Ceremony • Integration • Rest • Connection
From the moment you arrive in Cusco, you are held through the journey.
You will be met in Cusco and travel together into the Sacred Valley of Peru, leaving behind the movement of the city and entering the stillness of the Andes.
Surrounded by mountains, rivers and open skies, the Sacred Valley becomes more than the setting for our retreat.
It becomes part of the journey itself, a place to slow down, disconnect from the outside world and turn your attention inward.
Over the days that follow, we move gently between ceremony, integration, rest, nature and community.
There is a rhythm to the retreat, but there is also spaciousness. Not every moment is filled.
Some of the most meaningful parts of the journey can happen in the quiet spaces in between.
THE CEREMONIES
Ancient traditions, held with reverence
Our retreat brings together different plant medicine and traditional practices, each offering its own doorway into the journey.
Wachuma
Our first plant medicine ceremony is with Wachuma, also known as San Pedro, a sacred cactus medicine with a long history of ceremonial use in the Andes.
Held during the day and surrounded by nature, the Wachuma ceremony invites us to slow down, open our senses and connect more deeply with ourselves, with one another and with the natural world.
It is often a beautiful way to begin the retreat, grounding us in the land and gently opening the journey ahead.
Ayahuasca
Later in the retreat, we sat together for our Ayahuasca ceremonies.
Held at night in the maloka and guided by experienced traditional medicine keepers and musicians, these ceremonies create a space for deep inner exploration.
Every person’s experience is different. There is no particular experience to seek and nothing that you are expected to achieve.
Our role is to create a safe, respectful and carefully held container in which you can meet your own journey.
Cacao, Despacho & Temazcal
Alongside the plant medicine ceremonies, other traditional practices are woven into our time together.
We begin with a Cacao Ceremony and Opening Circle, giving us an opportunity to arrive, connect and set our intentions for the days ahead.
A traditional Despacho Ceremony offers a moment of gratitude and reciprocity, an offering to the earth and the forces of nature that hold us.
We also experience Temazcal, a traditional sweat-lodge ceremony using heat, steam and ritual as a space for cleansing, reflection and renewal.
Each practice has its own place within the larger arc of the retreat.
INTEGRATION
Where the experience begins to become part of your life
Ceremony is only one part of the journey.
Equally important is what happens afterwards.
Following our ceremonies, we come together in integration circles, spaces to share, listen, reflect and begin making sense of what has arisen.
There is no pressure to speak. Sometimes integration happens through conversation; sometimes through journaling, movement, silence, tears, laughter or simply sitting with what has been experienced.
We deliberately create space between the deeper ceremonies so that there is time for the body and nervous system to rest and for experiences to settle.
For us, integration is not an afterthought.
It is an integral part of the medicine journey.
And it does not end when you leave Peru. The retreat is the beginning of a longer process of bringing what you have seen, felt or understood back into your everyday life.
THE SPACE IN BETWEEN
Not every day is about ceremony.
There is time to sleep.
To journal.
To walk.
To sit by yourself.
To talk with someone from the group.
To watch the mountains.
To do absolutely nothing.
Gentle yoga, meditation and pranayama may form part of our mornings, while other periods are intentionally left open.
There is community, but there is also privacy.
You are invited to listen to what you need, whether that is connection with the group or quiet time alone.
FOOD & ACCOMMODATION
Throughout the retreat, we stay together in the beautiful Sacred Valley, surrounded by the Andes and nature.
Meals are fresh, nourishing and predominantly vegetarian, prepared in keeping with the spirit of the dieta and the work we are doing. Food is kept relatively simple and light, particularly around ceremony days.
Our accommodation is comfortable, warm and surrounded by nature, a space where you can feel held while still remaining connected to the land.
Between ceremonies, there is time to eat together, rest, wander, connect and simply be. For these few days, life becomes quieter, giving you the space to listen more deeply to yourself.
