The CSV practices a Shipibo religious lineage known as Axeti Nete in the Shipibo language. While there is no direct literal translation to English, an approximation would be the ability to travel to the spirit worlds for knowledge or learning.
Axeti means to learn or to get to know. Nete means the world. The Axeti Nete is the entirety of the four worlds that humans may experience directly. With the aid of Mother Ayahuasca humans can experience and understand the true nature of our reality (Axeti) and how humans fit into this reality including in the Non Nete or the “physical world” of human beings.
The Non is also a spiritual world, although for the most part, most people do not understand that they are indeed living in a spiritual world. Mankind, for whatever reason, has become disconnected from the spiritual world and has lost the spiritual context required for harmony in the Non between themselves and their fellow human beings.
If a person wishes to become an Onanya (Ona= knowledge, Onanya = he who is knowledgeable) in Axeti Nete, they must truly be initiated into the nature of these worlds and have the ability to travel to these worlds in spirit to receive instruction, knowledge, guidance and healing and to appeal to the plant spirits for help for people in the Non Nete (earth or our material world).
Human beings have been granted the ability to travel to three different spiritual worlds from Non by Mother Ayahuasca and to understand the Non from these spiritual perspectives.
The Non is the world that humans inhabit and as a result many believe that this is the only world that exists and that there are no others. But Mother Ayahuasca and the plant spirits that she introduces us to impart the knowledge that allows human beings to truly understand their place in Non as it relates to Axeti and the other spiritual worlds that are available to humans.
In order to be shown these truths, the Onanya must exhibit courage, integrity and true humility.
To truly understand why it is that humans suffer in Non requires one to also understand that other
worlds influence Non and why these worlds were created.
To understand humanity and the influences of the unseen worlds on Non, it is necessary to travel to the Panshin Nete. This is a “yellow” world where suffering is seen, experienced and known in its many forms.
And while some may view Panshin as a place of evil or suffering this too is a place of learning when fully understood by the Onanya. The many ailments, evils, cruelty and sins that can be understood by traveling to Panshin shows the Onanya the nature of these ailments as they manifest in Non and Panshin becomes a crucial teaching ground for helping to understand why people may have a particular affliction or ailment or why people may act in a cruel or belligerent manner to their fellow human beings.
Negative human emotions such as greed, hatred, envy, arrogance, belligerence, boastfulness, pride, sloth, impatience and other negative influences can be understood when one understands how these afflictions arise in Panshin Nete and how Panshin influences Non and the people who inhabit Non.
Because of the perilous nature of traveling to Panshin and the other spirit realms, spirit allies for the Onanya exist in a world called Jene Nete. These allies are enlisted to aid the Onanya in understanding the teachings of the Axeti Nete and to provide assistance to the Onanya in his travels to the spirit worlds.
Jene is a “water world” where spirit allies such as the anaconda and Choikoni (a plant spirit) and other plant and animal spirits reside. These allies may be called upon by the Onanya in his travels to lend strength, courage and wisdom as he traverses the different spiritual dimensions.
In order to enlist allies from the Jene, the Onanya must cultivate a relationship with these spirits. The ally spirits may initially appear in a form that looks frightening or evil as a test of courage to the Onanya.
However, by seeing beyond the form and understanding the illusion(s) the Onanya can gain the
friendship of these spirits by exhibiting courage and overcoming the challenges that are presented. This is also a teaching world where the Onanya must learn to trust his own innate wisdom and abilities. By truly understanding himself, the Onanya gains powerful spiritual allies for his travels through the Axeti.
Finally, there is the Jakon Nete or the place where pure love exists and that is available to show the
highest potential that can be achieved by human beings. True gratitude, love and the highest forms of human compassion and empathy can be experienced in this realm. It is a place of beauty and
compassion and once the Onanya experiences love at the level of the Jakon, he comes to realize the true worth of a human being and the pure love that humans are actually capable of achieving in the Non.
Once this is experienced in Jakon and understood, the Onanya develops a reverence for life and matter that is unshakable. It is a place of non-suffering, unity and the connection of all things in its myriad forms. In this world, all matter is sentient and exhibits an intelligence that is usually beyond the capacity of human beings to experience directly.
For those who experience the Jakon, their lives will never be the same as the true depth and love that exists in the Axeti is most apparent in the Jakon.
By traveling to these realms, the Onanya becomes the ideal human being and understands the true
nature of the Axeti at the fullest capabilities and capacity as a human being. Because of this
understanding, the Onanya truly becomes of service to his fellow human beings and to all of creation.
The true introduction into Axeti Nete is an initiatory process. The CSV tradition follows in numerous sacred mystery school traditions where ultimate religious truths are revealed over time. There is no way that the eternal spiritual truths of Axeti Nete can be conveyed on a website or in a video.
Axeti Nete is an experiential religion, where the practitioners must discover those truths for themselves if they decide to continue on the initiatory path of Axeti Nete. In this regard, the written words Axeti Nete are merely a “placeholder” for these truths, in much the same way that a conceptual term such as “spiritual world” or Jakon Nete cannot be realized until it is actually experienced in our sacred ceremonies.
While these concepts may be difficult to grasp for someone from a Christian or Judaic background, the difference would be akin to a person reading a bible or attending a service where they talk about God. The shaman enters into the Axeti to directly experience spiritual worlds, to directly experience God’s creations in its many forms.
Once someone experiences God’s creation in this way, the words of the experience no longer apply, and at that point whether you call it Axeti Nete or interacting with angels or deities or entering the higher spiritual dimensions, our members know the truth of these practices through direct experience. You will often hear people new to our sacred medicine calling the experience indescribable. So what meaningless spoken words or concepts do you want to use for that?
The practice of initiation into sacred mysteries is not unique to Axeti Nete and is an ancient practice. Numerous religious practices, and rites developed and spread in antiquity throughout the Greek and Mediterranean world, for example, in the ancient Near East, and later throughout the Hellenistic era and in the Roman Empire, whose roots are to be found in the Pre-Greek cultures of the Aegean, Cretan, and Anatolian coasts.
Many religious practices and rituals were characterized by an initiatory path, Axeti Nete is a true pastoral religion in that it is concerned firstly with the spiritual health and welfare of new members who have received a calling to the medicine. If the member is able to adequately heal themselves from their spiritual sickness, the Onanya will recognize that fact as he follows and observes them on their healing journeys in the spirit worlds of the Axeti and he or she will also observe their progression as ayahuasca presents challenges to the member to test their strength and resolve in the spirit world.
The Onanya may coach and mentor the practitioner about the true spiritual mysteries that are available within the Axeti Nete at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner for the initiate, based on their spiritual journeys and progression. The Onanya will work with the member to assess their ability and willingness to experience the highest spiritual worlds available and will help them understand and overcome the fear-based challenges that are part of the initiation into the Axeti.
These “teachings” are not idle concepts or intellectual ideas but require the initiate to travel to certain realms within Axeti Nete and to overcome the challenges that will be presented by ayahuasca, an intelligent plant spirit who is the true master of our sacred ceremonies.
The privileges of the ancient knowledge of Axeti Nete must be earned by the member on his own spiritual journeys. But this is truly a solo journey. The Onanya is there to answer questions and provide advice about what was accomplished or encountered in the member’s travels into that realm.
The highest undertaking for the member is to travel to the Jakon Nete and enter into the highest spiritual realm to become one with the divine source. This is where true ego dissolution and a true communion with the highest spiritual realm, available to someone in the human physical form is realized.
This is how the initiate can become an ideal human being and understand the spiritual sickness of the Non Nete – our physical world. An ideal human being, like Mother Ayahuasca, is concerned with the totality of humanity and is willing to render assistance to anyone, regardless of their beliefs or mind constructs.
And while this type of religious practice may not be in alignment with the ideas of Christian or Judaic practices, the religious beliefs of Axeti Nete predate these constructs. The Axeti Nete path is a path of true enlightenment, not vague concepts to be found in biblical texts. It is an experiential religion. We go into our ceremonies not to talk about God, but to experience his divine creation in all it’s many forms and worlds.
As such the true practitioner of Axeti Nete does not proselytize or promote his religious beliefs. The true practitioner is concerned with the totality of the human being and the totality of the human experience. Once properly prepared by healing spiritual sickness and overcoming spiritual challenges, a true practitioner may advance through the spiritual realms and come to an understanding of Axeti Nete.