Ashi Meraya: Centre of Traditional Amazonian Medicine
“[...] And always, at the same time, is ayawaskha. Ayawaskha, which for us is not fugitive pleasure, venture, or seedless adventure, as it is for the virakocha. Ayawaskha is a gateway, not to escape but for eternity, to enter those worlds, to live at the same time in this and in other realities, to travel through the vast, endless provinces of the night.”
Shipibo Master Shaman Don Alfredo by a Sacha-chuchuhuasi woody vine in Ashi Meraya
Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco
Ayahuasca Healing & Shamanic Apprenticeship The Shipibo Way
Ashi Meraya is first and foremost a Centre for Diffusion and Dissemination of Amazonian Traditional Plant Medicine, where you will be directly exposed to ancestral indigenous shamanic practices, and experience intense healing rituals engaging the sacramental use of Ayahuasca, the visionary “Vine of the Soul” and a dreaming journey with the plant teacher Floripondio (Toe’).
Ayahuasca brewing in Ashi Meraya!
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
Pounding the Ayahuasca vine: it can be fun too!
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
You will have a direct exposure to the traditional cosmovision of the Shipibo shamans of the Amazon. This is not to be intended as a formal lecture of anthropological contents, but rather as combination of a series of regular talks conducted by the shaman, alternated to the performing of the long forgotten ancestral rituals of the Shipibo Bancos or Merayas. The Remo caspi, Chullachaki caspi, Chi and “Smoke Medicine” rituals – never performed before in a shamanic retreat centre of the Peruvian Amazon – are now integral part of the shamanic apprenticeship programme in Ashi Meraya.
Participation to a Shipibo-Ashaninka-Cashibo Amazonian Sweat Lodge (again unique to our centre), ritual cleansing herbal and clay baths, followed by purification ceremonies alongside luck-changing floral baths and a final Shipibo ritual body painting session will complement your very intense Ayahuasca journey. (Read more on the Ayahuasca retreat)
Shaman’s apprentice blowing mapacho smoke over the Chullachaki caspi tree
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
In the Ashi Meraya School of Amazonian Shamanic Apprenticeship you will also have the opportunity to be one with Amazonian plants and nature, in a beautiful and timeless setting. You will gradually learn how to sing shamanic lyrics (icaros), how to use plant teachers (plantas maestras) for healing and vision, and be exposed to traditional indigenous knowledge in a radically different way than any workshop or formal lecture will ever deliver to you. This part of the training is technically called the shamanic “Plant Diet” (dieta) whilst the candidate apprentice shaman is called dietero.
Worlds and worlds may be revealed to you, plants may talk, forest spirits may appear in vision/dreaming, all may come alive, in the visible and invisible realms. The plant spirit world may ultimately appear for what it really is to the eyes and ears of the shaman – not a matter of intellectual anthropological/ethnobotanical research, nor a fictitious Amazonian folk-tale – if you develop the right connection and tune-up your senses. (Read more on the Shamanic Plant Diet Initiation).
Ayahuasca vine pounding
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
Shipibo shaman and senior apprentice
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
Shamanic, ethnobotanic and healing Programmes in Ashi Meraya
Shamanic
• Partake to a unique Amazonian Sweat Lodge ritual at night.
• Participate to Ayahuasca and Toe’ (Floripondio) ceremonies: for healing, learning, vision, power and purification.
• Participate to night ceremonies with the legendary San Pedro Cactus: for healing or vision. (Optional and subject to availability)
• Icaros (shamanic melodies): learn how to sing and write these magical lyrics and their practical uses in ceremonies. (‘Dieteros‘ only)
• Ancient Meraya rituals: purification and union with the plant spirit world using perfumed essences (colonies infused with plant teachers), for personal protection and purification.
• Learn to clear other’s people energy field. (‘Dieteros‘ only)
Collecting the bark of the Chullachaki caspi tree with the shaman
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
• Diet with Amazonian plant teachers for knowledge and power.
Dieteros (candidates enrolling to the traditional shamanic diet) will learn how to conduct healing rituals themselves, in order to prepare for real life situations on how to use the wealth of knowledge and skills acquired during their apprenticeship. (‘Dieteros‘ only)
• Certificate programme: begins at the 3rd month.
Certified senior shamanic apprentices from Ashi Meraya may be able to conduct ceremonies, including Ayahuasca and spiritual purification rituals, give healing and prepare plant medicine. (‘Dieteros‘ only)
• Aromatic baths: cold water ritual baths especially prepared with herbs, flowers and aromatic essences.
Senior dietero smoking Mapacho, black jungle tobacco
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
• Healing through Mapacho smoke.
• Tattoos: Transferring Symbols of Power.
Shipibo ritual body painting session.
Therapeutic
• Clay therapy: use rainforest clay to purify the body from dead cells and toxins accumulated with the aging process.
Pounded Ayahuasca vine cuts
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
Ethnobotanical
• Identify plant specimens in the ethnobotanical garden circuit.
Ayahuasca medicine brewing!
Photo Credit: Stephen Witte
• Watch how the Ayahuasca medicine is being prepared. Actively participate in the making of the magical brew!!
• See how the famed San Pedro – the Cactus of the Four Winds – is prepared, sliced, brewed and filtered for the rituals! (Optional, and subject to availability)
Ethno-cultural
• Direct and experiential exposure to Amazonian shamanic cosmovision.
Exploring the Indigenous world: Shipibo culture, myths and customs.
• Amazon Plant Medicine: identification, uses and preparation of Amazonian medicinal plants. Learning the practice of natural medicine using roots, barks, resins, or plant leaves (‘Dieteros‘ only).
Traditional Shipibo Indigenous Shamanic Centre, Like No Others!
Entheogenic Shamanism: Ayahuasca intensive retreats, San Pedro rituals, Floripondio dream journey, Shamanic Apprenticeship and Initiation via the Plant Teachers Diet in Ashi Meraya (North-West Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, near Iquitos).
References
Calvo, Cesar, “Las Tres Mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos de la Amazonia”, Iquitos 1981: 235
Tags: Add new tag, amazon ayahuasca healing, amazon shamanic healing, amazon shamanic medicine, amazon shamanic training, ashi meraya, ayahuasca, ayahuasca amazon, ayahuasca brew, ayahuasca centre, ayahuasca ceremony, ayahuasca chacruna, ayahuasca courses, ayahuasca healing, ayahuasca healing centre, ayahuasca healing ceremonies, ayahuasca healing ceremony amazon, ayahuasca healing iquitos, ayahuasca healing sessions, ayahuasca healing transformative retreats, ayahuasca initiation, ayahuasca intensive retreat, ayahuasca iquitos, ayahuasca journey, ayahuasca peru, ayahuasca retreat, ayahuasca retreat amazon jungle, ayahuasca retreat peru, ayahuasca retreats, ayahuasca ritual, ayahuasca rituals, ayahuasca san pedro, ayahuasca san pedro shaman, ayahuasca seminar, ayahuasca shaman, ayahuasca shamanic journey, ayahuasca shamanism, ayahuasca shipibo, ayahuasca tea, ayahuasca tour, ayahuasca training, ayahuasca training and workshop, ayahuasca tribe, ayahuasca trip, ayahuasca visions, ayahuasca voyage, ayahuasca workshop, ayawaska, ayawaskha, banisteriopsis, banisteriopsis caapi, chacruna, entheogenic shamanism, iquitos ayahuasca healing retreat, ojo yage', plant diet, plant diet apprenticeship, shamanic apprenticeship, shamanic healing centre, shamanic journey, shamanic journey peru, shamanic journeys, shamanic journeys amazon, shamanic journeys in peru, shamanic journeys iquitos peru, shamanic journeys peru, shamanic plant diet, shamanic training, shamanic workshop, shipibo banco, shipibo healing, shipibo healing centre, shipibo meraya, shipibo shamanic healing, spirit medicine, traditioanl amazonian medicine, traditional apprenticeship, traditional ayahuasca rituals, traditional medicine, vine of the spirits, yage, yaje
