Testimonials
Dean
Andrijana
Dean
Ricardo!
What an incredible being. A dedicated lightworker, working tirelessly through the night to protect us all on our journey through the veil to work on our shadow-selves.
Ricardo allayed all our fears and prepared us professionally, by recognising us first as individuals, then as a group, visiting us all several times through the nigh
Ricardo!
What an incredible being. A dedicated lightworker, working tirelessly through the night to protect us all on our journey through the veil to work on our shadow-selves.
Ricardo allayed all our fears and prepared us professionally, by recognising us first as individuals, then as a group, visiting us all several times through the night to check we were getting the best possible experience and healing.
I have never been in the presence of someone with such a genuine caring and sensitivity, balanced with courage and immense strength. This man’s authenticity beams out of him from a great distance.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for opening our hearts. ’Shaman-you’ if you engage anyone else for your plant healing journey…
Dean McCormick - Journeyed with Ricardo and group 11/11/2018
Jen
Andrijana
Dean
So much love and gratitude to these beautiful souls for holding my heart so very gently and guiding me through the most profound journey of my life.
I feel so honoured to have had the opportunity to join with 14 other like minded souls on the most amazing three day plant medicine journey for heart centred healing with Ricardo and Doris
From
So much love and gratitude to these beautiful souls for holding my heart so very gently and guiding me through the most profound journey of my life.
I feel so honoured to have had the opportunity to join with 14 other like minded souls on the most amazing three day plant medicine journey for heart centred healing with Ricardo and Doris
From the very first moment of meeting Ricardo it is clear that he lives and breathes the shamanic way, he is pure, you can feel the warmth exude from his heart in all that he does. He has the upmost respect, is present, calm, kind and very gentle as he explains to each one of us individually the ceremony process that we are about to begin.
Before each ceremony Ricardo creates a beautiful safe and protected space, bringing the group together in prayer, joining hands and sharing our intentions and creating a tangible cohesiveness for the whole group. . . I have never felt so held, so safe, so cared for and so loved in all my days.
During the ceremony Ricardo knows exactly what you need and when you need it, he takes care whilst gentle guiding you through the process. He is at one with the divine intelligence, orchestrating, dancing and gently supporting you through the ceremony with love and joy through song, prayer and mantra. . . the music and medicines songs are so very beautiful and help to carry you through - he is always there. . . gently guiding you back so you never get lost. . . clearing away negative energy, offering more medicine if needed.
Ricardo and Doris are a pure joy to witness, I have never felt so much love or been so moved in all of my life.
An intense and beautiful shamanic journey of self inquiry, deep healing, expansion, unity, wisdom, releasing and opening to love . . .
It will take me quite some time to process and integrate the past few days. My heart has burst wide open yet again, thank you so very much for your sweet and gentle souls and for the life changing work that you do.
From my heart to yours - I love you Brother x Sister
Andrijana
Andrijana
Andrijana
Ricardo is an amazing healer, dedicated to his work and well trained. I have attended over 20 healing events guided by him and each one of them was a unique experience with deep healing and learning outcomes. I am very happy and grateful to have the opportunity to learn about the Amazonian tradition from him and to listen to the beautiful
Ricardo is an amazing healer, dedicated to his work and well trained. I have attended over 20 healing events guided by him and each one of them was a unique experience with deep healing and learning outcomes. I am very happy and grateful to have the opportunity to learn about the Amazonian tradition from him and to listen to the beautiful healing music that he plays. Can`t wait for the next healing events. Thank you Ricardo! Many blessings.
Why do you need to work with us
PLANTA DIVINA is a centre that is dedicated to a profound healing of body and soul. We heal traumata, depression, addiction, personality problems, panic attacks and other spiritual problems and also physical problems such as cancer, diabetes, rheumatism, heart problems, arthritis, tuberculosis, asthma (…)
We don't only use master plants, but as well herbs from the Amazon. Our shaman Alberto studied the plants intensively and is a master of alternative healing with plants from the Amazon. We combine master plants with other traditional herbs depending on your individual needs and include as well healing forms like Qi Gong, Yoga, Tantra (depending on each retreat) to help you with the integration of the Ayahuasca experiences. All treatments with traditional plants and herbs can be purchased in the retreat for an additional cost. We also offer shamanic initiations with certificate.
One of our intentions is to create a deep connection with the traditional medicines of the Amazon, to protect our sacred trees and to promote the plantings of new plants, because we have medicines that are in danger of extinction. Many shamans use the plants and do not sow, so soon we could be without Ayahuasca and other medicines. Some of those can be lost by so much use.
Planta Divina is a group of professionals that dedicates their lifetime to plant studies and we are offering exchanges. This means people can offer their work in exchange for ceremonies or diets. This offer fits for example for Yoga teachers and other spiritual integration workers that we want to included in our retreats as well. This people will receive accommodation and food as an exchange for no cost or a little cost, depending on the kind of work we agree on beforehand and on the performance. They can help to plant Ayahuasca and other medicines and learn more about the diets, also plant fruits and vegetables from the Amazon while creating a deep connection with Mother Earth.
Important
Interested persons must inform us a few months before to be included in the program.
After seven years...
.... Ricardo left Iquitos to continue his apprenticeship. He found an amazingly powerful Maestro in Ecuador where he received a very strong preparation with Ayahuasca and other plants.
Maestro Luis Alberto Catan Shiqui is a shaman, who dedicated his life to all types of studies with plants from the equatorial Amazon. In this month of preparation, they had ceremonies every day together with the intention of purifying the body and transmitting great power to Ricardo. The Maestro taught him how to heal with herbs, eggs, candles, fire (…).
In the Achuar tradition the Maestros transmit power directly to the initiate when the student is completely ready. This is called the Sinsac, which is the power of the Maestro to the initiate, so that the student in the future can be a Maestro as well. Luis Alberto Catan Shiqui could see already at the ceremony that Ricardo is going to travel to Thailand and many other countries in the world.
At the age of thirty Ricardo arrived in Thailand where a group of foreigners appeared who spoke with him that they were very interested in a Peruvian shaman that is working with Ayahuasca.
His first ceremony in Asia was with 25 participants. And then every 15 days he did at least two ceremonies with a lot of people. The participants could understand that Ricardo has a genuine connection with the plants, a great preparation and powerful initiations.
After a year Ricardo travelled to Amsterdam where he performed eight ceremonies. Then he returned to Thailand and decided to study English in order to communicate better with his patients. He was also in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, Russia, Mexico and many other countries in the world.
He follows this path with humility, with the single purpose to heal and to offer sacred rituals with music therapy, crystal therapy, sound healing and to work with traditional plants of the Amazon.
Another of Ricardo's qualities where you can feel his connection with sacred plants and with the Pachamama is his sharing of music. From the age of thirteen onwards he plays at his travels and ceremonies of Wachuma and other master plants with bamboo instruments. He sings Icaros and healing songs that he studied with shamans and other mystic healers.
At the age of thirty-two years Ricardo was initiated by a very powerful healer with the name Maestro Tito la Rosa, who works only with ancestral sounds creating a deep connection with the Inca tradition.
Maestro Tito la Rosa is a man who dedicates his life to build instruments that for him are not instruments but living beings of the Bamboo Master Plant. Ricardo participated in flute making workshops where the Maestro looked at Ricardo with great appreciation and where he started a deep relationship with Maestro Tito la Rosa and his family. His family is dedicated to the construction of flutes, for example flutes of condor feathers, flutes of peace, grandfather flutes, etc., which Ricardo also uses in his sacred ceremonies.
Arnaldo
Arnaldo Utia Bocanegra is living close to the center and has spent all his life living in the jungle. He is an expert when it comes to the life in the amazon and an expert in using Kambo medicine as well as Ayahuasca and other healing plants in a sacred and responsible way.
Alberto
Alberto Utia Bocanegra was born on September 14, 1982, in a small town called Tamshiyacu. Tamshiyacu is located at the beautiful river of the Amazon. It was founded by a tribe called the BORGENS.
At the age of 15 was his first experience with the grandmother medicine Ayahuasca. From that moment on Alberto felt a strong calling to study and to work with healing plants. He started to walk every day along the Peruvian Amazon looking for information about different healers, powerful teachers and collected a lot of information from the grandparents and grandmothers. As well he realized that the alternative medicine in the Peruvian Amazon has the purpose to heal body, mind, soul and emotions, also the endless benefits of herbs and medicinal plants.
For centuries the indigenous populations in Peru have used natural plants for spiritual and medical purposes and for personal growth. Through the years Alberto witnessed how people got healed through the plants. Once a grandmother went to his house every morning to ask him for the leaves of a plant he had in his garden and the third time she came he asked her why she wants to have this plant so often. And she told him that this plant is very good for the heart. And so his knowledge about the plants grew.
Today Alberto is a graduate of an institute, has a professional degree and wrote his master’s thesis about medicinal plants.
Healing with Master Plants
Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca, Yagé [jahe], Yajé [jahe], Natem, Cipó or Daime are names for a plant brew from the liana Banisteriopsis caapi and N, N-dimethyltryptamine-containing leaves of the coffee plant family Psychotria viridis, also called Chakruna. In some cases, the name Ayahuasca means only the liana Banisteriopsis caapi. The brew contains Harman alkaloids, which act as monoamine oxidase inhibitors that are slowing down the breakdown of the hallucinogen N N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). The term Ayahuasca or Yajé comes from the indigenous language Quechua and means translated "liana of the spirits / dead" or "tendril of souls" / "soul tendril". Ayahuasca initiates a visionary state of consciousness and this effect is used in a variety of people for various reasons.
Shamans or medicine men take Ayahuasca to communicate with nature or to see at a spiritual level what causes a patient's illness. Ayahuasca has also received the attention of Western society in recent decades. Academic researchers in the field of psychotherapy have shown an increasing interest. People drink Ayahuasca to confront themselves with the richness of the psyche, the infinity of the universe and their greatest fears. Ayahuasca is the medicine of the soul and has great impact in healing addictions, cancer, diabetes, depression and other diseases of the body and the soul. DMT is one of the strongest visionary substances known to mankind. It is generated naturally in humans during, for example, in deep mediation. DMT binds to the sigma-1 receptors in the body, which have been shown to be involved in many cell functions - including the signal for cancer cell death. There is also scientific evidence that the Harmine in the brew causes the death of some cancer cells and inhibits cell proliferation. In PLANTA DIVINA healing centre, we combine Ayahuasca with other medicinal plants to heal body and soul in the long term.
San Pedro
Wachuma or San Pedro, is an ancestral master plant used for sacred healing ceremonies. The origin is in the tradition of the Incas. Wachuma or San Pedro is the masculine spirit of the Apus (Andean mountains). The original name in Quechua is Wachuma (San Pedro). According to Catholics it is Saint Peter who opens the doors of heaven. Its scientific name is Trichocereus Pachanoi and its main chemical component is mescaline. It purifies your mind and connects you deeply with nature, it brings beautiful and deep visions about the universe and about life in general. Wachuma/ San Pedro is very helpful in opening the heart, in balancing and cleaning body, mind and soul. It helps dealing with depression, traumas, and internal emotional conflicts and opens the consciousness.
Healing with plants
Healing with plants and diets
Video: Healing Plants with Ricardo
• Chullachaqui-caspi-palo maestro (NC: Clusia sp)
Plant that helps you get closer to the spirit of the jungle, guides you, if you diet with this plant it protects you.
• Black Capirona (NC: Calycophyllum Spruceanum)
This infusion is useful for infections, protects the skin, eliminates toxins from the body. It is the perfect detox plant.
• Tahuari (NC: Tabebuia Impetiginosa)
Good for the liver and reduces the growth of tumors. Anti-Cancer Plant.
• Remo Caspi (NC: Aspidosperma Excelsum)
It is good for malaria and very good to integrate into a plant diet.
• Bobinsana (NC: Calliandra Angustifolia)
It opens the heart to the spiritual world and helps a lot if you suffer from physical problems related to the circulation of the blood or/and the urinary system.
We will be offering different herbs according to the illness or need of the patient. These mentioned ones are some examples, but there are many more plants available in our centre like cat's claw, abuta or chiric sanango etc. Most of our herbs are unknown and it is not possible to find them in the internet. The rain forest has such a variety of healing plants to offer. Please contact us and we will discuss the type of plant that you need.
Healing with tobacco
Video: Rape with Ricardo and Doris
Tobacco is a plant that helps you to eliminate many toxins out of the body. It helps to clean the mind from negative thoughts and it helps when someone is suffering from addictions.
This shamanic medicine is called Rapé. Rapé is administered (blown) into the nostrils with a special bamboo pipe. It is grounding the mind.
The ashes are a very important component in the Rapé, which come from the bark of medicinal or sacred trees. The exact ingredients often remain as a secret. In our centre we use sacred tobacco in our Ayahuasca rituals and during other healing rituals. Rapé helps curing headache and helps to remove confusion and negativity out of the mind, it is also stimulating the mind and decalcifying the pineal gland. Calcification of the pineal gland has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease.
In the Amazon there are some tribes that apply Rapé every day after breakfast and dinner, other tribes use it three times during the night.
Shamans use Rapé to re-align with their energy channels and with their higher self, and as well to intensify their connection with the plants and the universe. It is detoxifying the body and cleaning out all excess mucus, toxins, and bacteria.
Kambo
Video 1: Kambo Ceremony From Ricardo and Doris
Kambo or Sapo is a traditional healing method of the indigenous people in the Amazon. The traditionally obtained frog secretion of Phyllomedusa Bicolor is applied to the skin and thus enters the bloodstream. A Kambo session lasts about an hour and the small scars on the skin usually heal very fast. Kambo is a holistic body detoxification on all levels and strengthens the immune system.
With the frog poison Kambo the body is freed from heavy metals, fungal and viral diseases, parasites, bacteria and much more. Kambo also helps with migraines, depression, addictions and low motor skills. It supports the ability to concentrate and works for chronic pain, as well as for serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, rheumatism, high blood pressure and much more. The effectiveness is proven by countless studies. In the Amazon Kambo has been used for healing for thousands of years already and when people suffer from dengue fever, malaria or yellow fever the Amazonian population uses the poison of the frog to recover again.
Ikaros and Medicine Songs
Medicine Songs
The medicine songs are songs from all over the world. We sing songs in English, Spanish ... and many other kinds of languages. We use different mantras or invocations towards the medicine to heal, protect and invoke. It is a form of songs that brings intentions of freedom, love, healing, connection with the Pachamama and the medicine. Songs of medicine are sung in the ceremonies of Ayahuasca, Wachuma, and Cacao and also in Kirtan. Ricardo personally directs the ceremonies with Ikaros and medicine chants in different languages to connect with different teachers and ancestors from the whole universe.
Icaros
The explanation about Ikaros is coming from Ricardo’s experience. Ikaros are powerful songs that are used during the Ayahuasca ceremony, Kambo and other healing events that are happening in the centre and during travels for healing purposes. The Ikaro is the song of the shaman, ayahuasquero or healer. These songs usually accompany the energetic movements on the patient's body. The shaman directs and transfers part of his energy to the person with the use of Ikaros. Ikaros are also used to energetically load objects in order to equip them with certain power before using them. The shaman transfers with these songs his power to the Ayahuasca before giving it to the patient. This ritual is performed by the shaman to protect, to clean, to thank Pachamama and the Great Spirit for the blessing and the beautiful gift of having sacred Ayahuasca medicine.
Some ways of how to learn Ikaros:
- Initiated from the teacher to the disciple
- Divine Inputs (Ikaros that are received during the ceremony)
- Taught by the shaman during the Diet
At the Ayahuasca ceremony, the Master connects with the spirit of the plant and asks the Pachamama and the spirit for permission to enter the apprentice. The first thing learned from the Ikaros is the vibration of the Ikaros which heals and removes the blockages. These songs are like songs for a baby, like shamanic dreams, that will be impregnated in the memory. After that the own intuition will guide the process of choosing the right Ikaro for the purpose of healing, protection and illumination.
Sound Healing
Healing with sounds is something that is practiced since the time of the Incas. It is used as a portal towards the Great Spirit. The sound is delivered to the sun, to the moon, to the earth for harvests. Through vibration we can heal the soul. The sound is an invisible energy that can penetrate deeply into our hearts, into our bones, into our souls and heal traumas, sadness and attract harmony and peace. The healing with ancestral sounds in a therapeutic use is very powerful. Our body is the temple of sound and the organs and cells are resonance boxes that are healing and regenerating when receiving this luminous vibration. Living beings are great receptors of energy and vibration. That's why sounds have the virtue of activating and harmonizing our energy fields, connecting us with our soul and with our internal powers.
You can listen and buy Ricardos' music in his Online Shop.
Our next retreat 2022
About the Retreat
It will happen on 13th-26th June 2022!
An amazing opportunity to switch off from the world and retreat into the jungle of Peruvian Amazon for 2 weeks of magic with healing plants, ceremonies, healthy food, yoga, breathwork, nature, likeminded group of people and much more. Ricardo will be the leading shaman of the retreat and we will also have the supporting shaman Arnaldo. Ricardo is a humble and very powerful shaman. He works for over 20 years with sacred plant medicine. His shamanic name is Ricardo Cheroke and he was born in Cuzco, Peru. His parents are descendants of the Incas, Quechua tribe. We will also have Melanie keeping us moving with yoga and dance and Rimante holding breathwork sessions and supporting the group during ceremonies.In this retreat the focus will be on the heart opening and on the voice. We will work with sacred master plants Ayahuasca and Wachuma (San Pedro) as well as the plant Sinadenium Grantii which is an amazing plant used for opening throat chakra. Ricardo is an expert in supporting people in opening the throat chakra in a very sensitive way during the ceremonies. This retreat is also an amazing opportunity to heal your psychological traumas, depression, anxiety, addictions and many other physical and mental conditions, opportunity to identify and release unwanted thought and behaviour patterns, connect or re- connect to your creativity. These are only few of unlimited possibilities of healing and growth that will take place during this retreat and will continue many days afterwards. The group is limited to 15 participants and we are sure you will leave friends for life after sharing such a transformative and magical time together.
A daily schedule might look like this(all of our program is optional and you can of course stay all day inside your room to relax):
-9h Breakfast
- Jungle Walk/Painting Therapy/Swimming in the lake/Flower Bath
- 13h Lunch
-Free Time/Take a rest
16h- 17h30 Meditation and Yoga
17h30 either dinner/movie night or a sacred Ayahuasca/Wachuma Ceremony
Planta Divina
Our beautiful center is located in Peru, one hour by boat, from the capital of Amazonia, called Iquitos.
Our next retreat includes:
- Organic food/tea etc.
- Five ceremonies of Ayahuasca
- One ceremony of San Pedro / Wachuma
- Sinadenium Grantii Medicine
- One detoxifying flower bath
- Integration work
- Five Movie Nights
- One Kambo
- Informative Jungle Walk
- Individual healing of the shamans during the Ayahuasca ceremony
- More healing outside of the ceremony if the shamans find it necessary
- Circles to share experiences and to ask the shaman any question
- Kirtan: on the weekend there is a Kirtan with medicine songs (every Saturday or Sunday at 7pm)
- Yoga on every weekday and a meditation together to connect the energy of the group before each ceremony
Feedback from our lovely participants
Take a look at our Facebook-Page to read some more reviews and to get more impressions.
Also included (optional)
A beautiful and recharging Yoga class for integration is available every day of the week, except Saturdays and Sundays. Also, you can bathe in our lake, walk in the jungle and play with our canoe boats.
Our healer Arnaldo is offering informative walks through the jungle to show and to explain different natural medicines. He is also in charge of the detox baths with natural flowers and herbs from the Amazon that you can enjoy in our centre. If one bath is not enough you are welcome to book more baths additional.