Whilst almost any genuine pilgrim/wisdom-seeker may take part in our Ayahuasca retreats in Ashi Meraya (please check health compatibility issues), we conversely recommend the traditional Shamanic Plant Diet – which does include Ayahuasca ceremonies as well, but with a different schedule – more to those who have matured a very strong bound with shamanism, have already been successfully exposed to the Ayahuasca experience before, spent time in the jungle, and have ideally (but not necessarily) a good knowledge of the Spanish language, to get by during their apprenticeship.

We will be nevertheless more than happy to provide you with an interpreter Spanish-English, to help you out during your retreat (being it Ayahuasca or Shamanic Plant Diet Apprenticeship), as and wen required!!

Chullachaki caspi “macho” teacher tree in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

Our Ayahuasca retreats are very intensive. You may now opt to have up to FIVE Ayahuasca sessions in your first week of retreat, swapping the Toe’ ritual with an extra Ayahuasca ceremony. Then it’s FOUR Ayahuasca healing and visionary sessions for each week thereafter!!

Learn, assist and join the preparation of the sacred ‘Vine of the Soul” (or ”Vine of the Spirit”, or else more, “Vine of the Dead”). See how it is made into brew, pounding the woody ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) vine cuts first and then boiling them for long hours together with Chacruna, Chalipongo (Ojo Yagè) and Toè plant additives, over a traditional wood fire.

Ayahuasca ceremony at night

Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

Ayahuasca rituals take place in the jungle, at night, around 9 pm, in almost total darkness (exception made for candle or lantern-light, right at the beginning of the ritual). The healing treatments (“curaciónes”) of the shaman-s will take place during the sacred – and magical – time of the ceremony, regardless of whether you would be effectively taking – or not – the Ayahuasca brew. It’s therefore of paramount importance to attend all the sessions – a requirement to all – whilst the taking of the Ayahuasca tea proper is entirely voluntary.

Shamans before the beautiful Remo caspi teacher tree
Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

One of the night rituals with the medicine may be done in the open wilderness, in a special area cleared for the purpose of conducting ceremonies, and protected by the oldest palo maestro (teacher tree) of Ashi Meraya, a massive and beautiful Remo caspi (Aspidosperma excelsum) tree.

Healing may take place in many different fashions whilst one is journeying with the “Vine of the Soul” (or “Rope of the Dead”, as the word Ayawaska may also be rendered in Quechua) and may well take the form of auditory – or even silent – revelations, sudden emotional unblocks, cleansing of negative feelings and – on the material plane – simply the expelling of toxins and/or parasites through bodily purges, and a sense of having been cleansed thoroughly.

Each participant is invited to focus on his/her own healing and/or concentrate on the revelatory and visionary elements that may bestowed upon one when accessing the realms of the “Vine of the Soul”. Don Mariano recommended that one of best ways to go to the appointment with the Ayahuasca is to beg the spirit of the medicine – in total humbleness – to grant you visions.

The Native American Tradition of “crying for a vision” may easily be adopted to the way one should approach the Ayahuasca experience. All will benefit, in one way or another, sooner or later, from this experience. Ayahuasca – when taken properly, under the guidance of a respectable shaman, and when the necessary dietary restrictions are observed – can heal our hyper-loaded neurons, and can give sense, direction and purpose to our lives.

Ayahuasca cooking over traditional wood-fire in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

The main plant additives employed in the making of the Ayahuasca concoction – as currently prepared in Ashi Meraya – are:

• the fresh leaves of the Chacruna (Psychotria viridis) green shrub
• the fresh leaves of the Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) vine
• the fresh leaves of the Toè (Brugmansia suaveolens) plant
• Mapacho (Nicotiana tabacum/Nicotiana rustica), i.e. organic black jungle tobacco.

At times, the fresh leaves of the Huambisa (Diplopterys sp.) and Chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana) plant – also known by the names of Chagropanga and Ojo Yaje’ – are also used in the making of the brew, as alternative (or supplement) to the Chacruna leaves. Depending on the length and nature of your retreat, you may also learn (under supervision) how to prepare the Ayahuasca medicine (this last aspect of the training is, however, more suited to those who will be doing the shamanic plant diet apprenticeship).

Ayahuasca brew cooking in Ashi Meraya
Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

The Ayahuasca prepared by our Shipibo shamans is very strong and thick and – under normal circumstances – one should only need a small cup to enter and deeply experience non-ordinary states of consciousness.

You are strongly invited to carefully read all the Guidelines and Health Notes we have provided, and to follow and abide to the required dietary prescriptions, before, during and after taking the powerful Ayahuasca medicine. We always endorse and support safety and responsibility when it comes to journeying with shamanic entheogenic plant medicine. The paradigm within which we operate is and remains shamanistic, not psychedelic. We are firmly committed to the traditional use of entheogenic plant sacraments only and exclusively within the operative ritual framework that has been designed by the Amazonian shamans themselves.

We invite you to experience – in a supportive, friendly and safe environment – the sheer power and beauty of the Amazonian teachings of Ayahuasca and Plant Teachers, with the native people that for millennia have handed down this knowledge in an impeccable way, developing a most intimate relationship with the jungle.

Our promise to you: to have a genuine, direct and profound exposure to a wealth of rare indigenous rituals and entheogenic shamanic traditions & walk your personal path to vision, knowledge and healing.

In the process your retreat will directly support native people’s economy, and will guarantee and encourage the continuation and transmission of the ancestral Shipibo shamanic practices.

All our retreats are ongoing, with Customized Dates all year round, for individual guests, couples and small groups. On 30th of December 2010, we will be hosting for the first time ever a very rare and unique event focused on the ancestral rituals of the Merayas, performed by different native Shipibo guest shamans. Places are limited.

Details will be posted soon on this site. Email us on info@elmundomagico.org for more details. Watch this space!!