 |
of Life, Spirit, Healing, and Renewal in the Peruvian Amazon A special ten-day spiritual reunion in the rainforests of Amazonian Perú honoring ancient shamanic Ayahuasca healing practices and ethnobotanical knowledge |
|
|
of Life, Spirit, Healing, and Renewal in the Peruvian Amazon A special ten-day spiritual reunion in the rainforests of Amazonian Perú honoring ancient shamanic Ayahuasca healing practices and ethnobotanical knowledge |
Solstice Ayahuasca Odyssey
Agenda and AccommodationsThe heart and soul of this Celebration of Life and Spirit is the unique opportunity to work with gifted true shamanic healers, masters of the ancient healing arts of the Amazon rainforest. We work with an extraordinary maestro curandero who brings a collective energy and scope of ancient knowledge to our ceremonies rarely found. You will have an opportunity for private counseling and personalized healing work in addition to group ceremonies.
The Ayahuasca Odyssey is a spiritually-focused retreat requiring serious preparation, focus and concentration. You will be opened to new levels of spiritual consciousness which will render you vulnerable to subtle influences. You will want to temporarily disengage from the mundane world as much as possible, concentrate your thoughts and energy on the shamanic work at hand, keep the prescribed diet, and avoid potentially harmful distractions outside the retreat framework. In order to realize the fullest benefits of the deep and sensitive healing work we will engage, you will be expected to remain at the retreat except in the course of scheduled group activities.
Preparation of the ancient holistic healing medicine Ayahuasca commences on Monday morning and continues throughout the day. We will attend this process and learn about the role and significance of each component first-hand from our maestro shamans. This is a most important aspect of initiation in the ways and knowledge of the ayahuasquero.
This knowledge aids the seeker of healing in making their personal connection with the medicine at its source, in the most powerful ecological, cultural, and spiritual context possible.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Dietary preparation is required for serious work with Ayahuasca. Restriction or abstinence from salt, sugar, spices, oils, and sexual activity is recommended during the time surrounding the ceremonies. Strict abstinence from eating pork or lard for fifteen days prior to and following the retreat is required. Additional short-term (24 hour) dietary restrictions are recommended as an added safety measure to avoid potential complications from temporary monoamine oxidase inhibition.You will experience the incredibly skilled shamanic healing art of don Rober de Lamas, a genuine banco ayahuasquero (ayahuasca healer at the most advanced level) who will safely guide you deep into inner space and back with skill, integrity, and compassion. Don Rober is also masterful in the arts of tabaqueria (tobacco healing), perfumeria (perfume healing), and pusangeria (the magic of love and positive relationships).Some medications may not be taken with Ayahuasca. These include antidepressants affecting, monoamine oxidase or serotonin levels (MAOI/SSRI), antihistamines, amphetamines, diet aids, opiates, and antibiotics.
Certain health conditions, particularly high blood pressure, coronary problems, diagnosed psychoses or other mental illnesses may preclude safe work with Ayahuasca.
Women in their menstrual cycle are sometimes at risk of excessive bleeding when drinking Ayahuasca. The shamans therefore discourage consumption of Ayahuasca under these circumstances. However, special ceremonial cleansing can be performed to minimize this risk. Please advise us if you think this might be an issue.
Revelation of all current medications, substance consumption and known health conditions is a requirement of registration to assure your safety.
Five nocturnal shamanic ayahuasca healing ceremonies will be conducted during the ten-day Odyssey celebration. The SpiritQuest Ceremonial Maloca is 14 meters wide and 14 meters high, designed according to ancient metaphysical principles found in the great ceremonial centers of ancient Perú. Our ceremonies are conducted inside a pyramid which amplifies and potentiates the healing energy we bring forth in every ceremony. Nothing in the Amazon compares to the SpiritQuest Ceremonial Maloca as the perfect place in which to engage the healing power and wisdom of the sacred plants with people accomplished at the peak of the art.
In the presence of ayahuasca for "Power" and chacruna for "Light", our group will assemble in each ceremony with don Rober, don Otorongo Blanco, and invited spirits presiding. A lovely and stunning blend of beautiful icaros, the shamans' magical spiritual healing music, will guide our journeys as we venture beyond the ordinary together.
These powerful mystical ceremonies bring many wonders and surprises to initiates, often more than they are prepared for. You will be guided and attended throughout your journeys with care, love, and understanding. The SpiritQuest family has much experience with the Medicine and the Spirit World. You will be protected and nurtured through all your experiences.
Sacred flower baths, an integral part of the shamanic cleansing experience, are administered by don Rober each morning following the ayahuasca ceremonies. The combination of the fragrant essences of jungle flowers and the melodic icaros bringing blessings of love and cleansing is powerful, comforting, and unforgettable. On these mornings, you will feel joy and rejuvenation as you find fulfillment in your personal quest. These experiences will leave you with much clarity, energy and focus for your continuing personal growth work in the months to come.
After each ceremony we'll convene in group conversation, sharing our visions, dreams and impressions from the previous evening. This provides opportunity to gain further insight in the workings of the medicine and in ourselves by sharing the experiences of others.
Daily activities include facilitated discussion groups, river outings and guided walks in different kinds of rainforest. You will have various options for leisure daily activities. We have a very nice library on subjects pertaining to shamanism, Ayahuasca and other entheogens, Peruvian indigenous cultural history and traditions, ethnobiology, medicinal plants, natural history, spiritual practices and related topics.
Indigenous People of the Rainforest
We will spend time with our Bora Indian friends of San Andres, sharing traditional dance and trading for their beautiful handicraft made from natural products of the rainforests and rivers. We'll attend a special Bora social fiesta celebrating the indigenous life, and share traditional foods made of yuca (manioc), other native vegetables and fruits, and fish, all prepared in the traditional Bora style. We'll have the opportunity to share the traditional Bora hunting and ceremonial inebriant called ampíri, a powerful stimulant made from mapacho tobacco, combined with yypi, dried and pulverized wild coca leaf mixed with sepico (Cecropia) ash.
We'll visit the more reserved Yahua people who are quite different from the Bora in appearance, personality, and customs. This extended Yahua family group of about 25 individuals emerged from the remote rainforest to engage the outside world only a decade or so ago.
We will visit Muray Indian communities who live further down the Amazon on the edge of the monte, pristine primary rainforest still unoccupied by people.
You will be intrigued and enlightened by the variation in lifestyles and cultural identity among these indigenous communities within a short distance of each other.
Explorations in Rainforest Culture and Ethnobotany
(We reserve the right to modify the agenda if required by circumstances beyond our control.)We'll travel on the Amazon River to a riverside village where we'll stroll through beautiful old-growth rainforest to the invigorating waters of the quebrada encantada (enchanted stream). This beautiful and unique carbon springs is one of only two in the Iquitos region. You can relax in the cool water and treat yourself to a rejuvenating mud bath with the rich gray medicinal clay for which this stream is famous.
Our retreat location affords ample daily opportunities for casual jungle walks and delightful boat outings. The diverse native plant and animal life here provides constant sensory stimulation and discovery. You'll find the local people delightful and very willing to share their lives with you.
We'll visit the famed Belén Indian market from the river perspective. During the high-water season, canoes fill the streets as residents continue their daily life undeterred. It is often called the "Venice of the Amazon" for this reason. Typical residential homes are elevated on stilts or float on balsa logs as the rivers rise.
AccommodationsThe extraordinary SpiritQuest Shamanic Sanctuary Ceremonial RetreatCenter is dedicated to holistic healing and higher consciousness. It is designed specifically for highly focused shamanic healing and spiritual growth work in a beautiful natural setting surrounded by Amazonian rainforest and rivers.
It is the center of a 125-acre private rainforest nature reserve. Here you will become immersed in the genuine Loretano and indigenous cultural lifestyle of the Peruvian Amazon. You will quickly feel at home here, not as a tourist, but as a member of a growing global family preparing for the coming renaissance of spiritual consciousness. Our retreats are conducted in a relaxed and casual family atmosphere. Children are often present and the atmosphere is warm, friendly, compassionate, and supportive.
Our site offers a wonderful natural ambience, great local cultural diversity, friendly and competent staff, and outstanding food. Our spacious double-occupancy guest quarters are comfortably screened for ventilation and protection from insects, with private tiled bathrooms. Solar-generated electricity and solar-heated showers provide all the comforts of home. The SpiritQuest Shamanic Sanctuary is the most comfortable and well-serviced facility of it's kind in the Iquitos region.
A two-story mirador overlooks the river at canopy level where one finds majestic views and a perfect place for meditation and reflection.
You'll rest well here, basking in serene tranquility by day and in unforgettable jungle symphony and shamanic icaro concert by night.
La Dieta
You'll be served excellent organic food of the highest quality at the Sanctuary. Observing the traditional vegetalista diet, we recommend you greatly reduce or abstain alcohol, pork, red meat, salt, refined sugar, fats, saturated oils, and hot spices from two days before arrival until the second day after the final Ayahuasca ceremony.
Though posing no special risks (except possibly alcohol), these additives may inhibit your uptake and receptivity to the Ayahuasca medicine to some degree. Reduction or abstinence of these substances has the benefit of cleansing and purifying the system, and will hasten and strengthen your connection with the medicine. Sexual activity and thoughts should be abstained during this time as well. Sexual abstinence conserves essential energy which is better invested in the rigors of your work with Ayahuasca, and will help guide your mental and spiritual focus in more esoteric realms (see http://www.biopark.org/peru/sqcleansing-01.html). You may find your natural libido enhanced along with all your other functions following your work with Ayahuasca.
Longer periods of dieting may yield additional benefits but the choice is yours. Alcohol and pork should be avoided for a week before and after work with Ayahuasca. They are the only substances one need abstain for more than a few days before and after the ceremonies.
You'll have a choice of two forms of diet, one more liberal and the other the strict vegetalista diet followed by a seriously committed shaman's apprentice.
Either diet is appropriate for personal healing and transformative work with ayahuasca without any compromise of the benefits. The strict vegetalista diet is not a requirement to work safely and productively with Ayahuasca for personal healing and spiritual growth. It is however a choice for those who would like to experience it's rigors and challenges in the course of their shamanic work.
The strict vegetalista diet, known here as "la dieta", is intended specifically for those undertaking a serious long-term apprenticeship to learn the medicinal plants and eventually become a curandero in the Amazonian tradition. A genuine shamanic apprenticeship is actually measured in years and cannot be accomplished in a few weeks or months no matter how diligent, dedicated, and well-intentioned one may be. It is a path that requires patience, commitment, humility, concentration, and years of dedication.
The strict diet is very bland and consists only of boiled or grilled fish of small boney varieties with boiled yuca, plantains, quinoa, heart of palm, eggs, water, limonada, and organic tea.
Salt, sugar, oils, caffeine, spices and sexual activity are strictly abstained. The strict diet also requires that one use no soap, shampoo, tooth paste, deodorants, or any other chemicals or medicines other than the native plants in the dieta.
Ayahuasca is physically and energetically demanding. Mental, emotional, spiritual and physical stamina is needed to complete a strong cycle of work such as we do at the Sanctuary. Many newcomers to Ayahuasca find it difficult to eat enough on the strict dieta to sustain their strength in working with the medicine for the first time. For many people, good nutrition and sufficient calories are needed to sustain this needed energy. For this reason we also work with a broader and more nutritious dieta which still provides the systemic cleansing needed for work with Ayahuasca.
The more liberal healing and initiation dieta consists of grilled or boiled fish, vegetable or chicken soup, rice or quinoa, boiled, browned, or mashed potatoes, yuca (cassava). heart of palm (chonta), eggs, and a variety of vegetables and fruits raw, boiled, or lightly stir-fried. Light seasoning is optional in the liberal diet. We serve fruit drinks (refrescos) made from a variety of native fruits mixed with water, some of which you will encounter for the first time here. A variety of teas are also available.
We recommend that coffee not be consumed the day of ceremony or the morning after, if at all. Caffeine is not the issue, since some widely-used Ayahuasca admixture plants, such as guayusa, contain high amounts of caffeine. Nonetheless, hypertensive reactions from drinking coffee have been noted in a few people, so it's best not ot drink it while working with Ayahuasca. Teas containing caffeine and the Brazilian plant stimulant guarana do not produce any adverse effects. Honey may be used as sweetener if desired (this is acceptable in the liberal diet only), and we sometimes have wild jungle honey which is regarded as a natural medicine in the Amazon. Vegetarian diets are readily accommodated so tell us what you like and we'll make every effort to get it for you.
You can start with the strict dieta and if you find it too rigorous or you are not eating enough to sustain your energy, you can switch to the more nutritious initiation diet. There is reasonable flexibility in the diet without compromising the depth and quality of your Ayahuasca experiences and the dynamic and positive results that will ensue. The choices are yours.
more about
Ayahuasca Odysseyd
 cost
and terms |
facilitators |
|
maestro
curanderos |
ayahuasca
healing ceremony |
Ayahuasca Odyssey is designed for the mature, sincere, and respectful seeker of cultural knowledge, spiritual enlightenment, and personal healing.The process undertaken requires serious advance preparation for fullest benefit.
Some aspects of this process may be temporarily physically and emotionally difficult. We have extensive experience in the administration of this process and will nurture your passage through it with sensitivity and competence.
We will assist in all aspects of your journey preparations and provide all the follow-up guidance and counseling you desire.
For the benefit of all, applicants are screened to determine personal goals and fitness for this experience.
We reserve the right to respectfully decline any application without prejudice.
Notarized waiver of liability and acceptance of risk and all written terms is a requirement of registration.Workshop activities and programs are conducted in accordance with the laws and statutes of the jurisdictions in which they occur.
We hold in high esteem the rural Loretano people of the Peruvian Amazon, their rich and varied cultures, and their profoundly-rooted spiritual beliefs.
We believe they have much to teach us if we'll listen. We therefore require the same respectful attitude from our fellow travelers.
 |
Press El Otorongo Blanco to send e-mail requesting application materials for the Ayahuasca Odyssey shamanic celebration in the Peruvian Amazon. You can call us in Perú at (011-51-065) 60-0179 (ask for Howard), or in the U.S. at (303) 449-5479 (ask for Jan) . Your questions and inquiries are welcome. We look forward to hearing from you! |
|
learn about non-profit indigenous health and wellness projects co-sponsored with El Tigre Journeys by |
a 501c (3) not-for-profit organization based in Tucson, Arizona U.S.A. |
Ayahuasca
Odyssey
Home
Ayahuasca
SpiritQuest Listening to the Plants
Peruvian SpiritQuest Calendar of Events
All rights
reserved, © Choque ChinchayJourneys, 1997-2012
Please
don't copy or publish text or images from this site without our expressed
written permission
web page
design by
Otorongo
Blanco
updated
June 12, 2008
