Amazon - Preparing for Ayahuasca Ceremony

My personal traditional 'tambo' accommodation. I love it! Complete with composting loo and grey water banana circle.

There are many shamanic ceremony tourism ventures in the Peruvian Amazon. I have chosen to go to the Temple of the Way of Light as the retreat is thorough and local community and environmental work is delivered with some of the profits. We sit in a circle on the floor in the Maloka - a large, traditional round building with a magnificent cone shaped roof, and are welcomed with a group meeting and informed of the daily schedules.



The Maloka where ceremony takes place as well as group meetings and a restful moment in a spare hammock.

A beautiful forest resident. And symbol of transformation.

One of the temple dogs, Luna, comes to visit me in my tambo. Hello gorgeous!

Over the next 12 days we will participate in 7 night-time ceremonies within which we will ingest a traditionally prepared healing Ayahuasca brew and be guided by the Shipibo healers, known as Maestros (male) and Maestras (female) as we go on our hallucinogenic-vision journeys.  The healers guide us with their song known as the Ikaros. The journey is an ancient and powerful practice that I am honoured to be taking part in, grateful that it is still preserved and that I can access it.

The healer's perceive their personal song or Ikaro in design as well as sound. The above skirt and bag are examples of hand detailed textiles with the song in image form. 

I am attracted to the Temple as they work with the 'divine feminine' so I thought this meant there would be only female healers - turns out there are 4 female and 3 male. I wonder how the experience will be for me working with the men, as at this point I am more attracted, or perhaps, at ease, with working with the women. We will be on a 'dieta' (diet) that is a vital and time honoured accompaniment with Ayahuasca. This includes meals of fresh fruit, rice, quinoa, fish, chicken and vegetables. Strong foods such as spice, additives, dairy, red meats, fermented foods are advised against, as is taking medications or supplements as these all interfere with the healing spirit of Ayahuasca - I follow the diet a week before arriving, I want Ayahuasca to know that I am devoted and ready. On a medical note, the foods we must avoid contain high amounts of monoamine compounds. The Ayahuasca vine, Banisteriopsis Caapi, in the brew works by inhibiting the monoamine enzymes in the body so the DMT in the Chacruna, Psychotria Vididis, can take effect.

Ayahuasca is known as a ladder that shamans use to access heaven or the other worlds or spirit worlds to obtain knowledge to bring back. Here is a new cutting planted aside this beautiful tree so that it can climb up along it.

 



We will be bathed daily with water infused with flower buds and essences by the healers, a traditional part of the cleansing and harmonising process. Here is a video of me receiving a flower bath, as you can see it is a thorough process, ensuring that all areas of the physical and spiritual body are cleansed - I was full of gratitude to have this blessing each day - it felt amazing! I felt as if I was becoming younger.

In preparation for ceremony, we fast after lunch so that our bodies can be less cluttered with food stuffs and hopefully this will mean less purging. What a massive journey we are about to go on! Part of the healing is to 'purge' out the pain and hurt that we hold inside of us and this often is in the form of vomiting during ceremony. I look around at all the interesting fellow passengers and Maestros and Maestras - I feel honoured to be in their presence - I feel embarrassed at the prospect of vomiting in front of them. The next morning this all changes.

4th August: El manana vomitivo

We arise and meet at the hut of the Maestras for 'vomitivo' before breakfast. Basically, this practice involves drinking as much warm salty water as quickly as possible to induce vomiting. This is a form of purging all the unclean energies from the city and everywhere else that is not the Temple, not the Amazon. I watch my fellow passengers spew up the water in front of me. It makes my gut cringe. I am dreading my turn. I feel compassion for them in this moment. A Maestra looks at me and nods - I'm up! I think I have it sussed and pour the liquid down my throat. I love the Shipibo women, looking over me, directing me, laughing with me. I dislike drinking bowl full after bowl full of salt water but the vomiting is clean. I get a second discerning nod - and that is it, I'm clean. Ready for the first Ayahuasca ceremony - tonight! At the kitchen hut over breakfast I am surprised at how quickly we have all bonded...just from a little vomiting together!

Amazon - Entering the Amazon

Departing Guatemala, I fly to Peru, South America. We descend through the clouds and then I see it: the Amazon. Forest, as far as I can see. A giant snake of a river wind's its way through the forest cover. We land and taxi into Iquitos - the largest city in the Amazon accessible only by air or river.

In the following posts, I share my experiences with you of my healing journey with the mother spirit plant - Ayahuasca, while in the rainforest with indigenous Peruvian Shipibo healers and 20 other people seeking healing and divine guidance from around the world. This all occurred over 15 days, in a magnificent setting in the rainforest called the Temple of the Way of Light. I kept a journal and disconnected myself from all digital forms of communication. I received deep and profound healing that has delivered me an understanding of my childhood trauma, adult physical and mental injuries and illnesses and how this is all interconnected and my journey to well being that I share with you now.

Collection Day 3rd August 2012

The journey to the Temple begins with collection out the front of a hotel in Iquitos. I eye the people waiting for the collection bus: Americans, Canadians, Swedish and more. I spy one middle aged, wise looking woman and muse that she is probably a psychologist come along to learn more about the psychological healing of Ayahuasca to share with her patients, I look forward to speaking with her to see if my assumption is correct. We clamber on the bus. A local artist is at the bus window holding an exquisite necklace of a round green Peruvian stone called Serpentine and a small piece of lacquered Ayahuasca. At the last minute I buy it through the window, I love it and hold it close - beginning to feel a connection to the plant Ayahuasca.

We travel on the rickety bus for about an hour heading out of the city. We arrive at the bank of the River Nanay - a tributary of the Amazon. Our group of 20 board a boat and putt down river for about an hour. We arrive at a river bank.

We have been advised to rent rubber boots for the walk and hand our bags to one of the local men and women waiting to carry them. Although I am hesitant to hand over the burden, I soon see why we need the help. For us, the path to the temple is an hour of slipping and sliding in sometimes ankle deep mud under the canopy of the rainforest. The local men and woman walk with speed and agility even with the heavy bags. Along side me walks a fellow seeker, with a foot injury - as his crutches suck and pop out of the mud I wonder if he has come for healing of his injury and admire his determination to make it. We are sweating in the heat and with each step we aim to maintain our balance. At first there is determination, then despondence, eagerness and impatience. This all resides and turns to a form of walking meditation as the path goes on and on.
I walk the mud path. I love that Earth provides us with Clay. I love that my body is able. I love how my body heals, I love my strength and I love my clarity. How symbolic this walk is of the healing journey we are all about to take. There is but one path; we all walk it at different times and paces but we all arrive at the end. It is how we choose to travel that makes the journey easy and joyful or treacherous and painful.

After an hour, I notice beautifully kept gardens and paths, I have arrived to the Temple of the Way of Light. I walk through a small alcove and 7 Shipibo healers in traditional dress welcome me with kind eyes, cataract eyes, kisses and a flower bath. And thus begins the 15 day journey to my soul.

Two of the beautiful Shipibo female healers, Rosa and Amelia.