Feather Crown Team - Ayahuasca retreats in Ecuador
Don Carlos Landazuri - Kichwa Tribe - Leading ceremonies on selected Ayahuasca retreats in Ecuador
is a 78-years-old native Kichwa yachak ("the one who knows") and a traditional healer from the province of Napo, Ecuadorian Amazon. Don Carlos started to receive teachings from his elders at a very young age, and he has been practicing his ancestral spirituality for decades to establish strong bonds with beneficial spirit doctors of nature, such as the spirits of plants, waterfalls, lagoons, mountains, stones, caves, and forests. His helpers are the spiritual forces of the jaguars, anacondas, and eagles. Don Carlos is sought by patients from different provinces of Ecuador. During his ceremony, he performs powerful individual cleansing rituals to all patients, using his leaf fan and singing, channeling healing powers of different healing spirits. In his visions, he makes each patient sit on a beautiful throne and receive all the beautiful energies of a particular spirit. According to Don Carlos, every patient is in need of different energies and he adjusts his healing so that the ritual is most beneficial. Don Carlos beams with strong energy and firmness during the ceremonial night, creating a strong veil of protection, and he is able to perform a special ritual of "sucking out negative energies" from the patient's body. Don Carlos will be leading Ayahuasca ceremonies.
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Luis Andy from the Kichwa tribe - Leading ceremonies on selected Ayahuasca retreats in Ecuador
Don Luis was born into the family of the renowned healer and yachak Don Ramon, who was respected throughout Ecuador as one of the most powerful indigenous shamans. As the firstborn son, his parents chose him to carry on this powerful lineage of yachaks. He belongs to the Kichwa, or more accurately the Napu Runa, a tribe of people from the Napo River who speak the Inca language. His father prepared him so that the spirits of nature could take him to other worlds, where they gave him energies and taught him how to heal others.
At the age of 8, his shamanic teachings began, during which he gained the power of three sacred places, a magical lagoon, a great river and a sacred waterfall. He met beings of these worlds who blessed him on his healing journey, crowned him and clothed him in garments with magical symbols. He also gained the favour and power of power animals such as giant anacondas, black panthers and eagles. He learned to see the future, communicate easily with nature spirits, and help heal with medicinal plants. After a period of 25 years, he began to publicly help both local people and visitors from abroad. In 2008 he became a teacher of Jan Rostlinka and a shaman in the Feather Crown Project.
Luis is ready to guide participants safely through a powerful Ayahuasca ceremony, opening them up to very powerful healing and preparing them to see sacred visions. He gives each person a powerful personal cleansing during which he chants in a loud voice and fans with surupanga (chacapa) leaves. He enhances his work by puffing a strong natural tobacco which he wraps in a banana leaf. He crowns the patient, blows on their energy centers and splashes them with scented water to purify them of negativity as strongly as possible. This then manifests after the ceremony as a sense of peace, clarity of mind, strength, protection and anchoring in reality. It is expected that good fortune will smile upon man in the days to come. Luis can also attend to patients with various illnesses, which he can heal during a special session in which he sucks the negative energies out of the patient's body. People who have encountered Don Luis' work speak of an unforgettable experience and a powerful life transformation.
Sina (Emilio Ramirez) – Shipibo tribe – Leading ceremonies on selected Ayahuasca retreats in Ecuador
Sina was born in the Ucayalí region of Peru and is a respected Shipibo indigenous elder. His ancestors were onayas, traditional shaman-healers, who passed their knowledge on him from an early age. Sina has spent life in service to others and has been practicing healing for his community as well as many foreigners for the past 35 years.
Expect to meet a humble shaman who is knowledgeable, serious, and skilled in his practice. During the Ayahuasca ceremony, Sina is able to “see” energies of people and access deep layers within the energetic bodies of his patients. Through the singing of beautiful icaros (healing songs) throughout the night, Sina heals, cleanses, harmonizes, and brings transformation. Sina is also able to release traumas, dark energies and check on substances or plants which you have been using before and “order” energies which are crossed or bad.
Sina is a warm-hearted grandfather who is happy to share and teach, and he helped many apprentices to graduate as healers. Jan Rostlinka, the organizer of this event and retreat center owner, has cultivated a deep relation of trust with Sina during the past 5 years, undergoing strict dietas and ceremonies with foreign guests. It is a great honor to invite this exceptional and very special healer to the Feather Crown center again.
Sina will lead all Ayahuasca ceremonies and provide one-on-one work to each participant.
Jan Rostlinka
Event organizer and facilitator
is a 40-year-old traditional medicine practitioner from the Czech Republic, Europe, who has been living among the kichwa indigenous people of Ecuador since 2008. Jan apprenticed within the lineages of indigenous Kichwa and Shipibo shamans during traditional plant dietas, including Ayahuma and Chiric Sanango. Jan is an experienced ceremonial leader with a practice of 12 years who built the Feather Crown healing center. Jan will make sure everything runs smoothly, ensuring the safety and order on this retreat, and also supporting you in and out of your ceremonies. He will also lead the Ayahuasca preparation and facilitate in ceremonies. On retreats which include Tobacco ceremonies or Sananga, Jan will be providing those medicines in a ritual setting, as instructed by his elders.
Baru Alegria – Facilitator and translator
Baru is a warm soul who will accompany you throughout your stay. She was born in the forests of the Bohemian Highlands and nature and the Earth have become her lifelong teachers. She felt a strong calling to discover the secrets of a happy and joyful life and to inspire and support others on this journey. ‘The secret is in each of us, in the depths of our hearts. There lies the source of life and our divinity. All we have to do is remember who we really are, let go of fear and the programs of the mind, relax and trust. We create the whole world from within, and likewise, all change begins within. Plants used with good intention and in a supportive environment can help us clear out old energies and expand our consciousness. To remember who we are, health, joy, inner strength and wisdom and above all love.’ Baru has a degree in psychology and has also studied meditation and energy work. During her three years in the Peruvian jungle, she studied and helped at a healing center, where she assisted a local shaman and followed several plant dietas. She is also a lover of music and will make the moments before some ceremonies more enjoyable with the tones of a string santoor. Last but not least, Baru has studied and worked in translation and provides us with Spanish interpretation. She assists during ceremonies, sharing, forest walks and plant baths and is there for you whenever you need advice or support.
Omar Yumbo – Kichwa tribe
(Ceremony assistant, jungle guide)
Omar is a very humble and calm person who has been assisting his Father-in-Law (Don Carlos) in Ayahuasca ceremonies for many years now. His profession is also guiding people in the forest, bringing in his deep knowedge of rainforest medicinal plants, animals and tribal life in the jungle.
