Javier Regueiro - Ayahuasca: Soul Medicine of the Amazon Jungle. A Comprehensive and Practical Guide

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ISBN: 978-1-94669-740-0

For Don Francisco Montes Shua, my teacher, Joseph Kramer, weaver of magic, and Ken S., elder extraordinaire

Invocation to the Mother

Oh wont you come into me

And flow like a river through me

Over me

Around me

Slipping around my stones

Tumbling over my waterfalls

Uncovering the hidden treasures

Known only in my heart of hearts

Trickling, seeping towards my golden Center.

Allowing me

Encouraging me

Teaching me

How to truly unfold

Like a flower

Naturally, unselfconsciously

Like the heart beat of time

Pulsing through me.

I think I may know it

Like a mantra

Woven into my memory

But oh, to repeat these precious steps

To walk the labyrinth of this life

To remember my souls desire.

As I feel the earth beneath my feet

And the Mothers tender loving

I know that I have chosen well,

I have floated upon

This pond

Before.

And reflected myself towards

The same sky.

I have stumbled

I have wondered

I still wonder

But with each drop of knowing

My thirst becomes less

I allow trust to mingle with my heart

I see the brave and beautiful dance

That we all dance

And I fall back on these tender ancient bones of the

Mother

And embrace this golden life.

Erin McAuley, Pisac, May 2009

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesnt serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people wont feel insecure around you.

We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. Its not just in some of us, its in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

I t has been over ten years since I first began writing this book. Back then Ayahuasca was just beginning to become the global medicine that it is today, and the writing of that first manuscript came out of a wish to dispel what I perceived to be some widespread confusion and misunderstanding about this medicine. Ten years later this reason seems to me more valid than ever: the rising popularity of this medicine is an invitation to approach this process with greater responsibility and awareness so that we can keep engaging with it in the future.

In addition to the original manuscript, which was written in order to support people in reaping the most benefits from this medicine while honoring both its traditional Amazonian roots and our present day needs and psychological make-up, I have added two final chapters devoted to our challenges in regards to sustaining a culture of safe and respectful use of this ancestral medicine.

As people in the Amazon need to go further and further into the jungle in order to harvest Ayahuasca vines for the local and global market, it seems more relevant than ever to approach this medicine aware of the fact that it takes years before this plant can be harvested, as well as the repercussions, ecological, ecologic, economic, and cultural, in the Amazon region of our desire to engage with this medicine. One simple way to address the issue of sustainability is not to take this medicine for granted in the same way that we do with any commercial medication or substance, and approach it each and every time with utmost respect and a sincere desire to heal rather than just entertain ourselves at the expense of important natural and cultural resources.

In my writing this book there is an implicit trust that we can indeed exercise the necessary maturity and personal responsibility so that this medicine can keep healing and blessing us and our descendants for as long as we may wish, and hopefully this book will help you make sensible choices and consequently make the most of this wonderful medicine.

J.R.

I n the mid-1990s I was invited by a friend to attend a ceremony to drink Ayahuasca for the first time. I was quite scared and excited at the same time. I had heard stories from friends who had partaken of this kind of ceremonies before, but my experience of hallucinogens in general and entheogens in particular was rather limited, and the fear of the unknown, of what may or may not happen to me, was quite strong. An aura of mystery and power seemed to surround this medicine.

My guide had recommended I start preparing myself physically for three weeks prior to the ceremony by following a diet without spices and fermented foods, and abstinence from alcohol and recreational drugs. At the same time I started taking a deep look at my own fears and resistances, as well as focusing on my personal reasons for participating in what was going to be a very profound experience. With a bit of honesty I quickly realized I was not afraid of Ayahuasca itself, but of what it may show me about myself that I may have hidden and repressed in some dark corner of my soul.