Shipibo Shamanka Doña Leonilde

Photo Credit: José Garcia Ramirez

New Year (Magical) Ayahuasca Event Programme

30 December 2010 – 08 January 2011

An Awesome and Unparalleled Ayahuasca Retreat to Celebrate the New Year with *Real Magic*!!

Day 1

9:15 am: Meeting in Iquitos’ town centre.

9:30 am: Transfer to our shamanic retreat centre “Ashi Meraya”, in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.

11:10 am: Estimated arrival time in “Ashi Meraya”. Accommodation in private bungalows and single rooms. Shipibo welcome ceremony.

12:00 pm: Lunch.

2:00 pm: Cleansing ritual bath (Baño de limpieza) with Ayahuasca leaves. Individual consultation with the Shipibo shamans.

3:00 pm: Talk on the topic “Chullachaki caspi – the Great Mother Protector of the Rainforest. The Welcoming Ritual.” (Chullachaquin jato becanwe acai masha)

The Welcoming Ritual of the Chullachaki

After the talk we shall all drink a tea prepared with the bark of the Chullachaki caspi teacher tree. Then we shall begin – and take all part in – the Welcoming Ritual of the Chullachaki. This ritual consists in introducing oneself to the mother spirit (madre) protector of the selva, to ask permission before starting any shamanic activity in the rainforest. We shall also ask the spirit of the Chullachaki to grant our wishes, whilst we take part in different shamanic rituals, herbal/flower baths and ceremonies during our magical stay in “Ashi Meraya”.

6:00 pm: Dinner.

7:00 pm: Talk and participation to the Amazonian “Yora Niscanti” (Sweat Lodge) Ritual.

Day 2

8:00 am: Breakfast

9:30 am: Exploratory walk along the ethnobotanical garden circuit of “Ashi Meraya”, familiarizing with – and identifying – teacher plants.

12:00 am: Cleansing ritual bath (Baño de Limpieza) with Ayahuasca leaves.

1:00 pm: Lunch.

4:30 pm: Talk and Ritual: “Yora Payanti” (Ritual of Spiritual Purification)

6.30:pm: Talk by the shaman: “Toé, Great Mother of the shamanic music and eye of the occult science (ojo de la ciencia oculta).”

7:00 pm: Ceremony with the plant teacher Toé (Brugmansia suaveolens).

Day 3

8:00 am: Breakfast

10:00 am: Cleansing ritual bath (Baño de Limpieza) with the Rue (Ruta Graveolens) plant

11:am: Circle meeting with the shamans, exchanging experiences on the Toé ceremony of the previous night.

1:00 pm: Lunch

5:00 pm: “Yora Payanti” (Ritual of Spiritual Purification)

7:30 pm: Introductory talk and recommendations from the shamans on Ayahuasca ritual.

8:00 pm: Ayahuasca ceremony.

Day 4

8:00 am: Breakfast

9:30 am: Talk by the shamans followed by the Grand Ritual “Merayabaon Nashiti Masha ” (Magical Dance of the Merayas), to seal the pact with the invisible beings and sacred plant spirits.

1:00 pm: Lunch.

5:00 pm: Circle meeting with the shamans, exchanging experiences on the Ayahuasca ceremony of the previous night.

8:00 pm: Ayahuasca ceremony.

Day 5

8:00 am: Breakfast.

9:30 am: Exhibition-sale of Shipibo artifacts and textiles.

1:00 pm: Lunch.

4:00 pm: Talk by the shamans, followed by the taking of the Remocaspi tea and performance of the “Pacho yucati masha” (Remocaspi or Pacho) Ritual.

8:00 pm: Ayahuasca ceremony.

Day 6

8:00 am: Breakfast.

10:00 am: Cleansing ritual bath (Baño de Limpieza) with the leaves of the Piñon Colorado teacher plant.

1:00 pm: Lunch.

4:00 pm: Circle meeting with the shamans, exchanging experiences on the Ayahuasca ceremony of the previous night.

5:30 pm: Dinner.

7:00 pm: Talk by the shamans followed by the performing of the “ Merayabaon Chi pakeni” (The Magical Fire of the Merayas) Ritual.

Day 7

6:00 am: Ayahuasca preparation

10:00 am: Breakfast.

12:00 am: Cleansing ritual bath (Baño de Limpieza) with the leaves of the Mucura plant teacher.

1:00 pm: Lunch.

5:00 pm: Talk by the shamans and performing of the “Rau Cuin” (Smoke Medicine) Ritual.

8:00 pm: Ayahuasca ceremony.

Day 8

8:00 am: Breakfast.

10:00 am: Ritual Flower bath (Baño de Florecimiento).

1:00 pm: Lunch.

4:00 pm: Talk by the shamans and performing of the “Onanyabaon Masha” (Shamanic Dance) Ritual.

8:00 pm: Ayahuasca ceremony.

Day  9

8:00 am: Breakfast.

9:30 am: Ritual Flower bath (Baño de Florecimiento).

11:00 am: “Nanebetan Mashen Siquíti Masha” (Tattoos: Transferring Symbols of Power) Ritual.

1:00 pm: Lunch.

5:00 pm: Circle meeting with the shamans, exchanging experiences on the Ayahuasca ceremony of the previous night.

7:00 pm: Talk by the shamans followed by the performing of the “Merayabaon jone jonibo quenaquin ani” (Gran Ritual of the Merayas).

Day  10

8:00 am: Breakfast.

9:30 am: Final consultation with – and recommendations from – our Shipibo shamans.

11:00 am: Shipibo Farewell ceremony.

12:00 pm: Special group lunch, with the Shipibo family and all shamans.

2:00 pm: Free time to pack and get ready to go back to “civilization”!

2:40 pm: Transfer back to Iquitos airport (we recommend you to get the “Lan Peru” flight to  Lima, which leaves Iquitos at 5:50 PM and arrives in Lima at 7:25 PM).

INCLUDES:
Transfer from Iquitos town centre and Ashi Meraya venue in the jungle; Transfer from Ashi Meraya to Iquitos airport; full board with private accommodation throughout; Shipibo Welcome ceremony; Chullachaki Welcome ceremony; Plant materials; One Amazonian Sweat ritual; ALL MERAYAS (BANCOS) RITUALS detailed in the Programme; FIVE Ayahuasca ceremonies; One Floripondio (Toe’) ritual; Interpreter Shipibo-Spanish; Interpreter Spanish-English; Shipibo Farewell ceremony;…lots of *REAL MAGIC*!!

Click here to learn about the ancestral rituals of the Shipibo high-ranking shamans (the Bancos Merayas) featured during this Event.

Shipibo Master Shaman Don Hector

Photo Credit: José Garcia Ramirez

Our Shipibo Shamans

Don Hector

Resembling a Franciscan monk from the Middle Ages (!), Don Hector is a thirty-seven years old Onanya (master shaman), native of the Shipibo community of Roaboya. He began his first diet at the age of fifteen. With the exception of his only Shipibo teacher, Don Juan Cauper Sanchez, Don Hector maintains that his only maestros were the plant spirits (genios de las plantas) themselves. During his diets with plants, in complete isolation in the rainforest, he received in dreaming the visit of spirit beings that taught him his icaros (magical tunes) and revealed him the secrets of the shamanic healing. Don Hector is renown for being a very compassionate and serious teacher, for the outstanding beauty of his icaros, for withstanding the intoxication with Ayahuasca to levels rare even among other Shipibo shamans.

Doña Leonilda

A fifty-two years old shamanka, native of the Shipibo community of Roaboya, descendent of Shipibo Merayas, Doña Leonilda dedicated – uninterruptedly – the last thirty-two years of her life to shamanism. Her teachers were Don Lozano Mahua and Don Ilario Huayta Sanchez.

Don Armando (Reshin Beso)

Descendant – and disciple – of Shipibo Merayas, native of the Shipibo community of Roaboya, he initiated his first shamanic diet when he was only ten, under the tutelage of his father, Don Custodio. After having built up an impressive background of shamanic diets with many different plants teachers (like Shihuahuaco, Tamamuri, Capirona, Chiric sanango, Sanango, Chuchahuasi de Boa, Bobinzana, Chuchahuasi, Lupuna, Renaquilla, Coca, different varieties of Piripiri, Gorra de Murcielago, Planta de Gallo and Ayahuasca), Don Armando passed to spirit in Pucallpa, on November 28, 2010, at 4 AM, taking away with him the secrets of the Grand Ritual of the Merayas. The way he performed his shamanic ceremonies was the direct fruit of the teachings he received from his Shipibo Meraya (Banco) teacher.

Don Alfredo

Master shaman Don Alfredo is from the Shipibo ethnic group of the Amazon and works permanently in Ashi Meraya. He is a maestro Toesero (a shaman specialised in working with the plant teacher Toé, i.e. the Brugmansia suaveolens), an Ayahuasquero, a Naturista (i.e. a master herbalist) and prepares a very potent Ayahuasca brew. Don Alfredo – who started his first diet at the age of fifteen – had the great privilege of being in his youth a disciple of the last Shipibo Meraya (or Banco, the highest possible rank that a shaman could achieve, in the Peruvian Amazon), Don Luis Cauper Guimaraes, also known as Don Lucho.

Different shamans alternate in Ashi Meraya, on a regular basis. Doña Ercilia and Maestro Heberto are currently the main resident Shipibo shamans in our centre. When groups are booked in, depending on the size of the group, we may also have Don Hector, Don Walter and/or Don Mariano or Don Alfredo working with us. Below you will find a most accurate profile for each and all of them. Enjoy!!

Doña Ercilia

Doña Ercilia by a Lechecaspi teacher tree in Ashi Meraya

Photo Courtesy: Isabel Grau

Doña Ercilia – a most genuine indigenous shaman curandera from the Shipibo-Conibo ethnic group of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest – began her first diet with plant teachers at the age of 10, and has so far accumulated a cumulative work experience of 31 years in the field of Amazonian shamanism. She apprenticed under the tutelage of Shipibo master shaman Don Jorge Ahuanari (her own father) first, then, respectively, with Don Iologio Brito Fasanando (her grandfather) and Don Antonio afterwards.

Maestra Doña Ercilia preparing a ritual flower bath in Ashi Meraya

Photo Courtesy: Isabel Grau

She committed and distinguished herself in following very disciplined and impeccable long shamanic diets, with dozens and dozens of different teacher plants and trees, including – among many others – Ayahuasca, Azucar Huayo, Aya Uma, Remocaspi and Chullachaqui caspi, as well as different varieties of shamanic perfumes and Fuego de Capirona.

Doña Ercilia burning a virote extracted from a patient in Ashi Meraya

Photo Courtesy: Isabel Grau

Her shamanic specialization – in Shipibo tongue – is oyushun yube tsecati, meaning “extracting virotes“. Virotes are a very mysterious thing, specific of Amazonian shamanism, witchcraft and sorcery. They are magical darts which can take – in the physical world – the form of a black spine, a thorn or a sharp object intended to cause harm on to an intended target. Indeed, guests who attended our retreats and had the privilege of seeing Doña Ercilia in action, have seen with their eyes her shamanic extraction capabilities, and have directly witnessed the extraction of solid objects like small dark/blackish stones, a black dart/thorn – and in one instance – even a whitish worm-like live thing from the body of patients.

She specializes in dealing with impossible cases, where sorcery (brujeria), witchcraft (hechiceria) and/or black magic have been at play.
Her teachers thought her many healing arts alongside defensas (i.e. warding off malevolent attacks from brujos or hechiceros).

Doña Ercilia is a *very traditional* healer, as authentic as you can get amid the Shipibo people and community – increasingly acculturated and exposed to Western influences – nowadays. She had *no previous contacts with Westerns before May 2011*, and we feel very privileged to have established a bond of pure shamanic fellowship with her.

A gem of genuinity coming from the heart, she has a humble, gentle, pragmatic, very down to earth and reserved nature. A true rarity in our days…

In line with the Shipibo tradition, Doña Ercilia prepares the Ayahuasca brew employing ayahuasca vine cuts and the leaves of the chacruna bush.

Maestro Heberto (Coshi Niwe)

Maestro Heberto belongs to the Shipibo-Conibo ethnic group of the Peruvian Amazon. He descends from a lineage of indigenous Merayas (the highest-level shamans for the Shipibos) and Onanya (shamanic healers). His grandfather, Don Guillermo Ramirez, was one of the last Merayas belonging to the Shipibo culture.

Maestro Heberto performing the Merayas‘ Magical Fire Ritual

Photo Courtesy: Isabel Grau

He is native of the community of Maputae (also known as Quebrada con Greda), a place where many Merayas and Onanya gathered to conduct their shamanic rituals and ceremonies. All throughout his childhood Heberto was constantly and directly exposed to the shamanic teachings of his grandpa (Guillermo) and grandma (Lusmilla), who passed on to him their knowledge. Thanks to them he had also the privilege of receiving the Arkanas (spells of protection) and shamanic energies of two elderly Merayas: Don Lucho (Guillermo’s brother) and Bawan Sani (Guillermo’s cousin), in the last stages of their earthly life. Years later, Heberto began his shamanic diets under the guidance of his grandparents and other shamans (from the Shipibo as well as from the Ashaninka and Cacataibo ethnic groups), who transmitted him their shamanic powers.

It all started very early though, with a storm and the Gods of the Winds stealing his soul, when Heberto was only a two year old infant. Read more…

Don Mariano

Don Mariano (Shipibo name: Shawan Sani) is an exquisite 73 years old master shaman, also from the Shipibo ethnic group of the Amazon, whom we treasure and love for his humbleness, inner beauty, moving icaros, silent knowledge and integrity.

Shipibo shaman Don Mariano (“Shawan Sani”), in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez

Native of the Tahuanì area (in the province of Atalaya, Ucayali department of Peru), he dieted – since the early age of fifteen – with many different types of palos maestros (teacher trees) – like Chuchuhuasi (Maytenus ebenifolia), Chiricsanango (Brunfelsia grandiflora), Shihuahuaco (Dipterys sp.), Timareo, Coresa, and Renaquilla (Clusia rosea) – along with plantas maestras (teacher plants), like Coca (Erythroxylum coca), Toe’ (Brugmansia suavolensis), Piñon Colorado (Jatropha gossypifolia), Mucura (Petiveria alliacea), Piripiri (Cyperaceous sp.), Motelillo (Fittonia verschaffeltii), Ajos Sacha (Mansoa alliacea), and sogas (vines) – including Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis sp.) and Sacha Motelo. He even dieted with hongos de vaca (magic mushrooms !!), and the perfumes Agua de Florida and Camalonga. His teachers were Don Eliseo Capitan, a Shipibo maestro palero ayahuasquero and espiritista, and Don Rosalino Rengifo, a Shipibo shaman, with a great knowledge of Ayahuasca.

Don Mariano sings his captivating icaros (shamanic power songs taught by the plant spirits) exclusively in the Shipibo-Conibo idiom of his people. Those who did have the privilege of listening to the magical songs of Don Mariano during an Ayahuasca ceremony in Ashi Meraya, may remember and still feel the sheer beauty, sweetness and relentless power of his melodies. The true spirit of Don Mariano could be appreciated at his best in altered states of consciousness, during the Ayahuasca rituals, when his voice changed, and at times turned into a mysterious vocal duo, projecting the archetypal image and spirit of the shaman, in a timeless, beautiful, and moving fashion. Fruit of relentless long diets with plant teachers, his Spirit-gifted icaros are a blessing for us all. Don Mariano – when not cultivating his chacra (agricultural land allotment) or doing his diets with the plants – is in Ashi Meraya.

Don Hector

Resembling a Franciscan monk from the Middle Ages (!), Don Hector is a Shipibo Onanya (master shaman), native of the Shipibo community of Roaboya.
Shipibo shaman Don Hector

Photo Credit: José Garcia Ramirez

He began his first diet at the age of fifteen. With the exception of his only Shipibo teacher, Don Juan Cauper Sanchez, Don Hector maintains that his only maestros were the plant spirits (genios de las plantas) themselves. During his diets with plants, in complete isolation in the rainforest, he received in dreaming the visit of spirit beings that taught him his icaros (magical tunes) and revealed him the secrets of the shamanic healing. Don Hector is renown for being a very compassionate and serious teacher, for the outstanding beauty of his icaros, for withstanding the intoxication with Ayahuasca to levels rare even among Shipibo shamans.

Don Walter

Don Walter (Shipibo name: Chono Tsoma), originally from the native community of Nuevo Loreto, in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon. He is a Palero Ayahuasquero and a master herbalist (Naturista). Don Walter has distinguished himself for doing his work with much love and enthusiasm.

Shipibo master shaman Don Walter (Chono Tsoma), in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez

Click here for info on the shamanic plant diet with Don Walter

A warm, gentle, humble, patient and compassionate healer – and with wonderful icaros too! – our Shipibo master shaman has his own style of preparing the Ayahuasca brew, which he prepares using Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis sp.) vine cuts, Chacruna (Psychotria viridis) and Toe’ (Brugmansia suavolensis) leaves, Mapacho (Nicotiana sp., black jungle tobacco), all mixed together with the actual Ayahuasca leaves.

Don Walter preparing Ayahuasca in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez

The use of Ayahuasca leaves in the making of the Ayahuasca brew is – to the best of our knowledge – a rarity among shamans in the North West Peruvian Amazon. Sometimes, the fresh leaves of the Huambisa (Diplopterys sp.) and Chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana) plants are also added to the brew, to make it even more potent.

Ayahuasca cooking in Ashi Meraya!

Photo Credit: Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez

Interestingly, the names of the Huambisa and Chaliponga plants are sometimes used indistinctly by some botanical sources (as apparently referring to the same plant), but our Shipibo maestro distinguish the two, as part of the same genus, but being two different species altogether.

Don Walter had – as it’s current practice among many native shamans of the Peruvian Amazon – a rather ‘multi-ethnic’ shamanic background, re. his own apprenticeship. His teachers were Don Palomino Estrella (a master shaman of the Cacataibo/Cashibo ethnic group), Don Umberto Shapiama Cruz (an indigenous Cocama shaman)), Don Marcos Ricopa (a Campa-Ashaninka shaman), Don Leoncio Garcia Sampaya (an elderly Shipibo shaman and former maestro at Ashi Meraya) and Doña Lucia Cumapa Ocampo (a Shipibo shamaness).

Click here for info on the shamanic plant diet with Don Walter Martines Guimares

Don Alfredo

Master shaman Don Alfredo – whose native name Sinamano means ”very brave man” – is from the Shipibo ethnic group of the Amazon and currently the main shaman in the centre. He is a maestro Toesero (a shaman specialized in working with the plant teacher Toe’, i.e. the Brugmansia suaveolens), an Ayahuasquero (a shaman skilled in the use of Ayahuasca) and a Naturista (i.e. a master herbalist). He prepares a very potent Ayahuasca brew and sings his powerful icaros in the Shipibo tongue of his people!!

Don Alfredo preparing a Sweat Lodge in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Heberto Hiran Garcia Ramirez

Don Alfredo – who started his first diet at the age of fifteen – had the great privilege of being in his youth a disciple of the last Shipibo banco (the highest possible rank of a shaman), Don Luis Cauper Guimaraes, also known as Don Lucho.

He has been living in the Alto Ucayali, in the Ashaninka community of Meranquiari, where he studied with master shaman Don Marcos Ocampo. In the last five years he lived in the Cashibo/Cacataibo Indian community of Mariscal where he studied with maestro Don Baltazar Estrella. He also had a female teacher, Doña Jesusa Pacaya, of the Cocama ethnic group. An expert in the curative properties of Amazonian medicinal plants, a Naturista (i.e. herbalist), a Toesero and – last but not least! – an Ayahuasquero, Don Alfredo has a unique style of working during the Ayahuasca ceremonies, flapping relentlessly his Cushma (Shipibo tunic) in front of the patient, during a healing session, in the fashion of a bird’s wing, to clear negative energies. Or else, his ceremonies may begin with a Prayer (oracion) followed by an Invocation to the Spirit of Ayahuasca.

His knowledge of the Sweat Lodge is the fruit of his direct exposure to the Ashaninka and Cacataibo indigenous people.

Doña Ercilia by an ayahuasca vine in Ashi Meraya

Photo Courtesy: Isabel Grau

Our Ayahuasca retreats are very intensive. You may now opt to have up to FIVE Ayahuasca sessions in your first week of retreat, swapping the Toe’ ritual with an extra Ayahuasca ceremony. Then it’s FOUR Ayahuasca healing and visionary sessions for each week thereafter!!

Guest pounding ayahuasca vines

Photo Credit: Stephen Witte

Learn, assist and join the preparation of the sacred ‘Vine of the Soul” (or ”Vine of the Spirit”, or else more, “Vine of the Dead”). See how it is made into brew, pounding the woody ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) vine cuts first and then boiling them for long hours together with Chacruna, Chalipongo (Ojo Yagè) and Toè plant additives, over a traditional wood fire.

Ayahuasca preparation…

Photo Credit: Bryant McRae

Ayahuasca rituals take place in the jungle, at night, around 9 pm, in almost total darkness (exception made for candle or lantern-light, right at the beginning of the ritual). The healing treatments (“curaciónes”) of the shaman-s will take place during the sacred – and magical – time of the ceremony, regardless of whether you would be effectively taking – or not – the Ayahuasca brew. It’s therefore of paramount importance to attend all the sessions – a requirement to all – whilst the taking of the Ayahuasca tea proper is entirely voluntary.

Remocaspi teacher tree in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

One of the night rituals with the medicine may be done in the open wilderness, in a special area cleared for the purpose of conducting ceremonies, and protected by the oldest palo maestro (teacher tree) of Ashi Meraya, a massive and beautiful Remo caspi (Aspidosperma excelsum) tree.

Healing may take place in many different fashions whilst one is journeying with the “Vine of the Soul” (or “Rope of the Dead”, as the word Ayawaska may also be rendered in Quechua) and may well take the form of auditory – or even silent – revelations, sudden emotional unblocks, cleansing of negative feelings and – on the material plane – simply the expelling of toxins and/or parasites through bodily purges, and a sense of having been cleansed thoroughly.

Each participant is invited to focus on his/her own healing and/or concentrate on the revelatory and visionary elements that may bestowed upon one when accessing the realms of the “Vine of the Soul”. Don Mariano recommended that one of best ways to go to the appointment with the Ayahuasca is to beg the spirit of the medicine – in total humbleness – to grant you visions.

The Native American Tradition of “crying for a vision” may easily be adopted to the way one should approach the Ayahuasca experience. All will benefit, in one way or another, sooner or later, from this experience. Ayahuasca – when taken properly, under the guidance of a respectable shaman, and when the necessary dietary restrictions are observed – can heal our hyper-loaded neurons, and can give sense, direction and purpose to our lives.

Ayahuasca cooking over traditional wood-fire in Ashi Meraya

Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

The main plant additives employed in the making of the Ayahuasca concoction – as currently prepared in Ashi Meraya – are:

• the fresh leaves of the Chacruna (Psychotria viridis) green shrub
• the fresh leaves of the Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) vine
• the fresh leaves of the Toè (Brugmansia suaveolens) plant
• Mapacho (Nicotiana tabacum/Nicotiana rustica), i.e. organic black jungle tobacco.

At times, the fresh leaves of the Huambisa (Diplopterys sp.) and Chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana) plant – also known by the names of Chagropanga and Ojo Yaje’ – are also used in the making of the brew, as alternative (or supplement) to the Chacruna leaves. Depending on the length and nature of your retreat, you may also learn (under supervision) how to prepare the Ayahuasca medicine (this last aspect of the training is, however, more suited to those who will be doing the shamanic plant diet apprenticeship).

Ayahuasca brew cooking in Ashi Meraya
Photo Credit: Francesco Sammarco

The Ayahuasca prepared by our Shipibo shamans is very strong and thick and – under normal circumstances – one should only need a small cup to enter and deeply experience non-ordinary states of consciousness.

You are strongly invited to carefully read all the Guidelines and Health Notes we have provided, and to follow and abide to the required dietary prescriptions, before, during and after taking the powerful Ayahuasca medicine. We always endorse and support safety and responsibility when it comes to journeying with shamanic entheogenic plant medicine. The paradigm within which we operate is and remains shamanistic, not psychedelic. We are firmly committed to the traditional use of entheogenic plant sacraments only and exclusively within the operative ritual framework that has been designed by the Amazonian shamans themselves.