Uni — The Sacred Ceremony

The Same Plants, a Different Name

The Yawanawá call their sacred ceremonial drink Uni. It is made from the same two rainforest plants used by their Pano-family relatives the Huni Kuin: cipó mariri (the vine, Banisteriopsis caapi) and chacrona (the leaf, Psychotria viridis). The preparation follows the same fundamental process — the vine is pounded and layered with the leaves, then boiled repeatedly over a wood fire until the liquid concentrates into a dense, dark brew.

The outside world more commonly knows this drink as Ayahuasca. But for both the Yawanawá and the Huni Kuin, the indigenous name carries meanings that "Ayahuasca" — itself a Quechua word — does not convey. Uni and Nixi Pae are not just different labels for the same thing. They represent distinct ceremonial lineages, different songs, different ways of engaging with the same living intelligence.

The Pajé's Training

Yawanawá pajés (shamans) undergo one of the most demanding initiation processes in the Amazon. The training involves extended isolation in the forest, sometimes lasting an entire year. During this period, the initiate follows a strict dieta — a spiritual fasting protocol that goes far beyond food restriction.

The dieta involves:

• Dietary restriction — Certain foods are eliminated entirely. The diet is progressively simplified until only the most basic sustenance remains.
• Social isolation — The initiate lives alone in the forest, separated from the community. Human contact is minimal or absent for extended periods.
• Prayer and contemplation — The isolation is not passive. It is filled with active spiritual practice: prayer, meditation, and deepening relationship with the sacred plants.
• Direct plant engagement — The initiate works with multiple sacred plants during the dieta, learning their characters, their languages, their ways of teaching.

The process is understood as a fundamental transformation — not education in the Western sense, but a restructuring of the initiate's entire being. Those who complete it emerge with abilities and perceptions they did not possess before: the capacity to see illness, to communicate with plant spirits, to navigate the unseen dimensions of reality.

Since 2005, this path has been open to women as well as men, following Putanny Yawanawá's groundbreaking completion of the full initiation.

The Ceremonial Space

Yawanawá Uni ceremonies take place at night, in a dedicated ceremonial space within the village. The setting is simple: participants sit or lie on mats in a circle or semicircle, with the pajé and singers positioned centrally. A fire may be present. The forest surrounds the space on all sides, and its sounds — insects, frogs, night birds, the occasional movement of larger animals — form the ambient fabric of the ceremony.

The pajé opens the ceremony, prepares and blesses the Uni, and serves it to each participant individually. From that point, the songs begin — and they continue, without interruption, for hours. The pajé moves through the space, attending to individual participants, singing directly to those who need guidance or support.

The Full Plant Medicine System

Uni is the central ceremonial practice, but the Yawanawá work with a broader system of sacred plants:

• Rapé (Rume) — A sacred snuff made from ground tobacco (varieties called Sabiá, Moí, and Arapiraca) combined with the ash of the sacred Tsunu tree (Platycyamus regnellii). Administered through the nose with a special pipe, Rapé is used to align body, mind, and spirit. It can be used within Uni ceremonies or as a standalone practice.
• Sananga — Eye drops derived from the roots of a specific Amazonian shrub. Applied directly to the eyes, Sananga is used for spiritual cleansing and for sharpening both physical and spiritual vision. The experience is intense but brief.
• Kambo — The secretion of the giant monkey frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor), applied to small burns on the skin. Kambo is used for physical purification — a powerful cleansing process that the Yawanawá consider preparatory, clearing the body of toxins and energetic blockages.

These practices are not interchangeable. Each serves a specific function within the broader system of Yawanawá spiritual and physical health maintenance. They may be used in combination — for example, Rapé and Sananga as preparation before an Uni ceremony — but each has its own protocols, its own songs, and its own relationship to the practitioner.

Uni and Nixi Pae — Cousins, Not Copies

The relationship between Yawanawá Uni and Huni Kuin Nixi Pae is that of cousins within the same family — sharing roots but expressing distinct characters. The plants are the same. The reverence is the same. But the songs that guide the ceremony, the specific forms of the ritual, and the cosmological framework within which the experience is understood all carry the particular signature of each people.

This diversity within shared tradition is one of the richest aspects of the Pano world. It demonstrates that a living spiritual practice is not a fixed formula — it is a relationship, and relationships take different forms in different hands while remaining faithful to the same source.