Healed by nature: Ayahuasca and the moon
When I was fourteen a doctor on London’s Harley Street put me under general anaesthetic and inserted a hormone pumping coil into my womb. I was a virgin.
At the time it was a last resort, a so-called durable solution to my diagnosed hormone imbalance, which had caused six months of continuous heavy bleeding. What an amazing thing, I thought, that a little piece of metal sitting inside my womb could control my menstrual cycle so well that I didn’t need to have a period at all.
My recent encounter with Ayahuasca has changed everything. It made me wake up and realise that this temporary solution was doing nothing more than disguise and slowly accentuate the problem.
Ayahuasca is a Native American plant medicine, perhaps the world’s best-known enthoegen. It is commonly recognised for its mind-altering and visionary effects that bring about spiritual growth and deep personal healing.
Ayahuasca, which literally translates as “Vine of the soul/spirits,” has been used in sacred ceremony for thousands of years across parts of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. The medicine consists of two main ingredients, the Ayahuasca vine and Chacruna, a shrub native to the Amazon basin that contains the psychoactive Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). In combination these plants induce a solitary journey into ones deepest self. Everyone’s experience is different but many describe it to be ‘life-changing.’
My intentions for retreating at the Temple of the Way of Light (a shamanic healing centre deep in the Peruvian Amazon) had nothing to do with my hormones on the surface, but I quickly came to realise that this jungle vine was to address things from right down at the roots.
To get to the ‘Temple’ one must first get to Iquitos, the world’s largest city to be only accessible by plane or boat. From there you journey onwards along the river before docking on its banks and trekking for an hour into the jungle. This physical journey in itself allows you to leave behind your everyday life, the off-grid lifestyle brings no opportunity for distraction, and daily yoga and meditation classes compliment the sacred ceremonial space that the medicine requires. You really are able to immerse yourself fully during this month long retreat.
In hindsight, I see that I had been misled by the Western medical system into believing that I was a malfunctioning woman. That there was no resolve to my hormone imbalance, apart from contraceptive devices that were causing me to suffer from migraines, acne, mood-swings and depression. It had been a fourteen-year-long battle with my femininity that lead me to have a fear of menstrual blood and a deep insecurity in womanhood.
I was nervous, but had faith when the Shipibo shaman asked me to stop taking the contraceptive pill immediately.
“Don’t you see, it is that pill which is causing your migraines. Many woman have this problem, it’s common, but very easy to resolve,” he told me casually as he looked at his wife for reassurance.
I was prescribed two local plant medicines, Uvus and Tamomari, which I was to take every morning before breakfast. These plants are known to help with reproductive health and hormone balancing; just two of thousands of natural remedies used in situ to successfully heal illnesses.
It is said that by residing in solitude and dieting on a plant for an expended period of time, that shamans are able to connect with the plant spirit world in order to gain knowledge and understand each plants’ healing qualities.
It didn’t take me long to appreciate the power of shamanism. The shamans’ ability to intuitively guide each one of us on the retreat, through our visionary insights, was astonishing. Their gentle approach and serenity a gift, and their healing powers, particularly when singing an Icaro, awe-inspiring.
An Icaro is the name for songs sung during Ayahuasca ceremonies in Shipibo culture. In their belief, Icaros are used to call in their spirit world, to induce ones mareacion (visionary experience), to draw out bad omens and trapped energies in the body, and if required, to bring an end to ones mareada state. The sounds can be piercing and it gets straight under your skin, into your veins and more often than not makes you feel very sick.
Among Ayahuasca’s recognised healing qualities is its ability to purify and cleanse the body. It is nicknamed ‘la purga’ and it is no fallacy that this medicine makes you purge from many parts of the body.
Yes, often the Ayahuasca experience is not easy and definitely not pleasant. The word ‘purge’ becomes frequently used on retreat. Purging is just one of the many elements of the healing journey induced by this mystical plant concoction, and although tough to face at times, the sense of release one is left with afterwards is simply amazing.
In my experience, the power of nature did not end with the plant’s healing abilities. I came to realise that mother Ayahuasca was calling me to sit under the moon, to resolve a deep-rooted puzzle within me. One that had caused me much anguish, depression and anxiety since puberty – my manic hormones.
As I stepped outside at the end of a ceremony the glow of the full moon called me. I found myself lying alone on a bench in the middle of the jungle under a bright, brilliant sky. I recognised that my menstrual cycle was in tune with the moon as I gazed up and spoke to the full moon.
“Thank you. Thank you so much for this healing. Please help me produce oestrogen. Please.” I whispered.
You might laugh and think I’m crazy but since that night I am almost lost for words by the physical and mental changes within me.
It began was pains inside my ovaries and my womb and continued through each Ayahuasca ceremony during my month in the jungle. This acute pain and a surreal inner contact with my womb put me in touch with the healing my body was undertaking. I purged what felt like poison; residue from years of artificial hormones being pumped into my body. It was painful, it was traumatic, but it was unspeakably cleansing.
With all its mystery, my Ayahuasca journey put me back in touch with nature. The plant awakened my mind, my body, my nervous system, in order to help me understand and heal the root cause of these physical and mental glitches within me.
Two months later, to the day, my moon cycle began on cue with the luminous fullness of the moon. I had, for the first time in my life a natural and normal menstrual flow. My body feels different now – it feels balanced and stable. It feels fertile and I feel like a woman.
Why, I keep asking myself, are these medicines, the Uvus and the Tamomari in particular, that have no vision inducing effects, not used more widely around the world? Why are we girls and woman masking nature with science and living so out of contact with our bodies? What happened to the celebration and unison of our menstrual moon cycle? What happened to the red tent?
The answers I keep finding bring a constant: We’re disconnected from nature. Disconnected from our planet, our bodies and our health.
Our planet has been looking after us since the beginning of time, yet we’re so lost in science that we have begun to forget about these natural healing remedies. We jump too quickly, in haste for a speedy antidote. What Ayahuasca has taught me is that with some patience and some faith we can restore our bodies and rejuvenate our health naturally.
How thankful I am to Ayahuasca and the masters of plant medicine, the shamans of the Amazon rainforest, for opening my eyes and for giving me this courage to trust the medicinal resources offered to us by Mother Nature.
Then there was the moon’s role in my healing, for which I cannot find words, only gratitude.
By Abigail Dixon









