push from my ancestors telling me to proceed, essentially saying, so what if I’m the first one—it doesn’t make me weak, it makes me a leader.

Considering where I am currently in my journey, the goals that I have now require me to do things no one else in my life has ever done before. Through this ceremony, it became clear to me that this is exactly what I need to do. And with the support of my ancestors, God, and my spiritual guides, I now know that I am capable of doing it.

Conclusion

This temazcal experience has forever changed my life and my perspective on healing. Therapy, yoga, reiki, and sound baths all have their place, but there is something so special about connecting with our ancestors as they illuminate parts of us that we have forgotten. It’s no wonder many of us feel lost and stuggle to find peace in a world that does not support our instinct to connect with nature and the spiritual realms. I found that by immersing yourself in the land that contains the ancestral memory of our past and the practices that are rooted in indigenous wisdom, we not only help keep them alive—we also remember who we truly are.

♡