Full Description
Ayahuascaautobiographical account of the author's work with ayahuasca, a potent and sacred plant brew of the Amazon region that is known for its extraordinary visionary and healing powers. As she learned from her experience, with the help of ayahuasca we are able to grasp our paradoxical nature, the first step to acceptance of ourselves in both our glorious and dark aspects. Ayahuasca teaches us how to release the illusions we hold about ourselves and makes it possible to integrate our many diverse aspects to acquire our true power. This book reveals the ritual protocols that must be followed prior to partaking of ayahuasca, including the traditional preparatory "diet"--which requires enduring austere conditions, isolation, and only small amounts of bland food before receiving the powers of the plant spirit from an ayahuasquero,a healing master--and the sacred songs, icaros, that are sung when imbibing the substance. Although the use of ayahuasca is growing among "underground" spiritual seekers and through the burgeoning ayahuasca tourism trade in South America, few of its seekers understand how it is used traditionally and the importance of the rituals the indigenous people follow. With this book, the author hopes to restore the importance of these indigenous practices so that we may truly understand all the gifts of ayahuasca.
Contents
Acknowledgments Author's Note Introduction: Exploring Ayahuasca Part One: The Beautiful Strangeness Begins 1 Meeting Ayahuasca 2 Greater than the Sum of the Parts 3 Prelude to the Amazon 4 Other Voices, Other Journeys 5 Studying Through the Field of Love Part Two: The Mother of the Voice in the Ear 6 Off to the Amazon 7 Growing Green 8 The Jungle-Inner and Outer 9 Finding the Light in My Heart of Darkness 10 Intellectual Interlude 11 The I That Sees 12 Saying So Long But Never Good-bye 13 A Summing Up Notes Bibliography
