Huachuma Cactus & Mother Ayahuasca Ceremonies
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
130
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Iquitos,
Peru
Thursday, July 24, 2008
San Pedro Cactus Ceremony with Wendy Lucky
Location: Miriam Hackeīs Healing Centre, Goddess Of The Amazon
San Pedro Cactus is a sacred healing plant native to the Andes Mountains of Peru between 2000-3000 m in altitude. It is also found in Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador and it is cultivated in other parts of the world. Uses for it include traditional medicine, traditional veterinary medicine and it is widely grown as an ornamental cactus
In Plants we trust
. It has been used for healing and religious divination in the Andes Mountains region for over 3000 yearsThe healer Wendy Lucky was born in Minot, North Dakota into a family with mixed cultural diversity. From an early age, she had to learn how to navigate in these different worlds during a time when this was not supported in community or culture. Throughout her life, she has experienced intense interactions with spirits and the natural world. Her training as an indigenous healer and visionary began at the age of eleven, when she survived being hit by lightning, considered by elders in the Americas as a traditional calling by Spirit to train and practice the medicine path.
While at university, she became disillusioned with higher Western education and some of the perceptions of modern medicine. She then refocused her lifelong quest for truth and healing by pursing experiential studies with wisdom keepers in both indigenous and spiritual traditions. Her background combines wisdom gained over many years of study, with elders in different traditions, including Native American, African, Celtic, and Dreamtime.
In 1998, she first met the spirit of Ayahuasqua when synchronicity brought her to the Amazon to work with Don Augustin Rivas Vasquez at his jungle camp near Tamshiyacu, Peru. In those first experiences, she was profoundly changed by direct encounters with this plant spirit. During the next four years, she returned to Peru as often as possible for more intensive healing with Ayahuasca
daytura LoVe
. In 2002, synchronicity brought her to the mountains of Peru where she met the spirit of Achuma (San Pedro), which opens the heart and heals emotions. Spirit has brought many wisdom keepers into her life, including ayahuasquera Maria Cristina Mendoza Vidal, and curandero Don Theo Paredes, considered a master of plant medicines. In 2006, Wendy moved to Peru to continue studies with sacred plant medicines and the Andean mystical and healing traditions. Most recently, she has been on dieta learning from the plants and trees in the rain forest near Iquitos.
Her practice of the art of healing combines work with medicine plants, along with energetic healing practices, to assist others in their transformational process to assist them in fulfilling their life purpose. The higher intent of her work is to forward human evolution during these times of great planetary change. Her dedication to learning and passion for medicine work has enabled her and others to deepen their awareness, integrate, and develop their natural gifts.
Her interest is in global healing, personal transformation, and cross cultural communication to facilitate increasing harmony and growth for all beings on the planet.
Nadine, Jamie, Ic, Steve and i all decided to do a ceremony with Wendy together. We caught a rickety bus to Miriam Hackeīs healing centre just out of Iquitos. People call Miriam, a healer, the Goddess Of The Amazon and she is over run with patients. Right now Miriam and her Australian daughter are in the process of setting up a university in Iquitos to teach medicine to students free of charge
Goddess Of The Amazon
. The property we went to has a small lake and temple and is supposedly blessed with having mermaids living there in the lake. The San Pedro medicine was weak at first and we all went for a second dose about 45 minutes in. We spent some time alone in meditation and i got some answers i had been looking for for the past two weeks during Ayahuasca sessions, very pleased with that. We explored the property and played with a random child who wandered into the space while Wendy did personal healings for people using feathers and medicine songs. There was a German guy named Ally who played the flute in the forest anbd Steve bashed out some drumming. The sweet Australian couple Gary and Kim had some kind of mock wedding and we threw flowers all over each other then ate bananas and Peruvian raisins. The day went by quickly and it was dark before we knew it. We headed back into town and ate a mild dose of blessed magic mushrooms each then sat around talking philosophies and ideas and listening to tunes. Ik recited Dr Suessīs The Lorax book. A fun and enlightening day was had by all connecting with nature and each other.We spent some time with Wendy over the conference week and we are planning for her to be our guest in Australia at some time in the future.
Ayahuasca Ceremony with Don Augustin Rivas
Location: One Hour from Iquitos by speedboat, held at the masterīs camp
Ayahuasca is is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, native to the Amazon Rainforest. The resulting drinks are pharmacologically complex and used for shamanic, folk-medicinal, and religious purposes
Wendy Lucky
. Ethno-biologists report that a variety of 200-300 plants are used in the different brews made by the Ayahuasceras. It is an open question whether Ayahuasca should be regarded as one particular shamanic medicinal brew, or whether it should be regarded as an entire medicinal tradition specific to the Amazonas. I have previuosly written about my other ayahuasca experiences during my week long retreat.The curandero Don Agustin Rivas is a well known healer, shaman and Ayahuasquero, who has been trained by respected native healers over 37 years ago where he experienced many years of intensive discipline and profound work with sacred ceremonies and sacred medicines. He is a ceremonial leader, teacher, healer and a self-taught psychologist, philosopher, musician and artist.
He was born in the village of Tamshiyacu, on the stores of the Amazon River. He left his village at age 13 to attend seminary school, but he had already been exposed to Amazonian shamans and their practices, which left a strong impression in his young mind. He left seminary school and learned many trades in his journeys, at last becoming a master wood craftsman, making fine furniture in Lima, the capital. He later settled in Pucallpa, where he raised his family. It was there he began to learn from some famous shamans. During this apprenticeship he saw a vision of wood sculptures and his wood craftsmanship took a new form. He began to sculpt the many fantastic creatures of the phantasmagoria of Amazonian Shamanism
Mono loco on drum Huachuma ceremony
. After many years of rigorous training in Shamanism, his teachers said he was ready and he began to heal children. At the same time he became a famous sculptor, doing expositions all over Peru, and in Austria by invitation of the Austrian government. His career as a sculptor came to a tragic end when an accident tore the tendons of his hands. He regained partial use of his hands, but he could sculpt no more. He then dedicated all his time to healing.He started to treat young addicts at his jungle camp with great success. Many foreign people came to visit him and invited to go to North America and Europe to conduct workshops on Peruvian Amazon Shamanism. He returned to his home village of Tamshiyacu, where he built a beautiful encampment about 2 hours walk into the jungle. Many people from all over the world have visited him and his camp has become a healing and teaching clinic where people come for learning, healing, vision, transformation and empowerment. An accomplished musician, he delights us with his Icaros (chants) during ceremonies. In his camp, don Agustin employs the local people from the village to cook and care for the many visitors. With the money that he earned from these groups, he started an arts school in his village where young and old alike learn how to sculpt and paint. Don Agustin also started a scholarship fund for children and built a primary and secondary school in Tamshiyacu, where children from the village are finally getting educated
LOVE in the sand
. He also bought land for 60 families who were displaced by coca growers and helped support them while their crops grew.All the people who meet him are aware of his sensitive, caring nature. Don Agustin is a visionary, a healer, an artist and a humanitarian. Every person who meets him leaves with profound new perspectives and teachings and a renewed joy in life.
Wow! this was the best medicine yet. This experience is up there with one of the most extroadinary events to ever happen to us. A wonderful day and night was spent with Don Augustin Rivas and his translator Rosa. There was a group of maybe 16 of us including Ik and Nadine, Neil, Pamela and two other Aussies. We took a speedboat up the river to the river village of Tamshiyacu. Master Rivas is a superstar in these parts and is exhibiting the traits of a true shaman by looking after the whole village. The people all know and love him and have even painted his image onto buildings throughout the place. We went to Master Rivasīs house which was marked by the presence of a red macaw sitting on a perch outside his home. Inside there were some of his sculptures, a bust of him and i even got a little sticky beak in at his private photograph collection upstairs. We then walked 1.5 hours into the jungle from his house until we reached the camp where Master Rivas was waiting to welcome us with a light lunch. It is important that on the day of your ceremony you restrict some foods like salt, sugar, caffeine and pork and eat as little as possible, this is so you can have the full effect of the plant without interference from other sunstances in your body.
The property is a paradise and felt entirely safe and comfortable
flower ceremony
. There are numerous dwellings built from natural wood materials, some large dorm type rooms, alarge central kitchen building and some cabins for people in training or doing dietas. An example of a dieta is when you make a promise to the plant to restrict food intake by only eating fish and bananas for example and not having sex for a time of around 7-10 days. The benefit is that the plant may then provide you with more gifts and greater insight during ceremony. Some people in shaman training or apprenticeships spend a few months isolated in the jungle in silence where they have basic foods brought to them and get really well connected with nature and the spirits of the plants. This is possible at Don Augustin Rivasīs camp. I feel the call to do one of these extended stays or vision quests back in Australia in a bush or rainforest environment but can see that here would be wonderful too. In fact D.A.R has invited Ic to train with him, this is a huge honour and we are overjoyed for him. All the buildings on the land are either one or two stories high and built above ground, connected via floating boardwalks and bridges built close to the ground or in the air. There is a clean, flowing water moat surrounding all the buildings making for a very safe and peaceful environment. The water makes a natural boundary around the perimeter of the land and is especially useful during ceremony so the bad spirits cannot enter the sacred circle inside the temple.We spent the day learning from Don Augustin as he spoke through his translator Rosa about shamanism and the sacred healing plants
in San Pedro ceremony with Wendy Lucky
. People come to this paradise place to learn but also to heal and recover from illnesses. Some of the people have very serious cancers and there are countless stories of miracles happening here.There is a young guy here halfway through his medicine treatment and he seems to be doing very well. The Amazon medicine is so very powerful.After a quick meditation and the required swim in the water we were ready for the ceremony. The ceremony was held in a simple but large moloka temple on the property. There were cushions and a giant mesa shrine table where Don Augustin had set up his blessed items, staffs, rocks, tobacco, shamans tools, various organic substances in bowls, strange objects he uses in the ritual and many different musical instruments. Some of the instruments were objects we had never seen before and we were very interested to see the nights proceedings start. This was a very different type of traditional healer where the family call themselves white witches (blancos).
The ceremony was conducted by Don Augustin and his small wife plus his son and brother who are all involved in the ritual. All possess traits of the shaman lineage. Cleansing with the sacred, natural, jungle tobacco was done by blowing the smoke via a wooden pipe into our open eyeballs and into our noses and crowns of our heads. Don Augustin called us up individually to take a very small cup of Ayahuasca medicine brew he had prepared. Luckily his medicine is strong and it was not necessary for us to drink a large cup, the taste is vulgar and has been described as the taste of the whole jungle mixed with stomach bile, true
Wendy Lucky gives the medicine
. Next, the family blew out all the candles to plunge us into complete darkness. An attendant would be at the door to escort us to the bathrooms if need be. We all had a bucket for purging. The ceremony was opened with a traditional song, speech in Spanish and with Don Augustin dancing in the middle of the circle doing a tap dance shuffle type step married with some circus-y sounding song he was singing kind of like a hurdy gurdy machine playing man. This style immediately resonated with me. Don Augustin and his wife danced and performed some beautiful icarus (medicine songs) that i was able to record on the ipod microphone although people around me were purging so there are some additional sound effects on the microphone. There was the use of drums, feathers, bells and stringed instruments as well as personal healings performed by members of the white witch family. The medicine started to work almost immediately and many people were throwing up. Luckily for me, i had nothing to purge because i was already feeling clean. I found myself very effected by the medicine and was able to meet with my spirit guides who came to me in the form of a beautiful white and turquiose Elf womanīs face and in the form of a staunch jungle chief man with a bone through his nose. My intention for this ceremony was to ask what my role would be in raising human consciousness, how i can live more purposefully and serve humanity better. The answers were clear for me and i was told to gather wisdom and information and that the time was coming for me when my gift of the ability to heal would be activated
Kim and Gary
. I saw myself studying and learning skills and also saw myself working with my hands to create beautiful art pieces. The presence of my irridescent rainbow coloured metallic serpent was felt and i was able to use it to help people around me. The ceremony was long and exhausting on our minds. Nadine threw up twelve times and did lots of spiritual work. There is much more to this ceremony that i am still deciphering and also a sound recording of Don Augustin analysing our visions the next day. During the ceremony we were able to witness Don Augustin doing some extreme healing on two people who he laid out on a table in the middle of the room. You could tell that the work takes alot out of the healer. The ceremony finished and we were told to go to our beds and get a couple of hours sleep in before the sun rose. I woke up just before the sun feeling on top of the world and very clean and healthy. Most others woke up this way too. I watched all the beautiful birds and ducks on the property then went for the morning close-the-top-of your-head dunking ritual that must be done after a ceremony. Old mate Don Augustin was doing the naked swim before breakfast. We had a basic breakfast of maca tea and fruit whilst Don Augustin performed some drumming using a wooden stick on one of his sculptures. We had sharing time where we all told of our experiences and visionf rom the night before and Don Augustin Rivas gave us some advice based on what we had said and what he felt
flowers scattered
. The guy was spot on with all our readings and asked Ik to come and do some further shamanic training with him on his property, a huge honor and giant call to make especially since this was what Ik had been seeking and the reason for his travelling and leaving Canada. The three of us all walked the hour and a half back to the town together after buying two healing staffs and a wooden jaguar pipe from a local artist. We met up with Pamela in town who had been gifted with some good visions the night before and an owl sculpture. We bought two artworks from an artist in town and bought a young woman and her siblings some lunch. We caught the speedboat back into Iquitos town and felt like new people in a whole new world.Huachuma Ceremony With Aeli & Yasmina
Location: Botanical Gardens near Iquitos
This day Nadine and i decided to go down different paths. The night before the boys Ik and Jamie had experienced an intense session of Ayahuasca where the two key ingredients were taken seperately in accurate doses rather than in a drink form. I ran into them in the Iquitos square where they were still well awake and raving about their wonderful experience. I had decided that along with Bryan and 10 others that i would do a nice, Earthy, feminine San Pedro cactus session with Aeli and Yasmina, a good way to end the conference. The ceremnoy was held at the Botanical gardens out of town, a space with a giant moloka and zen like lake for swimming, meditation and relaxation
Jamie
. Because i was on my own without my pixie friends in attendance, i knew this ceremony would be more serious and personal and that i would get more work done. Aeli gave us a card with an affirmation on it to help guide our intentions for the session. We were given a cup and a large dose of dark green San Pedro powder plus some orange juice and water to mix it up with at our leisure. I had a hard time swallowing it all and took the medicine slowly. I remained seated in meditation posture in the sacred circle for quites some time perhaps an hour listening to Aeli and Yasmina sing world medicine songs in many different languages, wave feathers and gently play drums. The two women together guiding the ceremony combined with the medicine made for a very feminine vibration throughout. I watched as Aeli danced like an Eagle around the circle and used the feathers to cleanse us. One by one as the medicine took hold, people started to leave the circle and go off to find their own little magic place in the gardens.
I took my gear and ventured down to the lake where there is supposedly mermaids living. On the way there i heard little footsteps running through the leaves and rustling them around, Chullichukki i thought, the little plant spirit pixie was letting me know he was there. The lake was very still and the water was warm and cold depending on where you swam. The sun reached out to me and the clouds displayed a show as i immersed in the water and floated.
Ik
I had the sensation that i was part of this divinely beautiful natural world, i was beautiful and i was reduced down into the little molecules of DNA that is all. The sensation of being at one with all was very therapeutic and i spent quite some time in this state. Next i found a spot under a tree in the forest and sketched some pictures. No purging again. I helped Bryan out for awhile trying to get him to let his rubbish out by purging, he felt ridiculously ill and did end up having a good purge. I smoked natural tobacco behind him through the jaguar pipe to help the process along. The medicine was strong and i had a good day connecting with the Earth and in particular with the Water element. Eventually i came back to the circle for the end of the ceremony. A cute little wooden bus that looked like it had come straight from Woodstock came to pick us up and take us back to Iquitos city.Mushrooms With Peter Gorman
Location: Amazon Riverboat
Mushrooms are considered to be little sisters to the master sacred healing plants. There are more than 180 species of mushrooms which contain the psychedelics psilocybin or psilocin. They have a long history of use in Mexico and are currently one of the most popular and commonly available natural psychedelics. Few plants of the gods have ever been held in greater reverence than the sacred mushrooms of Mexico. So hallowed were these fungi that the Aztecs called them Teonancatl ("divine flesh") and used them only in the most holy of their ceremonies
end of ceremony
. Even though, as fungi, mushrooms do not blossom, the Aztecs referred to them as "flowers," and the Indians who still use them in religious rituals have endearing terms for them, such as "little flowers. We were given four pairs of mushrooms on our return trip down the Amazon River from the jungle camp. Each one of the pairs had been blessed by Peter Gorman personally in our hands with an accompanying speech. We spent some time with the stars and Moon (Luna) from the deck of the boat and had some interesting conversations with our crew including Heiro the shaman who sang his medicine songs for us. Fortunately we were able to record these songs on an ipod. Next, Ik translated while Heiro asked if i would be his second jungle wife, they are allowed more than one and i think he was serious about the question. The second wife must do all the chores because the first wife was well, there first. I politely refused the offer even though i had become fairly tribal and jungle-y over the last few days. So, the mushrooms were mild with us reporting maybe just some changes in our eyesight and an intensifying of colours but they were a nice way to end our Amazon jungle experience before we had to be back in down town Iquitos.
