Traditional Ayahuasca Healing Ceremonies
During your retreat in the Rainforest you will
have the opportunity to attend healing ceremonies led by an authentic healer, called a curandero. The Ayahuasca Foundation works with a number of curanderos but retreats are usually with don Lucho and dona Otilia. Ceremonies are held regularly on Tuesdays and Fridays.
A
ceremony involves meeting at around 7pm and finding a spot to sit and sette in. It is important to arrive before the ceremony begins, out of respect for the curandero. After some introductions if necessary and perhaps some small talk, the maestro, or healer, will pour out the servings of ayahuasca for each person. There is little to no talking as people begin their personal journeys.
The curandero
then pours him/herself a cup of the sacred medicine. The curanderos have each drank ayahuasca over 4,000 times. Their experience with the spiritual dimension is so extensive, yet they still maintain a student's humility.
The curandero, often referred to as 'maestro,' may then speak about ayahausca and the tradition of curanderismo. Some of the participants have most likely begun to feel the effects of the brew they just ingested. The curandero will then soplay his/her cup of medicine. Soplaying is a form of whistling and is often done with tobacco smoke. It is a way of putting the curandero's intentions into the brew, which are to heal those present in the ceremony.
Ayahuasca cleans out the system of all toxins, and while it may seem unpleasant to vomit, it is accepted as necessary. While the curandero soplays his cup, some participants may begin to feel nauseous or may have to throw up. The beginning of a ceremony is often an unsettling time, as people purge themselves physically, and move from one dimension to another.
After saying 'salud' the curandero will drink his/her cup and join the rest of the ceremony participants as they gradually settle into the spiritual dimension of Ayahuasca.
All light is extinguished and everyone sits in silence, moving only to vomit or go to the bathroom. The beginning of the ceremony is the most intense, as each person comes to terms with their sensations and emotions.
After whistling or praying, the curandero then sings an icaro to begin the ceremony. Icaros are healing songs that healers from the Amazon use to call to the spirits for assistance. Each icaro has a specific purpose and they play an intricate role in the healing process. Curanderos often sing the same icaros to open every ceremony. They immediately create an environment of compassion and love.
As they listen to the icaros, most, if not all of the participants begin to have visions, if they haven't already. These visions often become very vivid and dreamlike. Sometimes more than one person shares the same vision. It is within this visionary dream state that the curandero communicates with spirits and performs healings.
The curandero sings icaros throughout the ceremony, often singing up to thirty in each ceremony. Most of the icaros are sung in spanish, but some of them are sung in Aymara or other indigenous dialects. Often times the icaros are a mixture of dialects.
Eventually, the curandero begins to discuss with each participant the nature of their afflictions. He prescribes changes in their diet or lifestyle that may help and often suggests herbal remedies and tells how to prepare them. He may ask that a participant visit him the following day for further treatment as well.
The curandero has each person sit in front of him for a short time to recieve personal treatment. Sometimes, people have pain bothering them right at that moment and he/she will address that, using the hands to pull negative energy from a part of the body and blowing it away with a quick breath. The breath and the hands, along with mapachos and the chakapa, are the tools of the curandero.
Mapachos are cigarettes used during ceremonies to soplay a patient with smoke. This process uses the breath, strengthened with tobacco smoke, to cleanse the spirit of the patient. It is also used to cleanse a space or a room, the chacapa, or the brew.
A chacapa is a tool made from binding dried leaves from a plant of the same name. It resembles a small broom, and simulates the cleansing experience with physical sensation. The curandero taps the body of each participant lightly with the chakapa, dusting off their spiritual bodies, removing anything that may have clung to them. The chakapa is also used to enhance the rhythm and dynamics of the icaros.
The curandero sings an icaro for each patient. Often times, the name of the patient is incorporated into the icaro as well as phrases specific to the patient's situation or afflictions. With the icaros, the curandero asks spirits for assistance.
Each plant in the forest has a spirit. The spirit of Ayahuasca is believed to be the king of all plant spirits. The curandero communicates with the spirits of the forest plants to find out how to properly treat diseases and to ask for assistance in healing the patients. Curanderos also communicate with the spirits of their ancestors, with animals, with the earth herself, and with beings from other worlds.
The
ceremony ends with an icaro to close the healing circle. The
lights are lit and a brief discussion takes place before people
leave to go to sleep.
The
first three ceremonies are typically cleanses of the three levels of self. Each
ceremony goes deeper and deeper, cleansing from the outside in. The
belief is that while we can see our physical bodies, we also possess
and emotional body and a spiritual body. Our emotional body, when
healthy, allows us to feel beyond our physical body, and a healthy
spiritual body allows us to feel even further beyond that. To begin
healing all of these bodies, we must first clean them thoroughly.
Wounds must be clean to heal. Otherwise, even a small cut can turn
into a dangerous ailment.
The
Physical self is usually cleansed in the first ceremony. It is necessary
to purge the physical body in order to cleanse the deeper levels. Vomiting
once, or several times and sometimes diarrhea are common effects. Some people have intense
visions during their first ceremony, but most receive only fleeting
glimpses. Some people experience no visionary effects at all the first
time they drink ayahuasca, but feel tremendous connections to the spiritual dimension.
The
willingness to let go becomes a necessity, at many levels. From a physical
point of view, one must be willing to expel the toxins that have accumulated
in the body. For more healing to take place, one needs to be willing
to let go of emotional attachments, feelings of guilt or resentment,
everything that has been causing any sorrow or pain. Let go...
The
second ceremony is often a cleanse of the emotional self. This is a
deeper cleanse. It is still common to vomit, but usually it is just
once. Working with the spirits called by the curandero, each participant
will typically experience vivid, highly detailed memories of events
from their past, powerful moments that influenced their emotional state
of being, sometimes causing illness. These life experiences can be viewed with your current wisdom and understood in a whole new way.
Flashes
of color and light and dreamlike visions are common. An emerging comprehension
of one's place and purpose in life arises. One begins to realize "the
meaning of life", their family, the community, society, the earth,
the universe. One begins to understand the past and the present, to
know the self completely.
The healing has begun.
It
is during the third ceremony that the spiritual realm is discovered
by most people. The purpose of one's life is clearly understood and
the feeling of being "complete" is often accompanied by visions
as real as a dream. Often these visions convey messages that have great
personal significance.
After three ceremonies, the entire body has often been fully cleansed. The body, mind, and spirit are now ready to heal. Sometimes just cleaning a wound is enough for it to heal on its own, but deeper wounds require more attention, beyond the necessary cleansing. For many people, a fourth ceremony is needed to further stimulate the healing process towards complete and total health. The opportunity is always available to stay with the retreat for a longer period of time if you want to or feel it is necessary. |
