The Ayahuasca Diet: Preparing the Body for Ayahuasca

The importance of preparing the Body, Mind and Soul for Ayahuasca
Guide to the Ayahuasca Diet....

Preparation For Ayahuasca and Ayahuasca Safety

I want to share a little with you about preparation for Ayahuasca, holding awareness that those searching for guidance may find that there are many different expressions of information out there I will firstly begin with why that is.

In the world of Ayahuasca there are many Maestros and the medicine guidance expresses differently through each Maestro as all Maestros also have their sovereign expression of the Medicine which also depends upon those they are working with and what expresses with how they choose to bring the medicine to the world.

Here at Tantamunay we are moved to share with you guidance about how to prepare yourself for the Medicine from the wisdom expressed through Maestro Hernan Fernandez who is a Shipibo Healer with 30 years experience with the Medicine, who sits with 35 Master Plant Dietas and shared through Rachel Tantamunay who has 7 years experience with the Medicine and has served as coordinator for 2 Shipibo Led and owned Ayahuasca Centres and continues to serve as advocate and medicine bridger for the traditional medicine practices safeguarded by the Shipibo Konibo Ancestral Medicine Lineages.

Historically many of the medicine practices within the Shipibo Konibo Ancestral Lineage were simply known, the Shipibo have a great reverence and respect for the medicine which lives within their cultural expression.

In the third generation Shipibo-Konibo, we now observe that the medicine is coming to the world, Ayahuasca ceremonies are held all over the world, some are with Lineage guides and some are not.

So we humbly make some space for Lineage Guidance so that the voice of the Shipibo Village and Medicine Elders is present as the Sacred Plant Medicine Ayahuasca travels into the Global Collective. So that anyone feeling the call to Ayahuasca has an opportunity to connect to the sacred lineage from where the medicine originates.

Preparation For your Ayahuasca journey, the Physical, the Mental and the Spiritual

Spiritual Preparation Support

Ayahuasca begins her journey with us the second that we say yes in the heart. So it may be true for some who have decided to sit with the medicine that some things start to come up for you before you sit with the medicine.

In this preparation time, from the moment you say yes in the heart to the moment when you arrive to the safe medicine container of the ceremonial space held by the Maestro and facilitation team, it is possible that the medicine begins to connect to you. Here at Tantamunay and on our retreats we want you to know that you are always invited to reach out should you need some support during the preparation time.

Some practices that may be of service to your preparation time are connected to making some space to honour and connect to the sacred journey you are about to begin or continue if you already have Medicine experience.

We invite you to feel into if you feel comfortable to:

Take some time to disconnect from your mobile phone for a period of time leading up to your retreat
Make some space for meditation
Make some space for more time in nature
Make some space to gently move the body, in yoga, somatic exercises or gentle walks in nature, whatever feels right for you.

Spiritual Support from Lineage About Ayahuasca

1. Ayahuasca is a Visual Plant and She is also Not

Over many years in the role of facilitator/coordinator accompanying with participants coming to medicine I have been moved to prepare participants feeling to come to Ayahuasca to know that whilst Ayahuasca is known as a visual plant on many platforms of information shared that the experience in the medicine is not always visual.

An Ayahuasca Ceremony can be experienced in many varied ways which may be visions, communication with the medicine, emotional expressions of laughter or tears, insights into your emotional world, realizations about your life, memories arising, movement or shaking, changes in temperature, to name but a few.

Every ceremony is different and every ceremony is always what is needed for each participant. What arises naturally for each participant in an Ayahuasca Ceremony takes time to integrate and this is always supported following each ceremony in our Integration circles and in post retreat Integration Support following the retreat should the participants choose to continue their journey in this way.

2. Shipibo Maestros are present with your Medicine Journey during the day as well, Chupar, Icarar, Soplar, orientation to the practices of a Shipibo Maestro.

Sometimes participants need support from the Medicine during the day from the Maestros, the levels of support offered by Lineage during the day following Medicine served by Shipibo Maestros maybe to Soplar, Icarar or Chupar.

Sometimes following an Ayahuasca Ceremony, participants may experience discomfort or notice sensations in the body, which we always invite you to share with us if you notice this.

The support to this offered in our retreats is both Lineage support, Plant guided wisdom and Somatic support.

Maestro Hernan has a personal relationship with 35 Master plants and a deep knowledge of the world of Ayahuasca. Sometimes help is needed from a Shipibo Maestro during the day to help your Ayahuasca Journey, what this can look like is the Maestro may help soplar your journey (which is to blow smoke from a Mapacho over your energetic body). To Icarar your journey (which means to sing to either Mapacho, Agua Florida or Cananga to help your Ayahuasca Journey) or to Chupar a part of your body which means to suck energy from part of the energetic body where the participant is experiencing discomfort.

We want to take a moment to orientate you to some of the practices of a Shipibo Maestro so that you have awareness before coming to a retreat. Holding awareness that the practice of Chupar may be triggering for some of the trauma imprints our participants arrive with we are moved to share with you that this maybe offered in ceremony or during the day. if a participant vocalises that they have pain or discomfort once the ceremony has closed.

Chupar is a way in which a Shipibo Maestros can take the intensity of the Medicine experience from a participant and ease the discomfort experienced, it is a layer of support offered from the Shipibo Lineage and is always explained and offered as choice before practiced.

Our Facilitation Team are Shipibo Facilitators and Shipibo Trained Somatic Integration Practitioners and Facilitators so we offer all participants layers of support with their medicine journeys from both healing modalities.

3. Ceremonial Support from our Facilitation team

Whilst we recognise that many healing centres have a no contact policy in ceremony, our policy in our Shipibo Led Facilitation Team is attuned to the variance of support that participants may need in ceremony for some that is no contact, for some that is agreed contact and is always guided by you, the participant.

During the retreat we shall orientate you and prepare you to meet the medicine and offer guidance how to concentrate in an Ayahuasca ceremony and give you some tools before you drink Ayahuasca of what to do should your experience become difficult or disorientating.

If you are having difficulty during ceremony our Shipibo Facilitation Team have a deep knowledge of the medicine and how to support you, practices include, soplar, icarar, chupar (explained above) and can also include, the use of branches of Pinon Colorado, the preparation of honey teas, the guidance to drink water, the washing of the face of a participant in ceremony with water all of which are guided by the Maestro of Ceremony, Maestro Hernan Fernandex Romaina.

What we are moved to share with you is that all of our ceremonial facilitation team are either Shipibo or Shipibo Trained so we are all deeply connected through the medicine, in our united support of your Ayahuasca Journey.

In our experience sometimes a physical layer of support in ceremony, requested by the participant is deeply appreciated and supportive of their individual journey and so if a hand being held is requested we shall facilitate that.

If you need support to go to the toilet during ceremony then our facilitators are there to guide and accompany you on your journey to and from your mat.

4. Purging in Ceremony, allow the Medicine to clear what does not serve you

One of the words maybe best well known about the Medicine Ayahuasca is the word Purge…..which means to vomit.

We feel to share that purging in ceremony, which can be either into the provided bowls or in the maloca toilet is the Medicine Ayahuasca helping your healing journey. In ceremony the invitation is to be allowing of the purge which will happen very naturally, there is no need to force a purge in an Ayahuasca ceremony. The invitation is, if you feel that you are moved to purge then to be allowing and not resisting of that purge.

In purging everyone is different and some will vomit, some will need to go to the toilet, some will do both and some will do neither and experience purging on the form of laughter or other expressions or sensations. All ways are welcome in the Maloca and the Medicine will guide you to yours.

5. Some participants may need time with other Plant Treatments before drinking Ayahuasca, we are here to offer you the right treatment for your healing journey and this is always guided by the Plants and Maestro Hernan

Some participants who apply to our retreats may need a different plant treatment healing plan before drinking Ayahuasca. We would like you to know that if this applies to you then we have a responsibility to share with you the right path for your healing journey. We recognize that this maybe uncomfortable for some to hear, however this is also part of keeping you safe within the Medicine and our commitment to the wisdom held within the Shipibo Ancestry.

The Shipibo have safeguarded this wisdom for generations and we will always be guided by this wisdom.

For those who are unable to drink Ayahuasca on our retreats please know that we are still able to support your healing journey and we invite you to join us in our Ayahuasca Retreat to receive the healing Icaros and to receive Plant Treatments such as plant teas, plant saunas, purgatives, plant baths, or prepared Plant Treatments to be dieted all of which are in support of your healing journey.

It is not necessary to drink Ayahuasca to begin your healing journey with the sacred plants and Maestro Hernan will assess all patients in a distanced Ayahuasca Ceremony, once we have your permission to do so, to assess what plant treatments you need, for how long and to guide you as to when is the right time for you to drink Ayahuasca with us

Mental Preparation Support

We recognize that many of our participants have been suffering for a long time when they first hear about Ayahuasca many may simply want that suffering to end. We hear that and we want to accompany you, step by step, to help you on your healing journey.

The first mental preparation we would like to offer you is that sitting with Ayahuasca is the beginning of a healing journey and whilst you will be supported by Maestro Hernan, Rachel Tantamunay and our facilitation team you will also be called to do your part.

Healing with Ayahuasca is a journey which unfolds at its own pace, there is no rush in healing as everything has its own natural rhythm, including our healing journey.

Following an Ayahuasca Ceremony you may have insights or realizations that are immediately accessible to your conscious awareness, some of these realizations may arise in the weeks following an Ayahuasca Retreat or Ayahuasca Ceremony and some may come many months or years following an Ayahuasca Retreat.

In our heart sharing circle you will hear me speak to the concept that

Ayahuasca is not a Magic Pill

I want to take a moment to share with you what this means so that this can land in your energy field before you decide to come and sit with the Sacred Plant medicine Ayahuasca.

Many of you reading this may have journeyed to the jungle and sat with indigenous people such as the Shipibo and learnt from their medicines and traditional ways of connecting to the medicine. Many of you maybe coming to the medicine for the first time.

I would like to begin with what is known in the world of medicine from a cultural perspective, it is known within the Shipibo communities that healing with medicine takes time, this is natural for the Shipibo, they have a lived cultural awareness that everything takes time, their origin is from living in harmony with the natural world where it can be seen that a tree is always growing, even if you cannot see that growth as you watch it.

Everything in nature is always growing and there is always growth and change, even if we cannot see that growth and change, or notice that change is happening. If we leave a part of the jungle and return to it many months later, then we can see the growth and change, we can see the new growth of the leaves, gleaming in green as a result of the rains and observe the shiny green of new growth.

Maybe you have noticed this growth in your own gardens at home, when you leave you home for some time, on your return perhaps you have noticed the growth of your lawn and maybe the height of your flower beds is higher than it was before,

We invite you to sit with this idea and see how it resonates with you.

Coming to Shipibo Healers and receiving their medicine is a bit like a garden, the fertile soil is your own life experience and the medicine helps all participants to pull out the weeds of all that does not serve you, that does not serve the growth of your garden and once the weeds have been pulled, the work in integration is to continue to journey with the growth of the flowers and trees, the fertile seeds of your unique expression and not the weeds of what had been blocking your growth and joyful experience of life.

The fertility of your garden following an Ayahuasca Journey is the work and the nourishment for that work is the offering of support for new seeds to grow strong and healthy, which is support offered in somatic plant medicine integration and your journey through the world.

Every garden is different and needs tending to in a unique and sovereign way, every garden needs the right amount of light, water, nourishment in the right way for the soil and seeds, so that the flowers and trees in your garden may grow healthy and strong.

Every Garden is always beautiful.

Ayahuasca is not a magic pill, coming to medicine is a space in which you can begin your healing journey, Ayahuasca is a journey in which you are invited to receive layers of support from the Sacred plants, from Shipibo Maestros, from the facilitation team and from integration support so that over time, with a lot of time and space your internal garden may flourish and grow and this is the journey of transformation.

Many reading this may have been suffering for a long time, you maybe beginning the journey of clearing what does not serve your individual journey, by reaching out to the medicine, you may have been suffering for many years and may need support from the medicine to clear the weeds so that the earth may settle and begin to receive nourishment so the seeds of your experience may sprout and begin to grow towards the light.

To you I share that we are here with you, to walk with you step by step, with the medicine so that with time and space, to clear what does not serve your highest good, to allow the earth to settle, so the fertile seeds of your garden may begin to grow and flourish once there has been enough time for the seeds to receive the nourishment they need to grow.

It takes work, time, space, compassion and patience to grow a new garden and we are here with you offering layers and levels of support for the new growth, every step of the way, so that over time you may uncover the beauty of your fertile soil and grow the garden of your own experience.

The Shipibo healers will always ask you to do your part when you come to sit with Ayahuasca.

Doing your part is an invitation to the awareness that healing with medicine is a journey and that every step on that journey has its place and that all unfolds in right time and right space, everything is always in growth and change, each plant treatment, each ceremony and each retreat is a step on your sacred healing journey.

We will accompany you on each step of that journey, for as long as you need, but it is your journey.

So we humbly invite you to take a moment in a quiet space, to sit in nature if it feels right for you and ask yourself am I wiling to begin a healing journey with Ayahuasca. Only you know if the time is right for you now.

Physical Preparation Support: The Ayahuasca Diet Food Element

When searching the internet for guidance about how to prepare the body for an Ayahuasca journey you may find that there are many different expressions of what the Ayahuasca Diet looks like, this is again because there are many different Maestros all of whom have their unique expression with how they prepare participants to receive the medicine expressed through them.

The truth expressed from the Shipibo Lineage is one important part of the Ayahuasca Diet is how you eat AFTER receiving the medicine, what you do after the Ayahuasca Retreat and how you take care of the Post Dieta, for this reason we shall accompany you on your post Dieta whilst still on The Tsinquitax Noyananti Retreat so that you can orientate to your unique post Dieta care.

The natural diet of the Shipibo-Konibo culture is simple clean and natural food, fish, rice, yucca, potatoes.

The first place in which the medicine helps us to cleanse our energetic bodies is always the physical body. So one way in which participants can help their journey with Ayahuasca is to begin eating healthy and natural food before attending an Ayahuasca retreat, if this feels comfortable to do.

If you feel able to, then we invite you to begin some simple preparations in your diet before coming to an Ayahuasca Retreat.

There are some preparations that are essential when preparing for an Ayahuasca Ceremony and these are listed below in detail, which are no sexual activity, no pork, no alcohol, no pharmaceuticals, no street drugs and no other plant medicines prior to retreat.

We invite you to feel into if you would like to begin some additional steps of preparation within your diet before coming to sit with Ayahuasca. The weeks leading up to a retreat can also be a sacred time for many and so if this is your feeling we invite the following suggestions:

Eat wholefoods from the earth, vegetables, fruits, grains, pulses, nuts and seeds
Cook with Healthy fats such as Olive Oil and Coconut Oil
Abstain or reduce eating red meat 2 weeks before the retreat, eat chicken and fish
Abstain or reduce eating processed foods
Abstain or reduce eating high sugar content foods such as sweets and cakes
Abstain or reduce the consumption of caffeinated drinks such as coffee or tea

Preparing the Body for Ayahuasca: What you need to do to be Safe to Drink the Medicine

The world of Ayahuasca is deeply Sacred and the following guidelines are one part of safety in the medicine from a Lineage Perspective

1. Abstain from Sexual activity one week before and one week after Ayahuasca

The journey with Ayahuasca is your connection with a Sacred plant Spirit world. When we sit with Ayahuasca we begin an energetic relationship with the plant world and so the invitation to abstain from sexual activity is connected to making space for your journey and to make some space for your relationship with Ayahuasca. Abstaining from sexual activity means no sexual relations or masturbation, as sexual energy is very powerful and in an Ayahuasca retreat the invitation is to sit with the powerful medicine you are receiving.

2. No pork meat for one week before and one week after Ayahuasca

Whilst this information appears in many places we wanted to take a moment to share with you the reason for this. The pig in its nature eats from many different places and so absorbs many different types of energy. In the Medicine we work with the energy of Ayahuasca and so eating pork does not connect well with an Ayahuasca journey.

3. No Pharmaceuticals on an Ayahuasca Journey unless agreed with the Maestro and Facilitation Team

In the Plant Medicine Intake form we invite you to be really honest about your use of Pharmaceuticals as this is one way we can keep you safe in an Ayahuasca Journey. It is well known that there are some pharmaceuticals that have an adverse or even fatal interaction with Ayahuasca.

Every participant is different and so at Tsinquitax Noyananti we assess each participant on an individual basis and this includes their use of Pharmaceuticals during the retreat. Wherever possible we will guide all participants to be Pharmaceutical free when attending an Ayahuasca Retreat, as long as this is safe for you to do and with agreement from your medical professional. If you are taking any medications and wish to attend our retreats please do let us know so that we can connect to this in the intake call and guide you as to what you need to do to prepare to receive the medicine.

We have a lot of experience of the interactions of many different medications and we can guide you as to what medications need to be stopped before attending this retreat and for how long, so that you can explore this with your medical professionals before joining us.

For some of our participants they are unable to be pharmaceutical free and so this may mean not drinking Ayahuasca, whilst on retreat and we will work together with you to create a treatment plan that could include plant treatments such as teas, purgatives, saunas, baths, prepared plant treatments and attending ceremony to receive Icaros without drinking Ayahuasca.

Please know that if this is your assessment that the journey with Plant Medicine maybe longer for this type of treatment and may call for weeks or even months of plant treatment care. If you do need this level of support to attend our retreats, the Maestro will assess you in a distanced Ayahuasca Ceremony, once we have your permission to do so, before you land in Peru so that you can have an idea before joining us as to what level of Plant Medicine Support you will need before making your journey to us. Should you need this level of Plant Treatment care, we may need to explore with you alongside your current medical professionals before offering an invitation to join us here in Peru.

4. Abstain from the use of Alcohol 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after Ayahuasca

We invite you to make space for your sacred journey with Ayahuasca and part of this is abstaining from alcohol before and after your journey with the medicine. Before is to begin your journey honouring that you are preparing to meet the medicine and abstaining from alcohol is what we ask of you so that you maybe safe when entering her world.

Following receiving the medicine your responsibility is to take care of the medicine that you received during the retreat, this is called post dieta care. On our retreats we always accompany participants for one week of orientation in what we know and understand about post dieta care so that you have time and space to learn how to take care of the Medicine you received independently. We accompany you for one week of Post Dieta Care and so your responsibility once you leave Tsinquitax Noyananti retreats is to abstain from alcohol for one week after you leave us so that you can continue to receive and work with the medicine that you have received.

5. Abstain from connection to other plant medicines, mushrooms, San Pedro, Marijuana for 1-2 weeks (plant specific) before Ayahuasca with the Shipibo Lineage

Firstly we would like to make space to honour the different Lineages who are in service of the Sacred Plant Medicine Ayahuasca, every lineage has their ancestral medicine practices for which we hold deep respect.

In this space we humbly share the ancestral medicine practices of the Shipibo-Konibo. Our lineage guide is that we invite you to make space for your time with Ayahuasca and lineage wisdom, so that you have the time and space to connect to the Medicine we advise abstaining from Mushrooms and Marijuana for 1 week before and 1 week following an Ayahuasca Retreat. As San Pedro is a powerful plant that can sit in the stomach after ceremony we advise give the space of 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after before connecting to the sacred cactus.

6. Abstain from the use of recreational drugs, cocaine, heroine, MDMA etc 3 weeks before and 3 weeks after an Ayahuasca journey.

The journey with Ayahuasca is a deeply sacred journey and some recreational street drugs have an adverse and even fatal interaction with Ayahuasca. It is essential that you abstain from the use of recreational street drugs in preparation and following an Ayahuasca healing journey.

7. Be as honest and transparent as you are able in the Plant Medicine Intake Form and Heart Sharing Circle

The journey with Ayahuasca is deeply transformative and also a lot of work, before, during and after ceremony the medicine is with you, we are here with you to offer levels of support to your healing journey. Working with Plant Medicine also calls for you to do your part, the first step of this is the invitation to be as open, honest and transparent as you are able in the Plant Medicine Intake and Heart Sharing circle.

We make this invitation to you, to share as much as you are able so that we can accompany you in the right way for your unique healing journey with the Medicine in our Ayahuasca Retreats. We are here to keep you safe in the Medicine through right relationship to your preparation before during and after an Ayahuasca Ceremony.

If you are moved to reach out to apply to our retreats please know that each and everyone of you will be invited to a heart sharing circle with Rachel Tantamunay. The purpose of this is to honour that each and every person has a unique and sovereign healing journey all of which have value and that every being has a unique healing journey that calls to be met so that we can hear your heart, your intention for coming to medicine at this time and work together with you to explore what right treatment looks like for you and how best we can serve your healing journey.

Within the heart sharing circle we may ask you further curiosity questions about what you are sharing so that we have a better sense of what to share with Maestro Hernan prior to your arrival to our retreat, so that the right plants may be gathered in support of your healing journey. All will be with your permission and guided by what feels comfortable for you to share.

The longer that a person is unwell, the longer it takes to heal,

It takes a small amount of time to become wounded, but the healing process can take time. We are here to support your healing journey, the more you are able to share, the more we can help you and always a journey with Ayahuasca calls for you to do your part

The importance of preparing the Body, Mind and Soul for Ayahuasca Guide to the Ayahuasca Diet....