Becoming a Maestra in the Shipibo Tradition: Walking the Long Path with Plants, Song, and Service

In the Shipibo-Conibo tradition, becoming a maestra is not something you decide one day and work toward as a goal. It is something that happens to you over time, often without you realizing when it truly began.

Many Shipibo maestras say the path does not start with ayahuasca, or even with learning songs — it starts when life itself begins to shape a person through illness, hardship, sensitivity, dreams, and a natural closeness to the unseen world.

As Shipibo maestra Doña Alicia Sánchez has expressed in interviews,

“The plants call you long before you know their names. First they heal you. Only later do they teach you to heal others.”(paraphrased from Spanish-language interviews)

Your Personal Journey to Mastery with Shipibo Plant Medicine

There’s no certificate or graduation moment that suddenly makes you “ready” in the realm of Shipibo plant medicine. Mastery in this traditional practice is a winding journey that unfolds over time, requiring a deep commitment to personal growth and learning.

The Role of Discipline

Discipline serves as your guiding force, keeping you focused on your goals in the study of Shipibo plant medicine. It involves daily practices—whether you’re foraging for medicinal plants or engaging in ceremonial meditation. Early mornings spent in the lush Amazonian landscape, the patience to observe nature’s subtle changes, and the perseverance to continue learning despite challenges are all essential components of your journey.

The Importance of Sacrifice

This journey often necessitates sacrifices unique to the path of Shipibo plant medicine. You might need to relinquish modern comforts or distractions to immerse yourself fully in your learning. This could mean dedicating long hours to the forest, skipping social events, or prioritizing study over leisure. These sacrifices extend beyond mere time; they encompass emotional and spiritual investments that deepen your connection to the plants and the wisdom they offer.

Building Relationships

Establishing a meaningful relationship with plants, Shipibo elders, and the spirit world is crucial. Engaging with the plants means understanding their medicinal properties and the cultural narratives surrounding them. This bond flourishes through hands-on experience and a profound respect for nature, allowing you to learn from the plants as much as you nurture them. Elders within the Shipibo community are invaluable guides, sharing their wisdom and experiences. Their mentorship not only shapes your understanding but also fosters a sense of community, ensuring that ancient knowledge is preserved and passed on to future generations.

Connecting to Spirit

Your connection to spirit and God—however you define it—plays a pivotal role in your journey with Shipibo plant medicine. It involves recognizing the sacredness of life and our interconnectedness with all beings. This connection can be nurtured through ceremonies, singing, prayers, or quiet moments spent in the natural world, where clarity and inspiration often arise.

Embrace the Journey

Ultimately, becoming “ready” in the practice of Shipibo plant medicine is a lifelong path woven from discipline, sacrifice, and deep relationships with nature, mentors, and the spiritual realm. It requires dedication, humility, and an open heart, where every step taken is as significant as the destination itself.

healing. These early dietas may be taken for physical illness, emotional pain, grief, or confusion. Often, they are taken because life has left a person open and sensitive.

As Shipibo maestra Olinda Silvano has explained,

“If you have not cleaned your own pain, you cannot touch another person’s pain. The medicine will not listen to you.”(paraphrased)

This stage can take many years. Some people diet their entire lives without ever becoming healers — and that is not considered a failure. In Shipibo worldview, not everyone who drinks ayahuasca is meant to serve others.

Dieta: Learning from the Plants Themselves

The heart of Shipibo training is the master plant dieta. During a dieta, a person steps out of ordinary life to live simply—often in isolation—following specific dietary, sexual, and behavioral restrictions while ingesting a single plant in small, intentional doses. These boundaries are not about discipline for its own sake; they create the conditions for relationship.

In Shipibo tradition, master plants are conscious beings with intelligence, personality, and memory. They are not medicines one “takes,” nor allies one can claim ownership over. A plant is never something we have. Instead, through dieta, a relationship is formed—one based on listening, humility, and reciprocity. The plant is invited into the body, the nervous system, the dreams, and the energetic field, where its teachings are slowly integrated.

To dieta a plant is to allow it to shape one’s inner landscape. Its qualities are not learned intellectually but embodied—felt in the breath, the posture, the emotions, and the way one perceives and responds to life. Over time, the plant’s virtues become lived experience rather than abstract knowledge, expressed through action, presence, and service.

In this way, the relationship is not external. The plant is carried within, not as a possession, but as a living influence that continues to guide, protect, and teach through how the person lives in the world.

Maestra Margarita Arevalo has described this relationship by saying,

“The plant watches you. If you are patient, it opens. If you are impatient, it stays quiet.”(paraphrased)

Some plants teach strength, others teach softness, protection, clarity, or endurance. Over many years, a maestra may diet dozens of plants, each adding a layer to her capacity to heal.

Apprenticeship: Being Seen by an Elder

There is no formal application to become a Shipibo maestra. At some point — often after many years — an elder may notice a person’s discipline, humility, and consistency.

If an apprenticeship begins, it is not centered on learning techniques. It is centered on learning responsibility.

Apprentices continue long dietas while learning:

• How ceremonies are opened, protected, and closed

• How to recognize spiritual imbalance

• When to intervene and when to remain silent

• How to work without ego or ambition

As many Shipibo elders say,

“Medicine is dangerous for people who want power.”(commonly repeated teaching)

This stage can last years or decades. Some apprentices never become independent maestros, and that, too, is accepted.

Icaros: The Living Language of Healing

In Shipibo tradition, icaros are not songs in the Western sense. They are tools, beings, and pathways.

Maestras often explain that icaros are not learned — they are received from plants during dietas. Each icaro carries the spirit of the plant that taught it, along with a specific function.

As maestra Celestina García has shared,

“When I sing, it is not me singing. The plant sings through my mouth.”(paraphrased)

What Icaros Do in Ceremony

During an ayahuasca ceremony, icaros are used to:

• Open visionary perception

• Clean heavy or harmful energies

• Diagnose illness or spiritual intrusion

• Call in protection

• Guide visions

• Restore balance

• Seal and close the energetic field

Different melodies, rhythms, and tonal qualities serve different purposes. A single ceremony may involve dozens of icaros, sung with great precision.

Precision Over Performance

Shipibo maestras emphasize that the power of an icaro is not volume or beauty, but accuracy. Singing the wrong icaro at the wrong moment can confuse or destabilize a person.

As one elder teaching goes,

“An icaro is a medicine. If you give the wrong medicine, you make the illness worse.”

This is why learning icaros takes many years. A maestra must develop:

• Energetic sensitivity

• Emotional restraint

• Deep listening

• Ethical clarity

A powerful icaro sung without humility is considered dangerous.

Icaros and Kené

Many Shipibo maestras describe icaros as sound versions of kené, the sacred geometric designs woven, painted, and embroidered by Shipibo women. The designs are said to be heard in ceremony and seen in visions.

Sound, vision, and healing are not separate — they are expressions of the same order.

Serving Without Ending

Even after being recognized as a maestra, the work never stops.

Shipibo maestras continue dieting, learning, and refining themselves throughout their lives. Many say that the moment you believe you have mastered the medicine is the moment it stops working with you.

As one widely shared teaching says,

“We do not carry the medicine. The medicine carries us.”

Walking a Path, Not Claiming a Title

To become a maestra in the Shipibo tradition is to walk a path shaped by patience, sacrifice, and service — not ambition.

There is:

• No fixed timeline

• No universal curriculum

• No separation between healing yourself and helping others

The plants decide. The elders observe. And the songs arrive when they are ready.