A first-timer’s dictionary
Ayahuasca glossary
The words you’ll keep running into, in plain language. Tap a term to jump to a fuller guide where we have one.
- Ayahuascaeye-uh-WASS-ka
- A traditional Amazonian plant brew, and the name of the vine at its heart. Combines a DMT-containing plant with a vine whose compounds make the DMT orally active. Quechua for “vine of the soul”. Learn more →
- Ayahuasquero / Ayahuasquera
- A practitioner who works specifically with ayahuasca.
- Banisteriopsis caapithe vine
- The jungle vine that gives ayahuasca its name. It contains harmala alkaloids (MAO inhibitors) that allow DMT to work when swallowed. Learn more →
- ChacrunaPsychotria viridis
- A leafy plant commonly added to the brew as the main DMT-containing ingredient. Other DMT-containing plants are used in some traditions.
- Contraindication
- A condition or medication that makes something significantly riskier or inadvisable, for example certain heart or psychiatric conditions and many antidepressants. Learn more →
- Curandero / Curanderahealer
- A traditional healer who leads ceremonies in many Amazonian traditions. Training, lineage and ethics vary enormously between individuals.
- DMTN,N-dimethyltryptamine
- The primary psychedelic compound in ayahuasca. A controlled substance in most countries (Schedule I in the US, Class A in the UK). Learn more →
- Facilitator
- A general term for whoever guides and watches over participants. Their training, screening practices and ethics are the biggest safety variable. Learn more →
- Harm reduction
- A pragmatic approach focused on reducing the risks of a behaviour rather than only forbidding it. This site is harm-reduction, not facilitation.
- Icaroee-KAH-ro
- A medicine song sung during ceremony to guide and shape the experience. Central to several traditions, especially Shipibo. Learn more →
- Integration
- The work of making sense of an experience and translating any insight into lasting change, often considered more important than the ceremony itself. Learn more →
- Kené
- The intricate geometric designs of the Shipibo-Conibo people, understood as visual expressions of songs and visions.
- La dietathe diet
- Traditional dietary and behavioural restrictions before and after ceremony. Overlaps with safety cautions around certain foods and medications. Follow the centre’s and a clinician’s guidance. Learn more →
- La purgathe purge
- The vomiting (and sometimes diarrhoea) common during ceremony, framed in many traditions as cleansing. Carries practical risks like dehydration. Learn more →
- Maloca
- A communal ceremonial house or hut where ceremonies are often held.
- MAOIharmala alkaloids
- Monoamine-oxidase inhibitors from the vine (harmine, harmaline, THH). They stop the body breaking down DMT, and are also the source of several serious drug- and food-interaction risks. Learn more →
- Mapacho
- Strong Amazonian tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) used ritually by many practitioners, distinct from recreational smoking.
- Mareaciónmah-ray-ah-see-ON
- The visionary, altered state ayahuasca produces, the “dizziness” or waves of effect. Learn more →
- Onanya
- A Shipibo-Conibo healer or knowledge-holder, deeply associated with icaros and kené design.
- Planta maestramaster / teacher plant
- A plant regarded in Amazonian traditions as a teacher that can be learned from through dieta, of which ayahuasca is one.
- Santo Daime
- A Brazilian syncretic religion, founded in the 1930s, that uses ayahuasca (“Daime”) as a sacrament within structured Christian-influenced rituals. Learn more →
- Serotonin syndrome
- A potentially life-threatening reaction from too much serotonin activity, a key risk when ayahuasca’s MAOIs combine with certain antidepressants or other drugs. Learn more →
- Set and setting
- Your mindset (set) and the physical and social environment (setting). Widely considered decisive for how a psychedelic experience unfolds. Learn more →
- Shipibo-Conibo
- An indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon, internationally known for their ayahuasca healing traditions, icaros and kené art.
- Tyramine
- A compound in aged, fermented and certain other foods that can cause dangerous blood-pressure spikes when combined with MAOIs, part of the reason for dietary restrictions.
- União do VegetalUDV
- A Brazilian religious organisation that uses ayahuasca (“hoasca”) sacramentally; central to landmark religious-freedom legal cases. Learn more →
- Vegetalismo
- The mestizo Amazonian healing tradition centred on learning from “teacher plants” through diets and apprenticeship.
- Vegetalista
- A healer in the mestizo (mixed-heritage) Amazonian tradition of vegetalismo, who works with many “teacher plants”.