My Journey with Ancestral Medicine and Spiritual Connection
Communication with Animals and Spiritual Awakening
Communicating with animals not only opened my heart to communicate with them but also guided me towards spirituality. It was when I heard about Michael Harner, an anthropologist who introduced the concept of neoshamanism to the Western world, that my curiosity was further awakened. His book The Way of the Shaman described his experience with ayahuasca and deeply caught my attention. I began to research more about this sacred plant and shamanism, and in 2019, I had my first experience with ayahuasca in Colombia.
Discovering Ayahuasca: A Sacred Journey
Ayahuasca, also known as yagé, is a sacred plant used by Amazonian indigenous communities for centuries. This ancestral brew is made by combining the vine Banisteriopsis caapi with the leaves of Psychotria viridis, and is renowned for its powerful psychedelic effects. Ayahuasca serves as a spiritual guide that confronts your deepest truths, helping you understand and heal traumas, release emotional blockages, and connect with your ancestors and life purpose.
Transformative Experiences and Personal Growth
During the ceremony, ayahuasca reveals your inner self, confronting you with what needs to change and opening the path to your destiny. However, this process usually involves a purge, which can be through vomiting or diarrhea. My first ceremony was intensely transformative; I vomited extensively, releasing not just physical toxins but also negative emotions like envy, anger, and arrogance. Ayahuasca showed me a side of myself I hadn’t wanted to see: an arrogant, ignorant person lacking in compassion. The next day, I felt like a new person, lighter and relieved. The experience was so impactful that I returned to Colombia for another ceremony the following month, marking the start of a regular practice.
Challenges and New Discoveries
The pandemic temporarily interrupted my journey, but I continued to feel the call of Mother Ayahuasca even during that time. In 2022, I found a group in Panama that also took ayahuasca. Although the ceremonies were enriching, I did not experience the same spiritual advancement as in Colombia. That’s when a friend introduced me to a master shaman from Peru. Participating in one of her ceremonies in 2023 changed my life once again. I was captivated by the balance between feminine power and gentleness, something I felt was missing in myself, as I have always been a strong person with predominantly masculine energy.
Exploring Plant Diets and Ancestral Medicine
From the first time she met me, this shaman invited me to diet plants in the Peruvian jungle. Dieting plants? In this practice, one follows a strict dietary regimen—without salt, sugars, dairy, red meat, citrus, or condiments—while consuming the flowers, leaves, or bark of the plants to absorb their spirit. At the end of 2023, I traveled to Peru to undergo this diet along with several ayahuasca ceremonies and various purges, including kambo. Those two weeks profoundly transformed my life. Mother Ayahuasca revealed my purpose: to follow the path of ancestral medicine. At first, I doubted—me, a white European woman, becoming a medicine woman?—but ayahuasca showed me that origin and skin color don’t matter; what matters is what you have inside, your soul. If Mother Ayahuasca chooses you, it’s for a reason, and you must follow that calling.
Kambo: A Powerful Ancestral Medicine
Kambo, also known as the jungle vaccine, is an ancestral medicine extracted from the secretion of the Phyllomedusa bicolor frog, also known as the giant monkey frog. Native to the Amazon rainforest, it is applied in small burned points on the skin so that the body can absorb it. Kambo is known for its powerful physical, mental, and energetic cleansing properties, helping to eliminate toxins, strengthen the immune system, and release stagnant emotions, thus preparing the body and mind for greater clarity and spiritual alignment.
Continuing the Path as a Medicine Woman
Since then, I have continued my path as a medicine woman. I facilitate ayahuasca ceremonies, apply kambo purges, and continue learning in Peru and Colombia, sharing what I have learned with those who seek help or a new path in their healing journey.
Aho!
In shamanism, saying “Aho” after sharing a truth or gratitude is a way to honor the connection with the earth, spirits, and other participants. It is an expression that reinforces the energy and power of spoken words within a spiritual context.