About Tobacco Healing

What is a plant dieta and a tobacco ceremony?

Dieting plants is the foundation of curanderoism. The dieter goes through a 7 day process of fasting and isolation while ingesting daily a strong tobacco tea which has been blessed with prayer and song.

It’s through this process that the dieter develops a relationship with their plant and often experiences personal transformation and growth.

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A tobacco ceremony typically lasts about 2-3 hours. The participant drinks tobacco with me which has been charged with prayer and a song.

In a way, tobacco ceremonies are like a one day diet. They are a deep cleanse, while diets are to establish life-long partnerships with specific plants.

Why plants?

Plants rule the earth. Plants transmute the suns energy into oxygen which we breathe in, and in that gift of oxygen is life itself. It seems to be common these days that many people have lost sight of just how important plants really are, and how much they are responsible for our wellbeing. We owe a debit to them for making life on Earth possible.

Plants have so much to say to us and in these troubled times it is imperative that we learn to hear them again. And what better way to learn then from them directly. They don’t speak like we do but they can talk. We just need to learn how to listen, and that’s exactly what a dieta is designed to do.

Masterplants

Of the plant world there are some that hold more knowledge than others. We call those masterplants. Masterplants are what we diet. Masterplants include most trees, healing herbs like Saint John’s Wort, or the fragrant ones such as rosemary and lavender commonly found in the garden. Cannabis and the psychedelic plants are masterplants too.

My teacher says that of all the masterplants, Tobacco is king. Tobacco informs all other plants and this is why it is the primary plant in my lineage. Possessing a mastery of tobacco leads to a clearer line of communication with all other plants. Tobacco is perhaps the ultimate healing plant, that is why it is so unfortunate that it has become so abused and misunderstood.

Benefits of a Dieta

The benefits of a plant diet are many. If you have been in healing ceremonies with plant medicines like ayahuasca for years and have done good work but wish to go deeper, plant diets are what you need to do just that. Making an intimate connection to a plant through diet is like making a lifelong ally that will inform you, protect and guide you for the rest of your life. Diets can access the deepest parts of your mental, physical and spiritual body and put you on an informed path of renewal and healing. Like trees, they often grow slowly and continue to bear fruit long after the diet is cut.

What to Expect with a Dieta

Receiving the medicine

Unlike preparing for an ayahuasca ceremony, there are no pre-diet restrictions required, although the cleaner you are going into the diet the better.

Once a day I will come round and serve you your medicine, which will be charged with prayer and a song. After drinking you will be on your own for the remainder of the day.

On the 8th day I will offer a final prayer and you will eat a hot pepper to cut the diet. Good job, you made it!

Food and Food Restrictions

Restrictions on diet are key. You will be eating only fruit in the morning and boiled, unseasoned vegetables for dinner. Nothing else is allowed. There will be long periods without eating (about 14 hours between dinner and breakfast) and people often get quite hungry at first as they adjust to the diet. It’s through this sacrifice that the body grows weaker and the plant has a better chance to establish a relationship with you.

It’s imperative that you follow these restrictions for the diet to work, and in fact, not observing these restrictions can have serious energetic and physical consequences to the dieter.

Purging

After drinking, it is common to experience nausea. Drinking Tobacco can be very challenging and purging is a normal reaction, although it doesn’t always happen. That said, it is good to try your best to purge. There are several ways in which you can promote a purge and this will be covered in detail in person, but drinking water is a vital part of the process. A lot of water. This will help initiate the purge.

If at first the purge does not come you should take a cold shower to circulate the medicine. A third way to promote a purge is by practicing a breathing exercise, which I will teach you.

Isolation and Disconnecting

Another key aspect of dieting involves being in isolation for the duration of the diet. This is important to avoid external energies, intense encounters or distractions that will remove you from the delicate process of connecting to your plant. In general it is advised to disconnect from all external stimuli including listening to music, and digital devices.

Playing an instrument, signing and making art are all okay in moderation, but you should limit reading and only read something that is appropriate to the fragile energetic state that you will be in while dieting. A book on trees would be a good choice, while a horror novel would not.

Sometimes people need to do some work while on diet and that is okay only as much as necessary. If it’s not essential, don’t do it.

Post-Diet Restrictions and Integration

Starting on the day the diet is cut you will observe 10 days of restrictions, including no sex, drugs, spicy foods, ice cold foods or beverages. And no pork. Other meats are okay. Rock n’ roll is also okay. As I stated earlier, it’s imperative these restrictions are adhered to.

In the case of tobacco ceremonies, restrictions are only 4 days long.

Ultimately healing is in the hands of the participant and the hardest work in the healing process is perhaps integration. I will be available post-diet with advice to help you with this very important process.