Period blood in ayahuasca ceremonies: dangerous or divine?
If some shamans see period blood as potentially harming, and simultaneously others see it as something that enhances the ayahuasca experience…what’s the actual truth?
If some shamans see period blood as potentially harming, and simultaneously others see it as something that enhances the ayahuasca experience…what’s the actual truth?
Have you ever been in an ayahuasca ceremony where period blood is seen as dangerous?
Some years ago, whilst on a retreat in the Putumayo rainforest, my period was due. The shaman told me that if it came during the ceremony, I'd need to leave the space and go to my cabin on my own for the rest of the night.
This freaked me out a bit. It did not make me feel safe. But thankfully my body is so wise my period got delayed, and it came right when the last ceremony with this shaman finished.
According to some people following certain yagé traditions, women on their period should self-isolate and not attend ayahuasca ceremonies. They say it can be dangerous for the bleeding woman and for others attending the ceremony.
Some believe that if a menstruating woman joins, the shaman or other participants may start vomiting blood or having ugly visions.
Some even claim a woman on her period could literally kill a shaman if she's too close.
In fact, another shaman from that same retreat in Putumayo and I - caught up in the joyous post-ceremony feeling - accidentally hugged to say goodbye as he was leaving to go home. A few minutes later, he started to feel so sick he had to postpone his trip back home because he couldn't walk without falling.
I felt guilty since I was told I could have killed him…
Many in these communities hold such beliefs as absolute truth. As the way things are.
These same communities also believe:
🩸Women cannot serve the medicine.
🩸Only post-menopausal women might be allowed to in rare, extraordinary cases.
🩸Only heterosexual men can be real shamans.
🩸Women's role is to cook and look after children.
But here’s the beauty of traveling and sitting in different circles. You realize there’s not one truth. There are many.
And while some stories generate repression, others empower us ALL.
We’ve now met many respected elder shamans from long-standing lineages such as the Huni Kuin and Yawanawa, who welcome women in ceremony during their moon without making any deal of it - including female shamans who are menstruating.
They actually believe that women on their period are more powerful, deeply connected to the unseen, therefore enhancing the ayahuasca experience.
So we wonder… If some shamans see period blood as potentially harming, and simultaneously others see it as something that enhances the ayahuasca experience…what’s the actual truth? Isn’t this just a story?
The mind is so powerful that holding on to and believing certain stories can literally kill you.
So to those who fuel and agree with stories like ‘period blood can harm you in ceremony’ we respectfully ask:
🌀 Do such stories empower you or disempower you?
🌀 Could these dogmas be rooted in colonial repression of the feminine?
🌀 Is a shaman truly that powerful if they can be harmed by the same blood that empowers so many others?
Be very mindful of the stories you choose to believe.
The way we see it, the curse is believing in the curse 🧿
