Glossary

Ceremonial Brew

The prepared sacrament used in ceremony — a respectful way of referring to the ayahuasca preparation that honors its sacred character without reducing it to a recipe or formula.

The ceremonial brew is the prepared sacrament used in ECC's ceremonies — the tea produced by combining the Banisteriopsis caapi vine with an admixture plant such as chacruna, cooked slowly over many hours according to methods passed down within the Shipibo curanderismo tradition.

ECC refers to this preparation as the "ceremonial brew" rather than describing it as a recipe or formula, because within the tradition its preparation is itself a spiritual act — accompanied by prayer, icaros (ceremonial songs), and the relationship facilitators have built with the plants through years of dieta. The brew is received in ceremony as a sacrament, never consumed as a beverage or administered as a treatment.