Watching the Dream Unfold...

"It was over fifteen years ago now that I set upon going to South America with the sole intention of learning Shamanism. I trained with several curanderos around the area of Loreto until I found my formal apprentiship with (late) Shaman Don Alfredo Cairuna known by his Shipibo tribe as Sinamano. I met Sinamano not too long after I first travelled to Peru, but at that time I did not have the means to pay the lodge for what I felt I needed, which was to really invest the time required into the proceses of learning his art. This I knew would not be overnight and I knew it would be a massive life sacrifice and quite the process. That art is called "Palero" Shamanism which has tree spirits as it first and foremost spirit alliances.

I visited him from time to time out on the Llanchama Shipibo-Conibo reserve on missions to gather the herbs of the jungle and would stay the night and catch his ceremonies and return in the day. It wasnt until a few years later really that out of a fantastic "coincidence", I caught my teacher changing to a new site and struck a deal with him personally so I could afford my training. I was perhaps a different kind of tourist. I was a seeker who needed to heal. I had no plans to return home. I did not care for how many ayahuasca ceremonies I could have, in fact, the question somewhat annoyed me. How many were necessary? I wanted to learn evolve, clean and heal, and that was that.

Soon after I moved into the jungle with a part of my teachers family, chickens included and took initiation. During my solid one year apprentiship with Sinamano he would tell me that he could "see" me becoming not just a professional shaman, but a teacher of shamans. At the time I just took it for a type of keeping good company flattery. Since the time of my graduating I thought about this a great deal, as quickly I was attending clients and oddly enough I had always thought about my training. It was an obssesive drive within me, a thirst which had to be quenched. But what I did not think about, oddly at all, is what will I do "after" my training. Well, to service my community is the answer. But I dont just want to just do just ceremonies, I wish to teach others what my teacher taught me which goes far beyond hosting ayahuasca ceremonies. I wish to teach the best of what I have picked upped along the way, and pass down this lineage properly under ideal conditions for training. It is so important to keep this moving and even improve upon it and it is my lifes mission to watch this take shape and manifest. We can apply this wisdom, power and techinque to the north. We can serve our own peoples too, we can serve many. We can service the planet.

Master Alfredo Cairuna/ Sinamano

Left to right. Shaman: Claudia Cairuna, Alfredo Cairuana, Estela