Learning To Be Still with San Pedro

It continually amazes me that the teacher plants will always give you exactly the amount you need, regardless of how much, or how little you intent to take.

The Gentleness of San Pedro

After the intensity of Ayahuasca, I was looking forward to the gentle teaching that San Pedro had in store for me. Before drinking San Pedro I had a session with an amazing energy worker, Paul, and walked into the world like I was looking at it for the first time, colors were vivid and I was noticing things that I had taken for granted. It was a good start to my first experience with San Pedro.

The Night I Died

My intention going into my second Ayahuasca ceremony was for emotional and spiritual healing. I drank less for my second ceremony, but I believe that Ayahuasca will give you the experiences you need, regardless of the amount you drink. As I began to feel the effects of the medicine, I again fell a strong sense of connection with the people and the world around me, then I felt an overwhelming sense of peace, like I was pure energy. Once Ayahuasca had given me the peace I needed, the real teaching began, it was time to strip away the ego and the fear, and learn to surrender to the  medicine.

My First Ayahuasca Ceremony

I was nervous all day before my first ceremony, there was anxiety in not knowing what to expect, and I was will battling with the need to control the events around me. Around 8pm we gathered in the maloca, it was dark and the moon was just a sliver. Ignacio, the Ayahuascero, prepared the medicine by singing over it and blowing mapacho smoke into it. I knew that I was about to experience something unlike I'd ever experienced before. The part of me that still wanted control was hesitant to drink all that was given to me, but I did drink the whole cup. I went back and sat on my mat and waited for Ayahuasca to come to me. When she did come to me, it was first to cleanse me. I could feel the sweat pour off of me as I sat in the darkness, then I was able to purge. It felt as though Ayahuasca gathered up all of the negativity inside me, and the purge was the physical manifestation of the negative energy leaving my body. Then my journey began.

Beginnings

When I got to Iquitos and met my hosts, I knew that I was home. Even though we didn't speak the same language, we were able to communicate, there was such a sense of love. My first experience with the medicines of the jungle was a tobacco purge - mapacho tobacco that has been boiled and mixed with a small amount of instant coffee and sugar - used as a cleanse of both physical and spiritual negativity.

The Journey begins

I first learned about Ayahuasca when I met my husband. A year after we got married, he went to Peru to drink Ayahuasca and learn from the medicine and the jungle and came back a changed man.