A Letter from the Field — Part Three

What we are building

I have been sitting with what to say here.

Part one was about what I saw in the field. Part two was about where I decided to stand in it. This one is about what that actually looks like when you put it into practice. Not as a mission statement. As specific things, built.

The first thing I did was ask myself what I actually know. After ten years of dieta, after sitting in more ceremonies than I can count, after learning alongside Roberth and Miguel and other teachers in both directions — what do I carry that belongs in the world?

The answer was not another retreat. I already facilitate them.

It was the map.

When I first sat in ceremony, I understood almost nothing of what was happening around me. Not the icaros, not the healer hierarchy, not why the dieta works the way it does, not what the plants are actually doing, not why the maestro moves around the room the way he does or why certain songs come at certain moments. I sat in the dark with extraordinary things happening and no frame to hold any of it.

Most people who sit with this medicine are in the same position. They feel something real. They go home changed or shaken or both. But they don't understand the tradition they just received.

So I built a course. Nine units. The language, the people, the icaros, the master plants, the healer hierarchy, the ceremony itself, protection and the dark field, integration over the long path. Everything I wish someone had given me when I started.

It is called The Shipibo Tradition course. It opens in September.

And here is the decision I made about what to do with it.

The knowledge in that course doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the lineage. To Roberth, to Miguel, to the elders who carried this through generations of pressure and kept carrying it anyway. I cannot in good conscience sell it and keep the money.

So I am not going to.

Pahoyan, Peru.

Every euro from this course goes directly toward a house in Pahoyan. Through Stichting Mother's House, which holds ANBI status, so Dutch donors can reclaim the gift tax. One house costs €600. One enrollment covers one house, with a little left over for delivery costs. The course is the fundraiser. The fundraiser is the course.

One of the 166 families still waiting. Pahoyan, Peru.

Four houses have been funded since the campaign began. One hundred and sixty-six families are still waiting.

I am going to Peru in September with a group. We will diet with Roberth and Miguel for 12 days at Meke Nete. We will visit the new land. We will sit with the village and see what is being built and what is still needed. There are places left on that trip if it is calling you.

In October, Roberth and Miguel come back to Mother's House. Ceremonies, presence, the tradition on European soil.

"New Pahoyan" higher ground.

This is what I meant in part two when I wrote about giving something back that actually reaches the source. Not charity. Not theory. A structure where learning about the tradition directly funds the people who carry it.

The course is the map. The dieta is the territory. One does not replace the other. But the map has value, and that value belongs to the village.

You can find The Shipibo Tradition at themedicinetribe.nl/the-shipibo-tradition-course.

If Peru is calling, reach out directly or schedule a call via the website.

If you want to donate directly to the Pahoyan relocation fund: stichtingmothershouse.nl/doneren/strategisch-partner-shipibo/

And if you read all three parts of this letter — thank you. That is not a small thing.

Blessings.

Tamara