Shipibo Tradition
Shipibo Technology and Tradition
The Shipibo-Conibo are an indigenous tribe from the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. They have been working with Ayahuasca (oni in Shipibo) for hundreds of years and have cultivated a profound understanding of how to work with nature to heal people and connect with spirit.
Shipibo tradition is unique and rooted in healing practices that utilize a variety of nature technologies. To use these technologies to help facilitate healing, they have to go through their own healing process with these tools, which requires a great deal of sacrifice, patience, and discipline.
Becoming an Onanya – One Who Knows
To become an Onanya (one who knows / a healer), one has to undergo an intensive training process that consists of completing many dietas over multiple years. Dietas (samati in Shipibo) are completed to learn from a plant spirit. During this time, many sacrifices have to occur to facilitate the connection between the healer in training and the plant. The healer in training must adhere to dietary and energetic restrictions to ensure the best environment possible for the plant they are dieting to become a part of the energy body. In return for the sacrifices made and the discipline demonstrated, the plants offer protection, guidance, and healing throughout the healer’s entire life. The healers become channels for the plants that they have dieted, which facilitates the healing process for patients.
Ayahuasca: The Keystone of Shipibo Tradition and Technology
The keystone of the Shipibo healing system is Ayahuasca. The two primary components of the psychedelic brew are the ayahuasca vine, known scientifically as Banisteriopsis caapi, and the chacruna leaf (kawa in Shipibo), identified as Psychotria viridis. N-N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a psychoactive compound, is found in the chacruna leaf, whereas the ayahuasca vine is rich in monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). These MAOIs facilitate a prolonged psychedelic experience, enabling the effects of DMT to extend over a period ranging from four to over eight hours.
The Shipibo use Ayahuasca in their training process to become healers and then guide others on their journeys. Drinking Ayahuasca can be compared to sailing on the deep ocean on a small boat, and the Maestro is akin to an experienced sailor on board with you, ensuring safe travels across the choppy waters.
Ayahuasca acts as the intermediary between the healer and other Master plants. The Shipibo work with many Master plants, each with different qualities and energies that can be called upon to help the healer in their lives and their work. In the ceremony, the healers channel the “songs” gifted to them either directly by plants or by their maestro/s. These songs are called icaros.
Icaros: Sound Healing Technology
The icaros are one of the main tools used during the ceremony. The Icaros are channeled by the healers to heal the patient’s energy body. The energetic body is often overlooked in Western medicine, but the Shipibo have a mastery level of understanding its importance to all aspects of our health: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Physical or mental ailments that patients go on an Ayahuasca retreat to heal are often the result of issues manifesting from a chaotic energy body. The icaros bring this energetic chaos into balance and harmony.
At La Medicina, icaros are sung to the entire group at the beginning of the ceremony to call in the plant spirits, sometimes referred to as medicos “doctors” by the Shipibo. Then, each person receives individual icaros from the Maestro and the Maestra that are unique depending on what the person needs to heal.
Kene/Kewe: Visionary Art
Shipibo are probably best known for their amazing visionary art known as Kene. Kene are the brilliantly coloured intricate geometric designs often received in visions during the ceremony, but they could also visit an artist in the dream space or during regular waking consciousness. Kene can be painted on canvas or engraved in wood. However, the most prominent art of Shipibo women is embroidery. Once a Kene is transmitted onto a fabric it is called Kewe. Many designs depicted by Shipibo artists are direct representations of master plant energies seen under the influence of Ayahuasca. Many Kene are visual representations of sacred Icaros.
At the end of your stay at La Medicina, we host a Shipibo market, where a variety of art pieces made directly by our maestros and their families can be acquired.
Vomitivo
Vomitivo is another traditional tool practiced by the Shipibo healers. It is used to clean the body on multiple levels. Within the tradition, there are many plants used for vomitivos, each with their own benefits and impact. At La Medicina, we practice a very light vomitivo as a way to prepare all the ceremony participants for their Ayahuasca journey. The plant we administer is lemongrass. The lemongrass tea is non-psychoactive and pleasant tasting, but drinking it in excess causes you to feel queasy to the point of throwing up. This helps “loosen things up” in preparation for the more intense vomiting that could occur during the ceremony.
Flower Baths
Flower baths are a potent way to connect to the plant world. Shipibo healers believe that the aromatic plants used in flower baths attract the plant spirits into people’s fields and provide healing during, as well as outside of the ceremonies. At La Medicina, these flower baths are provided daily. Ideally, it is recommended to air dry after the flower bath to let the essence of the plant’s energetics soak into your skin and auric field.
Mapacho
Mapacho, a sacred jungle tobacco, is an indispensable ally of the Shipibo healers. The healers smoke Mapacho during the ceremony and sometimes smudge patients with Mapacho smoke to clear away negative energies, while calling in positive energies. It is used mainly for grounding and protection, as well as for calling in a particular intention. Shipibo healers believe that tobacco smoke feeds the spirits of the plants. Ceremony participants are also given the option to smoke Mapacho if they so desire. Smoking Mapacho during ceremonies can help people come to their center if they feel ungrounded.
The Maloka
The Shipibo hold Ayahuasca ceremonies in a structure called a Maloka. At La Medicina, the Maloka is a circular hut with a coned top. To some, the Maloka can feel like a spaceship or a womb during the ceremony, allowing one to travel through astral realms and igniting a symbolic death that leads to rebirth.
The Maloka is designed to help facilitate the healing process. If the medicine is coming on strong and powerful energies arise, you can rest your back or head against the Maloka walls for support. The Maloka is also designed to optimize the acoustics so the icaros can resonate strongly and be received no matter where you are sitting.
Honoring Shipibo Tradition
Shipibo technology is an ancient mysterious art and science cultivated over many centuries and channeled directly from the many kingdoms existing in the Shipibo Cosmovision to help facilitate healing and awakening for those who are in need and are ready to receive. These technologies seem magical, but the Shipibo deeply understand how they are used to assist people in a practical manner. If you can go on an Ayahuasca retreat and feel Shipibo magic firsthand, remember to honor this gift by expressing humility and gratitude for the opportunity to experience the Shipibo tradition and the medicine.
Irake, Maestro! Irake, Maestra! Irake, La Medicina!