Diet with Noya Rao

Half a year ago I was preparing myself for Peru. I was on my way to study with Shipibo Maestro Don Enrique in the jungle outside Iquitos. My heart was calling me on, and it was happening so fast. It’s been a desire for at least a decade to be held by the sounds and the plants of the jungle. There is nothing like health issues to create momentum, and when I learned about a family member getting cancer the day before a Ceremony in November it changed the course of my life.
From the Grandmother Ceremony I was inspired to do diets in the jungle. When I made my mind and took the leap, everything started happening for me. The monies showed up, there was a window open for when to travel and there was one spot left on the course I wanted to attend. Everything was in alignment, and in early January I was on my way.

Diet with Noya Rao – The Tree of Light

Once arriving at the Shipibo retreat centre, Inkan Kena, we were put straight on vomitivos, a plant beverage that makes one vomit/purge. We were asked to dedicate ourselves to our plant diet with the Tree of Light, Noya Rao. To do this we hade to create our contract with the plant, and we had to go straight into a Dry fast, followed by 5 more days of water fasting.

In darkness you can see her leaves glow luminescent on the forest floor. Many hours have been spent in prayer, song and meditation with her gorgeous roots and powerful trunk. I’ve drunk extractions of her bark while fasting for just under a week. To show my commitment to her I’ve had to do many purgatives, vomitivos, vapour baths, smoke baths and had a limited diet of only a handful of different vegetables and some eggs. My days have been spent in devotion, spiritual practice and learning icaros. Three times a week we have been working with grandmother.
Every ceremony building on the other, creating a true Rights of Passage through the underworld and into the deepest of truths, love and grace.

Noya Rao has been holding my hand while I’ve gone through the darkest places of my soul.
She has been healing my fear and terror of dying, holding my grief and bringing me back to myself more than ever before. With Noya Rao I have been shown the path and the light she wants to spread across the world. Through diet the Curandero starts to embody the plant spirit, and as I received the Arcana, which is the completion of diet, my body became one with Noya Rao.

Thank you, mother, father, ancestors and God, for giving me the gift of life. I give gratitude for every breath that I breath. I give gratitude every time my heart beats. I give gratitude for my senses and body. I give the deepest gratitude for the gift of this life. Walking on this earth is a deep privilege that one day we all will have to let go off. I give thanks to mother earth, for all her beauty, all her livings beings and for all the nourishment and medicine we will ever need.

One day I will again become earth, and as I pass through the portal, I pray that I will be surrounded by my nearest and dearest singing me through the gates of Death.
And until that day arrives, my mission on this earth is to be in the deepest service of the heart, the love that flows through it and spreads like waves through our beautiful world.