Four Stages Of Ayahuasca Training
All plant medicines carry a unique intelligence.
They were created for a specific purpose, and each type has a particular kind of intelligence with a distinct flavor and personality.
When you work with a plant, you then carry the wisdom of that plant. It’s similar to living in a place for a long time.
Eventually, you will embody that place’s energy and carry it wherever you go.
Today, I want to share a little about how Ayahuasca trained me both as a practitioner and to use it as an intelligence.
When you get into shamanic or spiritual work, there’s always a careful balance between cultivating your unique personality, medicine, and perspective.
Much of this comes directly from working with the spirits.
It’s less about what somebody told you or what the rules are and more about your connection with the spirits themselves, learning what they’re asking you to do and how they want you to do it.
There’s a balance between that and learning and training from guides.
This is also an essential part of training and shamanic work because it is born from being in and working within communities.
You can only grow so far without others to reflect, show you things, and provide you with information from further down the path.
Entheogens are a beautiful tool. They’re a beautiful intelligence, but you can do deep healing without using them.
When you start doing spiritual work, sending your power out to something external is easy to do.
There are so many brilliant tools that we can use and incorporate.
But remember, you are the power and the intelligence.
The way life moves through you is how the earth speaks through you.
And that’s what you’re here to do.
Stage 1: Waking Up
I will walk you through the four main stages I went through while training with Ayahuasca to give you a sneak peek at what it looks like to have that intimate relationship with a plant.
So stage one was what I would call “Waking up.”
This is the beginning stage of the inner work with that plant.
Working with Ayahuasca is usually a very big experience and may be something you’re uncomfortable with.
One of the things that it’s known for is purging while you’re on it.
This type of purging is more than just throwing up.
Instead of just being a physical purge, it is also a spiritual purge.
Something is coming out of your mouth and throat. Still, it is more of a gathering.
Gathering the stuff that you don’t need anymore.
Gathering the lies you’ve been carrying in your body.
Gathering the misperceptions you’ve had.
Gathering any place where you have been misaligned or distorted and removing it from your system.
During this purge, this fascinatingly subtle in-between place is where the plant comes in, gets in your psyche, and teaches you things.
This is where you will learn how to work with it and let it flow through your body.
Another beautiful thing about Ayahuasca is that it will continue to teach you things when you’re not actively using it.
Once you’ve used it, you carry that medicine with you.
It’ll continue to work with you if you are available to listen.
Stage Two: Returning to self
I remember a specific journey where I became aware of the power of intention and how pre-journey events can inform the overall experience.
I began learning to differentiate myself from others based on my unique tendencies and energy type.
Learning to discern between yourself and others and, more importantly, how to come back to yourself when working with medicine is a super important practice.
This gives us the power to encounter something significant and choose not to take it on.
Instead of reacting, we can choose to refine ourselves and come back to our own energy space.
This practice is critical when working with powerful medicines like Ayahuasca, where disorientation can happen quickly, and physical movement may be limited.
Stage Three: Following Directions
Step three was about listening to Ayahuasca and following its instructions, which occurred over a long period.
Surrendering is a big part of working with plant medicines, letting them move through your body and psyche as they want to without resistance.
In this stage, I had to find my place of trust and tune into the teachings, which were communicated to me through my body and system.
Stage Four: Learning to Say No
The last stage, which I’m sure won’t be the final stage, was learning to say no.
This is a big part of my curriculum and teaching.
It requires honoring what Ayahuasca requests without slipping into thoughts or resistance.
The plants are intelligent and can show us incredible things, but it’s important not to lean too heavily on them and create an imbalance.
They suggest things to us, and we can taste it in our mouths when they’re calling us.
However, it’s also important to know when to say no and not confuse the power of the plants with our own power.
In the middle of ceremony, Ayahuasca told me to say no and take a break, which was a test to see if I would listen.
Once I passed that challenge, I was allowed to use it again.
Taking breaks and not becoming too reliant on plant medicines is essential.
We get these really strong attachments to the plants as teachers and start losing our power in them.
As they start to work with us more, you can lose your boundary between what you are and what they are.
That magic itself is like such a merging process that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish the difference.
If you work with these plants, you can gain the ability to step back and realize when they are not serving you.
This skill allows you to return to your regular life without feeling like the plant has taken over.
It’s important to integrate the experience into your everyday reality, rather than making it an extreme, all-encompassing event that becomes difficult to recover from.
The goal of working with these plants is to find healing and growth, not to become disconnected from everyday reality.