A colorful greeting and blessings, dear brothers and sisters, drinkers of ancestral medicine!

Winds of change already surround us, favorable to the movement of life that brings us together to teach us all the beauty that only plants of such wisdom dare to show us. The moment comes when it is our turn to stand firm in the purpose of learning and healing we have chosen to create for ourselves.

Among the many taitas and shamans we have had the graced honor of receiving in this country, we have been able to see the diversity of vibes and attitudes spread across what are distinct human beings, each with their own story, their growth and their own inner world. However we perceive them, whatever they express, whatever they may lack. All of them, in full fairness, giving everything and the best of themselves.

From sometimes getting distracted by personalities, rites and traditions, we move on, after drinking the medicine they brought, to giving her the attention she deserves. We come to realize that she is the true protagonist of the therapies and of the healing each person decides to accept for their inner development. Many missionaries come and go, and we, after idealizing them as perfect gods, come to understand them better as brothers who, just like us, live their own struggle, act from their own mistakes and sometimes fail in the humility that is indispensable for devoting themselves to the selfless service of the goddess who assigned them their life's task.

Thank you, medicine of the soul, for being the teacher of my spirit! You, and not the hand that offers you, are the one who has entered me so that I may take heart and begin to wake up to the greatness you have known for millennia!

We hear how she, on being born and venturing out of her jungles, deserts or mountains, comes to us asking, for a deeper communion with us, that we consecrate her in all her purity and integrity. She draws out the essence of the earth and develops the wisdom of her antiquity so that she may enter us directly, without interference, change of intention or discoloring of her blessings.

An initiative then arises from our essence, that essence which is neither Indigenous nor Eastern, neither hermit nor urban. From our heart is born the longing to give ourselves an opportunity: to take our healing into our own hands. Who could better know which wounds hurt us and which joys call us? On whom would we depend, if it is our heart that weeps for us to open it and our mind that screams for us to bring it into harmony? Is it, by any chance, someone else's job?

We receive whatever medicine we have the grace to come across. It doesn't matter where it comes from, and if it comes only from its own land and its own seed, so much the better. It doesn't matter who hands it to us, and if we hand it to ourselves, so much the better. It doesn't matter how elaborate the ceremony is, and if we hold the ceremony deep within ourselves throughout our whole life, so much the better. We seek the silence of not judging, but also of not following anyone. We seek the love of respecting, but not admiring anyone. What we are seeking is nothing but the clear simplicity of being ourselves. We glimpse that the challenge of drinking medicine is to enter that humility from which we need neither to flatter nor to be flattered. We appreciate that the shine of our hearts is unique and universal, rather than a personal achievement for anyone to show off.

I greet you, brothers and sisters who walk to grow and not to be great, because the time has come for us to walk together. No one guides us but the sincere, fraternal friendship of our gazes in communion. Thank you for bringing your forehead to the earth, for in it we find the heights of our dignity. Thank you for drinking medicine with courage, joy and focus. Thank you for existing.