Aya-huasca contains two Quechua words: ‘aya’ means spirit or soul, and ‘huasca’ means vine. Ayahuasca is also known as vine of the dead or vine of the soul, and by many other names like yaje, caapi, Daime and Hoasca.

Ayahuasca is a famous jungle medicine of the Amazon rainforest and is mostly made from a vine ‘Banisteriopsis Caapi’ and the leaf of a plant ‘Psychotria Viridis’. Ayahuasca is a central role in the spiritual, religious and cultural traditions of the Indigenous and Mestizo peoples of Amazonian Perú, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, and in portions of the Río Orinoco basin.

Purification and cleansing of body, mind, and spirit in an ayahuasca ceremony can be the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery and transformation. This process can continue, even if one never drinks ayahuasca again.

 

The Ayahuasca ceremony

The Maestros give a cup of medicine with their icaros and tobacco smoke at 9 to 10 pm. Then, the lights are turned off and everyone waits for the medicine to take effect.

When the effects come, icaros (medicine songs)  are sung. The icaros come directly from the plant spirits that accompany the maestro to help the patients and students who are present in the ceremony. The effects of the ayahuasca vary in every ceremony, but many times include the cleansing of traumas and old stored emotions, physically purging, vomiting in a bucket.

Sometimes one has visions of the plant spirits who come to help, other things and reflections of ones life.

After 4 to 5 hours, the effects start to pass and one can go to sleep until the next day.