ICARO 

An icaro is a song of creation, an expression of the vibration that moves through the universe — from the planets and stars to the smallest forms of life. In the shamanic traditions of the Amazon, song is a way of connecting with the living world and the wisdom it holds. Through sound, we enter into relationship with something greater than ourselves. Music is universal, and vibration is woven into the fabric of existence. Icaros are songs that carry this connection.

Icaro Sessions, Ceremonies, Presentations & Singing Workshops

Through our shamanic training in Belgium, France and Peru, we have come to know and work with icaros: the traditional spirit songs of the Amazon, used by curanderos and curanderas in their ceremonial and healing work.

An icaro is more than a melody. Within these traditions, songs are learned and shared through a relationship with a teacher, a plant, a spirit or a particular ceremonial practice. Their meaning and purpose are rooted in the context in which they are received and sung.

The learning and transmission of an icaro can sometimes be part of a soundhealing training or another ceremonial session. In response to many requests, we have also created a dedicated Icaro workshop for those who wish to explore this particular form of shamanic singing more deeply.

Singing to the Plants

In Amazonian plant traditions, songs are an important way of developing and expressing a relationship with the plants. Each icaro has its own melody, intention and place within the tradition. Through singing, practitioners give voice to their connection with the plant world and the knowledge passed on to them.

In some lineages, a student works with a particular master plant through a period of preparation and dieta, under the guidance of an experienced maestro or maestra. This relationship develops over time through attentive practice, observation, dreams and personal experience. Within the tradition, an icaro may emerge as part of this process and be understood as a song received through the relationship with the plant.

Once learned, the song can continue to be used in ceremonial practice without the plant itself necessarily being present. In some traditions, this includes soplado — the act of blowing or directing breath, sometimes accompanied by song, as part of a ceremonial practice.

This relationship between song, plant and practitioner is regarded in these traditions as something deeply meaningful: a connection cultivated through time, commitment, guidance and respect.

ICARO
Healing sessions & Ceremonies

Icaro - Tobacco & Sananga

In the Amazonian traditions of Peru, many shamans work primarily through their voice, using icaros — traditional songs that play an important role in ceremonial and healing practices. These songs may be used to offer protection, invite a sense of openness, or bring qualities such as light, love and connection into a ceremony.

In our Icaro sessions, we invite you to explore the relationship between voice, body and inner experience. Through sound and singing, you can begin to listen more closely to your emotions, pain and personal patterns, giving them space to be felt and expressed. Rather than searching for a perfect note or a prescribed frequency, we encourage you to discover what feels authentic and supportive for you in that moment.

The process begins with you. What happens when you give your experience a voice? What changes when you meet yourself with sound, curiosity and compassion? There is no single answer, and no song that works the same way for everyone. The invitation is to listen to your body and mind, explore your own voice and discover what may unfold through this process.

There is much to share about the depth and richness of icaros, but some things are best understood through direct experience.

Individual & Group Icaro Sessions

You can explore this work in different ways, depending on what feels right for you:

• Individual sessions: A personal space to explore your voice and inner experience with guidance.

• Vocal sessions: An opportunity to discover and develop your own way of singing, inspired by the principles of icaro.

• Group sessions and ceremonies: A shared experience in which we sing together, listen to one another and allow the collective voice to become part of the journey.

To accompany some of our Icaro sessions and ceremonies, we also introduce the traditional use of selected plant preparations, including sacred tobacco and sananga. These have distinct roles within the traditions from which they originate, and their use is approached with care and respect. We discuss the context and practical considerations beforehand, so you can make an informed choice about your participation.

Tobacco Plantteacher

Tobacco has been an important plant teacher in our lives for many years, accompanying us throughout our shamanic work. Within the traditions we have learned from, Tobacco is regarded as a powerful Maestro — a teacher from the plant kingdom, approached with respect and care.

Our relationship with this plant has taught us about grounding, protection and returning to a more centred, authentic way of being. Like any plant teacher, Tobacco is experienced differently by each person. Its role is not the same for everyone, and we approach each encounter with openness, humility and respect for individual experience.

We see Tobacco as an ally and would like to introduce you to the particular qualities attributed to this plant within the traditions that have guided us.

In our sessions and ceremonies, Tobacco may be encountered in preparations such as rapé or Tobacco water, depending on the context. These preparations differ in their composition and use, and we take care to explain the practice beforehand.

SANANGA Plantteacher

Sananga is a traditional preparation associated with Indigenous communities of the Amazon. It is made from plants in the Tabernaemontana genus, including Tabernaemontana undulata, a member of the Apocynaceae family. Traditionally administered as eye drops, Sananga holds a place in certain Amazonian ceremonial practices.

Within these traditions, Sananga is approached as a plant spirit associated with clarity, focus and perception. Its ceremonial use is understood by practitioners in different ways, sometimes as an invitation to become more attentive, quiet the mind and explore one's inner experience.

Sananga can cause intense stinging and discomfort in the eyes. Its safety and effectiveness for treating eye conditions have not been established, and it should not be used as a substitute for medical eye care. We approach this tradition with respect, care and an awareness of its potential risks.

Our Icaro ceremonies are accompanied by the presence and guidance of Maestro Tobacco, an important plant teacher in our own practice. Sananga may be offered as an optional element for those who feel drawn to explore this tradition. We explain its use and considerations beforehand, and participation is always a personal choice.

ICARO - ORINOCO CEREMONY

In this special edition of the Icaro ceremonies, we will work a layer deeper. Where the tobacco stands for focus and grounding, which is necessary when walking a healthy balanced spiritual path, we will work in this ceremony at the heart of the (your) existence. The unit experienced in all that is, in all its simplicity. The personal self is disassembled and consciousness identifies itself with universal consciousness outside of time and space.

The icaro's bring our consciousness into 'Nahual-time', a meditative dream state between different worlds, where deeper knowledge lives, know without filter or boundary of its own restrictive thinking. Linking our human consciousness to the core of your spirit is very healing and balancing at all levels of your existence. In the mental field you can put together your new identity, a work of rebirth in this current life. Physically, you can get started with your own healing potential. You create imbalance and therefore disease in your life/body, so you are also the one who can restore this order. Without limiting thinking as an obstacle, you're going to work with your feel body and know it deeper, know what needs to be done to restore your balance. All these forms of healing obviously have a profound effect on your current existence.

The new insights also ask you to mirror your life, crystallize the deep thing in physical matter. Live all who you really are, leave the limiting ideas for what they are; no more than stories from bygone traumatic experiences. Here and now you scoop your existence the way you want. You are the creator who creates himself and makes creation together.

This Orinoco Icaro is a deepening work for those who have already experienced an Icaro ceremony or Touch of Women ceremony several times. This ceremony is also open to people who followed the Season's Shift trajectory or experienced an Opening of the Heart, Warmi Qhari of Medicine Men. Deepening work like this also requires thorough mental and physical preparation. If you have any questions about this work, please feel free to contact us.

This session is only accessible to people who are engaged in a shift trajec with us

Diet and preparation

It is recommended to follow the day of a session or ceremony, a short shamanic diet to purify yourself. Also drink a lot of water to get all the toxins out. If it is not possible for you to follow the diet, make sure you don't eat that night anymore. Provide yourself with sufficient rest the day itself of a ceremony, but also the day after. You'll be better able to surrender to the moment if you know you don't have all sorts of plans the next morning.

ICARO Singing workshop

A MAGICAL SINGING WORKSHOP

For many years I have returned to the rainforest to refine the singing of the Icaros. This unique way of singing works for me in the first place as a 'self-healing'. They are wonderful tools to sing about life from my deepest core and being. A way to stay true to my own feelings and to simply let the pressure of the environmental factors 'be'. In itself it is easy to learn an Icaro, but it sometimes takes years to 'feel', 'comprise' the icaro and then apply it. After all, the spirit that you wish to summon with your icaro must already be an ally of you, otherwise it is very difficult to handle this spirit. This is usually a 'spirit' of a plant, but it can also be a spirit of an animal or an energetic being such as the Yakuruna (underwater beings). As you can read in the more detailed info about the Icaro, you have to go through some steps before a Spirit becomes your ally, usually this goes through a profound diet period in which you completely surrender to the teachings of that spirit. Once the spirit accepts you, it is your ally for life and your body and mind always knows how to find the way back to this energy form, either for your own personal healing or to help others. So it took me some time to feel well whether I could give this workshop. By the way, the Icaro ceremonies that I supervise today originated from Icaro workshops that I conducted at the time. Now I feel that the time has come again to cast these songs in a workshop in the form of a singing circle.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?

During this workshop we will therefore focus on learning to deal with and tapping into your unique voice. Accepting your own voice and growing in it will certainly be encouraged. Working with sounds, breathing, focus and learning to give direction to your voice with a clear intention are also pillars for these circles. This way you get all the tools for building your own icaros and there is also room in the circle to bring them. Each time, a traditional icaro will also be taught, which you can then practice at home and unravel the secrets of this icaro through 'singing yourself'. This part is the transmission. I will fully understand the choice of transfer at the moment itself, which icaro is needed at that moment.

HUARMI ICARO / SPIRITSONGS / TRADITIONAL ICARO

The Icaro is traditionally whispered by the plants from a song and thus accompanies such ceremonies. It can sometimes even be dangerous to use the songs outside of this context and it can also be dangerous not to use these kind of songs during a planting ceremony, as they provide good guidance and guidance during the personal journey. Huarmi or Warmi Icaro's are loving songs often accompanied by instruments and have the focus to soften and sink lovingly into your heart. These kind of icaros are perfect to apply and learn at all times. Spiritsongs are a kind of Warmi Icaro's but do not stem from tradition, they are the result of own personal creations and do not always have to have a certain direction. The traditional icaro is like a surgical instrument, these songs are used to evoke certain forces in order to start the work on a deeper layer.

FOR WHOM?

In the first place, this singing circle is for people who want to get started with their voice. But I prefer to focus here on participants who already like to sing and work with their voice as well as people who are already familiar with shamanic work. We give the regular voice liberation sessions during the Soundhealing process. During this trajectory you will learn to discover your own voice and you will receive numerous techniques to learn to deal with your voice better. This Icaro singing circle is therefore mainly intended for people who already have some experience with 'singing themselves' and would like to learn more about this special mysterious form of 'singing'.

ADDITIONAL INFO

You can find all dates via the 'upcoming worksohps' button above. You can find the price in our price table. Wear comfortable clothes. Do not eat too heavily in the evening and spare your voice a little that day. If you are coming to an Icaro Singing Circle/workshop for the first time, I recommend that you read through the basic information.

Icaro presentations

Op uitnodiging kom ik graag een lezing brengen over deze wonderlijke manier van genezen. Aan de hand van persoonlijke verhalen, liederen en beeldmateriaal kan je kennis maken met de wereld van het vegetalismo sjamanisme. Deze lezingen zijn een mooie eerste stap om vertrouwd te raken met deze voor velen nog onbekende wereld. De lezing kan indien gewenst ook gevolgd worden door een workshop of healing-ceremonie.