Tag: ethnobotany

What happens when your soul begins to awaken in this world, to our deep need to love, and serve the friend? ~ Hafiz

I do hope my beloved readers will enjoy this post about the delicate nature of ayahuasca and yagé. My intention here are, through words, bring light to the following topics.

• A personal experience of Tao and Universe
• Original intentions for using entheogens
•  Ayahuasca’s migration to the West
• Yagé & ayahuasca, as gifts from heaven and earth
• The precarious nature of ayahuasca
• Map of the energetic realms
• The hourly energetic clock
• Gods Multicolored People and the Tradition of Yagé
• Insights into the Tradition of Ayahuasca
• The subtle energy path of the yagé
• Factors that bring on ayahuasca precarious nature
• Qualities of the good facilitators
• A word on integration

All this, after the following overview.

I keep hearing just one too many stories about ayahuasca ceremonies going haywire and about people afterwards feeling scattered, startled and disintegrated. Essentially worse than before the experience, and in some cases this scattered or splintered feeling can last for months. Recently at the International Herbal Symposium, I shared a talk about the precarious nature of ayahuasca plant medicine. I asked people to raise their hands if they had heard about or witnessed an ayahuasca ceremony going haywire. Not to my surprised, the majority of the participants rose their hands. I will never go so far as to say I actually know anything about this topic, non the less after three decades of experiences working with Indigenous peoples communities in the Upper Amazon I feel obliged to share the little I know in hopes this information will assist a deeper understanding that will allow for a more auspicious use of sacred plant medicines to be ushered forth.

And it was this type of spirit that I was able to perceive among the indigenous peoples of the Upper Amazon. My kind hearted elders, when they saw I had the willingness to hold it up over the years, and to try to learn, they were generous and kind to me and allowed me to perceive the essence of this wonderful, yet wayward, spiritual tradition. Being though, that their way of life is set within an intimate bioregional association and the transmission of their teachings is through an oral type of literature, through song and storylines, through symbolic face and pottery painting, with no written references.

There are vastly diverse traditions and plant preparations relating to the use of ayahuasca and yagé, for which in this article I will refer to these as “entheogenic plant brews,” and or “Grandmother medicine.”  All things powerful, such as entheogenic plant brews,  are like a double edged sword. They can be used to cleanse a person of what maybe holding them back, re-orienting them in a healthy life direction. And they can also throw people off track, leaving them fragmented and feeling scattered, unable to find their center and feeling lost. Given the “delicate” nature of sacred plant medicine, especially when strongly prepared, coupled with the lack of knowledge of the traditional guidelines set in place to ensure its auspicious use. With a lack of this adherence and dearth of a certain kind of know-how. When handled by those novice in these esoteric sacred arts and clueless of regulations regarding the use of advanced traditional practices, which essentially drinking entheogenic plant brews is. Much too much room opens for ayahuasca’s precarious nature to be made known, triggering mayhem and chaos.

For these reasons I am obliged, and only for the sole purpose of adding clarity to this topic, to reference the sovereign authority of various world heritage traditions. Who in their attempt to preserve the spirit of unspoiled human nature and the path of spiritual self cultivation, have produced exquisite literary masterpieces. Such as, from the Integral Way of Tao, the works of Master Ni (endearingly referred to as Omni), reveal the ways in which each person can achieve themselves. A few lines from Sufi mystical poets Hafiz and Rumi to blur the edges of duality. Reference to Attar of Nishapur’s symbolic story the Conference of the Birds, about the spiritual journey human beings must take in order to achieve a direct experience of God. And the Slavic folk tale of the sacred firebird, which represents the heroes journey and the obtaining of something very rare and very precious.

And while these traditions may not specifically be about entheogenic plant protocol they are precisely about what the sacred plants intend to accomplish and teach! Helping people orient their life compass, charging participants with new zest for life, empowering each person who seeks this in the correct way to tap into their very own essence, where resides in all people, the divine spirit of life. World heritage traditions allow us to re-encounter our authentic selves and raise our vibrational level. They help us reach the type of absolute quality spoken of in the literature! Such to the extent that drinking yagé, is like drinking the timeless literature itself! Simply put, it has to do with preserving the very essence of life. Being that the search for wellbeing and truth unites all world religions, people searching to lean and heal through the use of entheogenic plant brews, can deepen and refine the understanding of their very own faith. This medicine does not request people to leave their faith, rather through their own form of faith go deeper. Reflections, that show us the path home.

In this article allow me to share a few “golden” and “time-tested,” features of traditional schools of thought. Insights into universal phenomena and  guidelines for safeguarding the auspicious, we can say “delicate” usage, of sacramental entheogenic plants.

 

A Personal Experience of the Union of Tao and Universe

In the late 1990’s, on a visit to my fathers house in New York, I came across a book in his homeopathy chest, The Taoist Inner View of the Universe and the Immortal Realms, written by Hua-Ching Ni. Seeing my interest in the topic my father gifted me the book, as he was sure I would enjoy it. Back in Ecuador, I was leaving my apartment, a small pad in the hot spring town of Baños, for another several months sojourn, in the Amazon region, with Siekopai traditional elder Cesareo Diego Piaguaje. Just before leaving my apartment I oddly enough, heard my name being called from my book shelf? Looking over I glanced directly at the book my father had gifted me, and along it came with me on the voyage.

Once back at don Cesareo’s house, on the rain drenched Aguarico river, it all came full circle. I had nick named don Cesareo, “King Crown and the Rational Crackers,” for a man this profound and funny needed a nick name just as keen. When we weren’t out cooking yagé to heal the villagers, working long hard days with little food and water, or out hunting for lunch, he would be ripping jokes that made no sense, a trait his wife was not fond of. The yagé was insanely strong, and all my rationality has been effectively cracked, shattered into a million piece. I found myself devastated, in a puddle of inexhaustible tears. The colonization frontier and so many things I saw occurring among the indigenous peoples communities I was working with, the ecstasy and the tragedy. All this coupled with probably too much very strong yagé and a Saturn return all had me spinning!

I began reading master Ni’s book, and the words came to life on the pages, gripping me with a fascination like non I had felt before. I was ripe and ready and absorbed them like a sponge absorbs water. Like re-encountering a long lost best friend or relative. Like a compass stuck in a swirl that finally settles and finds again its north. The phenomena of when the thirsty seeker meets an ocean of wisdom. The teachings of the Integral Way of Tao, for me, really sank in deep and helped me gain a fresh perspective to my entheogenic explorations. They allowed me to continue, they gave me the strength of clarity I needed to prevail, at least a little more, on this path, as I was literally on the verge of throwing in the towel.

At the very end of The Taoist Inner View of the Universe and the Immortal Realms, Master Ni, in a few sentences, shares that he offers birth chart readings. It wasn’t long before I scheduled a meeting with him, during an upcoming visit to my parents in the US. Eventually I met master Ni on three occasions. Meetings that marked my life in a deeply positive way.

On one of those meetings master Ni conveyed to me, after looking at me for a long while with a deeply focused gaze, that my work in this world was to find the modern interpretation of the ancient truths, without diluting their essence! I was confused about the yagé and shared with him extensively about this topic and asked him his thoughts. Master Ni softly replied, “If you see it is helping people, then you know it is good!” Just before my time was up Master Ni softly conveyed the following, he said. “One moment with me, is like an eternity.” And he sent me out the door, in a puddle of tears, to continue my work in this world.

The Workbook for Spiritual Development of All People, by master Ni, Hua-Ching  is a great place to start for any sincere student, from the Traditions of Tao, one finds highly practical teachings and guidelines, that perfectly coincides with many aspects of the disciplines and ways taught by our kind hearted Siekopai elders relating to the ways of the yagé and the disposition necessary for success.

Considered the Mona lisa of literature, the teachings of Chuang Tzu, an ancient classic rendered into lucid modern form, again by Taoist Master Ni, Hua-Ching, Attaining Unlimited Life, Teachings of Chuang Tzu. This book offers a very deep tome for those who are seeking an understanding of the nature of life. Contained on each precious page you will find here the teachings of Chuang Tzu and his deep understanding of the universe and how it works through humans. This book offers a jump start on to how to live in tune with universal nature.

A Map of the Realms, the Energy Clock and Cultural Considerations…

In order to reign in all loose phenomena that brings out or makes evident ayahuasca’s precarious nature. Firstly it is necessary to clarify the map of the energy realms and the reality of the divine immortals as the pillars and unfailing guides. This is vital for one fundamental reason. This being that the sole intention for using entheogenic plant medicine in a ceremonial context is for communion with the divine immortals. With the “Always new ones”, the ultra clean, ultra fluffy, immaculate and supreme medicine doctors of the immortal realms. Being that the divine immortals are pure universal subtle law, the way to allow them to guide us, is through learning to align and merge with universal subtle law.

Secondly, the importance of understanding the energy clock and how this relates to which spirits one may be connecting with. The universe is an energetic array of realms and realities from the most sublime to the most dense. The human realms are closer to the realms of spirits and the denser realms of ghost and demons, and has a fluid connection with these realities.

The divine realms are always, right here and right now, yet there are veils, that prevent us from having a fluid connection. The energy clock is a valuable tool for understanding the timing of certain activities in regards to the energies at those hours present.

Though the map of the realms and the energy clock have been prescribed and clearly formulated  by the Tradition of the Integral Way of Tao, I have found them as well spoken of and understood among indigenous Amazonian maestros of entheogenic plant medicine traditions. These rainforest schools, with no written languages, being oral traditions and mystical in nature with many teachings being wordless, makes it where long periods of time are needed to understand their deeper essence. The Taoist cannon is loaded with marvelous works of profound literary power. This wisdom grants students a unique vantage point from where to understand different life phenomena. In the study and application of entheogenic plant medicines traditions they reveal themselves as a failsafe tool for this type of navigation.

In conclusion you will find a some discussion, on the topic of ayahuasca’s precarious nature, cultural or traditional considerations and commentary on the topic of “integration.”

We have come into this exquisite world. To experience ever and evermore deeply, our divine courage, freedom and light. Start seeing everything as God, but keep it a secret. ~ Hafiz

The original intentions for using entheogenic plant brews

When taking a deeper look at the intention and in-situ traditional usage of entheogenic plants, we can see that historically these have been employed to bring about and enact a vastly diverse array of realities.

On a Personal level: To bring about wholeness, healing and wellbeing through communion with divine immortals. To allow the participant to embody true wisdom that is rooted in respect, that grants one the conviction to personally consecrate oneself to a spiritual way of life. In service to not just oneself, rather as well to others, to ones community and for the people, for the benefit of living beings and the environment.

On a Community level: To facilitate a co-evolution of Heaven on Earth and to maintain an original celestial order. This can be observed among the ayahuasca churches of Brasil where through their work the quality of life of the people and their communities have become enhanced.

On a Regional and Planetary level: By way of mystical and esoteric majesties deflect enthrallments of vampiric galactic forces allowing for harmony to fill the lives of all living beings. On page 201 of Rainforest Medicine, there is a section called “Types of Jaguars to be Avoided,” relating wisdom of the Siekopai drinkers of yagé, about three types of deadly galactic powers, these being the Sëamë’yai: the “enthrallment jaguar,” the Matsima’yai: the “red poison jaguar,” and the Neatañe’yai: the “black shadow jaguar.”  Yagé drinkers of old, knew how to deflect these powers in order to bring about times of peace. Sadly though there are few masters alive today, who embody these skills. Fortunately though, they left the vital instruction that highlights the following, devotion to peace and spiritual cultivation by all people and especially world leaders,  deflects these powers and accomplishes the same phenomena.

Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation. ~ Rumi

Ayahuascas Migration to the West

Of course it was only a matter of time, where anything this spectacular would be consumed into Western cultures with a fascination almost like non other. Here just one example of an article in a mainstream magazine, The New Yorker, “The Drug of Choice For The Age of Kale.” Dozens and dozens of reviews are heralding ayahuasca as a panacea heal-all. The curious thing is all this before people have gained a deeper understanding of what this truly is, and the knowledge of how to avoid its precarious nature.

Less being spoken of is the potential for ayahuasca ceremonies going haywire. This phenomena is growing exponentially as grandmother medicine travels far and wide without the fundamental education that guides its traditional use. Cultures that have worked with ayahuasca or yagé for generations know all too well that adhering to traditional guidelines is a prerequisite. To guarantee that the auspicious nature of ayahuasca wins over the precarious, certain fundamental pillars must be understood.

Yagé & Ayahuasca ~ Gifts from Heaven and Earth

All across the South American continent Indigenous peoples, communities and various religious groups use the vine “ayahuasca,” or “yagé” ~ Banisteriopsis caapi and its principal admixture plants, these being Psychotria viridis, known as “chakruna” or “amiruka panga,” and Diplopterys cabrerana known as “chagropanga,” “chali panga” or “yagéocó,” as a sacraments. The traditions that govern the use of these and related vocabulary are as broad as the breadth of the entire Amazon , the bosom from where these treasures of the rainforest have been born. Believed to be gifts from divine spiritual beings , we can say from the gods themselves to humanity, so they may not drift from their original unspoiled natures. Use of these plants has been documented in over 120 distinct indigenous groups all over South America. Despite the vast  array of traditions relating to these plants, at their core, there similar foundational pillars. This being, so as to communion with divine beings; as such allowing people to be part of  an integral salvation, one that participates in co-evolving heaven on earth. That’s right, co-evolving Heaven on Earth!

The word ayahuasca translates as, “vine of the soul,” “bitter vine,” or “vine of the spirit.” Some symbolic interpretations of the name relate this to mean, “divine union,” between the light of heaven and the strength of the earth. While yagé translates as, “The essence all spiritual beings use to stay connected with their immortality,” or simply put, “immortal essence.”

Ayahuasca and chakruna  are believed to have grown from the grave of Manko Kapak, the founding father of the Inka people, so that his descendants may access his wisdom. These pants also grew from the heart of the Shiu Amarun, the glistening fertility boa of the earth, when it was slain by the Atacapie, the seven headed boa of chaos and disintegration, so that people may again learn to tap into and unite with the harmony of Mother Nature. Yagé and yagé oco, it is believed were given to the early speakers of Paicoca (Western Tukanoan, the peoples idiom) by The Ñañë Siekopai (Gods Multicolored People). Yet eons before that, before people even inhabited the planet, ceremonies of yagé were being conducted by the a legion of immortals, the “dawn and dusk immortals,”  know as the Naipai. And there are many many other origin legends that share how this essence passed through from the immortal realms to the present physical realms.

These entheogenic plants are considered “gifts of the gods,” having assisted indigenous peoples and human communities in many of life’s countenances. First brought to the attention of Western audiences in the distinguished work of Richard Evans Schultes, Plants of the Gods.

Entheogenic plants have the uncanny and remarkable ability, and this has been highlighted  across various traditional cultures, to grant each individual clarity on how to remain aligned with the currents of a heavenly way of life. Being a co-contributor of evolving heaven on earth is not a philosophical idea, rather a highly practical school of life. It is the “science” of integrity, it is spiritual development and it is energy cultivation. From this we can understand that sacred plant medicine traditions offer participants a ‘jump start,’ in the ability to adhere to a certain life disposition that allows one to align with a celestial order. A way of life that permits each person to open energy blockages and live with happiness and a greater sense of ease. That is when correctly used.

Another comprehensive dive into the topic is the book: Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with Amazon’s Sacred Vine. A panorama of texts translated from nearly a dozen languages on the ayahuasca experience. These include indigenous mythic narratives, testimonies, and religious hymns, as well as stories related by Western travelers, scientists, and writers who have had contact with ayahuasca in different contexts. I met Luis Luna when he was working on this book and shared with him a Huaorani myth I had documented, which he asked me to contribute. The piece is called, A Huaorani myth of the first Miiyabu (Ayahuasca). From the Huaorani people, we learn yet another perspective, about the subtle power of this most peculiar Amazonian vine.

The Precarious Nature of Ayahuasca

The precarious nature of ayahuasca has not just recently appeared among westerners in its modern context, the drift starts long ago in its ancestral setting. In the Amazon.

For it is not just today that life has been fraught with challenges and complexities.  Notwithstanding, the precarious nature of ayahuasca has not just recently appeared among westerners in its modern context, the drift starts long ago in its ancestral setting. In the Amazon, the use of sacred pant medicines has not all been kind, and any elder of the tradition will share too many accounts of ayahuasca being used to manipulate, enact mind control, force upon people demented realities, bring about trauma, damage others, and it has even been used for murder. In many instances of “Ayahuasca Visions – The Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman“ by Pablo Amaringo and Luis Eduardo Luna, this harsh reality is illustrated.

I also expound upon this topic and how these issues where dealt with, in chapter two of  Rainforest Medicine, “Degradation of the Spiritual Science: Sorcery and Superstition.” Western audiences are just beginning to understand the challenges of working with ayahuasca, and there are countless accounts of ceremonies gone haywire; participants leaving splintered, worse than when they entered. In general terms, in order to guide its auspicious use, the fundamentals remain constant throughout all the cultures that traditionally use it. Allow me here to elucidate some of the lesser understood characteristics of Indigenous Science.

Map of the Energetic Realms

The celebrated Taoist teacher, Master Ni Hua Ching, in his book the Taoist Inner View of the Universe, shares a map of the universal energy spectrum. The chart illustrates that from the most subtle realms, [those transcendent of time and space], to the physical, gross and insensitive realms, [those bound by time and space]. From the subtle origin and the celestial realms only the divine immortals, referred to as the heavenly Shiens, extend through all the vibrational realms without modifying themselves. They extend through those of the starry beings, of the mountain deities, of the numen and doctor spirits; through the realms of the primal energies and elemental powers, and even through the realms of nature spirits, the human realms and the lower realms of ghosts, demons and sorcery realms.

Only the reality of the divine immortals, who are pure universal subtle law, pass through all the veils reaching through all the realms all the while remaining unchangeable.

It is for this reason that the divine immortals, the “heavenly Shiens” as known in the Traditions of Tao. The “Wiñapai” the “Always new ones,” the “Always fresh ones,” the “Matëmopai – the “Heaven people,”  – as they are referred to among the indigenous Siekopai of the upper Amazon. And the many names for them across different cultures – alone, are the unfailing guides of all time tested world heritage traditions, including the sacred plant spirit medicine traditions. From here forth let us refer to them as the “divine immortals.”

The purpose of drinking yagé was to learn to understand the way of the divine immortals. Given it was then who gave the varieties of yagé to the upper Amazonian peoples. And it was them who thought the early people in the ways to use it, and for the sole purpose of communion with these. In reality, not one person living on the earth can say they own the yagé, for the yagé is owned by the divine spirits. And it is they who are allowing us to handle this for the meantime, so we may learn, so we may heal and so we may evolve. We are only borrowing it from them.

If we are borrowing something from someone, this implies we are the guest. The question then is, who is the host?

If you choose to adhere to how all this began, then let the host be the highest, most exalted, divine energies of the multi-universe. When we align to a subtle universal way of life, then we know, who is the host. Reason why the elders always advise, “be generous like a host, and live respectfully like a guest.”

This unique quality of the divine immortals to remain constant through a perpetual state of renewal, is unlike any of the realities in the realms bound by time and space, where any element will undergo modification when they enter either a higher or lower energetic realm. They are unchanging for they are pure universal subtle law. Thus to understand them we must understand the universal subtle law. Master Ni has a book about just this entitled, Tao, The Universal Subtle Law and The Integral Way of Life.

As illustrated in the energy map, natural deities can rise up to the immortal realms and descend to the realms of astral beings and nature spirits. Nature spirits and astral beings can rise to the realms of natural deities and sink to the realms of humans. Humans can rise to the realms of nature spirits and descend to the realms of ghosts and demons.

At the threshold of the realms, there are energetic barriers. In order to pass through the veil and open the blockages, learning to concentrate one’s energy, adhering to the principles of universal subtle law, upholding the art of selfless service and using one’s cultivated virtuous nature will allow one to open one’s inner blockages in order to pierce through the veils to perceive the ultimate realities. Being sincere is a prerequisite for learning to understand universal subtle law and for making even the most minimal progress, let alone for accomplishing long lasting success.

The Hourly Energetic Clock

The hourly clock is a phenomena of many traditional cultures, each with their own unique way of interpreting the types of energy present throughout different times of the day. Again from the Tradition of the Integral Way of Tao, we learn how through the day the interactions of yin and yang vary. A topic far too profound to cover here other than a few aspects of this that coincide with traditional Siekopai wisdom relating to the ceremony of Yagé. On which below I will expound further.

We can understand mid-day as the peak of yang energy. The time of sunset is when the yin energy extends and the yang gets bent up. Early evening, is related to being dismembered; its forms destroyed. Midnight is the peak of yin energy, a quiescent time indicating the endless opening to the properties of the pure realms of the Earth; the multitude of her faces . After midnight the yang begins slowly returning, at 3 am to sunrise begins the time for agreement of yin and yang energies. The dazzling lights begin to increase; yin and yang harmoniously relate as friends.

Now that the energy map is clear, allow me to elucidate some related insights into the daily energy clock in reference to sacred plant medicine ceremony. In a nut shell, from sunset to midnight is when the spirits, the elementals and primal energies become apparent, and from midnight to sunrise is when the celestial energies become apparent. Ayahuasca ceremonies traditionally occur from sunset to midnight, for the purpose of using the elemental powers to heal. This has been transferred to modern day settings, and people seem to think that just drinking the ayahuasca in and of itself and reciting healing songs or listening to recordings is sufficient for auspicious results, without the rigorous prior disciplining or knowledge of the realms.

Under the influence of the sacraments all sounds and movements are considered a certain type of invocation. For this reason plant medicine ceremonies, intended to introduce students to the celestial spirits, remain quiet until midnight or even up until the wee hours of dawn.

In a traditional ceremony of yagé, participants drink strong brew throughout the night, all the while remaining quiet and observant, and avoid altogether the elemental powers that are always nearby. In traditional drinking of yagé, many times, if the elders feel there has been disturbances in the energetic fabric of the night, if participants have been making too much noise, or not holding well the required discipline, they will stay silent all night, sometimes even dump the yagé and stop drinking, and just go to sleep. To again try another night. When all is aligned,, at the wee hours of dawn, the ceremony begins. The invocations, chanting and healings occur when the “heaven people arrive” and enter the ceremonial lodge.

Gods Multicolored People and the Tradition of Yagé

The divine immortals, in their kindness and infinite grace, taught the first peoples a vastly diverse array of energy cultivation methods, so that people may evolve spiritually and recuperate the original and unspoiled nature enshrined within each human being. Sacred plant medicine is one example among many of these time-tested world heritage traditions. In my book Rainforest Medicine, I share a Siekopai story of how first peoples learned the spiritual science of yagé directly from a group of divine immortals referred to as the “Ñañë Siekopai” which translates as “Gods multicolored people.” The sole purpose of the traditional drinking of yagé is for the participant to discover proof of the existence of the divine immortals by meeting them, and granting the energy needed to follow a heavenly way.

How did Gods multicolored people teach these first peoples, through drinking with them the yagé, and teaching them different ways to use it. Such as sunrise renewal ceremony, the leaf tea emetic where gallons are drunk to puke and puke and puke. The drinking of yagé as a basic school of education, and the ëo’yagé the extra thick graduation level yagé. As well as many many more traditions aimed at allowing participants to learn healing arts, with others entheogenic plants such as pejí ~ Brugmansia suaveolens and ujajaí ~ Brunfelsia grandiflora, among others.

A classic passage from an early book written by Capuchin priests, “Memories of the Frontier,” relate a moment where a priest enters a ceremony of yagé and asked, “Why do you drink yagé.” The natives replied, “Because god drinks yagé!”

Insights into Ayahuasca Tradition

It is important to understand that ayahuasca is fundamentally a medical tradition; not necessarily an enlightenment tradition. Notions of this carry forth in that ayahuasca is commonly referred to nowadays in western settings as “medicine.” In a traditional ayahuasca ceremony the *maestro” (graduated drinker) directs the powers of elemental spirits and it is these spirits who perform the healing. The patients, if at all, rarely drink. Ayahuasca does have healing properties in its ability to purge toxins and old stuck thoughts, to tonify the heart and cleanse the organs. However, traditionally the patients would not drink, only the students or disciples of the maestro would drink the medicine with the maestro of the ceremony. This is due to belief that during the ceremony, it is the spirits themselves who accomplish the healing, the maestro merely has attained the ability too direct them to do so. To learn this sacred art, old time ayahuasqueros would drink ayahuasca only after vigorous dietas (energy concentration practices) in order to prove the veracity of their discipline. After many dietas spanning extended periods of time, they gain wisdom and they learn to become selfless and they, from the divinities, learn the advanced arts of healing. Note: For further insights read Chapter 4 of Rainforest Medicine: Elements of the Experience, La Dieta: For Purification and Spiritual Mastery, page 118.

The question each person engaging in plant spirit medicine ceremony can ask is: In your ceremony, what spirits are you relating to?

The subtle divine immortals are for the most part unconcerned with humanity’s variable nature. For this reason, maestro ayahuasqueros use the elemental powers and nature spirits to heal. These spirits are closer by, in the energy map, in the sense that they are bound by time, space, and thus consequently ~ duality. For this reason, they can be capricious, and inherent in their nature is the ability to do good as well as harm. To use and direct them only for the good is a holy art. A highly successful one at that, as once mastered, no illness stands a chance and many types of miraculous cures can be brought about.

Only after communion with the heaven people is attained the individual associates with elemental energies. Before this they are avoided at all cost! For if is believed that if one first meets the elementals and nature spirits, it becomes much more difficult and laborious to meet the divine immortals. The maestro whose authority stems from the heaven people, can keep the elementals in check, and this, for the sole purpose of healing.

This ability is achieved after rigorous dietas that first enable the healer to achieve communion with divine immortals, also referred to as heaven people. There are rare cases where individuals have become masters of this sacred art after only one ceremony, for the most part though, it takes an extended period of time, great courage and discipline. Being genuinely happy, loving and kind, embodying compassion and moderation, developing common sense and discernment, living simply, being selfless and service oriented, learning to heal and being able to orient people in their life path, are all merely side effects of following a celestial way of life.

To learn it takes great willingness, cosmic purpose and divine courage. One must learn the deeper meaning of triumph, accustom oneself in the art of being comfortable with the uncomfortable and practice exquisite patience, and so much more.

An epic story, by the Sufi mystical poet, Farid ud-Din Attar, called “The Conference of the Birds” summons up the phenomena of spiritual development, and the trials people must undergo, when they begin their search for truth.

“If Simorgh unveils its face to you, you will find
that all the birds, be they thirty or forty or more,
are but the shadows cast by that unveiling.
What shadow is ever separated from its maker?
Do you see? The shadow and its maker are one and the same,
so get over surfaces and delve into mysteries.”

A quote from a passage in the The Conference of the Birds by Attar, edited and translated by Sholeh Wolpé.

The Subtle Energy of Yagé and Its Trail. 

A fascinating aspect of the spiritual culture of Yagé of the upper Amazon, is the phenomena of the “pinta camino,” known among the Siekopai as the “Toyá ma’á.” Essentially this can be understood as toya – designs and ma’a – trail, the “Designs Trail.” Understanding this deeper, it is the “designs,” these being the essence of divine immortals, and the “path,” which represents this essence moving forward, or how divine energy manifests in this world. It moves forward when people align to this path, a path that follows the movements of spirit. So Toya ma’a can be understood as, the movements of the essence of the divine immortals. The divine essence flows from the immortal realms into the mortal realms. And this movement in turn bring forth, the movement of the mortal realms into the immortal realms. A super flow of everything coming in and out of everything all at the same time. The image can be seen as that of a hyperboloid of revolution, an hour glass, or Schwarzchild wormhole, an Einstein-Rosen bridge. When seen from this perspective, we can see clearly that spirit and matter are inseparable, and that there are many types of realities.

There is a Siekopai symbol called the toa’tsá, “that which holds up the fire,” three of these are used to hold up there cooking pots and cassava making plates. In Siekopai cosmology these are believed to represent, “that which holds heaven and earth together.”

Many types of waverings, some more than others, cause the “pinta,” known among the Siekeopai as “yagé toyá,” (these being the celestial energies) to hold back. The brew is rendered nothing more or less that alkaloid soup. Without this spiritual energy infused in the brew, it is worthless to drink, according to traditional standards, and it can even cause harm.

There is an entire school of thought related to ‘carrying on the pinta,’ so that it may not get dispersed, rather that it stay concentrated. When all is aligned and the master of the ceremony blows onto the medicine, activating the brew, with the most powerful part of their body, which is their breath. One’s breath, the subtle connection to life and to spirit. The pinta ignites in its ability to reveal many mystical wonders. Visions of different types of realities come forth, of the ways of heaven, of advice that comes from the inside out, of the various forms of divinities of the earth in all their many shapes and sizes. The electric eel water dragon, and mythic birds, healing doctors spirits may come as colorful fish who suck off ones illness and allow one to be made new. Crowned masters from all races of life forms, chiefs of the animal and bird tribes, dimensional portals, dazzling lights, richly saturated outlined colors. One spirit swiftly descends on whats like a slide, leaving the contaminations to scatter. Or everything turns to sand and falls away leaving only pure spirit to rise. Portals within portal, the realms within realms with realms. Simply put, this is something words cannot describe, they can only let snippets of colors and sounds, of scents and feelings, trickle through and transmit just some of this energy.

To conserve the pinta, there are many types of protocols related to preparing, to serving and to traveling with the medicine.  Such as, when cooking the medicine, the cooks never walk behind the pot, as it is believed to cut the pinta trail. The pinta comes from behind the pot, and when it arrives to the pot, it sees that someone has walked behind the pot, and it doesn’t know where to go, straight into the pot, or to the right or to the left so it retreats. Chapter 5 of Rainforest Medicine “Preparing a Proper Brew,” outlines this in detail. When opening the brew always offer abundant incense, as when in serving. It is important that the medicine be brought out only after all has settled into their spots. When all participants are in a meditative mind set and ready to commence the ceremony. Like a grand piano concert at a grant and illustrious music hall, only after everyone has taken their seats and is quiet, out comes the pianist.

Interesting to note, is that alkaloids in the brew are like anchors for the pinta, they pull the pinta to them and want to merge. The pinta though is like a spiritual mist, an energy, the energy of the divine immortals. And it is this that settles on the yagé when certain protocols are respected. Important to note is that ayahuasca or yagé is like a hyper sensitive recorder, or rather like an attractor, it pulls the subtle elements towards it. Reason why all the spirits are attracted to the yagé. Reason why the facilitator who carries the medicine must know the protocols for protecting this medicine, so that it might not get spiritually contaminated, or most likely, so that random spirits won’t take the pinta and rendering it worthless to drink.

The yagé can be fixed though, and here is where ones sincerity comes to place. The brew must be blessed, prayed on, offered generous wafts of aromatic smoke from resins such as copal and others. If the pinta gets shook up on the brew and is disturbed, the yagé fixes itself on its own, the brew is left alone in a cool dark place for up to five days. The pinta returns on its own accord. We are again blessed, with yet another opportunity to experience this.

Factors that Bring on Ayahuasca Precarious Nature

Though trickster spirits are abundant and close at hand for the most part these are inert and alone do not have the capacity to impact physical human affairs.  They infiltrate ceremonies when certain types of transgressions have occurred. Situations occur when they are coupled with the facilitator’s lack of rectitude and ability to create a safe container to protect the participants. Trickster spirits abound, and are sly beyond measure, but not to the natural surveillance of those with experience and whose virtues are intact.

The leafy broom rattle, an important tool of the ceremonial facilitator, in Paicoca (peopled language) this is referred to as a hooka’sayé’pë. This word can be understood as “uniting all of ones virtues, to dismiss anything unvirtuous, so as to allow the celestial energies to rise.”  In this way we avoid stimulating the precarious nature of what has been originally intended to be a catalyst for all that is good!

In the context of modern day usage, no matter how well intentioned, it is much easier to unintentionally permit trickster spirits, known as watí, of which there are millions, to tamper with your and other people’s minds than one might assume. They are a thousand times more savvy than the strong willed may admit. In one quick instant you’re worshiping the god of thoughts, and you’re not even aware that that’s what’s happening.

And the questions arise: Are thoughts even meant to be taken seriously? Are your thoughts even yours?

Before you can say the word cheese, you have left the golden path of the constructive cycle and entered the controlling or destructive cycles. The good news is that your unadorned sincerity will see right through these, and you will know, when to move and when to stay quiet. You will know when you are swaying and you will use your self restraint to allow this to dissolve, it can take a long time to get a grip on this practice.

When there is too much noise too early in the night, when icaros (healing songs, intended on invoking elemental energies) are sung by people who haven’t undergone the disciplining to consecrate their relationship with divine immortals, or when the entirety of the icaro is not obtained and only unleashed are fragments of their purpose rather than the complete circle. In some cases this can cause poisonous snakes and all types of insects to emerge on the surrounding landscape. These types of disparities cause room for ayahuasca’s precarious nature to unfold.

Then there is the issue of contraindicated medications and foods, aged cheese and alcoholic beverages, too much mixing of different types of drugs and entheogens, brews not well prepared, space not well set, and bodies not ready for the experience. All these contribute to ayahuascas’ precarious nature to make itself known.

There is also an entirely different theme of discussion as well, that related to certain cultural prohibitions, such as: eating food prepared by a menstruating or pregnant woman after coming down from the ayahuasca or yagé experience, drinking within several days of having had a wet dream or having ejacualted sperm, men drinking from the same cup as the facilitator or tying up hammocks if his wife is pregnant, holding judgment towards the facilitator, looking for something wrong outside oneself, and not surrendering to the experience, as these are believed to bid for the healing energies to snap.

The sincere student knows that it is not important to do anything correctly, but that it is imperative to do nothing wrong. That there is a lesson in everything that occurs and that all is part of the training. With each passing day one aims and refining and clarifying ones energy. So that it maybe come crystal clear.

All these and more types of waverings cause the “pinta,” known among the Siekeopai as “yagé toyá,” (these being the celestial energies) to hold back. The brew is rendered nothing more or less that alkaloid soup. Without this spiritual energy infused in the brew, it is worthless to drink, according to traditional standards. It can though, as mentioned above, be fixed!  And just how compassionate is that! Another reason ayahuasca and yagé are referred to as Grandmother medicine.

Qualities of the good facilitators 

A good facilitator protects the ceremonial space and supports the intention of encountering the celestial spirits. This good person in that swift instant, when the effects of the inebriant begins to make itself known, establishes a celestial shield, where all within are allowed freely to know the most exquisite of all absolute wonders.

A thousand miseries in that swift instant vanish and innumerable blessings are ensured. It is a profound and holy thing. They have studied how this is done; they know the trail to the “House of the immortals.” The yagé toyá is reclusive, as are the energy of the divine immortals, it is shy, it requires everything to be well set, in order to appear at the celestial banquet, where it can serve the guests, as a true host, with utterly amazing majesty.

A good facilitator is always forthright and willing to share how they learned. This person needs to remain optimistic, and positive all the time. Many of them are so good they conceal themselves completely and go un perceived by the majority of people around them. Others were lights so bright in a world so dark, they brought out the darkest forces who wanted to smother this light, and were tricked into going to heal, instead though they were set up and killed. Yagé has always been precarious path, and that won’t change. What our kind hearted elder maestros have kindly shown, through actions, example and word, is that when the protocols are understood and the tradition is followed to the T, no one is harmed and only good is brought about.

As the old drunken master said, with his crown slanted to the side, glistening necklaces draped across his sweat and yagé splotched tunic, “…having to work so hard chopping wood, hauling water, pounding yagé. Withstanding long days of fasting, no food, nor water, hours cooking yagé by the hot fire, in the heat of the sun, just to do harm, I think not! “

The energies of heaven are unattached and ever present, always ready to serve, in an absolute and selfless manner. All divergences to the original guidelines for using yagé  invite susceptibility to manipulation by the spirits. In extreme cases where authority is seized without the truthful election of the people, those types are susceptible to manipulation by evil spirits. At the onset, deviation from the path most often happens outside of one’s awareness, from all ones past issues the prevent one from seeing clearly. It happens with a swift instant. This is why the torchbearers of the tradition always tell new students, “When the spirits call your name, do not go.” A whole lot can be unpacked from this adage of the elders! It is also possible to do harm in one swift motion, and one might not even be aware that harm has been done. All this indeed is a profoundly subtle phenomena that demands the students scrutiny and natural surveillance.

A great hint form the kindest hearted of masters, clearly say, that swiftest way of gathering helping spirits, is through accumulating daily acts of selfless service. In this way we dissolve the illusory boundary between self and others.

Those are the good facilitators, who all the while, when not singing or silent while being fiercely gripped by the powerful yagé, when they are not secretly accomplishing acts of virtuosity, they are smiling; enjoying their lives and laughing.

A Word on Integration

While this is an utter simplification of a vastly far reaching conversation. Where words seem at times even absurd! Important to remember is that the essence of a successful ceremony is when afterwards, there is no integration needed. All the participants have been fully integrated by the ceremony’s closure. Of course this may not be the case in rare examples of graduation ceremonies where months of integration may be needed. And in todays society as well, where we are so gravely disconnected, of course much much more integration will be needed. Still this can be lessened and one can come closer to the true affects of the medicine, when the above is understood, so as to allow for the “universal integration” to occur during the magic of the ceremony. The way I have come to see this, is that “Integration,” is more appropriately used as a binomial word, this being, “Universal-integration.” Once we have achieved a basic level of self purification, of self awakening to the vital importance of caring for the inner sanctum of our bodily temple and learning to serve others in ways that are truly beneficial, not just in ways one may think are beneficial, then we can integrate with the highest, most divine and sublime energies of the universe.

Terrence Mckenna, in a personal communication related the following, It was some time ago now but the essence was this. In places where the medicine is native too, among the people of the Amazon who have evolved with the ayahuasca, for hundred if not thousands of years, the lessons are already integrated into their way of life. The plant’s teachings are specific to the environment where both the people and the plant are raised in. Modern western people, with modern western jobs and lives, don’t have that evolutionary cultural background, they have no context to incorporate the lessons that the entheogenic plant medicine have. What lessons does Ayahuasca have for, let’s say a NY stock broker? How will this person incorporate the teaching into their life, when the cultural evolution of the plants and people here would be missing. Therefore yes, integration will be much needed in modern western contexts, to unite the broken scattered fragments into a unified whole. Sorta like the song of Humpty Dumpty.  “Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the kings men, could not put Humpty together again.” 

Universal integration brings peace and authentic joy. Universal integration allows each person to encounter ones genuine self. 

The view of a successful ceremony when no integration is needed, relates to that during the ceremony people experience the fortunate blessing of the impression of universal integration. A sign of this is when all participants leave the ceremony feeling fully integrated. What does feeling fully integrated look like? It can be seen as a calm grace on peoples faces reflecting an overall disposition of wellbeing. 

When people push too hard with the medicine or drink too strongly out of timing, or many of the above mentioned guidelines are not adhered to, they create an opportunity for the preconditioned splinters of our broken humanity to flap forward smack into our faces. We must remember the medicine is sacred, it is pure. Especially when well prepared, it can be powerful beyond measure, it can be maddeningly strong, one must learn to ride this wave in absolute stillness and quietude, to avoid “loosing it.” This means to avoid screaming all night at the top of ones lungs, or thrashing or causing a big fat mess for others in the room that night. 

We are contaminated, preconditioned and impure. The medicine wants to remove all that is impure, fractured and contaminated from within us. It wants to clear all that is in the way from each person who drinks this to obtain communion with the divine immortals.

And it is just this that is happening when the “constricting” affects of the medicine are in its full hold!

There are many ways the medicine brings this out, so that we may see it, so it can be brought to one’s attention. If though, when the affects of the yagé first start getting strong, one remains quiet and calm, in that moment one must surrender completely and let go of all attachments, all of them. One must throw oneself up into the wind as if you were a leaf, and let spirit take you for a ride, free from the bondage of self. Like this one allows the yagé tutu – the “force of the yagé,” to heal you. If though on struggles at the onset of the brew,  one attaches oneself to thoughts, then one can be quickly flung down the rabbit holes of our gazillion pre-conditionings, through levels of traumas, stresses, influences, the commitments we’ve made or hadn’t made, all that we’ve ever done wrong, can all come to the surface in one big attempt to burst the bubble of self created illusions and pre-conditionings, this can be absolutely maddening, it can bring one to ones knees in absolute agony, in total misery, until finally you fall to the earth, and weep forgiveness, and pray to earth deeply to cleanse you, and vow your loyalty to her for ever more by living a life of integrity. This, in order to allow oneself to again, as when we were a child, see, with that same purity of innocence. 

Strong medicine can bring forth many types of hardships, both during the night of ceremony and far afterwards as well. Though they may be hard, when looked at deeper they may not be all that bad. These may not all be necessarily negative, for they at best catalyze the impetus for a deep shift in one’s life. The set back is when something so foreign, so different, so new is thrown into one’s awareness, at a time when one may not be necessarily ready; and as such can throw one into a difficult time in between. Coupled with how far off course as a humanity we have drifted, can be maddening. 

One does not need to “integrate” the experience, one needs to use the medicine to disintegrate, or dissolve, the self created illusions and crust. What one needs to integrate are the scattered aspects of ones being. Use the experience for universal integration, through self-reflection to bring clarity and resolve the parts of one’s life that need rectification. That need to be straightened, that need to be let go of, purified, left behind.

The old crust, so to say needs to crack off. The old crust of addictions, of bad habits, the karma accumulated from wrong doings. The crust from fear driven, stingy and selfish centered traits. All that keeps us from allowing one’s inner joyous child, the jovial spirit that is inherent in each human being, must crack off, so that one can be who one really is. Nothing needs to be added on, only the old stuck and unhealthy ways and attributes, the contaminations, need to be liberated and released. 

Integrating the lessons of the medicine is important, but in truth there is nothing to take on, only contamination’s to remove. For this reason integration doesn’t seem to be the correct word. Once, what has been clogging the lens, so to say, is removed. Then one can work on the daily project of universal Integration. And this, my friend, is a great joy, and a rare and precious gift! This allows for all the components of one’s being, all the directions of one’s projections, to join together harmoniously into a unified whole! This allows for one to triumph no matter what! Words don’t do it justice, and ultimately there is no one correct way. 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and righting doing. There is a field, I will meet you there. ~ Rumi