NOYA RAO: WORKING WITH INTEGRITY WITH AYAHUASCA

You may never have heard of this tree, but it is essential to the work we do with Ayahuasca here on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and provides a guiding hand in every aspect of our lives. Noya Rao is an Amazonian tree once thought to be extinct and shrouded in lore and mystery. Also known as Palo Volador or the flying tree, due to the legend that it bestows the gift of flying. Indeed, tales exist of whole villages ascending into the atmosphere to become part of a different dimension/reality altogether.

Legends aside, this tree is magical with just the cold hard facts at hand. The leaves that grow on Noya Rao light up with bioluminescence as they fall to the ground earning it another name, the tree of light. The names of this tree are piling up I know, but one more before we move into the full story. I came to know her as the tree of truth, because the light always shines on the truth eventually.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE TO WORK WITH NOYA RAO?

I’d heard stories about Noya Rao, but never had any intention to work with this tree. This tree is so sacred to the Shipibo Konibo people and in particular the Mahua family and the lineage they carry with it.

I didn’t feel it was for me, it felt outside of my culture and belonging to other people for some reason. There felt something untouchable about Noya Rao. It was whilst dieting another plant, Bobinsana, that I had my first encounter with Noya Rao. On the third night of my Bobinsana diet I found myself in a dream with a being of magnitude. A dream that you know isn’t just a dream. A dream that is lucid and real.

I was in Peru and the dream showed the face of  Shipibo grandmother, it’s time you come and work with us. Who are you? I asked.

I am Noya Rao, came the reply. 

It didn’t take much searching of Shipibo grandmothers and Noya Rao to find Manuela Mahua. Known in Shipibo as Jakon Rate, a life giving or good surprise. I emailed immediately to ask about going to Jakon Rate to diet with Noya Rao. 

I received no response but a few days later in a medicine ceremony, Jakon Rate appeared behind me. The words exchanged are personal but the jist was something along the lines of, what are you even doing? After giving my energy a thorough examination I received an email a few days later with information about how I could join Jakon Rate to diet with Noya Rao.

The rest of my diet with Bobinsana was heavily overseen by Noya Rao and was one of the most challenging times of my life. The two trees alongside Ayahuasca picked me and my life apart. Every lie, every poor intention and thought. Every mistake. It all got laid out for cross examination in the most brutal and revealing way. It reached a point where I almost walked away from the medicine path altogether, so inadequate did I feel for this work. They convinced me to stay despite my shortcomings but there were some amusing moments. I remember being chased around by the three plants feeling like I was being kicked around like a football and saying in the words of Eminem, I am white, I am a fucking bum, I do live in a trailer with my mum.

I do not in fact live in a trailer with my mum, but I felt as hopeless at the time. Eight years of learning and studying with plants and Ayahuasca was being placed on scales and I had been found wanting.

 I would even try and counter the fact that my work schedule was booked up months in advance. 

‘You’re the best of a bad bunch!’ came the reply.

A wake up call but a gate was being placed before me. I could feel it. An opportunity to change, to evolve into something more than what I was at the time. It was my choice to decide if I wanted to walk through it.

Two years later I found myself receiving a welcome hug from Manuela at Jakon Rate before the start of my journey with Noya Rao. Why did I take so long? These things are not to be rushed.

Walking the path of integrity: What dieting Noya Rao means

It is perhaps unlike any other diet as the commitments you make are for life. The most famous one being that I can never eat pork again, but there are many other weird and wonderful agreements that one must make with the path of Noya Rao.

What Noya Rao and the Mahua lineage has given me more than anything is a way.  A way of life, a way to be. A code that is clear.

When I find myself straying from this way with my choices, words and actions there is an energy that pulls me back. Something that reminds me of the path before me. Not just in my work but all aspects of my life.

When I go against it which I have on more than one occasion, it watches me. It lets me make my mess and then it pulls me back to the path. Back into alignment.

These corrections are not always easy, quite often they can be a reckoning that has me shaking in my boots and asking serious questions of myself. This is the work that no-one sees, the work behind closed doors.

I see the word integrity spoken about in plant medicine and spiritual circles a lot more than it is actually practiced. Like the word honest, the more someone has to talk about it the more likely it is they are deficient in it. 

It’s integrity, however, that underpins safety in this world. It’s the bar that is set for the tough decisions. The close to the wire decisions. The decisions that are made when no-one is watching. The cumulative mass of small decisions that ultimately create the energy and feel of a space.

The alignment that asks if your priorities are set straight and if your heart is in its correct centre.

And for that there is no bar set higher that at least I have found than the one that is set by Noya Rao and the Noya Nete, Noya Rao’s universe.

I don’t always get it right, I think that’s the point. We’re in a life long process. I’m smart enough to know at least, that if I’m to do this work the way I believe it should be done, then I’m going to need Noya Rao’s presence to help me find my way.

Image credit: Katherine Skaggs