A Brief Introduction to Amazonian Shamanism and "The Dieta"

Many have been asking me in social media and plant medicine groups recently what a Dieta is, so I felt to share in a more informative way.

"Vegetalismo" as it is called by many indigenous tribes in Peru and Brazil, is the foundation for traditional Ayahuasca work and Shamanism and an entire medical modality of its own, something to be distinguished from the food diet recommended before starting work with Ayahuasca.

This is one of many forms of traditional medicine that came before pharmaceutical medicine, and many modern pharmaceuticals are produced using extracts from the very Amazonian plants used by the indigenous tribes. Some of you may not know that I was actually on the path to become an MD in the United States before discovering plant medicine.

Essentially a Dieta is a period of extended time (in general minimum 1 week up to a year) of complete isolation from people and technology, avoidance of sex/masturbation, and strong restrictions from stimulating foods such as salt, spices, oils, etc. During this time you work with a non Ayahuasca (and generally non psychoactive) plant for purposes of focused healing and opening to the wisdom that the plant has to share. There are hundreds of beautiful Amazonian plants used for this process, and I've also had profound Dietas with Western plants such as White Sage, Nettle, and Rose.

The idea is that 24/7 is spent in complete dedication and focus on the process with 0 outside distractions or stimulation. This creates an extremely high sensitivity to the subtle communication of the plant you are dieting and allows for very deep healing work in a relatively short amount of time that continues unfolding for decades. In the indigenous traditions, apprenticeship and learning to serve Ayahuasca traditionally comes from dieting over long periods of time under the guidance of a maestro.

The essence of "Icaro" or the traditional singing of these Ayahuasca traditions, comes from the shaman/maestro using an Ayahuasca ceremony to open the portal to the plant kingdom as a whole, where they are more easily able to channel the essence of the group of plants that can be used in a Dieta context, based on the persons condition and what they perceive is happening on an energetic level as they examine someone in an Ayahuasca ceremony.

Icaro is a very precise language of energy of the plants that can be channeled in the moment, or passed down through generations coming from a particular Plant, and this is in general what is responsible for the majority of the shifts that occur in an Ayahuasca ceremony. It is like doing energetic surgery with the voice that is used to direct the energy and consciousness of Ayahuasca and other plants the shaman is connected to through a persons physical body, emotional field, mind, etc.

The posts I share in general about my journey have come from about 8 years of plant Dietas in this tradition with a variety of plants, working along side indigenous maestros as an apprentice to this work and also on my own. I write alot about Rose, because this has been the plant I have worked with the most extensively, on my own in this way, and in holding this space for others. Each plant has their own unique way of healing and teaching, Rose is one of a couple hundred! When used in this way, any plant carried the potency of Ayahuasca, sometimes even on the same level of visionary experiences and physical purging.

For those wanting to truly dive deeply into the world of plant medicine, this is a really good way to do it, I can't stress how much different plant work is when following the strict restrictions required by a Dieta. Pictured is an Ayahuma tree, the most powerful and difficult work I have personally done. It is a tree that teaches many things, namely empowerment, stripping away belief patterns and mental complexity, psychic protection, the nature and function of dark energies and practices in shamanism, and unraveling the victim consciousness.

Although some may see this as a lengthy post, this barely scratches the surface of Dieta as a practice and modality.