How To Become an Ayahuasca Shaman: Tips and Guide To Be an Ayahuasquero

Do you know anyone or are you interested in learning ayahuasca shamanism? Are you willing to train to become an ayahuasca shaman?

Shamanism is not easy and training to become one can be challenging. One has to go through a lot of learning and practice. Apart from that, you need dedication and discipline to complete the training.

If you are interested in ayahuasca shamanism or you want to be an ayahuasca shaman in the future, this article will surely be of help to you! So, continue reading to learn what it takes and what you should do to be a shaman.

What Trained Ayahuasquero Or Ayahuasca Shaman Does?

One might wonder why shaman is necessary if anyone can just brew their own ayahuasca and play some recorded music or icaros before drinking the ayahuasca tea.

Why does anyone have to administer the drink for the ritual? Why do you need a trained ayahuasquero or curandero to lead the ayahuasca ceremonies? Others might think that they are not necessary, but an expert ayahuasca shaman is a huge help for a safer ayahuasca experience whether you are in South America or not.

Ayahuasca shamans can help you by showing the plant spirit that you are serious about healing and gaining insight. It can also help Mother Aya see that you respect her. Moreover, shamans are religious and mystical experts so they are very involved in various traditional ceremonies and religious rites involving plant medicines.

Their roles include being healers, prophets, diviners, custodians or religious mythology, and more. They also serve as coordinators in cultural ceremonies and more.

According to reports, shamans can also transform themselves into various animals or elements of the world to explore various realms (underwater, earth and sky). Moreover, they can attack or defend themselves from rival shamans.

In short, they play many roles aside from leading ayahuasca ceremonies and working with the medicinal plants that’s why many people seek their help. Here’s an overview of what ayahuasquero, curanderos, or ayahuasca shamans do.

Buy your ayahuasca kits here

Those who turned to plant medicine have learned a lot of things about themselves through their shamanic journeys. Some even said it helped them heal in a different way compared to using anti-depressant, doing therapy, yoga, or meditation. One ayahuasca drinker said that for her, a couple of ayahuasca ceremonies were like “20 years of psychotherapy.”

Tips To Be An Ayahuasquero

Shamans are revered because they exude deep wisdom, unwavering confidence, resolute calmness and promote kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. For those who are interested in becoming one, here are the things that you need to do to start training to become a shaman.

1. Listen and heed the calling

Becoming a shaman is a calling from the plants. Some find ayahuasca shamanism interesting even without the plant’s calling but those who made it into becoming a healer said there was a calling that led them to where they are today. According to several sources familiar with ayahuasca, Mother Aya calls those who are destined to be shamans.

One will feel it in his heart if he is meant to be an ayahuasca shaman or not. Many said something had drawn them to the Peruvian jungle to experience the plant medicine and some of them returned with a heart yearning for more. The shamans, themselves, may also have some clues if one can join them in their paths or not.

Some shamans turn down those who show interest in apprenticeship when they feel that the person doesn’t have what it takes to be one. However, they will also let you know and invite you for training when they see hints that Mother Aya is calling you.

Others ignored the calling for years and still ended up training to be a shaman because they were called to be one and there is no way to escape it. The spirit of the plants will keep on haunting you until you gave in to it.

Also, the plants might choose someone peculiar. Shamans are well-respected because of their power to heal, wisdom in answering various inquiries and unbelievable calmness and peace. Would you ever think of a convicted person as a shaman?

Well, Mother Aya works in surprising ways, and she can change lives so finding one should not be shocking. Steve Hupp, is a shaman from Kentucky, and he didn’t hide his dark past and how the plant medicines changed every part of his life.

“I am living proof of the power of Ayahuasca, that if I can change, anyone can, because I was lost in materialism, drug abuse, alcoholism and pride which led me on a 5 yr bank robbing spree that ended with me in Federal Prison, which is where I met my first Shaman who was a Cell Mate, he was there on immigration issues and was awaiting deportation, we became friends and my odyssey began. Ayahuasca is an amazing and powerful tool, but YOU must do the work one day at a time,” Steve said.

Becoming an ayahuasquero is not for everyone, so one’s interest may not be enough. But those who are called will eventually see themselves in the path of shamanism because that’s what’s meant for them.

Also, make sure that what you are hearing is the plants’ calling and not just your ego or desire to be a shaman because the latter won’t work. Becoming a shaman is not easy because it takes a whole level of dedication, discipline, and full-on mental strength.

“Make no mistake; it’s the plants that call us. If they don’t agree with our calling to lead ceremony, it’s not going to happen. This is their show. So to have her blessing literally meant everything,” Tina Kat Courtney⁽¹⁾https://entheonation.com/blog/how-to-be-an-ayahuasca-shaman/ wrote.

Just a reminder, your interest in ayahuasca doesn’t necessarily mean that you are called to be a shaman because many are called to dive in and try ayahuasca, but becoming a shaman is not for everyone.

2. Create good intent

There are three elements in being a shaman — intent, emotional control and knowledge. Here are some of the things that you need to know about various elements required.

“Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated. It operates in spite of the warrior’s indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity,” Carlos Castaneda said about intention.

One’s intent is the basis of manipulating reality for healing or manifestation. The ayahuasquero’s intention impacts whether ayahuasca will be used for good or bad shamanic purposes. So, the apprentice should align their intentions and make sure that they are good because healing begins with intent.

The idea is one can bring more good things into his life by only intending good things. Thus, you should dwell on good things and replace any negative thought whenever it crosses your mind

You can find your intention by doing complimentary works like meditation or energy healing. You have to learn how to calm your body and keep your mind still, your heart strong to maximize the experience because shamans frequently drink the ayahuasca brew.

3. Dedicate yourself to healing

Ayahuasca tourism has become a huge business in the Amazon jungles and countries like Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. While many make money from ayahuasca, shamans’ priority is deeply rooted in healing humanity.

Yes, those who are into ayahuasca shamanism aims to help than earn. They do it to spread positivity, health and wellness. Many who seek the help of Mother Aya wants to be healed from certain illnesses, be free from addiction or get over a traumatic past.

Shamans are by nature sympathetic and empathetic. They know how to make someone comfortable so they can open up their problems, connect and relate with them, and lead them to freedom and healing.

Shamans are healers with skills beyond just healing because they can see visions, spot one’s weakness, understand their past and persuade them to do significant changes in their lives to promote healing benefits.

4. Willingness to sacrifice

Becoming a shaman is the ultimate path of sacrifice because you have to put it above all else, including your family. Ayahuasca shamanism could be the most intense and spiritually intimate partnership you will ever experience that’s why you should be willing to sacrifice every last attachment and conceivable fear you have.

Ayahuasca is deemed to be more important than one’s husband, wife, children or even one’s life. Being a shaman is not a job, it’s one’s whole life. For those who are willing to be an ayahuasca shaman, the ultimate sacrifice would be living everything for the plant medicine, including your old life and old ways.

You have to get over your old self and survive an intense journey through darkness. You’ve got to deal with and pass the darkness or you will unknowingly pass it on to others. By taking ayahuasca, you will be stripped away of your ego and see the raw you including your flaws. You will have to confront your true self and see those things you are unwilling to look at and work on them.

Also, while there are already a lot of ayahuasca centers that ask for a certain amount of payment upfront, the first shamans don’t ask for money or demand for any particular amount. In fact, shamans do not ask for money and they just accept any amount given to them. So, shamans may need to sacrifice their material wants.

“We don’t have a salary—we live on what people decide to give us,” Dorzhiyev said.
Dorzhiyev, his wife, Tatyana, and their children live in a modest, two-room apartment in a building that she manages.

“We get by. We have enough for bread,” he said while laughing.

5. Prepare for the master plant dietas

You probably heard about the ayahuasca diet, but this one is different. Ayahuasca diet is a list of food for those interested in joining an ayahuasca ceremony.

It serves as a precaution to the participants by advising them to avoid some food to prepare their bodies for the ceremony.

On the other hand, the master plant dieta is a foundational element and an integral part of the healing tradition and plant medicine ceremonies in the Amazon.

The curanderos or healers use master plants in conjunction with ayahuasca to open their minds and hearts and be guided by the spirits of the plants on the best way to heal others.

During the fasting rituals, your consciousness would be altered in a fundamental way to allow you to connect directly with the Higher self and the knowledge of plant teachers. Its strict ritual serves as an expression of determination and dedication to one’s spiritual, emotional and physical transformation because the dieta plays a fundamental role in supporting the dietero in integrating and sustaining the healing they receive through the sacred plants.

Not all master plant dietas follow the same process, rules and rituals. Usually, one has to ingest special preparations of your master plant accompanied by a strict fast. Initially, the first day will be an initial period of meditation and intention setting. One will have to visit the Master Plant, soplay (breath smoke upon) it with mapacho (wild tobacco), pray and recite their intention for the coming dieta. Then, prepare themselves to drink the Master Plant extract.

During plant dietas, some filled their days in solitude with meditation, prayer, contemplating, singing, playing guitar or flute. Others do their journal, walk in the jungle to visit the medicinal plants and lend a hand to prepare the ayahuasca mixture or plant brews or bathe in the river.

The ayahuasca diet dictates one not to consume sugar, salt, or alcohol. It also orders one to avoid sex and dedicate themselves to ancient wisdom.

6. Find a shaman to train with

There is no actual or official process, but you can start by researching for a shaman to apprentice with. The experience might be different depending on who your teacher is or where you train. For some, it was very counter-intuitive.

Ayahuasca shamanism is not about book-learning or heady pursuits, it teaches one to connect with the things that are intangible like your spiritual side, the divine beings and more. The training is about getting out your noisy head, honoring your intuition, and connection to the spiritual world.

During the apprenticeship, you may assist your teacher with all his Ayahuasca ceremonies and retreats. In most cases, the participants would often need assistance during the ceremonies for various reasons like helping them go to the bathroom, offering tissue when they cry and emptying their puke buckets.

Also, as an assistant or apprentice, you will learn many icaros and sing them as needed. They also help answer questions, comfort the participants by hugging them and doing bodywork. As an apprentice, one has to participate in numerous ceremonies with their teacher or with other curanderos or ayahuasqueros.

The shamans, themselves, are among those who experience the miracles of ayahuasca personally. Many of them likened the experience to accomplishing more than 10 years of psychotherapy. It was life-changing and they wanted to share it with the rest of those who wish for healing and positive change in their lives.

However, the apprenticeship to be an ayahuasca healer may take at least 8 to 12 years much like being a Western doctor. You can’t learn ayahuasca shamanism on your own. While that might be possible, it would be unbelievably rare because one has to let go of their ego as it can lead to a destructive, traumatic and even deadly place.

While a good intention is a must, it won’t save a participant. Also, a pure and loving heart may have served as a foundation to be a powerful vessel, but it won’t help when the shaman is already in the actual field of training. Thus, those who are learning ayahuasca shamanism need to learn the craft by watching and learning from a maestro or ayahuasca teacher.

Please remember the apprenticeship can be intense because the rituals would facilitate the shaman’s interaction with the spirit world like the trance and the entire course is not easy. You will witness hundreds to thousands of ayahuasca ceremonies.

In the next section, I will share what people or prospect shamans can expect when they undergo the ayahuasca shamanic training.

Ayahuasca Curandero Initiation Course

Everyone can learn shamanism and integrate its principles into their daily life and journey for inspiration, guidance, and healing. For those who are called to be a shaman, Personal Tao⁽²⁾https://personaltao.com/shamanism/ offers training that allows a deep learning experience without the need to travel.

Their shamanism training provides a deep learning experience for personal growth, so one can start living a shamanic life and working with the medicine plant.

Here is an overview of the its initiation course for the shamanic training.

1. Connect to a Power Animal⁽³⁾https://personaltao.com/soul-spirit/power-animals/ and Spirit Teacher
2. Engage and Honor Spiritual Relationships⁽⁴⁾https://personaltao.com/soul-spirit/spiritual-relationships/
3. Travel to the world of spirit and meet helping compassionate spirits
4. Experience The Shamanic Journey⁽⁵⁾https://personaltao.com/soul-spirit/shamanic-journey-overview/ – a core practice common to all shamanic cultures
5. Activate the energy of your Dreams⁽⁶⁾https://personaltao.com/dreams/dream-teachings/ to receive insight, guidance, and energy for your waking life
6. Learn to follow your destiny⁽⁷⁾https://personaltao.com/relationships/destiny-coaching/ (versus your fate)
7. Create personal Sacred Space⁽⁸⁾https://personaltao.com/blog/creating-sacred-space/ in the spirit world
8. Build personal mana (spiritual power) and shine your inner light
9. Learn how to follow your intuition and divine answers to your questions
10. Relax your mind and engage the power, protection, and support of the invisible realms

Ayahuasca Foundation⁽⁹⁾https://www.ayahuascafoundation.org/ayahuasca-initiation-course/ also offers an eight-week initiation course for ayahuasca curandero that any would really appreciate because it is very detailed. The foundation recognizes the fact that more and more people are responding to the plant’s call, so they design an ayahuasca training course to help one’s journeys to shamanic healing.

The course aims to teach philosophy, understanding methodology and practice. There are three topics and here are the details of the eight-week course it offered.

Curanderismo

Curanderismo is a diverse folk healing system of Latin America. It pertains to a curandero or a traditional native healer or shaman who work primarily with ayahuasca as medicine. They are also known as ayahuasqueros. Here are the things one has to learn in their path to being a curandero or ayahuasca shaman.

Dieta

Plant dietas are what make curanderos and it’s the way they build relationships with plant spirits, and strengthen their connection and communication. The plant spirits are the teachers and plant dietas enhance the teachings.

Icaros

These are the healing songs of the tradition and the participants receive an MP3 player with over a dozen icaros and lyrics and translations. The icaros are healing tools and serve as a form of backbone in ayahuasca ceremonies because they are the key method to communicating with the spirit.

Shipibo

This is the language used for all of the icaros. Shamans need to learn and understand its basic mechanics to be able to modify the icaros for more specific purposes.

Ayahuasca

The students observe and take part in the process of making ayahuasca giving them

Mapachos

A jungle tobacco and another important tool in the Shipibo healing tradition. Students learn to soplay, a technique that involves blowing smoke.

Agua Florida

This is a perfume made from flower essences. The course will teach students to learn to soplay with the perfume by spraying the liquid with their mouth. They will also learn the technique called “chupando” which involves sucking through the liquid while it is in the mouth.

Working with Ayahuasca

Shamans work with the medicine plants for so many years and those who wish to follow the same path have to learn the entire process. That’s why the following are included in the ayahuasca course. The following are very important in the course because it shows the entire flow of the procedure.

Ceremonies

Ayahuasca ceremonies form the heart of the Shipibo tradition from the Amazonian forest in Peru. Through the ceremonies, curanderos gain access to communicate with the spirits paving the way for the people to enjoy healing.

Opening

The course will also teach the students to understand and learn how to open a ceremony properly. The process provides access for the curanderos and participants to enter the spiritual dimension. It also welcomes the spirits to enter into the ceremony and do the work for the people to achieve their intention.

Mareaction

Students will also be taught the importance of raising and lowering the mareacion, the effects of ayahuasca, for optimal healing environment level for the most effective work to be done. It is very important to familiarize it, bring it on the effects, level them off and lower down the effects.

Healing

Much of the healing during ayahuasca ceremonies are motivated and directed by the curandero using connections built by plant dietas through communication provided by the icaros.

Helping

During ayahuasca ceremonies, participants may have different reactions to the brew and shamans are expected to help those who need assistance. This is a skill that healers. need to learn because some participants get overwhelmed by the procedure and the pain and suffering can be too much for them to bear.

Closing

Closing is as important as the opening ceremony. The spiritual dimension needs to be close to ensure protection of the ceremony participants once they leave the safety of the ceremony space.

Plant Medicine

The ayahuasca shamanic initiation course above may be slightly different from how the indigenous people do the ceremony in Amazon or Peru, but you will get to see a lot of similarities overall. Aside from the aforementioned, here are a few things that those who want to be a shaman need to know.

Plant Baths

It’s one of the main principles of the healing tradition that’s why students are taught about it from understanding how it works to administering it.

Vapor Baths

It is an incredible healing technique, so students are also taught how to prepare and administer it. They will also experience it first hand.

Purgatives

It is one of the essential parts of the healing tradition to administer purging. Those who train to be shamans are taught to prepare and administer purgative treatments to be used in the ceremony.

Inhalants

It is another method ingested nasally and one of the basic things that every shaman has to learn that’s why it is included in the course.

Remedies

The ceremony uses a wide variety of plant remedies in the healing process. There are too many things to learn, so the various ayahuasca courses may focus on what the students, themselves, need.

Poultices

It is a topical treatment used to solve a variety of conditions. It’s also an important part of the healing process that’s why the students are taught to prepare and administer poultices.

Conclusion

Ayahuasca shamans are not just the ordinary healers you will meet, they can do so much more in one session that’s why many likened the ayahuasca ceremony into a decade or two of psychotherapy. While many wish to be a shaman, the task is not for everyone. Its the plants that call one to be an ayahuasquero or curandero.

Thus, for those who wish to be an ayahuasca shaman, you should examine yourself if your interest in this miraculous healing brew is a calling and just an ego-centric desire to be a shaman. Also, training to be a curandero may take years of apprenticeship and living as one is a lifestyle that you have to live all your life and it should be your priority over your family and even yourself.

Lastly, healers require extensive training which is indicative of their skill, power and respect associated with ayahuasca knowledge. During the apprenticeship, the maestro or teacher ayahuasquero manages the diet of the apprentice while protecting them and regulating their visions through the use of songs known as icaros. That’s why many said finding an ayahuasca maestro or teacher is an intimate moment because it’s very important to find a trusted maestro who is willing to teach everything he knows because not all are willing to share their knowledge.

I hope the ayahuasca guide above will help those who want to be an ayahuasquero or curandero. For those who wish to learn more about becoming this subject, check out our homepage.

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