Required Reading

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Before your retreat, it is absolutely required that you read our Dieta page, our Contraindications page, and our Cancellation & Refund Policy page in full. This is not optional. Failure to properly follow the required dieta and complete contraindication screening can result in serious physical harm during ceremony. If you test positive on our drug screening, you will not be permitted to participate and will be asked to leave.

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Whether you've already signed up for an ayahuasca retreat with The Leaf & deVine Church or you're still gathering information, it helps to know what to expect from an ayahuasca ceremony. Please call or email us with any questions, we're happy to talk it through with you. In addition to reading our Dieta, Contraindications, and Cancellation & Refund Policy pages, the following are required before you may participate in ceremony:

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Four Prep Meetings: All participants must attend four required preparation meetings prior to retreat. These meetings walk you through what to expect, help you prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually, and give you space to ask questions before you arrive.

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Intake: A required intake is completed with our team before ceremony. This is where we review your health history, medications, and any concerns in detail, and where our required drug screening takes place.

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Medical History Documents: All participants must complete and submit our medical history documents before retreat. This includes a full list of current medications, supplements, health conditions, and any relevant medical or psychiatric history. Incomplete or inaccurate medical history puts you at risk in ceremony, so please fill these out thoroughly and honestly.

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Participation in all of the above is mandatory, not optional. We are unable to allow anyone into ceremony who has not completed prep meetings, intake/screening, and medical history documentation in full.

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What Begins to Happen

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Right away, Mother Ayahuasca begins working on us from the inside out. She gently brings illumination to our character defects, our less than stellar qualities, and the dysfunctional personal choices that tend to create our suffering, clog our energy flow, and create chaos throughout our lives. We become extra sensitive to these new revelations. We experience unfamiliar emotions and new sensations in our bodies. Old memories and new thoughts may surface, and things in our lives, in general, begin to unravel. Changes begin to take shape inside and out, shifting and restructuring so we can mature into the next phase of our lives.

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Change, much of the time, is met with resistance. Without a sincere commitment to our process of change, we can find ourselves missing the blessing and complicating the process. Preparation, through mindfulness and presence, allows us to stay in our process, face our truth, observe our negative patterns, and release the attachments that no longer serve our higher purpose. It helps us stay in our authenticity throughout the entire journey, not just during the ceremony itself.

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Meeting Mother Ayahuasca

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Mother Ayahuasca is a spirit plant who serves humanity. Meeting her for the first time, you come face to face with a spirit whose benevolent intention is to enlighten, commune, teach, and empower through love.

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We can connect to plant spirits daily. We speak to our plants like they are living beings, because they are. You can be in relationship with this energy, just as you would be with an ancestor or an angel. All plant consciousness, all plants, are here for human beings to heal and learn from. Plants help us remember our own nature, because they hold all the elements within them, just as we do. They hold the sun, the water, the fire, and the earth, and so do we. Connecting with our spirit and our spiritual practices brings us to our heart space, where freedom and love leave little room for fear and doubt.

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Questions for Reflection

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1. What spiritual practices do I presently have, and how can I expand upon them in preparing for my upcoming ceremony?

2. What spiritual practices would I like to explore in preparation for meeting Mother Ayahuasca?

3. What questions do I have for her, and am I willing to follow her guidance?

4. What areas of my life do I need to bring spirituality into?

5. How can positivity and mindfulness bring me closer to peace and calm going into the ceremony?

6. How can I better connect with my heart space and inner guidance system to clarify my higher purpose in going into the medicine?