Jessica, Abbie, and Amanda spent a gorgeous, cloudy day on a brightly colorful-rock-filled beach in Ayampe. The Southern coast of Ecuador holds enough magical healing medicine from the jungle to the coast. We created an altar out of feathers, rocks, our sacred items, and of course the fungi. The women share their personal take on the ceremony below.

JESSICA’S STORY

I have always been inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell. His writings introduced me to the importance of ritual and ceremony.

As I deepen my journey on the medicine path, I am so grateful for this framework upon which to hang my intentions. Our beautiful altars contained elements of earth and spirit. We placed personal power items on the central altar to be imbued with the prayers we offered throughout the day.

Setting clear intentions among the core sisters of the Sol Medicine team and communing together in this sacred way feels like charging my whole body and soul with both positive energy and inspiration to fuel all my actions leading up to the retreat.

ABBIE’S STORY

Taking medicine is always a beautiful experience for me, but taking medicine on the breathtaking coast of Ecuador is absolutely from a dream.

Beautiful ocean view, crystal rock beaches, and zero rain the whole day, we were blessed with a beautiful setting and space for our journey. Once we chose our spot for the day we set up our home and created our altar out of fruit, feathers, crystals, candles, shamanic tools such as our rattles and drum, and—of course—sage!

We called in the four directions, ancestors, and guides then passed around the medicine. We immediately rang in the ceremony by drumming and shaking our rattles.It was a powerful moment to look over at Amanda and Jessica and witness their inner shamans coming out to play.

This ceremony for me was a reminder of how powerful this path of medicine is and how much good it can do in this world. The path to healing is not always easy but is amazingly rewarding. I was definitely feeling a deep call to fully step into my power and to help others to do the same.

This lovely ceremony came to an end with a fruit offering to the spirit of the ocean (goddess of abundance). We offered the ocean our ceremonial fruits by throwing them out into the water with all our strength and intention. We then closed the ceremony in a good way, we said goodbye to our sacred space.”