The Companionship of the Sacred Vine
Shipibo shamans are world-renowned for their mastery of ancestral medicines, however ayahuasca and other Amazonian plant medicines are only one facet of the modern day Axeti Nete religion.
Axeti Nete provides us with a way of navigating through this world based on ancestral cultural knowledge and practices. Axeti Nete also provides an ancient societal structure in which to practice and refine the teachings of our master plant spirits and forest guides.
Axeti Nete is an egalitarian religion that welcomes all people regardless of cultural or geographic origin. It teaches us to become spiritually-aware human beings which strengthens us individually and by extension our immediate families and humanity’s larger societal networks.
We all become more spiritually aware and emotionally healthy through the practices and rituals as codified in Axeti Nete. Axeti Nete posits that true liberation and understanding must involve the whole of humanity.
Separation by belief, creed, nationality, culture or faith is counter productive to humanity’s collective spiritual awakening. This is the human-centric approach of the Axeti Nete faith. Every individual is vitally important to each other and to mankind’s collective spiritual redemption.
The Companionship of the Sacred Vine follows the traditional Axeti Nete religion of the Amazon basin and works directly with our Shipibo Onanyas to help bring these practices to our modern society. The origin of the modern-day Shipibo Axeti Nete faith has been scientifically verified at Chavin de Huántar, Peru from 1,000 BCE, demonstrating sociopolitically complex societal structures engaging in religious ceremonies for at least 3,500 years. (link). Axeti Nete has withstood the test of time.
While science has attempted to fix a date, the oral history of the Shipibo-Conibo people of Peru holds that the ceremonies and practices of Axeti Nete have a direct lineage to the ancient Inca culture who introduced their religious belief systems throughout the Amazon basin. The Axeti Nete faith predates modern recorded history.
Regardless of the origins, this religion is not just a belief system but a way of life and a way of being, providing the social and cultural framework for a spiritually-grounded society. Today, Axeti Nete is centered in Pucallpa, Peru on the Ucayali River in the Amazon jungle, which is considered the modern-day ancestral homeland of the faith.
Do People Have to Take Ayahuasca in Axeti Nete?
Ayahuasca ceremonies are not compulsory in Axeti Nete and many people who adhere to this faith have never been to an ayahuasca ceremony. While ayahuasca has certainly captured the attention of the public, the faith itself and its unifying ancestral teachings provide ample reason alone to participate in Axeti Nete religious practices.
With growing recognition outside of its ancestral homeland, modern Axeti Nete practices rely on ancestral wisdom as this faith travels beyond the borders of the Amazon basin and captures the imagination and hearts of people worldwide.
The Four Worlds
Axeti Nete holds that there are four worlds that human beings are capable of traveling to in our sacred ceremonies – the Panshin Nete or underworld, the Jene Nete or the realm of spiritual guides, the Non Nete, the physical world, which is also a spiritual world once understood, and the Jakon Nete, or the highest spiritual realm that can be achieved by man and where true union with the Creator can take place, allowing us to directly experience ego death and our own divine nature.
Direct access to these worlds is provided by the use of two Shipibo master plants – the sacred ayahuasca vine and its sister plant Chacruna which we collectively call the sacred plant medicine ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca is a self-aware entity that, when ingested, allows people to experience their own divinity and the sentience of all animate and inanimate matter.
This gives our members increased clarity, a deeper understanding and acceptance of themselves as human beings, increased integration into family and community and a respect and appreciation for all living things. It rekindles the joy of life and our own self-love.
Our ceremonies are based on traditional Shipibo religious practices but we also understand that these practices are living practices and are meant to expand and evolve as our own understanding expands and evolves. The purpose of our ceremonies is for each Companionship member to discover their own path of spiritual development, enlightenment and to find their own inner spiritual voice.
Our ceremony facilitators are here to provide assistance to our members in this process. Please note – The CSV will only practice our ceremonies when it is legal to do so.
A Living, Evolving Spiritual Practice
The Companionship is a collaboration, a living and evolving organization based on the teachings of the master plants and the collective wisdom of our membership. The Companionship is guided by the wisdom of the plants and our own humanity. All Companionship activities and undertakings are based on our publicly-stated values.
Upholding these values and putting them into practice is the responsibility of everyone who chooses to become a member of the Companionship. We encourage and support our member’s participation not only in their own spiritual development in the ceremonies but in all aspects of the Companionship’s operations and practices.
We wish you all the best in your quest for spiritual evolution and we remain your faithful servants in this regard. May you find the light, love, beauty and joy that you so richly deserve,
The Companionship of the Sacred Vine