Ayahuasca and a woman’s menstruation, or as we call it in Colombian tradition, “La luna” – “The moon“.
(Because it’s usually linked to the faces of the moon every 28 days) It’s important to understand that if you are a woman and your period is approaching in the days close to a retreat then it is better for you to abstain from participating…

This is not due to discrimination, chauvinism or just some nonsense like that (which some women assume it is). It’s actually because for the native tribes in the amazon, the woman’s period is a very, very sacred moment of her month.

In fact it is so sacred that during these days a woman should not do anything that means “work” for her. For the tribes, they go to a very special place (for them) and do only that which they love doing; writing, singing, painting, relaxing, maybe going for a walk.

This is a time for a woman to dedicate everything to herself, and while she does this, her husband/partner or community take care of her.

So, she shouldn’t be cleaning anything, washing anything, cooking for anybody, these are days where everybody else takes care of her as if she is the most revered being during those days.

A woman’s period is then offered into the land, there’s a hole that is like an altar next to a tree and it will be a very sacred place every woman of the community has her own moon offering altar, that’s a place where she goes with her moon cup and offers it back into the earth.

(For these ancient tribes) The woman has something that men do not, women have a deeper connection with the essence of creation.

That’s why they are bridges to bring new life and men are not, we contribute, but a woman is a bridge.

A woman states a new life inside her womb and as such there’s a different array or extent of powers that she can tap into, the power of nature.

That’s why it’s called “mother nature” not “father nature“.

This is considered a time where a woman is going through her own process of cleansing her own body, going through a cycle, releasing, understanding, healing and reconnecting. It is believed that what she experiences during her period is linked to the things that she experienced during that month.

By no means am I assuming that i can tell a woman how her period is, i could never understand it, so I don’t pretend to do so.

The women that i know have shared that if during the whole month they were always in service of others; their children, their partner, their clients, their co-workers, their boss. Then they were always doing something for somebody else…

Sometimes when her period comes she’ll have very heavy cramps that will force her to not move, which is another way of forcing her to stay still, which is another form of ensuring that she is there just for herself – not doing stuff for anybody else.

So the body finds a way to balance the emotions, sensations, experiences that she had and as such, this is a time that is very, very sacred. The native traditions of tribes recognized this and they would understand that you could play a very beautiful healing song.

It could change your life, but if you play two songs at the same time – no matter how beautiful they are on their own – you’re gonna end up with some noise.

This is what happens when a woman has her period and enters an Ayahuasca temple or decides to drink the medicine – she already has a very powerful, strong and natural medicine emanating from her.

Ayahuasca is also a very strong medicine but when the two are combined you end up with a lot of “static“, a lot of chaos, a lot of noise.
The people that are in the temple like the Shaman, especially the woman will suffer the consequences.

This usually means a very, very difficult, heavy and painful trip – for everybody involved.
I had this experience myself where a woman’s period arrived in the middle of a ceremony and the visions i was having shifted completely.

I didn’t even know but i could feel that there was a woman around us that had her period, i could feel it because of how the energy shifted, half an hour later a woman stood up and talked with the Shaman and said: “Hey, this just happened.” and then she was moved to a place adequate for her to go and experience consciously the rest of her “moon“.

If you’re a woman and you have your period, please abstain from participating in an Ayahuasca ceremony, you already have your own medicine pulsing within you, this is a time where you shouldn’t be adding another medicine but you should be paying attention to that which your body is already providing you with!

There’s also heavy risks of hemorrhages, health, mental and emotional disorders that come as a consequence of women avoiding this recommendation…

There’s a woman in Colombia that worked with female embodiment and female empowerment and she thought that Shamans were just chauvinistic, discriminating against women because they’re too traditional and everyone else was here, so she went to a ceremony with her moon and she thought to herself “This is not a big deal, everything in me sacred!”

“I’m just going to drink this because this is just discrimination.” What she lived that night was enough for her to come to the Shaman and say: “Never ever in my life i’m gonna do something like that again”.

“Now I understand the risks, how delicate it is and how much you can break within yourself and in the environment by doing so”…

So, make sure to plan your Ayahuasca retreat around a timeline where you won’t have your “moon” so that you can experience the whole journey. And if you have your “moon“…

Know that nature has blessed you with a very sacred medicine and it is time for you to reflect, to go inward.

To listen to what your body is trying to tell you!

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