THE SACRED PLANT MEDICINE OF THE AMAZON
Ayahuasca is one of the most respected plant medicines of the Amazon — not because it offers easy answers, but because it asks the right questions.
In the Shipibo tradition, Ayahuasca is not approached as a psychedelic experience, but as a sacred medicine with its own spirit, intelligence, and way of teaching. When held within a protected ceremonial space, guided by an experienced maestro curandero, it can reveal what is hidden, cleanse what has become heavy, and reconnect a person with the deeper truth of their being.
At Onikano, Ayahuasca ceremonies are guided by Maestro Niwen Koshi (Heberto García) within the living lineage of Shipibo medicine. This page offers an introduction to Ayahuasca, to how it is traditionally understood, and to why preparation, guidance, and ceremonial context are essential for safe and meaningful work with the medicine.
WHAT IS AYAHUASCA?
Ayahuasca is a traditional Amazonian plant medicine prepared from the Ayahuasca vine and the leaves of chacruna. Together, these two plants create a sacred brew that has been used for countless generations in ceremonial contexts for purification, healing, and profound spiritual insight.
What makes Ayahuasca remarkable is not simply the experience it creates, but what it reveals — emotions, memories, energetic imbalances, and patterns that may be shaping a person’s life beneath the surface of awareness.
For the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, this medicine has never been merely a substance. It is a teacher — a plant spirit with its own intelligence, capable of guiding the human spirit towards healing, clarity, and transformation.
This is why the setting, the preparation, and the guidance of an experienced curandero are essential. Ayahuasca is not something one simply drinks. It is a medicine one enters into relationship with.
THE VINE OF THE SOUL
The word Ayahuasca comes from the Quechua language and carries several interpretations:
- Aya may refer to the soul, the spirit, the ancestor, the dead person, or even the human corpse.
- Waskha usually translates as “rope” or “vine.”
For this reason, Ayahuasca is often translated as “the vine of the soul” or “the vine of the dead” — a bridge between the visible world and the invisible forces that shape it.
A medicine named after death and the soul was never meant to be ordinary. For the peoples of the Amazon, Ayahuasca has never been simply a plant — it is a doorway between the living and the ancestral, between what can be seen and what can only be felt.
Its role is not simply to produce visions. Under the guidance of an experienced curandero, the ceremony becomes a protected space where the deeper causes of suffering — physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual — can be seen, cleansed, and addressed at their root.
AYAHUASCA IN THE SHIPIBO TRADITION
In Shipibo culture, the Ayahuasca vine is known as “oni” or “nishi” — names that refer to both the vine itself and the sacred brew prepared from it.
Among the great teacher plants of the Amazon, Ayahuasca holds a central place — she is revered as the Mother of all Teacher Plants, a living intelligence whose energy can guide a person on a profound voyage of self-discovery, to meet spirits in other dimensions as well as the spirits of the plants themselves.
For the Shipibo, there is no question — the plants of the forest have their own life, they have feelings and can also suffer, for each of them has its own spirit. It is these spirits that may approach you during the trance states of an Ayahuasca ceremony and seek to harmonise with you.
What distinguishes the Shipibo approach from many other Amazonian traditions is the deeply individual nature of the work. In some traditions, ceremony tends to be more collective in nature — participants may sing, move, and experience the medicine together as a group, held within the shared energy of the circle.
In the Shipibo tradition, the focus is different. The maestro moves through the ceremonial space and works with each participant individually, singing directly to them, reading their energy, and addressing what is present in their body, mind, and spirit. This individual work can feel like a form of spiritual surgery — precise, intentional, and deeply personal.
The medicine may be the same, but the way it is guided, directed, and applied is profoundly different.
TRADITIONAL PREPARATION OF AYAHUASCA
The traditional preparation of the Ayahuasca brew, as practised by Shipibo curanderos, involves only two plants: the Ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of the shrub known as chacruna (Psychotria viridis). The vine is pulverised and placed to cook with the chacruna leaves, allowing the medicine to concentrate slowly over many hours, and sometimes over several days.
This process is not seen as merely technical — the preparation of the brew is also a spiritual act. The maestro holds the intention of healing, protection, and awakening while the medicine is being prepared, so that the brew carries not only the physical properties of the plants, but also the energetic direction of the work.
The chacruna endows the mixture with its visionary energy due to its content of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a naturally occurring psychoactive compound. In many spiritual traditions, DMT is associated with the pineal gland, often referred to as the third eye. Under normal circumstances, DMT is broken down rapidly by stomach enzymes, making oral ingestion ineffective; however, the Ayahuasca vine contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), which slow this breakdown and allow the medicine to become active in the body.
MAOIs are also found in certain antidepressant medications. Combining them with Ayahuasca can be dangerous and, in some cases, carry serious health risks. Please review the guide on medications and recreational drugs before a retreat.
Extra additives may be included in the Ayahuasca brew to deepen the effects, intensify visions, support additional purging, or aid in diagnosis. Used with knowledge and appropriate measure, they can significantly enhance the work — but only in the hands of a highly trained and experienced curandero whose intentions are genuinely oriented towards healing.
RESPONSIBLE USE OF AYAHUASCA
Working with Ayahuasca outside of a proper ceremonial context — or under the guidance of someone who lacks genuine training and lineage — carries real risks. The medicine is powerful, and that power requires an equally strong container: an experienced maestro, a protected space, and a clear intention of healing.
Unfortunately, not all Ayahuasca ceremonies are held with the same level of integrity, knowledge, or care. Some practitioners use additives irresponsibly, or in excessive quantities, in order to create striking visions, while disregarding the primary purpose of ceremony — genuine healing.
When the focus is on spectacle rather than guidance, participants may be overwhelmed by experiences they are unprepared to understand or integrate. What was meant to heal can then become a source of new trauma.
In the Shipibo tradition, the purpose of ceremony is to diagnose, cleanse, protect, and restore balance — not to impress, but to heal. This requires not only knowledge of the plants, but years of training, lineage, and spiritual responsibility that cannot be shortcut.
Like any great power, this knowledge can be used with wisdom and good intention, or misused in ways that cause real harm. Once the forces of the spiritual dimensions are unleashed, proper guidance, protection, and accountability are essential — as are the intentions of the person holding the space.
For this reason, an Ayahuasca retreat centre should be chosen with great care. A trustworthy centre should honour the sacred context of the medicine, work with experienced curanderos rooted in a living tradition, and provide a clear ceremonial framework before, during, and after the ceremony — not just a memorable experience.
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