Category

Ayahuasca

Nine Practices to Orient to the Light AyahuascaIntegrationSpirituality

Nine Practices to Orient to the Light

Ayahuasca generates a special kind of light. Peruvian author Cesar Calvo writes of how ayahuasca "irrigates the unknown territory: that is its way of shedding light." I love his description of the plant's alluring "black light," the light that illuminates your consciousness and your most intimate hidden realities. When I speak of the light of ayahuasca, I mean light in both senses of the word—feeling lighter and freer, more elevated, and also brighter, shinier—illuminated from within. This kind of light…
Jun 12, 2026
When Ayahuasca Reveals Past Lives AyahuascaIntegrationPersonal ExperienceShadow

When Ayahuasca Reveals Past Lives

It's said that ayahuasca has the power to clean various disorders and misalignments at the root, supporting healing from the bottom up. What constitutes a deeper root than our past lives? Indeed, it seems ayahuasca can help us face the karmic consequences of past actions, be these from a previous incarnation or an ancestral inheritance. Let me unpack this a bit more here. We modern folks are in the beginning stages ...
May 8, 2026
The Shaman Mystique AyahuascaSociety

The Shaman Mystique

The shaman mystique runs deep in the Amazon, imported by innocent, sometimes gullible visitors seeking an ayahuasca experience with the ultimate ideal(-ised) maestro. Google searches and Reddit posts abound for "How to find a real shaman/the right shaman/a genuine shaman." The belief is, find the perfect medicine man who will see into your soul and fix you. The reality is more complex. Here we dive into the archetypal roots of shamanism, gaps between indigenous practices and Western assumptions, and what…
Jun 21, 2024
Why Integration Is Not a Should AyahuascaIntegrationSociety

Why Integration Is Not a Should

Very occasionally an integration session feels faintly out of alignment to me. It seems like the person I'm working with is doing it from a sense of duty, rather than a genuine desire to deepen into their own experience—as if they’re not quite sure what integration is, but they’ve heard it’s important, so they’re checking it off the post-ceremony to-do list. Sometimes we can explore together to tap into a genuine desire to grow; and then we’re integrating.
Feb 25, 2023
WTF, Ayahuasca?! AyahuascaEmotionsIntegrationPersonal ExperienceSociety

WTF, Ayahuasca?!

Often, too often nowadays, people expect ayahuasca to be some sort of magical potion, instantly reformatting them into a completely healed state. When this doesn't happen, they feel resentful, even betrayed: "I did the work, I showed up—why did it do this to me?" This can easily segue into the very common plaint of individuals wrestling with unrecognized trauma: "What's wrong with me?" I'm seeing this kind of reaction more and more lately, due in part to the rapidly spreading…
Dec 29, 2022
from "Divine Moments of Trump", Stella Strzyzowska Guillen
Wisdom of the Purge, Part II AyahuascaNavigationPreparation

Wisdom of the Purge, Part II

In Part I of this post, we explored the many ways purging can manifest with ayahuasca, along with some tips for when things seem stuck. Here we continue with further esoteric mysteries of La Purga: In an essay titled "Ayahuasca and the Grotesque Body," anthropologist Stephen Beyer notes the split that many Westerners seem to carry into ayahuasca ceremony, between our extremely high expectations of fantastical visions, and the dirty work of vomiting. We find vomiting wretched and miserable; we…
Jan 1, 2022
Pablo Amaringo - Three types of sorcerers - purging
Wisdom of the Purge, Part I AyahuascaNavigationPreparation

Wisdom of the Purge, Part I

La Purga, "The Purge," is one of ayahuasca’s names in the Amazon, highlighting a most notorious aspect of its reputation. The ayahuasca vine is strongly purgative—indigenous people sometimes drink it simply to induce a good cleanse. The bucket is thus an essential element in most ayahuasca ceremonies, unless you are free to vomit on the ground. In this "Ode to the Bucket," I will explore some legendary aspects of the purge. I’ve heard people say “I don’t like to vomit,…
Dec 13, 2021
Mapacho: King of Plants AyahuascaDietaPersonal ExperienceTeacher Plants

Mapacho: King of Plants

Ayahuasca use in the Amazon is embedded within a wider tradition of plant science called vegetalismo, and the most important and revered of all plants is tobacco—specifically, mapacho (Nicotiana rustica), a variety that is up to 26 times stronger than that used in commercial cigarettes. The ritual traditions surrounding mapacho are far more ancient than ayahuasca. Some say it was the tobacco spirit that taught humans how to use ayahuasca. Mapacho is considered the master plant of Amazonian healing traditions,…
Jun 23, 2021
what ayahuasca teaches
What Ayahuasca Has Taught Me AyahuascaDietaPersonal Experience

What Ayahuasca Has Taught Me

Entering my seventh year of relation with ayahausca, I've been musing on how it's shaped me, and what I've learned. What I've learned not just in passing, but for keeps—teachings that have been permanently tattooed on my being through my personal work with the medicine, and also the whole excruciating, beautiful process of plant dieta (more on that here and here). Here are three deep knowings that ayahuasca y las plantas have installed in my being: 1). We Belong to…
Mar 29, 2021
ayahuasca integration
Four Integration Essentials AyahuascaIntegration

Four Integration Essentials

People sometimes tell me that following a powerful ceremony, they seemed to completely forget about it—almost as if they’d shut it off. Intense experiences can be disconcerting, yes—but isn’t this the point of medicine work, to break us out of our rut, to recast our mundane vision into a new light? In every difficult experience, it’s by directly facing the pain that we unlock the door to true magic. Remember that hoary therapeutic adage: It’s impossible to transform that which…
Oct 19, 2020