TEACHER PLANTS
Each plant embodies very specific attributes and properties. Dieting a teacher plant is a primary way of coming into contact with the unique medicine of this plant, receiving from this medicine, and learning from it for the use of healing oneself and others.
We offer the opportunity to connect with three very special teacher plants: Noyá Ráo (Palo Volador), Sémein (Bobinsana), and Mókapari (Chiricsanango); as well as two specialized teachers: Kéne Wáste (for drawing traditional designs) and Isá Pói Tobi Ráo (for learning the traditional practice of massage and bone setting).
Below we have included brief information about each teacher plant; more information can be offered during your registration process and when you arrive on-site.
Noyá Ráo – Palo Volador
Noyá Ráo literally means “flying medicine” and is also referred to in Spanish as the Palo Volador (flying tree), or Palo Sagrado (sacred tree). Noyá Ráo is indeed a very sacred tree for some Shipibo-Konibo, but is unknown by many others, as its existence was forgotten while their oral tradition lost influence and began to disappear due to European colonization that began in the mid 1600’s.
The tree has not been classified botanically yet plays a central role in Shipibo-Konibo cosmology and is linked to the concepts of the World Tree or Food Tree that are common in Indigenous stories and wisdom. It is also linked to other traditional stories that identify it with the first Konibo village, known as Komankaya or Cumancaya. It grew legendary as it disappeared from the landscape and from the collective memory of most for many years.
Noyá Ráo is a foundational learning samá, and the teachings are of immense value for one’s personal development and spiritual growth, as it can help one gain a full understanding of healing energy and spirit. It is said to be the healer’s samá, the Light of the World, and the Path of Truth. Noyá Ráo is described as pure light and love. In learning to master the life-giving energy of love it can put forth monumental tests to help us fully understand the opposing and cyclical forces of creation and destruction.
Dieting Noyá Ráo is a very serious commitment, and is not to be taken lightly. It is recommended only for advanced students or students who are fully committed to following the traditional ways of the Shipibo-Konibo for the rest of their life, and who are on the path of becoming healers themselves in this tradition.
Sémein – Bobinsana
[Calliandra Angustifolia]
Sémein is a complimenting ally with Noyá Ráo that helps balance the emotional and physical bodies. It is particularly helpful in resolving the energetic harm of emotional trauma and is great for arthritis and rheumatism. Bobinsana can be particularly helpful in the areas of grief, heartbreak, loss, and emotional imbalances, and is also used by the Shipibo-Konibo to stimulate and strengthen the body.
Mókapari – Chiricsanango
[Brunfelsia Grandiflora]
Mókapari is a powerful ally with Noyá Ráo that works on the central nervous system, as well as the physical body. This teacher plant helps one to regain and improve energetic sensitivity, repair and optimize the nerves, muscles, joints, and bones, and enhance the physiological communication between the body and the mind. Dieting mókapari can sometimes be challenging physically, as you may experience shivers, trembling, numbness in extremities, pain, or other uncomfortable physical sensations at particular moments. All of this is normal.
If you are called to begin connections with both Mókapari and Noyá Ráo, you will need to complete a month of samá with Mókapari (minimum 14 days isolation and 14 days of post-samá) prior to initiating samá with Noyá Ráo. In this samá a 24-hour fast is required (you can drink water), from midday to midday after.
Kéne Wáste
[Caperaceae Cyperus Articulatus]
Kéne Wáste is one of 38 different wáste or piripiri (a variety of sedge) that are recorded in the most current Shipibo-Konibo dictionary, of which many more exist. Each wáste has a different energy attributed to them for acquiring skills, influencing emotions, healing oneself and others, even providing interdimensional protections, which have been learned over generations of use. The Kéne Wáste has traditionally been used by Shipibo-Konibo artisans to inspire and refine the practice of drawing their ancestral designs, known as kéne, as well as the accompanying embroidery work called kewé.
Traditionally the Shipibo-Konibo mothers prepared a juice from the perfumed roots of this plant to use as drops in the eyes and navel of the newborn babies, so that their children would grow to learn and understand the hidden meanings of these ancestral patterns: kené.
The particular gift of Kené Waste is that the plant teaches the most ancient designs and meanings—moatian kené (old designs), ponté kené (straight designs), and xáo-kené (designs inspired in the bones of the big fishes of the amazonian rivers)—by starting to break up the patterns established in a Western mind and opening the dieter to a deeper understanding of the healing patterns of the Shipibo-Konibo culture. Even more, Kené Waste is a plant that is very useful for connecting other plant diets, embroidering the kanobo (structures) of the different samabo (diets) and bringing harmony to the internal world of the ones that diet this beautiful plant.
