Don Mariano is an exquisite 73 years old master shaman, also from the Shipibo ethnic group of the Amazon, whom we treasure and love for his humbleness, inner beauty, moving icaros, silent knowledge and integrity.

Shipibo shaman Don Mariano (“Shawan Sani”), in the jungle surroundings of Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez

He is native of the Tahuanì area (in the province of Atalaya, Ucayali department of Peru). He dieted – since the early age of fifteen – with many different types of palos maestros (teacher trees) – like Chuchuhuasi (Maytenus ebenifolia), Chiricsanango (Brunfelsia grandiflora), Shihuahuaco (Dipterys sp.), Timareo, Coresa, and Renaquilla (Clusia rosea) – along with plantas maestras (teacher plants), like Coca (Erythroxylum coca), Toe’ (Brugmansia suavolensis), Piñon Colorado (Jatropha gossypifolia), Mucura (Petiveria alliacea), Piripiri (Cyperaceous sp.), Motelillo (Fittonia verschaffeltii), Ajos Sacha (Mansoa alliacea), and sogas (vines) – including Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis sp.) and Sacha Motelo. He even dieted with hongos de vaca (magic mushrooms !!), and the perfumes Agua de Florida and Camalonga. His teachers were Don Eliseo Capitan, a Shipibo maestro palero ayahuasquero and espiritista, and Don Rosalino Rengifo, a Shipibo shaman, with a great knowledge of Ayahuasca.

Don Mariano sings his captivating icaros (shamanic power songs taught by the plant spirits) exclusively in the Shipibo-Conibo idiom of his people. Those who did have the privilege of listening to the magical songs of Don Mariano during an Ayahuasca ceremony in Ashi Meraya, may remember and still feel the sheer beauty, sweetness and relentless power of his melodies. The true spirit of Don Mariano could be appreciated at his best in altered states of consciousness, during the Ayahuasca rituals, when his voice changed, and at times turned into a mysterious vocal duo, projecting the archetypal image and spirit of the shaman, in a timeless, beautiful, and moving fashion. Fruit of relentless long diets with plant teachers, his Spirit-gifted icaros are a blessing for us all. Don Mariano – when not cultivating his chacra (agricultural land allotment) or doing his diets with the plants – is in Ashi Meraya.

Master shaman Don Alfredo Cairuna – whose native name Sinamano means ”very brave man” – is from the Shipibo ethnic group of the Amazon and currently the main shaman in the centre. He is a maestro Toesero (a shaman specialized in working with the plant teacher Toe’, i.e. the Brugmansia suaveolens), an Ayahuasquero (a shaman skilled in the use of Ayahuasca) and a Naturista (i.e. a master herbalist). He prepares a very potent Ayahuasca brew and sings his powerful icaros in the Shipibo tongue of his people.

Shipibo shaman Don Alfredo Cairuna, preparing a Sweat Lodge in the Ashi Meraya Centre

Photo Credit: Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez

Don Alfredo – now almost in his sixties – started his first shamanic plant diet at the age of fifteen and had the great privilege of being in his youth a disciple of the last Shipibo banco (the highest possible rank of a shaman), Don Luis Cauper Guimaraes, also known as Don Lucho.

He has been living in the Alto Ucayali, in the Ashaninka community of Meranquiari, where he studied with master shaman Don Marcos Ocampo. More recently, he lived in the Cashibo/Cacataibo Indian community of Mariscal where he studied with maestro Don Baltazar Estrella. His knowledge of the Sweat Lodge is the fruit of his direct exposure to the Ashaninka and Cacataibo indigenous people.
He also had a female teacher, Doña Jesusa Pacaya, of the Cocama ethnic group. An Ayahuasquero, a shamanic master herbalist expert in the curative properties of Amazonian medicinal plants, and a Toesero, Don Alfredo has a unique style of working during the Ayahuasca rituals, flapping relentlessly his Cushma (Shipibo ceremonial tunic) in front of the patient, during a healing session, in the fashion of a bird’s wing, to clear negative energies. And yet at other times his ceremonies begin with a Prayer followed by an Invocation to the Spirit of Ayahuasca.