WHYSA
The Way and the Why of Ilex Guayusa
by Morgan Maher
–
Kingfisher
–
A memory appears, a kind of hall of mirrors, a crystal bubble to the surface and clearly, a scene. Some old and long forgotten situation. Not wavy-faced or upside-down. Not cloudy, hazy, nor hallucinatory, not quite the minds-eye, (the soul’s screen?). Not a sense either. Presence. It’s here, with me. The Past. Fitting in, in-between, bright, backlit and right here, in the mix of the moment. Slipped between a dozen trees. This random reverie, present and gently staying awhile, a bird on a branch — bubble to the surface, not quite willing to pop just yet, no sign of flying away, so steady, so real.
So I watch it.
So clear.
We’ve been walking on water. Each footstep swirls and sinks behind us into a place of soul and sunsets. The path of life builds this ocean of memory. My ocean. Your ocean. Our ocean. Memory.
A box or book of old photos, the way we used to see it. Flip and fawn through a past life. And now prints are rare. Now we leave no tracks. We leave no ladder. We’re on the other side of an old story, where this instant hides that ocean.
Whysa the Kingfisher dives and swims your waters, flies back up out. Past now front and center. If only for a moment — a moment’s all it gives, and a moment’s all it takes.
–
Hawk
–
Sharp eyes arrive — gradiantly, the way dawn unwinds the day up ahead.
Landscapes of plans and dreams self-arrange with calm precision. Flocks of answers come into focus. Your heightened senses glow healthy green. You’re flying. Between Earth and Sun, overhead and overarching, it all comes into view. The future right before you, opening it’s menu wide across your field of vision. Plug and Play. Pick and Choose. This goes on for days on end.
You’re fortified. The fog can’t touch you. The noise subsides. You’re getting clearer. Increasing calm. Control. The sharpest eyes. Soaring on that fierce relentless. Adaptation is the name of the game. Shape the shift and fly high.
Higher!
Into the dreaming world around you.
Whysa the Hawk takes you under its wing, with lucid bliss it sings:
Let the mystery surround you.
Good chance it will astound you.
Detail and clarity abounds,
you’ll remember
when you rise.
–
Kingfisher
–
A memory appears, a kind of hall of mirrors, a crystal bubble to the surface and clearly, a scene. Some old and long forgotten situation. Not wavy-faced or upside-down. Not cloudy, hazy, nor hallucinatory, not quite the minds-eye, (the soul’s screen?). Not a sense either. Presence. It’s here, with me. The Past. Fitting in, in-between, bright, backlit and right here, in the mix of the moment. Slipped between a dozen trees. This random reverie, present and gently staying awhile, a bird on a branch — bubble to the surface, not quite willing to pop just yet, no sign of flying away, so steady, so real.
So I watch it.
So clear.
We’ve been walking on water. Each footstep swirls and sinks behind us into a place of soul and sunsets. The path of life builds this ocean of memory. My ocean. Your ocean. Our ocean. Memory.
A box or book of old photos, the way we used to see it. Flip and fawn through a past life. And now prints are rare. Now we leave no tracks. We leave no ladder. We’re on the other side of an old story, where this instant hides that ocean.
Whysa the Kingfisher dives and swims your waters, flies back up out. Past now front and center. If only for a moment — a moment’s all it gives, and a moment’s all it takes.
–
Hawk
–
Sharp eyes arrive — gradiantly, the way dawn unwinds the day up ahead.
Landscapes of plans and dreams self-arrange with calm precision. Flocks of answers come into focus. Your heightened senses glow healthy green. You’re flying. Between Earth and Sun, overhead and overarching, it all comes into view. The future right before you, opening it’s menu wide across your field of vision. Plug and Play. Pick and Choose. This goes on for days on end.
You’re fortified. The fog can’t touch you. The noise subsides. You’re getting clearer. Increasing calm. Control. The sharpest eyes. Soaring on that fierce relentless. Adaptation is the name of the game. Shape the shift and fly high.
Higher!
Into the dreaming world around you.
Whysa the Hawk takes you under its wing, with lucid bliss it sings:
Let the mystery surround you.
Good chance it will astound you.
Detail and clarity abounds,
you’ll remember
when you rise.
Phytosymphonic
Guayusa is well known for it’s high caffeine content, providing a bright, shining uplift, similar to Yerba Mate, Guayusa’s cousin. That good, strong, alkaloidal ascension you know and love.
This searing, scintillating stimulation is tempered to the gentle, by the presence of theanine, the amino acid also found in green tea — theanine balances — bringing calm, clear, focus.
Research suggests theanine encourages alpha wave activity in the brain. Alpha waves are associated with relaxation, meditation, attention, foresight, creativity, daydreaming and REM sleep. When you lean in and feel guayusa, this makes a lot of sense.
And then there is theobromine, the alkaloid found also in Cacao. Theobromine itself is many things, and while it is considered a stimulant similar to caffeine, it’s documented efficacy as a vasodilator is perhaps the real gift here, as this seems to balance caffeine’s tendency to be a vasoconstrictor.
In other words, where caffeine constricts, theobromine dilates.
It opens your Heart.
It opens flow
Guayusa lifts you up, keeps you steady, sets you down gently
Caffeine, theanine, theobromine: a tri-phyto-power reminiscent of electricity.
A phytochemical recipe for getting in the zone.
All of the above is accompanied by a symphony of nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants:
Polyphenols, saponins, flavonoids, glycosides, all 15 Essential Amino Acids, potassium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, chromium, vitamin D, vitamin C.
Simply:
Guayusa is a powerhouse.
Shades of Green
Guayusa, Wayusa, Whysa, Whyees.
What’s the difference, what’s in a name?
In the world of Guayusa, dreaming plays a central role. The plant is generous in it’s ability to bring clarity to dreams, sharpen dream recall, expand dream interpretation, and invoke a lucid-dreamlike layer into otherwise mundane reality.
In this space of hi-res, life-like, liquid dreaming, imagine words like fish, swimming out there in front of you.
Schooling
Twisting
Shaping
Shining
Four fish take centre stage.
Guayusa, Wayusa, Whysa, Why-ees
Swimming right there in front of you.
Each one beckons.
And fancy that, you follow them, one by one and all at once.
Guayusa is the first to offer, “I am the fish that swims the surface, and the one who puts the word out that “guayusa is a coffee alternative”.”
All the fish chuckle at this.
“It’s true,” they know, “there’s relation, but coffee cannot go near as deep as we do.”
Guayusa then swims spiralled circles ‘round the others, leaving trails of golden threads woven through the water. Threads of science and nomenclature, Jesuits and the Jivaro, Niño Corin, city streets, wide-eye jungle nights.
It goes on, “While I do just swim the surface, the light of day, so to speak, I also swim the furthest, reaching many places, in many worlds”.
Guayusa blows a bubble-sphere, dark green on the outside, bright green on the inside, that swallows you, while you swallow it and—
Wayusa takes your hand, you go and float and swim and sync in deeper.
“I’m the one who is much stronger”
You’re body charges up.
“I’m faster, I’m the hunter, the every day advance, the hot electric swordfish, in the cold depths I can heat your eyes and grow your inner vision”.
You’re soaked in strength.
Gleaming.
Still, the day above is a column down, a ladder waving the familiar, twinkling fisherman drop baited lines, but Wayusa, clear and present, dashing, verging decadent, thick and heavy, and yet graceful, is replaced by two new views:
A shark and a dolphin.
Or so it seems, they both glow shades of green.
They merge and they separate. They’re slippery, and they know it.
“Yes we know!”
They read you.
“We are the ones who answer questions that begin with Why?”
It’s dark now. The ladder of light long gone. There’s a floor. A mirage?
Neither — it’s another edge and you’re carried ever deeper with the shark and dolphin, glowing green.
“Did you know”, says one, “that ‘sa’ is an Italian verb, it means, ‘to know’?
“Now you know.”
They chuckle, again. They’re good hearted, you feel it.
“Why-ees” says the other, “sounds a lot like ‘why is?’ doesn’t it.
You agree. Hard not to.
“It’s part of us, at this depth, part of our gift, if you get here, is to help you answer questions that begin with ‘why?’.
More golden threads embrace the water.
“We don’t show you how to predict the future, or read people’s minds, they’re other fish in the sea for that — what we do is, where it’s dark, we illuminate. We are a force of clarity, we can cut through murk and deception, we can open up perception.”
You’re spinning, in a good way.
“We pull the strings that pull the myths that fix legend to reality, and for those that learn to swim with us, we can bring this bright light ocean dream up to you where it can seem like it has always been there.”
Calm.
Suddenly you’re that fisherman, perched on a crescent moon.
In the distance, four fish jump the surface, and you know where they are going.
