Not too long ago I met a local facilitator where I live who apprenticed to my Ayahuasquero in Peru. Since we had the same teacher but he had much more experience with la madre I decided to try a ceremony with him - I was very impressed!
So far I have only drank twice with him and I was especially impressed with the delicious taste and heart warming character of his brew. Besides containing Ayahuasca and chacruna it also contained coca, Pinot Blanco and a mescaline cactus called Tcha'i which the Shipibos use to make their brew stronger.
I actually had some of my best ceremonies ever with this guy, and I think a big part of that is just the quality of his tea and choice of admixture plants. I am especially close to San Pedro in my work so I think the small amount of mescaline really helped me go deep with Ayahuasca. I also really like coca and know that Pinot Blanco is a very positive loving plant (not psychoactive in any way), so I think they all kinda help out.
Sadly I can not share the amounts because I didnt make the tea myself, but the brew was less reduced then others I have drank (more watery), and I drank about 2 oz both nights (2 nights in a row). Maybe it was the admixtures, but I also think the less reduced tea tastes better - this went down easy and tasted pretty decent for medicine! (came up easy too
).
Besides a slightly different quality to the visions I also noticed just an easier ability to let go fully with this brew and a huge heart opening character - I was ecstatic for 2 weeks after those 2 back-to-back ceremonies! I also had a lingering effect with the medicine - I actually felt like I was still altered from the Ayahuasca for the following 8 days (visuals and everything all day long). That might sound kinda scary to some, but for me it was really nice to keep connecting with the medicine (I am lucky my lifestyle is chill enough that I can handle it during my day-to-day).
One of the main reasons I had drank that weekend was to get more focused on my personal path/practice. Although San Pedro seems to be slightly in the forefront for me I work with a lot of plants, and sometimes wonder if I would be better of specializing on one or two. I also work with non-plant based practices and sometimes it just adds up to a lot.... I had recently had a tough 2 weeks and it was hard knowing which practice or medicine to turn to because I had so many choices....
Well, I got a big lesson in trusting my intuition! In ceremony I went through every single part of my practice asking Ayahuasca: "Is this my medicine?" She always replied "What does your heart tell you? What does God tell you?" I always knew the answer as soon as I focused on my heart or my prayer......
Guess I'm just a jack of all trades - always have been, and probably always will. Those ceremonies helped me see more how to fit things together better though - lots of inspiration as well as reassurance!
Planning on doing a coca dieta with him soon - which apparently includes 5-6 private Ayahuasca ceremonies during the 10 day isolation diet.... Excited to connect more with this specific recipe and to get a little more insight into how Tcha'i effects the brew! Kinda felt like a small preview on mixing San Pedro and Ayahuasca.... And actually, 6 days after ceremony while I was still feeling the leftover Ayahuasca vibes/visuals I did drink San Pedro - amazing experience and it felt like Ayahuasca was there the whole time.... I think they have a really nice synergistic effect even though I have never really mixed them at the same time.
I do hear that supposedly mescaline should be dangerous with an MAOI, but those lists also say bananas are dangerous and that is the most common food people eat with Ayahuasca, so I guess plant based MAOI's and reversible MAOI's like in Ayahuasca are just miles different then the pharmacutical crap. I have talked to a good number of people who have combined Ayahuasca and San Pedro (some retreats in Ecuador even do this), and so far I have only heard good experiences. I did want to mention this though in case readers get inspired to try it themselves - there is a theoretical risk mixing! Be careful, although I think if you go with smaller doses of each you should be fine.... The small amounts in the Tcha'i were certainly not a problem!