The jungle as a living teacher
In the depths of the Amazon, where the air is dense and every sound seems to have a soul, shamanism reveals itself as a return to what is essential: to healing, to truth, and to the living force of nature. In this primordial territory, the human being sheds everything that is not authentic. There, between the murmur of the rivers and the distant singing of the birds, life vibrates in its purest form.
The Shaman does not teach through speeches or theories.
His wisdom is transmitted through presence. When someone sits before him with an open heart, something invisible begins to move: an ancient memory awakens, as if the earth itself were remembering who we are. In this encounter with nature, the jungle not only heals the body but transforms the gaze. Every leaf, root, and insect seems to speak the same sacred language of the Spirit.
The call of Ayahuasca
One of the voices that has walked alongside this teaching is Marina’s, a woman who, after years of searching, understood that true medicine is not drunk or taken — it is remembered. Her story begins far from the tropics, in a land where winters are long and light is scarce.
“Russia is cold and dark,” she says, “and sometimes one forgets the light.”
Perhaps that is why, when she encountered the jungle and Ayahuasca, something within her ignited — like a seed finally finding the sun.
“Every time I enter the ceremony, something changes for the better,” she confesses.
“It’s as if a new part of me remembers who I truly am.”
The ceremony as a mirror of the soul
In the silence of the malok — the sacred space where songs and plants open the doors of the Spirit — Marina learned to look within. Ayahuasca, the master plant of the Amazon, did not show her distant landscapes or exotic visions; it taught her to feel. In each ceremony, she faced her fear, her tenderness, and the fragility of life. She felt the invisible presence of her ancestors and the web of existence that held her even when she believed she was alone. Every encounter with the medicine was a mirror, and in each reflection she found the opportunity to reconcile with herself.
Ruymán and the art of guiding without imposing
For years, Ruymán accompanied her in this process. He did not offer answers, but direction; he did not ask for faith, but for trust.
“In the jungle,” he says, “one learns to stop searching outside. Because the Spirit is not in words, not even in the plants. It is in the consciousness that awakens when we surrender to life.”
Ayahuasca works in mysterious ways. It does not heal “problems,” but disconnections. And when that inner connection is restored, life begins to flow naturally again. Faces soften, eyes shine, and the soul breathes. Marina experienced this with the humility of someone who discovers that it is not about reaching something new, but returning to what was always there.
Arutam: the Spirit of the jungle
The Spirit of the jungle — Arutam — is not a symbolic figure or an ancient myth. It is a living force, a mystery that permeates all forms and lives within every being. The Shuar people, an Indigenous nation of the Amazon, have known it since time immemorial and describe it as the consciousness that gives life to the forest, the rivers, and all that exists. To encounter Arutam is not to worship something external, but to remember that life itself is sacred, and that we are a part of it.
Healing the disconnection of the modern world
In one of her conversations with Ruymán, Marina reflects on the fragility of the modern world.
“We live disconnected,” she says, “surrounded by things, but empty of meaning.”
He nods, aware that shamanism is not a trend or an exotic experience, but a deep need of the human soul. When human beings forget their roots, they become ill — and only direct contact with nature, with its strength, silence, and wisdom, can restore harmony.
Ayahuasca, in this sense, is not a magical substance but a teacher that teaches us to remember. It empties us of inner noise, returns our humility, and invites us to look at life from the heart.
The invisible learning of the Spirit
The shamanic path becomes an invisible school of the Spirit. Each ceremony is a lesson; each song a prayer; each tear a cleansing. It is not about escaping the world, but about learning to live in it with a different consciousness.
Marina recalls the first time she drank the medicine: fear mixed with curiosity, but soon she understood that it was not a drink, but a mirror of the soul.
“I saw everything I couldn’t accept in myself. I saw my sadness, my hardness, my masks. But behind all that, I also saw something immense, luminous, that held me.”
That light, she understood, was the Spirit itself.
Ayahuasca as a path of maturity
Over the years, her ceremonies with Ayahuasca became a path of maturity. She stopped seeking visions or answers and simply listened. She understood that the jungle not only heals but educates: it teaches us to look without judgment, to receive without fear, and to recognize the beauty in simplicity.
“Arutam,” says Ruymán, “is not found on altars, but in the flowing river, in the breathing tree, in the gaze of another. When we understand that, everything becomes a ceremony.”
Going to the jungle: the return to the heart
Today, Marina is preparing to go to the jungle. She knows that every journey is different, but also that all of them lead to the same place: the heart. There, where the mind surrenders, where separation disappears, and the soul recognizes itself in the whole.
To walk with Arutam is to live from the heart, in harmony with the mystery. There are no goals or doctrines — only the certainty that life is sacred.
And thus, between words and silence, between worlds and memories, the Spirit reminds us that true healing occurs when we allow nature — and Ayahuasca — to speak to us.
Access the full interview at:
My real experience: When Ayahuasca opened my heart
