Comments on: Women and Ayahuasca http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/ A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:33:35 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: koa http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/comment-page-1/#comment-5155 koa Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:25:26 +0000 http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/#comment-5155 i for a long time felt that women were greatly shunned for their periods. i know feel very differently. i am an apprentice ayahuasquera. i have drank the medicine many times. i agree that the spirits do not like the smell of menstrual blood. i have sat in many ceremonies on the verge of bleeding, bleeding, and not bleeding. as well as with other sisters in the same way. sooner or learner u realize that the heaviness of the flow in your body is a very powerful process and that u would much rather be sitting on a heating pad at home in the comfort of your house. over the past four years i have witnessed so many women come to this conclusion. and that brings me to this. we have stepped out of our moon lodges to compete with men because we have had too. it doesn't make it right it is what it is. but the moon lodge is a powerful place. it is a place that we can refind and use if we want power. it is not an easy place. the native americans used to initiate their young women into the lodge by having them sit in a pit with a deer skin over their heads for the first part of the rites. there was a mystery in that . it is lost now. but for the women who has the courage to go within and rediscover what it was. well the journey begins in the quite of the blood. i for a long time felt that women were greatly shunned for their periods. i know feel very differently. i am an apprentice ayahuasquera. i have drank the medicine many times. i agree that the spirits do not like the smell of menstrual blood. i have sat in many ceremonies on the verge of bleeding, bleeding, and not bleeding. as well as with other sisters in the same way. sooner or learner u realize that the heaviness of the flow in your body is a very powerful process and that u would much rather be sitting on a heating pad at home in the comfort of your house. over the past four years i have witnessed so many women come to this conclusion. and that brings me to this. we have stepped out of our moon lodges to compete with men because we have had too. it doesn’t make it right it is what it is. but the moon lodge is a powerful place. it is a place that we can refind and use if we want power. it is not an easy place. the native americans used to initiate their young women into the lodge by having them sit in a pit with a deer skin over their heads for the first part of the rites. there was a mystery in that . it is lost now. but for the women who has the courage to go within and rediscover what it was. well the journey begins in the quite of the blood.

]]> By: anonymous http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/comment-page-1/#comment-4488 anonymous Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:31:40 +0000 http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/#comment-4488 As usual, excellent writing that raises many interesting questions. There are more ayahuasqueras, few with public recognition, at least one other who is dying: http://vimeo.com/13167559 For so long, so very many contradictory tall tales have been told about women that women even begin to believe without question those tales themselves, even wise and powerful women. We are told we are only at our greatest potential when we can bear children ... or conversely when we can't. Or truly feminine when we are menstruating ... or not. Or we are only powerful or wise or worthy or clean or beautiful or valuable under so many bizarre cultural circumstances. Are any of them real or true? Who knows, but these ideas about women and power often serve to subtly direct and limit what women believe they themselves can do, and it seems to me to be the case as well sometimes with ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is certainly subject to cultural norms in which it is used, and I can't help but wonder how much of the influence of South American machismo culture has influenced the understanding of the role women have to play as ayahuasqueras. One wonders if, as ayahuasca makes its way into the further reaches of the globe, if women will suddenly find their role more accepted, respected, and even needed. Perhaps more defined by women themselves. Or will we continue to believe that menstruation somehow makes us untouchable because it's been said so many times, even by wise and wonderful women? I can't speak for anyone but myself, but the teachers I have worked with have never placed this limitation on the women they work with, nor have women seemed to struggle with it. In the North American native traditions I am familiar with, half seem to ostracize menstruating women. The other half seems to not worry about it at all. Some find a gentle way to squirm an excuse out, claiming that "A woman is in her own ceremony at her moon time so she can't be part of ours." There seems to be such disagreement all around about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of menstruating women. Because of the widespread disagreement, I suspect that the problem is not actually menstruation and how the spirits do or do not feel about it, but the fearsome hubbub that humans themselves make about it. As usual, excellent writing that raises many interesting questions.

There are more ayahuasqueras, few with public recognition, at least one other who is dying:

http://vimeo.com/13167559

For so long, so very many contradictory tall tales have been told about women that women even begin to believe without question those tales themselves, even wise and powerful women. We are told we are only at our greatest potential when we can bear children … or conversely when we can’t. Or truly feminine when we are menstruating … or not. Or we are only powerful or wise or worthy or clean or beautiful or valuable under so many bizarre cultural circumstances. Are any of them real or true? Who knows, but these ideas about women and power often serve to subtly direct and limit what women believe they themselves can do, and it seems to me to be the case as well sometimes with ayahuasca.

Ayahuasca is certainly subject to cultural norms in which it is used, and I can’t help but wonder how much of the influence of South American machismo culture has influenced the understanding of the role women have to play as ayahuasqueras. One wonders if, as ayahuasca makes its way into the further reaches of the globe, if women will suddenly find their role more accepted, respected, and even needed. Perhaps more defined by women themselves. Or will we continue to believe that menstruation somehow makes us untouchable because it’s been said so many times, even by wise and wonderful women? I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but the teachers I have worked with have never placed this limitation on the women they work with, nor have women seemed to struggle with it.

In the North American native traditions I am familiar with, half seem to ostracize menstruating women. The other half seems to not worry about it at all. Some find a gentle way to squirm an excuse out, claiming that “A woman is in her own ceremony at her moon time so she can’t be part of ours.” There seems to be such disagreement all around about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of menstruating women. Because of the widespread disagreement, I suspect that the problem is not actually menstruation and how the spirits do or do not feel about it, but the fearsome hubbub that humans themselves make about it.

]]> By: Steve Beyer http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/comment-page-1/#comment-4473 Steve Beyer Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:09:36 +0000 http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/#comment-4473 Alas, doña María passed on just four years ago, in July 2006. She is now, I am sure, giving her healing baths to the children of the angels. Alas, doña María passed on just four years ago, in July 2006. She is now, I am sure, giving her healing baths to the children of the angels.

]]> By: Andrea http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/comment-page-1/#comment-4471 Andrea Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:44:44 +0000 http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/women-and-ayahuasca/#comment-4471 Dear Steve, Thank you for the article. As a woman, I would like to meet an ayahuasquera. I am half Ecuadorian half German currently studying homeopathy. My daydreams take me to the jungle. I speak Spanish and would like to go to the Amazon this year. Is Ayahuasquera doña María Tuesta Flores still alive? Can you help me find her? Thank you! Dear Steve,

Thank you for the article. As a woman, I would like to meet an ayahuasquera. I am half Ecuadorian half German currently studying homeopathy. My daydreams take me to the jungle. I speak Spanish and would like to go to the Amazon this year. Is Ayahuasquera doña María Tuesta Flores still alive? Can you help me find her?

Thank you!

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