A gentle guide to finding a meaningful intention for connecting with ayahuasca
To be fair, drinking ayahuasca or wachuma is a big decision.
We feel the calling. We know we want to enter ceremony.
As part of our preparation, we need to ask ourselves: What is our intention for entering ceremony with these sacred plants?
Our intention is our “why”—our reason for sitting with plant medicine.
It is born from our yes to the ceremony, our yes to the ayahuasca or wachuma retreat—our yes to ourselves.
Our intention shapes and frames our experience. Plant medicine connects us with an awareness that is far-reaching, expansive, and deep. It is a higher intelligence that calls us into our subconscious and the unseen worlds. Our intention provides the framework that helps us enter this mysterious universe and ground an experience that is difficult to describe, categorize, or understand with the human mind.
Our intention also helps us remember why we have chosen to go on retreat, even when things become challenging. It is our anchor when things feel overwhelming and reminds us why we are here.
A unique intention for every person
Your intention is unique to you.
Ideally, it is directed toward growth or healing.
Which pattern do you wish to heal? In which area of your life do you feel called to expand? What part of your inner child is asking to be seen, healed, and integrated into your adult life?
During an intake call, which is part of the preparation process at Willkamayu Spirit, we explore and find the right words for your intention. Sometimes, we help you refine or reformulate it in order to create a clear, concrete, and measurable starting point.
Note that our intentions can shift over time. During the preparation process, we may sometimes sense a change in intention. This can mean that our subconscious is redirecting us so that we can have the most suitable experience possible.
Our intention can also change during the retreat. Especially if you choose one of our longer retreats—for example, our 5 day Ayahuasca, Expansion retreat or our 7 day Ayahuasca and Wachuma, Embodiment retreat —you may experience a profound evolution. This evolution can invite you to frame and reframe your experience according to the growth that unfolds throughout your ceremonies and the conscious integration practices we offer.
Trusting the process
We want to focus on our intention, but also remain open. Only in this way do we offer plant medicine the necessary space to truly take us where we need to go during our ceremony. We do not want to become rigid or close our minds to the new possibilities and perspectives that plant medicine is here to show us.
Therefore—paradoxically—as we set our intention, we also let go of expectations.
We entrust our ceremony to the wisdom of our plant teachers.
We are human beings in touch with both Earth and Spirit, matter and soul, the inner world and the outer world, masculine and feminine energies. In this world full of duality, we embrace the invitation to set an intention and then hand it over. Dancing with this paradox is a balancing act that sets you up for a truly magical retreat.
Then, what is the purpose of having an intention if we hand it over to the medicine later on?
Both aspects are equally important.
First, entering a ceremony without an intention can make our inner journey rather diffuse and more difficult to ground and integrate. At Willkamayu Spirit, we give a lot of attention to integration. Second, our intention fertilizes the ground, allowing us to later trust the process and soften our expectations, as these two elements complement one another. Third, due to the expansive nature of plant medicine, it is important to remain open and receptive so that we can fully receive its teachings.
We create balance by strengthening both muscles: co-creating with the universe on the one hand, and allowing the universe to take over on the other.
May you set your intention with clarity, and surrender into the wisdom that meets you beyond it.
