When you sit with yagé in the Putumayo, you are not buying an experience. You are being received by a lineage, a family and a forest that have carried this medicine for generations. That gift carries an obligation, and we try to meet it the way the tradition teaches: through reciprocity. Everything good in life is a circle of giving and receiving, and the medicine is no exception.
A living lineage, not a product
Yagé was not invented for visitors. It is the spiritual inheritance of the indigenous peoples of the Colombian Amazon, carried by taitas who were initiated as children and who hold decades of prayer, song and apprenticeship. At ZiruYai the medicine is led by an indigenous family and the elders of this tradition, and we work in a way that stays true to it. We follow the teachings of the yagé grandparents, and we carry the blessing and guidance of elders before us.
This matters because the wider plant-medicine world does not always honor its source. Ceremonies are sometimes lifted from their roots, stripped of the lineage that gives them meaning and safety. We choose the opposite: to keep the medicine in the hands of the people whose inheritance it is, and to be, ourselves, in service to them.
The Condor and the Eagle
We feel the call of the prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle: that the spiritual traditions of the peoples of the Americas are meant to come together to heal, and to restore the connection between human beings and the earth. In our circles the Condor and the Eagle speak of integrating heart and mind, the intuitive and the rational, into a balanced life. It is why we weave the yagé ceremonies of the south with rituals such as the inipi, or sweat lodge, of the north, always with respect for each tradition's own place and time.
The community and their families
A retreat is held by many hands: the taitas, the medicine women, the cooks, and the local team who keep the land and care for guests. Sitting with ZiruYai directly supports these families and helps sustain a way of life rooted in the forest rather than in its destruction.
You will also meet the community's own artistry. The elders and their families make handcrafted jewelry that weaves seeds, beads, feathers and the gifts of the forest into pieces of real beauty and cultural heritage. Bringing some home is one simple, direct way that your visit supports the people who hold this place.
Conservation of the forest
ZiruYai sits within a protected stretch of Amazon rainforest, a living reserve where the jungle is left largely intact, cleared only enough for the houses and the maloca. In a region under constant pressure from extraction and deforestation, keeping this land whole is itself an act of medicine. The forest is not a backdrop to the work; it is part of the healer. Protecting it protects the source of yagé and every allied plant we work with.
What reciprocity means to us
Reciprocity is not a line item; it is a way of relating. For us it means keeping the medicine with its people, supporting the community who hold it, caring for the land that grows it, and asking our guests to arrive as participants in that circle rather than as consumers of it. We come to receive, yes, and we also come to give thanks, to give back, and to carry what we receive responsibly into the world.
Note for ZiruYai: this section is written to reflect your values truthfully without naming specific programs or figures. When you have spoken with the owners, we can add concrete details, for example how funds support the community, any conservation or land commitments, and named initiatives, which will make this page even stronger.
How you can give back
- Come with respect. Honor the customs, the silence, the prayers and the guidance of the taitas. Reverence is itself a gift.
- Support the community's craft. The handmade jewelry and art directly sustain the families who hold this tradition.
- Integrate what you receive. Carrying your healing into a kinder, more conscious life is how the medicine ripples outward. This is the work we continue together with Miranda Vires.
- Tell the truth about it. Speak of the medicine and its people with honesty and care, so the lineage is honored wherever its story travels.
Walk the circle with us
If this way of holding the work speaks to you, you are the kind of guest we hope to welcome. When you are ready, the first step is simply a conversation, and from there we walk the whole circle together, with respect for the medicine, the forest and the people who keep it alive.
