Preparation for Ceremony

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It is said that the Ceremony begins once you say "yes" to the opportunity.  It is of utmost importance to prepare your mind, body and soul in the days and weeks leading up to the event. Below are some ways that you can set yourself up for success. This list is not all-encompassing, but it will give you a good idea of how to prepare. 

  "The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor."  -  Martha Graham

The practices and dietary protocols leading up to a ceremony are known as a Dieta ⁠— and though the word most obviously refers to food intake, the preparatory practices extend to behavioral abstinence and spiritual practices, as well. The earlier you start this process, the better. Begin the dieta a minimum of one week before the ceremony.

The way we physically prepare our body for an expanded state of consciousness is of utmost importance ~ to diet, to cleanse and purify for the specific purpose of enhancing the healing potential of a journey.

Simply stated, it is best to simplify your diet as much as possible in the week leading up to the ceremony. 

Clearing your digestive system of fatty and heavy foods, your circulation of intoxicants, and your mind of impure thoughts certainly has its benefits. But they don't always come easily. 

Many of us “medicate” ourselves with unhealthy food; thus, removing all those tasty dishes can be irritating. This is part of the surrender and discipline process necessary for making the most of the experience. Plus, the diet will make you feel healthier and perhaps better prepared for challenges, with a clearer mind to focus on your intentions. It also brings an energetic balance to your system, allowing the medicine to do its work more effectively. Some of the items on the list are included to bring you to an optimal physiological and spiritual state to receive the medicine, while others are included for factual health reasons.

Eliminate processed foods, colorings, and preservatives; avoid salty, sugary, and spicy foods; cut out animal products, particularly meat; and eliminate all sexual activity, addictive substances like alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and recreational drugs. Avoid other psychoactive substances for a minimum of one week before the journey.

Try sticking to wholesome organic meals. Drink plenty of water and light herbal teas. Avoid coffee or strong black tea.

Sleep for 7 to 8 hours each night for 3 days before and after the journey, and take naps if you feel tired from your activities. Take care to cleanse and purify your physical body so that you feel ready for your experience, using sage, incense, and salt baths. 

Go into nature to stay grounded. You want to move stagnant energy out of the body and quiet the physical system. You want to go into a journey with a sense of vitality, yet rested enough for the experience. It can be helpful to get a massage or go to a sauna to begin the process of relaxation. 

Herbal medicines such as St. John's Wort, Kava, Ephedra, Ginseng, Yohimbe, Sinicuichi, and Kratom should be avoided in the days leading up to and during the ceremony, as these can potentially cause dangerous complications.

Foods to avoid

o Dairy products (highly mucus-forming)

o Red meat (pork, beef, goat, tuna, eel, etc.)

o Processed, canned, sulfured food and chemical preservatives

o Fermented and aged foods such as soy sauce, fermented dairy

o products, soybean paste, tofu, bean curd, miso soup, teriyaki sauce, shrimp paste, and pickled foods

o Sourdough bread

o Processed sweets, chocolate, and anything with refined sugar and products containing sugar (e.g., bread, sauces) unless homemade!

o Artificial sweeteners

o Spicy and excessively salty foods

o Products high in gluten, such as cakes, cookies, and white bread

o Various protein- and yeast-based extracts or supplements

o Overripe fruits (e.g., bananas)

o Onions, garlic

o Pineapple

o Papaya

o Avocado

o Coffee

o Black, green, kava, matcha tea

o Alcohol of any type, including wine and beer, even minimal amounts in cough syrups

o All street and recreational drugs, including Marijuana

o Violent films and video games

o Other intense psycho-mental or spiritual stimulation

o Specific medicinal herbs such as: St. Johns Wort, Kava, Ephedra, Ginseng, Yohimbe,

Sinicuichi, Kratom

o Any form of sexual contact, including masturbation

Preferred food

• Fresh, locally grown, organic foods

• Organic fruits

• Organic vegetables

• Organic grilled chicken,

• Fresh wild-caught fish

• Organic eggs

• Oatmeal, quinoa, buckwheat, rice

• Homemade bread, gluten-free

• Raw cashews or almonds, unsalted

• Little salt - Make sure it is real sea salt

• Coconut, Avocado or olive oil, sparingly

Make sure you are also drinking water and electrolytes in the days leading up to the ceremony, as proper hydration, including vital salts, is essential.  Make sure you are also consuming essential micronutrients in the days leading up to the retreat. This includes but is not limited to iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamin A, D, C, and B12.

Oftentimes, people can develop a headache late in the ceremony, similar to a hangover, if they are not properly hydrated with water, electrolytes, and micronutrients.

In appropriate circumstances, we will work with members and ceremonial participants in determining if they can eliminate their reliance on prescription drugs where possible, particularly if they are on MAOI or SSRI drugs. These medications will interfere directly with the effects of many natural entheogens, and, in some cases, the interaction can have serious health repercussions. 

***Always consult your doctor before altering your prescription medication intake.*** 

DO NOT attempt to participate in a ceremony involving the consumption of natural entheogens while taking these medications, and always consult with us first. 

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT ALL MEMBERS AND CEREMONIAL PARTICIPANTS BE 100% TRUTHFUL AND ACCURATE WHEN DIVULGING THEIR CURRENT MEDICATIONS AND PRIOR MEDICAL HISTORY

Specific restrictions with potentially LETHAL interactions:

- Antidepressants: SSRIs, MAOIs, Serotonin-enhancing medicines like Seroquel

Antihistamines, medication for colds, sinus problems, hay fever or allergies, sleep aids

Medicine for asthma, bronchitis, or other breathing problems

- Antipsychotics

- Appetite suppressants (diet pills)

- Central nervous system depressants

- Opiates or synthetic opioids, Morphine, Vicodin ...and the like

- Amphetamines, Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine, Benzedrine, or similar

- Do not take anything other than an aspirin/ibuprofen within 10 days without consulting us first

- Prescription drugs against high blood pressure, please notify us what kind you are taking

- Anyone taking antidepressant medications will not be permitted to participate

- Antidepressants must be stopped at least 2-4 weeks before the ceremony! 

***Please contact your doctor and inform us***

- Women who are pregnant are not permitted to participate

- Dental: Please, do not schedule any dental work or surgery one week prior to and following a ceremony

Setting Intentions

Before any ceremony involving natural entheogens, it is essential to bring something with you. Your intention plays a crucial role in the entire process. Remembering what brought you here to explore and heal in the first place can re-center you. 

When our intentions are clear, when we are sure about what we want, we give the universe full permission to deliver it to us. When we focus on what we don't want, the universe is likely to deliver us more of the same drudgery that led us to want to transform our day-to-day reality. Clarity about your objective, purpose, and intention will enable you to experience profound healing beyond your wildest expectations.

When setting an intention for this work, you may like to contemplate the following questions:

• What is it I want to realize for myself? What would be my ideal outcome? How would I like to feel?

• What is my main aim or objective? Think about this in terms of what you want (not what you don't want).

• What is my purpose for wanting to do this work? Be sure that it is an authentic purpose, not simply wanting to check an experience off your bucket list.

• How does this purpose look and feel to me? Try to imagine it in your mind, write it down or draw it out.

You can support the process of setting an intention by journaling, making art, playing music, singing, or writing to express what is coming through. Try to write every morning. Read through old journeys (if you have journeyed before) and reflect on how far you have come. Explore wounds, painful memories, and issues, and open up emotionally. If you are not a meditator, begin a simple daily mindfulness practice. You can take 10 minutes to focus on your breath and journal. Record your dreams! Uncover your subconscious.

Mental and Emotional Preparation

In expanded states of consciousness, we are granted access to the domain beyond our normal ego structures. The veil that lies between our conscious mind and the vast ocean-like realm of our subconscious becomes more permeable. Because expanded consciousness gives us access to these normally elusive layers of our minds, you should be thoroughly prepared before entering the space. We can do this by becoming familiar with the ways the mind functions.

As human beings, we develop defenses, strategies, and coping mechanisms to manage painful experiences. These defenses and strategies take shape as coping behaviors, thinking patterns, habits, and fears. On a basic level, this function is to create safety and avoid emotional pain associated with challenging psychological material.

It is a basic animal instinct not to want to feel pain and to do whatever is possible to avoid it. Expanded states of consciousness relax your psychological strategies and defenses, bringing you face-to-face with the content of your ego structure, which is normally kept hidden.

To prepare on the level of mind and emotions, we bring mindfulness to our immediate experience. In this way, we begin to cultivate a conscious mind through the simple act of becoming aware of our current state, whatever it is. For most people, the thought of going inward to explore unknown territories of the mind will trigger apprehensions. Facing the unknown with some apprehension is a normal response.

Just like in everyday life, expectations are the root cause of disappointment. Although we live calculated, scheduled, and, for the most part, predictable lives, we often believe we are in control of many things. At any given moment, disruption to our routine and predictions can incur massive frustration and loss just because it's unexpected. On the other hand, experiences we look forward to and build up in our minds often underwhelm us because they differ from the image we have constructed beforehand.

The answer to having a constructive journey?
It's good to have an intention, but not expectations

Let go and surrender to whatever may come up. Allow yourself to experience emotions, sensations, and visualizations without apprehension or judgment of "good" or "bad." 

Feel it fully - Take a deep breath - and LET IT GO!

  "The spiritual path is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path, most people just don't know it."  -  Marianna Williamson

Step back and take a look at your current lifestyle. Where are there pockets of negative energy that you can reduce or eliminate in preparation for your journey? Spiritual preparation for a healing experience involves clearing your mind and your energetic space. Take a break from your television and Netflix subscription, cut down your phone and internet time, and spend more time in quiet solitude. Get out into nature as much as you can to breathe and connect with the Earth.

You can create an altar in your home to support your spiritual connection. An altar is a shrine, table, cabinet, shelf, or platform on which objects or images of spiritual, religious, or special significance are arranged to evoke a sense of the sacred. When all the objects are brought together in a particular arrangement, they create a unique field of energy that represents and reflects those who participated in its making.

Another good way to prepare for a ceremony is to observe a period of silence. Just listening to the inner self requires quieting the mind to practices such as meditating, watching/feeling the breath, meditating with a candle, or focusing the senses on one object. A quiet mind can also be obtained through reciting prayers, mantras, or sutras.

Also, before entering a journey space, we can reach out to people who possess a certain level of sensitivity and compassion. We recognize the preciousness of certain relationships and the richness they can bring to our process, especially when they are friends or family who have gone through a similar experience.

"Wealth is determined not by how many things you have, but by how many people you have around you."

  -  Malidoma Patrice Somé

The following is something I wrote to read at the opening of the first ceremony I hosted many years ago. It resonated so deeply that I have read it at the opening of every ceremony since. 

· When you feel the medicine starting to take hold, find a nice place to sit quietly, and allow yourself to feel whatever comes up

· The deep insights we crave rarely come when our mind and body are distracted

· Surrender completely, and let yourself feel with all of your being

· That which we resist, will persist...  so today I invite you to have the courage and curiosity to go towards any fear or anxieties, don’t shy away from it

· If you ever feel overwhelmed,  just close your eyes and focus on deep breaths - a long inhale through your nose and a longer exhale through your mouth… This will reconnect you with your body and heart, and be less in your mind

· Give yourself permission to feel, without internal judgement or resistance

· Feelings are not meant to be rationalized, judged, or even understood; they are only meant to be felt, with all of your being

· To reject any emotion because we label it as “bad” or inconvenient is an act of self-judgment and dishonor, and further disempowers us from expressing our true Self 

· This only serves to feed our shadow, instead of honoring and integrating it

· Huachuma helps us to experience these emotions that have been repressed by inner judgment

· Today, give yourself permission to feel, completely…  

· Emotions, once experienced, will often disappear as quickly as they appeared, leaving us to feel much lighter 

· Fully experiencing emotions is all that is needed for them to be released, and when emotions are released, so is the shadow they cast 

· Huachuma is a powerful medicine that helps this process by reconnecting us with our Hearts

· So, whether it is laughter or tears, allow yourself to experience it entirely. 

· Huachuma Tears are one of the most healing medicines on earth!

· The spiritual healing process is one of subtraction, not addition, because we are letting go of societal constructs, labels, judgements, and patterns that no longer serve our higher purpose. This reinforces the idea that we are not “lacking” anything, and we are already enough!

· Let go of the idea that there is something that needs to be “fixed”, because we all have patterns that no longer serve us

· Instead, honor these patterns, because they likely served a purpose at one point in our life. This is often the first and most important step in changing these patterns

· Reframing and honoring of old patterns can be very helpful when dealing with trauma-based responses because we often feel shame and judgment towards this aspect of our life. Realizing these reactions and patterns were there to protect us helps to honor our past and truly grow from it

· Huachuma helps us to honor our past, which is one of the most important steps towards loving your Self, and learning new patterns 

· Sometimes the desire to “fix” our Self is counterproductive to the desire to Love our Self

· To “fix” our Self means there is something inherently wrong with our Self, and it can manifest as a form of rejection and judgment. 

· By honoring our past, Huachuma helps us to “let go” of the pain and trauma that we often wear like a badge, constantly retelling the stories of transgressions against us, so much so that our pain can become our identity 

· As long as we hold on to this emotional armoring, the healing process is almost impossible 

· Honor your armoring, and the role it played in protecting you from past traumas, and allow yourself to feel any emotions that you have protected yourself from

· One of the biggest hurdles in letting go is giving yourself permission to release what you’ve been clutching for so long 

· Huachuma helps us to connect with our past from new perspectives, allowing us to let go of long-held judgements and beliefs, so that we can learn new patterns which better serve our higher Self 

· So today, with courage and curiosity, give yourself permission to feel the entirety of this extraordinary human experience!