Testimony of the Initiation of Master Amaringo

Originally published by Servindi on 16/05/2024. Written by Policarpo Sánchez Rodríguez.

Testimony of the Initiation of Master Amaringo

During my time at the Nihue Rao Spiritual Center, located on the outskirts of the city of Iquitos, in the Nanay River basin, I met Brother Ricardo Amaringo Benetillo, known by his Shipibo name “Sani.” He is a recognized Shipibo ayahuasquero master, 58 years old, from the Native Community of Vista Alegre de Masisea, in the Upper Ucayali region.

Here, I share his fascinating testimony of initiation into the world of ancestral knowledge of traditional medicine and the practice of Shipibo shamanism.

Master Ricardo Amaringo begins his testimony by noting that he had a childhood and youth filled with many difficulties, lacking even direct affection from his biological parents: his father Raúl Amaringo Benetillo and his mother Ercilia Ahuanari (who passed away at the age of 30). Due to ignorance and their inability to take on the responsibilities of raising him, his parents gave him up for adoption to some uncles, who raised him in their family.

He continues, saying, “I began my first steps into shamanism around the age of 14. Before that, around 1980 in the Upper Ucayali, as part of our culture, I was offered in marriage to a Shipibo girl of about 12 years old, which I had to reject because my inner self told me that I had a mission to fulfill, and taking on family responsibilities at that time was not yet part of my life.

By the age of 17, I was already taking ayahuasca regularly. But I want to make it clear that before this significant step in my life, I was skeptical of shamanism. As a young man detached and abandoned by my biological parents, living in the city of Pucallpa, I went through marijuana and cocaine use. I suffered greatly, cried a lot in my loneliness, and turned to drugs in those moments. With a voice caught in his throat, half sobbing, Amaringo says, ‘My God, why did you make me this way?’ I cried. I had a lot of hatred toward people, children, and young people my age, a deep resentment.

During those times, I also visited the home of Master Guillermo Arévalo in Yarinacocha. I saw that his family lived happily, ate well, and his children were in better conditions than I was. So, I asked Guillermo Arévalo to teach me shamanism. ‘I will think about it,’ he said. He said this because he knew that I was, at that time, a young man with bad thoughts (rami shinanya, in Shipibo).

Guillermo Arévalo refused to be my spiritual teacher, my initiator, because he knew I had bad thoughts. At that time, I thought that shamans, onanyabo, merayabo, necessarily had to have an initiator master, and that only through the masters or their guidance came shamanic knowledge. Then, asking other elders, they told me that in the past, beginners in shamanism dieted (samati in Shipibo) without a master, relying instead on the power of the master plants themselves, on the properties of the plants (raobo in Shipibo). Of course, it is necessary to have the spiritual accompaniment of someone experienced and spiritually ordered for this purpose.

An older woman named María told me to start the diet with the plant ‘marrosa’ (Shipibo name) (1). I started dieting. I was greatly surprised that with the diet of the marrosa, I forgot about drugs and alcohol, clearing my mind of my mental disturbances. Before, I was totally traumatized, feeling tired, bored, and lazy (chikishires in Shipibo).

Master Ricardo Amaringo states emphatically and confidently that thanks to the plant diet, he completely freed himself from his drug addictions and mental imbalances. ‘Samatax ea benxoa iki,’ says Ricardo Amaringo with a smile on his lips. My mind had been blocked, filled with doubt, distrust, resentment, and confusion about my life (shinan tsokax in Shipibo), to the point where I had suicidal thoughts. Drug addiction has a solution; with the icaros and the ingestion of ayahuasca, one heals, Master Ricardo Amaringo shares from personal experience.

Ayahuasca (2) and the master plants transformed me, centered my life; ayahuasca itself cured me, the spirit of ayahuasca itself, Master Ricardo Amaringo emphasizes. Then, the body, soul, and spirit are even in a condition to meet the gods. The master and sacred plants lead us to the power of God. Later, I did a diet of Toé (3) with white flowers.