Can you do Ayahuasca with your period?
The short answer is yes you can take Ayahuasca with Period, but there are rules.
The Taitas (shamans) who work with Ayahuasca traditionally have strict rules when it comes to women on period. And in my experience the better the shaman the more strictly he observes the medicine rules. Remember this is a thousand year old tradition so the best we can do is follow the century old rules.
First of all a brief explanation on why Shamans treat period with such respect. The best explanation I got was that during the period a female emits extremely strong pacha mamá (mother earth energy – directed down to earth) and when you drink Ayahuasca you want to go up closer to god (padre cielo energy – directed to the sky). So if a woman with period is present in the ceremony space every in the group one gets tied to earth and is unable to go up and see and get healing and solution. There is a conflict and it causes ceremony to be more chaotic.
How do we deal with it during our retreats. At the moment we do not allow women with period at our retreat, because we don’t have the facilities for it. You need a separate medicine house at least 50 meters away, we are working on it.
When a woman get her period during our retreat spontaneously we have a solution. To prevent other guests from having a bad experience we move a woman on her moon to a space outside of the ceremony space. We assign a care taker to bring her medicine to her the medicine and take care of her there. This way she can get a healing without affecting the group or the Taita (shaman).
It can however affect your experience, because you might feel excluded. So I highly advice to try and not to book a retreat if there is any possibility you might get period while you are there.
So what to expect if you end up at an Ayahuasca retreat while on period.
For 3 first days of your period you will be drinking separately. We will still be taking good care of you, but you won’t be able to share the group experience.
During your period Taita (shaman) will avoid personal contact with you or any form of proximity in physical space even outside of the ceremony (apparently this can get a Taita very ill. Opposite energies at work)
When your period is over you will be able to take medicine in communal space but you will be put in the furthest side from the taita.
When you drink the medicine on your period you are less likely to see visions at least the first 3 nights, but the medicine will still be healing for your body.
We understand that is might be mildly limiting and uncomfortable to experience the medicine this way so for that we recommend if you know the dates for your period plan it for another retreat. If we have several this month just choose a week your period is less likely to come.
But if it happens outside of planned schedule don’t worry. We had tens of women attend our Ayahuasca retreat with period and get great healing without affecting anyone.
Some women, rightfully so, might feel discriminated. But there is no discrimination, trust me we are loving to every visitor and want the best for all. The world of medicine is very complex and there are rules that have been formed for good reasons based on millions if not billions of ayahuasca sessions. Indigenous people or shamans specifically don’t hate women. They have daughters and wives and love them a lot. The feminine is sacred and there are rituals and medicines specifically for women in their culture. The ability to create life is always praised. There are even female shamans called Maimas.
But in work with Ayahuasca rules have to be observed so please don’t take it personally.
Looking forward to having you at one of our Ayahuasca retreats
If you have any questions or want to reserve a spot feel free to send me a message on my WhatsApp +573508449074
Or book directly here https://ayahuascaincolombia.com/ayahuasca-events/
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