August 3rd-13th, 2023
On this pilgrimage we delve into the wisdom of Huachuma (San Pedro), embarking on a profound journey to decolonize our hearts and minds and receive its sacred education. Through this rewilding experience, you will uncover your heart’s deepest truth as the perfect medicine for your life right here, right now. This alchemical retreat holds the power to potentiate paradigm-shifts in ways both accessible and well-integrated, catalyzing inspired action aligned with your highest timeline. Held in an intentional container within the Andes mountains, you will discover deeper layers of who you really are, reclaiming your sovereignty while opening yourself to new ways of being in this world.
This experience is for souls called to deep self-exploration, who seek a quantum portal through which to weave personal and collective transformation. This is not a typical plant medicine retreat. We will be exploring the medicine in ceremonies not always accessible to the general public, and have a unique opportunity to use horseback as an integration modality. These ceremonies require a level of commitment to preparation as well as physical, mental, and emotional readiness that is well-suited for space holders or those otherwise well-versed in shadow work.
Huachuma is a cactus native to the Andean highlands. It has been more commonly referred to as San Pedro since the time the conquistadors encountered its use some five-hundred years ago. Some say that the conquistadors experienced the medicine as opening the gates of heaven, thus naming it after Saint Peter, or San Pedro in Spanish. The Huachuma cactus is not a single variety, but several interrelated species within the classification Trichocereus pachanoi (also called echinopsis pachanoi). The varieties range from thin nearly spineless cactus that grow in the lowland deserts to thick varieties with long spines, which grow more commonly in the Andes mountains at higher elevations. In the United States and Europe, a few strains of hybrid San Pedro have been cultivated for decades for ornamental gardening purposes.
As an ancestral medicine of the Andes, Huachuma has a long history of use in shamanic practices. It is a potent tool in the modern healing context when used in reverence to its culture and history. In its essence, Huachuma is a mirror that illuminates the fragmented aspects of ourselves within our conscious awareness, connecting us back to parts that are often pushed away and hidden beyond our awareness. Huachuma carries the wisdom of reduction– stripping away layers of our conditioned programming, allowing us to feel ourselves as we really are without protective mechanisms and avoidance strategies. This quantum reset has been described as coming back to one’s heart, a sovereignty which reveals the possibility for emotional healing, profound insight, deeper alignment with our purpose and connection to Earth and all her relations. As a medicine, Huachuma requires respect, patience, and a willingness to engage in a process that holds the possibility of long-lasting transformation.
Eight Weeks of Integration and Study- Opening Circle: July 3, 2023
During retreat we place great emphasis on the essential preparatory and integrative work that takes place beyond the ceremony space. This focus ensures that you gain the utmost benefit from your experience with Huachuma, and are supported in skillfully metabolizing the experience while developing a familiarity and trust with one another’s life path and intention to deepen the foundation of our collective journey.
Plant medicines work their magic when the body is balanced, healthy, and ready to receive. The focus of our first five sessions before departure will explore specific practices to prepare the mind, body and spirit in ways which optimize the alchemical nature of plant medicine work prior to entering a relationship with them. We will dive into the Root Cause Protocol approach to mineral regulation, using HTMA hair testing and a 1:1 consultation with each participant to develop individualized recommendations to best prepare the body. Huachuma will meet you wherever you are, with the precise opening that is ready for you. By taking responsibility for our side of the relationship by doing work that addresses underlying calcification, iron overload, and inflammation before our journey, we extend the invitation to the medicine to remove deeper layers of the veil. The material shared in our group container will further expand your knowledge of functional medicine, develop your capacity to work skillfully with the body and minerals to support psychedelic healing, and support the sovereign navigation of your health and healing for the rest of your life.
Pre- trip discussion themes, 5 Mondays in July
We ask you to read the book “San Pedro Huachuma: Opening the Pathways of the Heart’‘ by Javier Regueiro, an amazing account of Javier’s journey with Huachuma and with the Huachumero leading our ceremonies, Miguel. This book is available in both paperback and audiobook versions. In the sessions leading up to the trip, we will additionally begin exploring the magic of Huachuma and our intentions for our work together,
This space is infused with the intention of becoming a deep container of heart connections, facilitating a sense of familiarity and trust within the group long before touching down in Peru. Meetings will be held via group video and available as recordings, though we encourage joining in the live sessions so you can nurture relationships and incorporate your questions.
Our desire is not only to prepare you, but to be there as you return to your world, helping sew and water the seeds you discovered. Our experience together is book ended with post ceremony integration support through the continued invitation into our group container, as well as sessions offered one week, one month, and six months after our time communing with Huahuma.
On one of our integration days, we will embark on a somatic journey of inner exploration, held in the grounded presence of the horse spirit. With its extensive mirror neuron network, the equine is a powerful tool for nervous system attunement, while the rhythmic motion of riding aids in trauma reprocessing, similar to the popular EMDR therapy modality. This unique experience offers a doorway into embodied healing, as you connect with the wisdom of these majestic creatures and the beauty of nature around you.
On this day trip we will journey through Pumahuanca Incan Forest Sanctuary on horseback, riding through a deep forest along a rushing river to reach the ruins of Incan Temple. The forest opens into a beautiful mountain countryside, where alpaca, llamas, sheep and other animals can be found grazing. At the top of this mountain trail, we will enjoy a waterfall as well as views across the valley and over to the high plains of Maras. We will have the option of a cacao ceremony at lunchtime, to further support our open-hearted communion with the elements.
Our accommodations are a beautiful private villa, a short 10-minute walk from central Pisac, Peru, the central hub of the Sacred Valley. Known as Martina Wasi, our Villa is a traditional Andean style villa sitting on over 4,000 square meters of land, and staffed with help to ensure our stay is comfortable and all our needs are met. Martina Wasi is decorated with local textiles and handicrafts from the area. The four-bedroom house has ten beds in shared rooms, each room with its own bathroom. It features two large social areas with a chimney and views of the garden and nearby Incan ruins. There is also a dining room, game table, kitchen, and laundry room available for our use. In the garden, there is a small farm with chickens, guinea pigs and a goat. Communal meals will be part of this trip, and the kitchen and outdoor roasting area and grill provide all needed amenities.
While the daily flow will vary, on retreat we facilitate supportive modalities to deepen embodiment of what seeks illumination and expansion, using devotional kirtan, gentle yoga and breath-work, as well as group integration circles to support the conscious weaving of our lives. There will be time spent together and plenty of free time to contemplate, rest, and relax in a beautiful setting.
Situated at the southern end of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, and a 45-minute drive from Cusco, is the peaceful town of Pisac. Lined by cobblestone walking streets, Pisac is known for its farmers market filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, juices and made-to-order breakfasts, and its numerous other quaint and delicious restaurants, many of which cater to conscious eaters, with local, organic, and sustainable options. In addition to the fresh food, Pisac has a lively Sunday market, as well as a Shamanic alley filled with shops selling all manner of indigenous handicrafts and shamanic tools, from flutes, to drums, rattles, clothing, and more.
Like Sedona, Mount Shasta, Bali, and India, spiritual seekers from all over the world flock to Pisac for the energy and beauty of the town along with its rich history of shamanic arts. Above the town of Pisac sits an ancient site known as the Pisac Ruins, which provides a glimpse into the incredible Incan and Pre-Incan civilizations. And, alongside the town runs the Vilcomaya River, which flows through the Sacred Valley for hundreds of kilometers before uniting with the Tambo River to form the Ucayali, a central tributary of the Amazon River that snakes through the jungle.
Hamid is a multifaceted space holder, musician, and educator with a passion for exploring traditional and non-traditional healing modalities from around the world. Fueled by a lifetime of insatiable curiosity, Hamid has traveled, studied, and worked in a myriad of contexts: music and sound healing, plant medicines, yoga, meditation, law, and health. As the voice behind the Instagram account @mineralshaman, Hamid is known in-part for his expertise in minerals and their unique role in all aspects of health, from physical healing to emotional processing and spiritual growth. Hamid’s research into the interplay between mineral health and the plant medicine and psychedelic therapy worlds informs much of his work with clients from around the world, many of whom seek his advice about how to best prepare and integrate their experiences. Hamid’s intention is to help people cultivate health and harmony in their body, mind, and spirit, and to inspire them to explore the many healing modalities available to them.
Sara is a practitioner of the healing and conscious arts, who is committed to holding space for spiritual seekers exploring their deep soul’s work. Through expanding health literacy and liberation practices, she facilitates radical embodiment and alignment on the spiritual path. Having spent two decades working in the dominant medical model, she has a passion for shifting health paradigms by decolonizing for-profit medicine, reclaiming our innate body sovereignty, and returning to the truth and magic of our spiritual nature. She is in service to the liminal space, offering functional medicine consultations, biodynamic craniosacral therapy, yoga instruction, and akashic readings to facilitate the harmonization and reweaving of one’s life.
Miguel has been offering sacred healing ceremonies with Huachuma for 20 years. He directs his ceremonies in a way that supports participants in remembering what he calls “the real state of the human being,” a state of gratitude, clarity, unity and love. From this state, profound insights are realized that catalyze an evolution of consciousness.
Through the ceremonial space that Miguel creates and the magic of the medicine, freedom from limiting beliefs can be experienced, as well as heart- opening, reconciliation of the past, forgiveness, healing of traumas, and much more. Huachuma is a brilliant teacher, ally, and medicine that addresses dis-ease at the root cause, supporting mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual healing. Miguel’s home base is in the Sacred Valley of Peru, where he offers daytime ceremony hikes at beautiful sacred sites, as well as overnight fire ceremonies.
This is an intimate trip with space for only 8 people, providing a level of experience that is beyond any other retreat offering we have found–this is why this retreat was created.
For registrations before May 31st, the early registration price will be $3,300. After May 31st, the price will be $3,800. A $500 deposit is required to hold your spot. An initial payment of 50% of your balance will be due July 1st, and final payment is due July 15th.
Retreat Dates: August 3rd-13th, 2023
Please complete the registration form online, being as complete as possible in answering all of the questions. Due to the nature of this retreat there are requirements that go beyond a typical trip, such as a degree of physical, mental, and emotional readiness. We will respond to all inquiries individually, and let you know how to submit your deposit and payment.
Comprehensive logistical guidance from what to pack to flight considerations will be provided via email. We will be available to answer all questions which arise leading up to the trip.
