The Hard Bus, The Easy Bus, and The Magic Bus
Which one do you want to ride?
“There’s the hard bus, the easy bus, and the magic bus. Which one do you want to be on?”
With hearing these words, I smiled and knew I was in the right place on this patio in Guatemala.
“Tell me everything about the magic bus,” I thought. “That’s the one I want to be on.”
I must have already been flirting with the the easy bus, for how I had come to be there. Some days earlier, I had arrived in the little village of San Marcos and taken a moto taxi to the place I was staying a ways outside of town. The driver turned down a street and just as he noted that he had taken a wrong turn, I glanced up to see a simple sign on a gate, ‘Cacao Ceremony - Wednesdays and Sundays’ (or something like that).
I knew in that moment that it wasn’t a wrong turn at all, and I made a note to come back there on Sunday. In the days leading up to that, there were a series of divine winks leading me to feel that I was in a special place and this is exactly where I needed to be on my journey.
I went back on Sunday for the cacao ceremony where a group of about 20 of us gathered on Keith’s porch to imbibe this beautiful, heart opening elixir (aka, ceremonial cacao) and play with the nature of reality and the truth of who we are and what we’re doing here.
I was well on my way on a conscious, spiritual journey by that point, but was only just starting to dip my toe into quantum physics and the science of spirituality. This ceremony was really like a relaxed wisdom school to learn, question, and practice the power of intention and knowingness as we were awakened to our own true nature with the catalyst of cacao and the stories and guidance from Keith.
He shared with us a few things about the cacao itself and invited us to drink up.
While the cacao integrated into our physical, mental, emotional and etheric bodies, Keith proposed that there’s the hard bus, the easy bus, and the magic bus. He invited us to hop aboard the magic bus in our time together and proved to be a worthy chauffeur.
So what are these buses and how do you know which one you’re on? Well that’s up to you really, but I will share a bit of my take on it.
THE HARD BUS
You’re on the hard bus when you’re living a reality that is limited by what you can perceive and measure with your senses. The territory of the hard bus is tangible and bounded in the construct of space and time. The stops it makes are based on past conditioning and the playing out of patterns, habits, and loops that are typically inherited (vs chosen) or created through trauma and/or direct, lived experience. The hard bus is driven by a combination of the mind and a basic understanding of the functions, capabilities, and perceived limits of the body.
Here’s a sampling of thoughts or behaviors you might have while aboard the Hard Bus:
Life is hard
Well that’s just the way it is
It takes so much effort and work to create your dreams
Some people just get lucky, sometimes…must be nice
I can’t argue with reality; here’s evidence to support how hard life is (insert stories of life being hard)
If I just try harder, do more, get lucky…then life will get better
Someday, siggghhhh
Illness/ Dis-ease
Suppressed anger, resentment, bitterness (denial of emotions)
Dualistic thinking: good/bad, right/wrong
Sometimes the hard bus is fast and fun; other times it is slow and stuck in traffic. The bus is operating at the whim of outside forces and you feel you can’t control its route or circumstances. It does the best it can with what it’s got. Life happens to the passengers on the Hard Bus.
THE EASY BUS
You’re on the easy bus when you have a stirring somewhere inside you that there are things beyond your senses that have a role to play in the unfolding of your life. You’re both open and a healthy skeptic about the nature of reality. On the easy bus, there’s a feeling within that wants very much to believe in something grander and feels so grateful and delighted when having an experience of this to be true.
Passengers on the easy bus are creative, self-loving, and feel empowered to choose their perspective on life, experiencing less resistance to what is. The territory of the easy bus is experiential with curiosity, openness, and willingness to flow with change. The easy bus is driven by the creative and intuitive mind, the intelligence and feelings of the heart, and the body as a guidance system.
Here’s a sampling of thoughts or behaviors you might have while aboard the Easy Bus:
Life is fascinating
I remember who I am and open to what is possible
Life has meaning and is beautiful to experience
I wonder…What if…
I am feeling…(insert an actual emotion and not a story)
Let me get present and breathe
Seeking information and guidance to understand or learn
Taking inspired action towards desires and dreams
The joy is in the journey!
What opportunity is presented to me through what I’m experiencing? What’s the invitation?
My state of being is in relationship with the reality I experience
Sometimes the easy bus is full of joy and surprises, and other times it goes into the unknown and changes up the route, unexpectedly. The easy bus is fueled by the energy of conscious attention and intentions of individuals and the collective. In this way, it operates in a co-creative nature with the circumstances and possibilities of life. Life happens for the passengers on the Easy Bus.
THE MAGIC BUS
You’re on the magic bus when you know, practice, and live the full expression of existing as a divine being having a human experience. You’ve learned ‘the owners manual’ for the laws of nature that help you navigate this experience on Earth as an empowered and integrated, co-creator of reality. The territory of the magic bus is seamless between the earth and the cosmos, both embodied and grounded while expanding into the experience and possibilities of the mystical and infinite dimensions. Every passenger on the magic bus knows that they are connected by the fabric of loving intelligence that the universe is made of; we are one, in and of love.
The route and schedule of the magic bus is in the eternal present now, where all life happens. You board the magic bus by becoming a coherent, vibrational match with it, tuning into the desired frequency and remembering your wholeness. The magic bus is driven by the infinite potential of the unified field and becoming a clear channel, receiver, and instrument for consciousness. This happens through the pineal gland, heart, soul, and the light exchanged at the cellular and subatomic level.
When you’re on the Magic Bus, you might have thoughts or behaviors like:
WOW wow wow wow wow wow (awe)
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
This is totally worth it, all of it, to get to here and now.
I know. I don’t know. The more I know, the more I don’t know. It’s so beautiful.
Miracles and synchronicities are a normal part of life.
I love myself and contribute to the collective from this truth.
I am a unique, singular expression of Source getting to know itself.
What more is possible?
We are all one.
Intuitive and intentional living are the default ways of being.
Ability to journey to other dimensions, experience the mystical, jump and create timelines (and an understanding of how and why)
Ability to hold and feel opposing truths at the same time; to find the wholeness in paradox
Creativity, contribution, service, and purpose are honored and prioritized
It’s all energy. It’s all potential.
Silence. Presence.
The magic bus is nowhere and everywhere, and it can go and be anywhere. It hangs out in the space between awareness itself and mystery. The journey of life is about the potential and possibility of remembering and being here for the magic. Life happens through us and as us, as the passengers on the Magic Bus.
As we began to feel our hearts pounding faster, we may have forgotten the power of the cacao working through us and felt the excitement of possibility aboard the magic bus. Cacao comes from the tree with the genus name: theobroma, translating to ‘food of the gods’. What a beautiful bus to get on as Keith took us on a magical mystery tour ranging across quantum entanglement, dimension jumping, inner child work, metaphysical explorations, and more.
He shared an exercise with us about how to jump to a new, desired dimension. If you want to go to another dimension, you just go. That’s it. Too easy?
He said he has to actually make it more complicated so our human-ness can have the experience of “doing” and understanding “how”. So you tune into the desired dimension. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, imagine you are there in this new dimension, on this new timeline. (That’s the complicated version).
He pointed at me and said, “Let’s hear from the healer in the corner with all that green around her. How was that exercise for you?” (Side note: after the ceremony, someone came to tell me that their friend had also noted that I was surrounded in a green light, hmm).
I shared that everything he had been explaining to us made sense to me. I felt the truth and possibility in it. I did the exercise, but did not have an experience of a new dimension.
He said, “ahhh, you are attached to expectation.” There was a time in my journey that I would’ve been bothered by that comment. I could feel there was something wise to it though. He was seeing something about me, where I was getting in my own way of being a quantum creator.
He proceeded to tell me that the power is within. He talked extensively about how powerful I am (how powerful we all are, of course) and we just need to learn how to access and trust that power. He said, “Let me prove it to you.” He then said, “You are so powerful” and as he pointed to the sky, a firework went off in the middle of the day, right at that moment.
There were giggles, ooo’s, and ahhh’s at this synchronicity. Now these ‘bombas’ are not an irregular occurrence at the lake, but there had not been one all day.
Keith went on to say that he knew some of us were skeptical and he really wanted us to know this truth. He said, “I’ll prove it to you again. You are so powerful,” and he pointed to the sky. Another firework went off.
Those were the only two ‘bombas’ that entire day. We laughed thinking he had some switch on the arm of his chair or something. But we remembered all he had shared about the laws of nature and quantum physics and knew we had a choice of what to believe.
I chose to believe he was telling the truth. I am powerful. We all are. Making that choice was a demonstration of that very power. I went on from there, to continue my spiritual journey and studies of metaphysics and consciousness.
This led to me study the quantum and to begin playing and practicing what I was learning. It has been so empowering, an essential part of my journey.
Some years later I went back to Lake Atitlan and found myself once again on Keith’s patio, ready to take in that wise and loving cacao, and go on the magical mystery tour. You could say I took the magic bus this time because the string of intuition, connections, and synchronicities that led me there was even more astounding than last time…a story for another time.
Keith was still telling us about our bus options and all about the quantum. This time I didn’t just feel the truth in what he was sharing, but I understood it on a deeper level. I had studied, learned, practiced, and had felt experience of it. I’m here to tell you that the magic bus is real and you can learn to ride it.
I knew I would have questions again, but my only question for him that day was, “why don’t I have any questions? It’s “non-sense” that just makes so much sense!” He assured me I was at a key milestone on the journey and that the journey would continue and there will always be more. This has proven to be true as well.
I continue to work with cacao regularly as a powerful plant ally in opening my heart, grounding me, inspiring creativity, and generating energy to continue explorations of consciousness and our true nature.
A couple of week ago, I was moving into a new home and found part of a brick of Keith’s Cacao that I had bought in ceremony with him. A couple of days later, I found out that Keith boarded the eternal magic bus and had left his human form. I felt so touched to have known him and deep appreciation for the gifts he shared with so many. My friends and I gathered to honor his legacy and to enjoy the gorgeous gift of his cacao.
To learn more about Keith and his cacao, visit: https://www.keithscacao.com/pages/meet-the-chocolate-shaman (I am not an affiliate; I just love to share things I love. It is one of three brands of ceremonial cacao that I prefer.)
To enjoy the experience and wisdom of ceremonial cacao with me, sign up for my email list. I facilitate cacao journeys in person (groups or 1:1s) and also am available for private groups, events/retreats, or 1:1 journeys.
If you want to explore the magic bus, consider becoming a subscriber to Full Circle Substack, where I share wisdom, practices, and stories that will help take you there.
It’s all about energy and frequency. This is a guiding principle at Full Circle Wellbeing, where the offerings help to tune your state of being and become the frequency that will help you board the magic bus.
I have a new tool that came into my life some months ago, that’s an exciting and innovative way to receive frequency support.
Healy is frequency technology that fits into the palm of your hand. Scan your bioenergetic signature and receive frequencies to harmonize targeted areas back into alignment in your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual information field.
I now have several offerings that include access to this technology (even if you are remote):
Weekly energy tune-up + aura scan
New Moon Intention Setting (Month-long Journey)
1:1 Frequency-supported transformation coaching
Microcurrent Session - in-person only
Webpage coming soon…for now, if you’d like more information or you’d like to book a session, please contact me at connect@erinmcelroy.com.
Surprise! I send frequencies for empowered wellbeing to all subscribers of Full Circle Substack each week.