What is Ayahuasca? | The School of Shamanic Initiation

What is Ayahuasca?

Meaning

This word of Quechua origin means "rope of the dead", although it can also be interpreted as "tie or link that unites with the spiritual world". One meaning describes the plant itself that is a vine, its scientific name is Banisteriosis Caapi and it grows wild or domesticated in the Amazon basin. There are multiple varieties according to the colors of the liana, black, red, yellow, etc. The other meaning of ayahuasca is referred to the traditional drink, the decoction or preparation that after long hours of preparation would result in a juice that would later be present in the shamanic sessions. If you boil for a long period of time two plants Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis you will get the powerful brew.

Here the interesting part is, for the action of ayahuasca to have the desired effects, uses a second plant known as Chacruna (Psychotria viridis), which, being responsible for blocking the MAOI enzyme, would allow the drink to achieve the expected visionary effect. This is how the sacred drink would be the mixture of two plants: ayahuasca and chacruna.

Used for hundreds of years in the Amazon rainforest, it is traditionally brewed by indigenous communities living in the rainforests of Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia, and has spread throughout the world over the past few decades.

Diferent Names

These sacred plants are the source of many stories of profound healing and spiritual insight. Ayahuasca is also known :  yagé, caapi,  cipó,  bejuco de oro,  hoasca, natem, shori, pilde, and by many other names. Ayahuasca as a point of reference to the Quechua civilization, which turns out to be the oldest existing in South America.

Due to its low toxicity, Ayahuasca may be used as an indigenous medical resource in the treatment of depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and especially drug addiction. There are no recorded cases of dependence or withdrawal symptoms from this drink. From the Western standpoint, it would not be correct to use the word "drug." TIt is easy to mistake a plant for a hallucinogenic drug, and the term "hallucinogenic" would include the same property since it is a pejorative and even discriminatory term that wouldn't be used in the Amazonian medicine tradition.

Traditional Medicine

Because it is said to instruct how to perceive, and beyond that to enhance superior vision, a strong technique of opening the channel of self-awareness and self-healing, Ayahuasca is called a Master Plant or Plant Teacher. There is Initiation in the ceremony for those ones who decide to die while still alive. It is considered a master plant as a form of a effective inner vision. 

The main protagonist, that is, the self, assumes a prominent position with the reins in hand to resume the steps taken, and new steps are from a greater angle of vision, greater awareness of reality, more knowledge of the internal and external universal world, peace and reconciliation. The Ayahuasca vine is a master plant that symbolizes the kingdom of death and has a sacred duty of bringing life.

This traditional ancestral drink is mostly determined by the situation in which one participates, such as healing, cleanse, purification, curing, and so on. It's conceivable to perform an Initiation of Traditional Medicine based on these variables known as "respect for the ritual" by indigenous shaman. It's available to anybody, but not everyone is willing to do so. It is not a must-do procedure for all people. It's an option within the realm of  "expanded state of consciousness."