Special Journey with Colombian Healer Mauricio 4-Day Plant Medicine Retreat in Spain

This retreat is a special gathering with Taita Mauricio, coming from Putumayo, in the Colombian Amazon.

Mauricio has been part of the story of Casa Oraya for many years. Our relationship has grown through time, ceremony, learning, service, friendship and repeated journeys between Colombia and Europe.

These retreats are therefore not simply occasions on which we invite a facilitator to lead ceremonies.

They are part of an ongoing relationship.

A meeting between different places, different life stories and a medicine that Mauricio has carried and worked with for many years.

### A few days dedicated to the medicine

During our time together, the rhythm of the retreat is intentionally simple.

The ceremonies are at the centre, and everything around them is designed to support the experience: rest, nourishing food, nature, silence, conversation, gentle practices and time to integrate what has emerged.

We do not try to fill every hour.

Plant medicine work can already ask a great deal from the body, the emotions and the inner world. We believe that spaciousness is part of the work.

There is time to sleep.

Time to walk.

Time to sit outside.

Time to speak.

And time not to speak at all.

### Meeting Mauricio

There is a quality to Mauricio’s way of working that is difficult to translate into a programme.

It comes through presence.

Through observation.

Through his relationship with the medicine.

Through humour, simplicity, songs, silence and the way he accompanies each ceremony.

He does not arrive with a predetermined story about what someone should experience.

Each person is met where they are.

For us, this is essential.

The medicine is not approached as a performance, a spiritual achievement or a promise of transformation. Some ceremonies can be powerful and visionary. Others may be physical, emotional, quiet, confusing or deeply restful.

There is no “correct” journey.

We learn to listen to what is actually happening.

### A relationship with Putumayo

Mauricio’s work is deeply connected to Putumayo, a territory in southern Colombia where plant medicine traditions have been transmitted across generations and where the relationship between medicine, land, family and community remains profoundly alive.

Casa Oraya has also grown through this relationship with Colombia.

Over the years, travelling there has allowed us to understand that the medicine cannot be separated entirely from the people, territories and relationships through which it reaches us.

For this reason, we try to approach every retreat with respect for where the medicine comes from, while also being transparent about the context in which we receive and share it here in Europe.

We do not attempt to reproduce an Amazonian village or imitate a culture that is not ours.

Instead, we create a simple and respectful meeting place where Mauricio can bring his way of working and where participants can encounter the medicine within an intimate and carefully held environment.

### Small groups, individual attention

Casa Oraya retreats remain intentionally small.

Before participating, each person speaks with us individually. We ask about physical and emotional health, medications, previous experiences, intentions and anything else that may affect participation.

This conversation is important.

We want to understand who is coming into the space rather than simply accepting reservations.

During the retreat, the small group allows us to remain attentive to each participant and to notice when someone may need additional support, conversation, rest or simply more space.

### Beyond the ceremony

The ceremonies are important, but they are not the entire retreat.

Often, what happens afterwards is just as meaningful.

A sensation remembered the following morning.

A conversation over breakfast.

A resistance that becomes clearer.

An unexpected sadness.

A feeling of peace.

A question that remains unanswered.

We make room for all of this.

Integration is approached without trying to impose a single spiritual or psychological explanation onto someone’s experience. We may explore the body, personal history, emotions, symbolism and the different meanings that an experience can carry.

Sometimes understanding comes quickly.

Sometimes it takes months.

Sometimes what matters is not understanding everything at all.

### Coming back to life

We do not believe the purpose of medicine is to continually seek stronger experiences.

The real question often begins afterwards:

How do we live?

How do we relate?

What do we change?

What do we accept?

What deserves our attention?

And what are we ready to leave behind?

This retreat with Mauricio is an invitation to step away from the noise for a few days, enter into relationship with the medicine, and listen.

Not to become someone else.

But perhaps to meet yourself, your life and the world around you with a little more presence.

And from there, slowly, to return.

To everyday life.

To relationship.

To the body.

To what is essential.