Some people are often curious about why they can’t drink Ayahuasca on their own, why do i need a Shaman if God is inside of me?

If all the answers are inside of me then why do i need somebody external to heal me, right?

It’s a fair question, it’s also a question that a lot of people that are invited to drink medicine with some facilitator or some western person are curious:

“Oh, wow, i thought that you needed a Shaman and you needed to be in the jungle, so can i actually do this on my own or do it with one of my friends? Do i really need a Shaman if actually i’m just going inwards?“

I hope this blog/video clarifies this, i’m going to share the 3 main roles of a Shaman in a ceremony.

• To direct:

The Shaman is like the director of the orchestra, what this means is that it is the person paying the most attention and keeping the tempo, the pace, the intensity of how loud or high the energy is.

I’ll give you a quick example, there are 3 times in a ceremony when our Shaman will direct the firekeepers to raise a big flame, to bring a bunch of logs of wood.

These are often times when a lot of people are having really intense purging processes.

The Shaman’s role is to be tuned into the needs of the group, the needs of the space, then he will see that maybe a lot of people are purging way more than what the current fire can transmute.

Then he asks his assistant team to bring up the flames so that the energy can move in an easier way.

At the same time he can notice that the group is rather quiet and everybody is just chilling and cruising, then he may grab the harmonica or his guitar, maybe his guaira, or some of his plants.

And he’ll use his voice to sign an Icaro, an Icaro is a song of the spirit, if you’re infamiliar, it sounds like a mantra.

Suddenly, when they start singing, you will see everybody start to vomit, cry, scream.

Then he sings a different one, then the group calms down.

In a way, he’s directing the energies, directing the orchestra, he sees what the space needs and he makes sure that his team and himself take care of it.

At the same time he’s the bridge, he’s not here to heal you, but he’s here to help you navigate the experience with Ayahuasca.

Shamans are believed to work with different plant spirits that they call upon through their songs, through the plants that they use to help heal different people.

So that they may come and blow tobacco on you or they can give you some herbal mixture for you to smell, or place in your body.

This is a way in which they notice what you need and give you exactly that.

Imagine like a Doctor that has been training, he has the understanding, the vision to realize what it is that you need and to prescribe it to you in that moment.

• To protect:

There’s a lot of energies, with Ayahuasca, you’ll see that there’s no good or bad energies.

There’s different frequencies, different vibrations like in a guitar, you have the first string, a very high tone, then you have the low tone of the bass strings.

No one is better, the other is just a different expression of the music that is there, something happens in life, good and evil, there’s no one that is better than the other.

But there’s one that pulls us into this connection and interfere, closer to love.

There are energies that are dark or that are low vibration in nature, that’s fine, like moths are attracted to flames of a fire or a lamp.

These dark energies sometimes are attracted towards places where there’s a lot of light, it’s normal.

Like a hungry person drawn towards food.

Who needs light the most? Those who are living in darkness, those energies that are living in perpetual agony or tension because it is the light that can heal them, the one that can take care of it.

Althought it’s unconscious coming closer to that, like the moth, the moth isn’t thinking about the fire and thinking that they’ll burn itself.

It’s something that pulls it forwards, it’s not uncommon that in some ceremonies people may experience or sense that there’s some heavy energy that is outside of the group, some evil spirit or whatever.

It’s not a big deal, it’s just something that’s feeling drawn towards the light that has been created.

The role of the Shaman is to ensure that the people that are participating in Ayahuasca do not have to deal with that, so he’ll deal with that through the music, herbs, saumeria (like saging, or using different smokes).

The temple itself is usually constructed in a way that it shields those who are inside from what may happen outside, so the second role of the Shaman is to protect.

To ensure that people are not disturbed by external forces or energies.

So that they can focus on their own healing journey, at the same time, people that are more advanced or that have drunk medicine more times the Shaman will not do this.

In order to teach each that they can protect themselves through love.

• To ground:

Finally, the role of the Shaman is to ground, grounding happens through conversation, like supporting the integration, reflection and understanding of your experience.

But also it happens energetically, imagine that you are swimming through a pool made out of honey.

It’s very sweet and cleansing, yet you come out of there feeling super sticky, your body is bound to have stuff stick to you.

If you go back into your life, a lot of stuff may stick and then suddenly you will be dirtier than you were before you got into the pool of honey.

The Shaman cleanses you, so it grounds your energy, so if something is a little too sensitive, a little bit too out there, maybe there were loops or spaces within you that were open mentally, emotionally or energetically.

The Shaman will do a process at the end of a ceremony to, in a way, restore the order of things.

To send back the energies where they belong, so you don’t end up feeling that there’s something in you that wasn’t there.

And that things were massively destabilized through the ceremony.

With that being said, if your process was very deep, then you may still feel a little extra sensitive, that’s a beautiful gift.

To be more attuned to life, but the challenge takes care of grounding people, making sure that people are back into their bodies, into their minds.

So they can go back and actually apply what they learned, enjoy the fruits of their healing and live in health.

So:

• Directing.
• Protecting.
• Grounding.

These are the roles of a Shaman, these are things that usually your western facilitator good-vibes kind of friend does not know how to do.

They’re not equipped to do them either.

This is why i invite you, if you want to drink medicine, do not do it with somebody with an amateur play-pretend energetic surgeon.

Come to Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, join us, if you trust me or trust the people that we work with.

Drink medicine in a safe context, where you’ll be properly directed, protected and grounded.

If you feel the calling to sit with Ayahuasca, in a container held by Colombian shamans at a sacred temple in the middle of the mountain forests, please check:

www.ayahuascacolombia.com/retreats