ZIRUYAI
ZIRUYAIZIRUYAI
The hands that hold the work
Your facilitators
Taitas of the Putumayo, the guides who tend the altar, and the practitioner who walks with you before and after. You are held by all of them.
Guardian of the medicine | Ziru Yai
Taita Leónidas Lezama
An Indigenous traditional healer who has walked the path of yagé since the age of six, keeping the ceremony pure and the jungle protected.
Since the age of six, Taita Leónidas has immersed himself in the study of ancestral paths alongside elders from different Amazonian communities. Throughout his life he has been trained by wise Indigenous masters of the Coreguaje, Macaguaje, Kamentsá, Inga, Siona, Secoya and Cofán peoples, developing a profound and pure connection with the jungle and the sacred medicine of yagé.
Born in a small town descended from the Pijao community in the central Andes of southern Colombia, he belongs to the Seborucos Indigenous council. He drank yagé for the first time at six, beginning his training under Macaguaje and Coreguaje elders. Since childhood his life has been driven by the desire to help people in their healing, harmonization and spiritual awakening.
At fifteen he received the blessings of the grandfathers and grandmothers to begin healing with this sacred plant. He spent the first twenty years of his life surrounded by the wisdom of various Amazonian peoples, learning traditional medicine, supporting community processes, and accompanying elder guardians of this ancient tradition.
For twenty-six years he has preserved, planted, harvested, prayed with, cooked and served the medicine of yagé, honoring the plant and his ancestors by keeping the ceremony pure, never including other plants or additives.
He is also a guardian of the jungle. With his family he protects more than 40 hectares of virgin rainforest in the Amazonian foothills, within one of Colombia's most biodiverse reserves, where over 100,000 hectares of tropical forest are preserved, home to the jaguar, the tapir and thousands of other species. This territory is cared for as a sacred altar where life breathes and the medicine of yagé is born.
There, together with his wife Iyari García, he founded the healing center Ziru Yai, where for more than ten years people from across Colombia and around the world have come to heal and reconnect with nature. The spirit of the plant has carried him to share his medicine across the Americas, Europe and Australia. His work is supported by the Indigenous Association for the Governance of the First Peoples of Colombia and by Indigenous traditional authorities around the world.
Guardian of the sacred feminine | Ziru Yai
Iyari García
A mother and weaver who carries the medicine of the Earth, holding the altar of the sacred feminine and the wisdom of the Eagle and Condor.
Iyari was born in Quimbaya Indigenous territory, in the central Andes mountain range, in what is now Colombia's Coffee Region. A mother and weaver, she gave birth to her son in the inipi, accompanies processes of reconnection with the sacred feminine, and holds the altar of the awakoya, an ancestral Andean plant medicine also known as wachuma or San Pedro, as well as the inipi.
At the age of six, her mother introduced her to the sacred medicine of yagé. Since then her life has been deeply intertwined with the medicine of the Earth, walking a path of self-knowledge, studying medicinal plants, and serving through ancestral ceremonies. At nine she entered the inipi for the first time, the sacred womb of the Mother, and from the purity of childhood understood she was a daughter of the Eagle and Condor prophecy, carrying the wisdom of the Indigenous peoples of both North and South America.
Since 2013 she has created and nurtured women's gatherings focused on sovereignty and the exchange of ancestral wisdom. Today she lives in the Amazonian foothills with her husband, Taita Leónidas, and their son, Atse, where together with her family she cares for a natural reserve. With her maternal family she also tends the vision-quest altar for the community in Antioquia. She and Leónidas founded the healing center Ziru Yai, caring for the altar that is their family and sustaining the sacred healing spaces of the territory.
Taita | Cofán lineage | Translator
Taita Herminsul Lucitante
Herminsul is an elder of the Cofán culture, on the path of the sacred yagé plant. He belongs to the Cofán A'i community of Santa Rosa de Sucumbíos, the son and grandson of wise healers who now live among the stars.
He continues to serve as the spiritual leader of his community. In his lineage he is regarded as deeply wise, and serves as the medicine man for other taitas of the region.
Guide | Grandmother of the medicine
Claudia Lorena Orrego
A respected and beloved grandmother on the path of the ancestral medicines of America. Mother of three and grandmother of six, she guides healing through the memory of quartz and crystals, leads women's circles and transformational gatherings, and is guardian of the altar of inipi and temazcal.
She sustains the altar of the Vision Quest in Antioquia with her daughters Angie and Iyari and their families, holding the steadiness of one who has walked this path for a lifetime.
Guide | Bridge woman and midwife
Angie Cristina García
A daughter of Claudia Lorena and a bridge woman between the Earth medicine of the mother and the community. Mother of four, she began her path in the ancestral medicine as a child and has served as a midwife for over twelve years.
A sundancer, she carries the altar of the inipi and the sacred plant of wachuma, and accompanies women and families through the passages of life with ancestral knowledge and functional medicine. She is one of the medicine women who tend the altar of the Vision Quest in Antioquia.
Somatic and psychedelic practitioner | Embody Psychedelic Integration
Miranda Vires
Your companion before, during and after the journey, holding the long arc of preparation and integration with a body-centered, nervous-system informed approach.
Miranda is a somatic and psychedelic practitioner and the founder of Embody Psychedelic Integration. She first came to yagé in 2017, in the middle of her own undoing, and the medicine met her in places she had not been able to reach on her own. What began as her own healing became the work of her life. Since 2021 she has guided others through the preparation, facilitation and integration of psilocybin, holding the full arc of the journey.
Her practice weaves together somatic work, breathwork, energy work and grounded integration. She is trauma-trained through the Institute of Trauma and Psychological Safety, a Master Condor Coach, a certified life coach and a Transformational Nutrition Specialist, with ongoing study in polyvagal theory and Internal Family Systems. More than any certificate, that training lives in how she shows up: steady, attuned, and able to stay present with whatever rises.
At ZiruYai she walks beside guests before, during and after the journey. She does not facilitate the medicine, that sacred work belongs to the taitas. Her role is the bridge: helping guests prepare body and mind for ceremony, offering steady presence, and supporting the long arc of integration after they return home. For those moving through deeper change, grief, or a longer healing road, she also offers private one-to-one support.
Preparation and integration with Embody Psychedelic Integration →Find Miranda at embodypsychedelicintegration.com and theemergingsoul.com.
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