MASTER PLANT DIET
Master Plant Diet
In the Amazon, many medicinal plants and trees are considered by traditional shamanic healers as Master Teachers. When properly guided through the ancient technology of plant dieta (sama in Shipibo), these plants offer spiritual knowledge through dreams, visions, perceptions and intuitions. They give us a deep introspective view of ourselves and of life in general.
Each plant has a different energy, offering healing, teaching, purification and cleansing
Master plant enable us to access an inner dimension where we are able to learn about ourselves in ways that are not available in day to day life, improving mental acuity, building inner strength and self-confidence, realigning our body, mind, heart and soul, and supporting the reclamation and remembrance our true nature.
A diet of teacher plants and trees is also central to the shamanic medicine apprenticeship. Young initiates will diet on master plants for months and sometimes year at a time.
Throughout these dieta apprentices will develop a kind of capacity to “see” or communicate with the spirit realm. In the Peruvian Amazon in particular, the most direct way to develop this capacity to “see” and connect with the espiritus (spirits) is through master plant or shamanic dietas.
Certain plants are often used in this process, including Ayahuasca, Tabacco and other plant purges (vomitivos).
Master plant dietas are usually accompanied by abstinence from sex, pork, red meat, sugar, deodorants, alcohol, caffeine, shampoo, toothpaste, oils and processed food.
Abstaining from any substance or activity that might cloud the mind is essential for the plants and trees dieta to promote physical healing and spiritual transformation.
MASTER PLANT DIET - a deep dive into self-knowledge and discovery of the sacred world of plants
OPENING THE MASTER PLANT DIET
Once the terms of the dieta are established, the curanderos or student will then open the diatom or have the dieta opened for them, as in the case with most students. This is an “offical” announcement, made in an ayahuasca ceremony through the use of healing songs, called icarus, that the dieta has begun, or will begin the following day, to help demonstrate the determination of the curanderos or student and thus strengthen the connection to the plant.
As the dieta progresses, the sensations nd communications get stronger. The relationship become closer and deeper, eventually forming a special bond, a friendship between the dieter and the plant spirit. It is through this friendship that the curanderos or student receives benefit from the relationship, the fruits of the dieta.
This new friend provides information, guidance and energy to assist in the healing process.
