Not All Ayahuasca Centers Are Created Equal
AYAHUASCA - A MEDICINE UNLIKE ANY OTHER
Did you know that when you really work with Ayahuasca, you are doing so much more than just drinking a cocktail of molecules?
From my own personal experience, I would go as far as to say that actually drinking the brew has very little to do with the healing that occurs in an Ayahuasca ceremony.
In fact, in many cultures back in the old days, it was only the shamans who actually drank. If you went to them for healing, they’d perform a number of rituals and maybe serve you some other plants, but it was only the shaman who drank the brew to help him commune with the spirit world, and influence the spirits to help you to heal without you ever touching the Ayahuasca yourself.
Did you know that different cultures of the Amazon classify three, six, or even twenty-two different varieties of Ayahuasca vine?
Just as the Eskimos have 50 different words to uniquely describe what we so crudely call “snow,” ayahuasqueros have a much deeper appreciation for the subtleties of the medicine than you or I ever can. Some are said to prepare a brew with each new wild vine they find so they can get to know its characteristics; they then might amass a collection of several different brews used for different purposes, and to heal different people.
All this is to say, there’s a lot more going on here than meets the Western eye when it comes to this sacred medicine.
A true healer takes the time to get to know his pasajeros, to understand their needs and their ailments.
He selects just the right blend of plant spirits to cleanse the pasajero through saunas and plant baths, and administers just the right concoction of Ayahuasca to open them to healing.
And all of that is not even to mention the icaros that the Maestros sing to pasarejos in ceremony.
Maestra Silvia preparing the Ayahuasca Brew at Ronin Jointi Healing Center
NOT ALL AYAHUASCA CENTERS ARE CREATED EQUAL
So what is all of this getting at?
If you’ll forgive the analogy, think for a second about the apples you find in a grocery store. How many varieties can you name? Do you actually understand the differences among them beyond what color they are? Now imagine if you were a seventh-generation apple farmer. You grew up on the same orchard that your great great great grandparents were raised on, and you walk the fields every day. You’d probably know a thing or two more about apples than the average person right?
And let’s say there was a secret recipe for the best apple pie on earth, handed down within your family for so long no one even knows who first wrote it down. It requires a special selection of just the right apples to blend into a special subtle flavor that’s impossible to reproduce otherwise. You can remember when you were a little kid, and your grandmother would point them out to you on walks through the field. At this point, you probably can’t even describe to an outsider the distinctions you look for, you can just feel which ones will make a great pie.
THE SAME THING?
And now imagine one day someone from halfway across the world comes and buys your orchard and your recipe and asks you to start churning out apple pies to be sold in a retail store. You used to always cook with your partner, but now the new owner brought in someone else for you to work with instead.
How do you think the end result is affected by that? You’re still making apple pie, right? I’m sure you’ll still make something tasty, but do you think it’ll be quite as good as the traditional way your ancestors had always done it?
Well, when I say not all Ayahuasca centers are created equal, this is what I’m talking about. You can absolutely have a great experience at a 5-star resort-style center, with air conditioning and king-sized mattresses and a board of shareholders who decide which shamans to bring in and how much to pay them based on the bottom line they have to make. I know that experience can still be good because I’ve done that. Just like you can still buy a really tasty apple pie from a grocery store.
A DIFFERENT MEDICINE EXPERIENCE
But the experience you can have when you spend a week living with the Maestros and their family - living on land where their ancestors have lived for generations?
The experience you have with the medicine that the Maestro grew himself, drinking the specific brew he selects for you each night because he knows exactly what messages you need and exactly which variety of Ayahuasca will provide it?
Well, that’s the difference between buying an apple pie at grocery store, or from a family-owned apple orchard.
And this is exactly what makes "Ronin Jointi" - Heart of the Anaconda Healing Center so damn special. Maestros Silvia and Noe have been married and serving medicine together for over 20 years. Prior to that they each apprenticed with healers within the communities where they grew up.
A CENTER FOR MANY GENERATIONS
For years, the Maestros have worked at other retreat centers, often thousands of miles away from their family.
But now, the Maestros are realizing their lifelong dream. They will never be hired and told how to work by someone else ever again. They will never have to work apart from each other ever again. They will never have to serve medicine they did not grow and brew and intimately connect with.
But at the end of the day, it’s all just Ayahuasca, right? How much different could the experience be?
Well, you go and buy one apple pie from a family farm and one from a big chain grocery store, and you tell me.
With love,
David & Cordi from Becoming Om