When I was a child, I remember my parents had several artifacts around the house that they collected from their travels. One of the most striking pieces was bowl from made by the Shipibo people in Peru covered in the most beautifully intricate patterns. I remember my mother telling me that she was from the same country as the Shipibo people and how isolated they were from the rest of civilization. In my adulthood this memory served as the seed of an adventure into the Amazon jungle where I was introduced to many isolated cultures and amazing medicines, including Ayawaska.    

The Shipibo people believe the patterns found in their artworks are healing on the mental, emotional, physical and even spiritual levels. They have manifested these patterns through shamanic visions that came to them during the Ayawaska ceremony. The Shipibo see and hear these geometric patterns in nature and reproduce the designs on their clothing and paint them on their houses and boats.  Every design carries its own specific meaning. Some bring healing and others wisdom, protection or abundance. These ‘artful prayers’ can be sung by the Shipibo because each design also functions as a musical score, called an ‘Icaro’.

One of the strange and magical mysteries of Ayawaska is the fact that several of the ceremonial participants see the same visions. It is as if we all visit the same inter-dimensional space. There are several accounts of people seeing snakes, other worldly creatures, religious deities, The Green Woman (presumably Mother Ayawaska) and the jaguar. Several people I spoke to after the ceremony remember tuning into the jaguar. When we spoke to the Shaman about what this meant he told us “When the secretive, graceful jaguar enters your life it is time to resolve old issues and to make way for a spiritual rebirth.”