Filed under: Initiations and Apprenticeships | Tags: Ayahuasca, Ayahuasca Foundation, ayahuasca initiation, ayahuasca retreat, curandero, yage
The Ayahuasca Foundation offers a very special course for people who feel called to the healing traditions of the Amazon Rainforest. A growing number of spirit seekers have felt a call to study ayahuasca with a true indigenous shaman. The Ayahuasca Foundation’s Curandero Initiation Course is an answer to that call, an opportunity to receive an authentic initiation in the same tradition that has been passed on for thousands of years in the jungles of Peru by the shipibo curanderos. This is not for tourists, this is for people who are serious about learning the ancient science of plant spirit medicine and contributing to the rebirth of shamanic culture throughout the world. Humanity is in desperate need of remembering the traditions that kept us healthy, happy, and in harmony with our environment. Many of those traditions have been lost forever due to fear, ignorance, and most likely a well thought out conspiracy to weaken people and make them more susceptible to manipulation for the benefit of a few. But not all the traditions were lost, not all the shamans were persecuted and executed, and those powerful people are ready to teach these important methods, techniques, and philosophies that have been developed for thousands of years in the Amazon Rainforest.
The six week Ayahuasca Initiation Course takes place at a remote jungle camp deep within a National Reserve near Iquitos, Peru. Surrounded by thousands of acres of virgin rainforest, students learn from an authentic indigenous curandero, a shipibo healer named don Enrique. The camp is very comfortable, with cabins featuring private baths that are fully tiled with flushing toilets, sinks, and showers. The cabins have locking doors and screened windows, well furnished and even have lighting thanks to solar panels. The kitchen is also fully tiled with sink and gas stove and the dining area is ample and open. There are two additional bathrooms and a traditional ceremony space called a maloca. Because the camp is located near a black water river, there are very few mosquitoes and it is comfortable to stay out in the open for hours without repellent, even at night. It is in this paradise that the students learn how curanderos use ayahuasca and the plants of the jungle to heal any and all afflictions.
During the course, students follow traditional plant diets to enhance their connections to the plant worlds, they receive plant baths, vapor baths, and learn how to prepare and give these baths as well. Students take plant remedies to heal particular illnesses or conditions and to strengthen their immune systems and mental faculties. They learn how to make these remedies and the medicinal properties of dozens of plants that are identified for them by their teacher. They learn how to prepare the powerful brew ayahuasca as well, and how to properly lead an ayahuasca ceremony. Students learn the healing songs, called icaros, that curanderos use to call to the spirits for assistance and learn techniques like soplaying and chupando with tobacco and agua florida. They attend 18 traditional ayahuasca ceremonies during the course and take part in a traditional celebratory ceremony to break their diets at the end of the course. Each student is given the chance to lead a ceremony under the guidance of the curandero to utilize the tools they’ve learned. By they time they leave, students will have the knowledge and power to lead their own ceremonies and treat patients. It may seem a short time to achieve so much, but this course is an intense introduction to the healing traditions, taught by a curandero who has a real gift and passion for teaching, which he feels is his personal mission.
Some say that ayahuasca is the real teacher, and of course that is true, but it would be highly unlikely for someone to spend six weeks drinking ayahuasca eighteen times and expect to know how to prepare remedies for dozens of conditions, administer plant baths and vapor baths, give therapeutic massages, practice shamanic techniques like soplaying and chupando, sing healing icaros, and lead ceremonies. A teacher is really a necessity, for a teacher brings decades of experience, thousands of ceremonies, and a lineage of healing that may date back thousands of years. Don Enrique is a perfect example of how beneficial it is to have a teacher who wants you to not only learn from him, but to go on and surpass him, continuing and furthering the development of the science of plant spirit medicine. There are so many people who need help, who need healing, and there simply are not enough healers to treat them all. We must teach others and spread the wisdom of healing with ayahuasca and the plants so that humanity can return to a state of love, peace, and harmony with all beings. That is the goal of the Ayahuasca Foundation’s Curandero Initiation Course.
Our next course begins on October 17th and runs until November 27th. Interested participants must fill out an application form to apply for the course. The cost for the course is $3250 and is all inclusive, including two nights in a hotel in Iquitos (at the beginning and end of the course) and two meals in Iquitos. In addition to lodging, food, medicine, and of course the teaching, students also receive traditional shipibo clothing to wear in ceremonies and during the course and also receive healing tools like mapachos, agua florida, and their own hand carved pipes. There are two courses offered each year, one in the spring and one in the fall. The Ayahuasca Foundation also offers healing retreats that are either two or three weeks in duration. A schedule of our programs, including the next Initiation Courses can be found on our main website. For more information on the course and to fill out the application form, visit us at: http://www.ayahuascafoundation.org
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