Pronounced ha-PAY · Standalone 30-min ceremony available
Rapé is a finely powdered medicine crafted from Mapacho — a potent heirloom Amazonian tobacco distinct from any commercial product — combined with the ashes of sacred trees and medicinal plants. Each blend is unique to the tribe or lineage that creates it, often passed down through generations and prepared with prayer. The ingredients, proportions, and intentions behind each blend determine its energetic quality — some are deeply grounding, some clarifying, some focused on purification and release.
It is administered through the nostrils using a tepi pipe — blown by the practitioner into each nostril with focused intention. The experience is immediate and physical: a forceful sensation that moves through the sinuses, clears the head, and commands the mind's full attention. This is not an experience to drift through. It asks you to be completely present — and in that demand, it delivers exactly what it promises.
The mind stops its chatter immediately. The mental noise that follows most people everywhere — the planning, the analyzing, the looping — goes quiet. What remains is a quality of presence that is difficult to access through will alone. For people who find it hard to arrive fully in their body before energy work or sound healing, rapé accomplishes this in minutes.
Energetically, rapé is understood as a powerful cleansing tool. Indigenous healers describe it as clearing panema — the heaviness, stagnation, and accumulated negative energy that builds over time in the field. It re-aligns the energy channels, cuts through confusion, and creates a clear, grounded state from which deeper work can unfold. It is commonly used as preparation before Kambo and other plant medicine ceremonies — a cleared field receives more.
In many forest traditions, those who administer rapé are understood to be blowing their life force energy into you alongside the medicine. It is a sacred act built on trust, surrender, and deep respect — for the plant, and for the person receiving it.
The initial experience is intense and immediate. A strong sensation moves through the sinuses, eyes may water, pressure builds in the head. Some people feel the urge to cough or spit — this is the body's natural purging response, and it is welcomed. The physical intensity typically peaks and passes within a few minutes. What follows is often a profound stillness: grounded, clear, open.
Rapé is administered to the left nostril first, then the right — symbolic in many traditions of moving through death and into rebirth. The experience is always shaped by intention. Coming in with a clear intention deepens what the medicine can do. Coming in with openness and trust is enough.
Rapé contains Nicotiana rustica, a potent form of tobacco significantly stronger than commercial tobacco. Please disclose any relevant health conditions before your session.
Standalone ceremony
Sananga comes from the Tabernaemontana plant family, native to the Amazon rainforest. The root bark is harvested, ground into a fine powder, and prepared as drops — traditionally used by tribes including the Katukina, Yawanawá, Matsés, and Huni Kuin. Originally used to sharpen long-range vision before hunting, its use evolved to encompass far more: the clearing of energetic stagnation, the sharpening of inner perception, and the release of what indigenous healers call panema — the heaviness of accumulated negative energy carried in the body and spirit.
The eyes are not just sensory organs. In nearly every spiritual tradition, they are the primary interface between the inner world and the outer one — the seat of perception, clarity, and spiritual vision. Sananga works precisely here. It clears the eyes — physically and energetically — creating a quality of sight that practitioners describe as sharper, cleaner, and more fully present than ordinary waking vision.
Energetically, sananga is a medicine of purification. It seeks out the root of stagnation — emotional heaviness, mental fog, accumulated grief or fear — and releases it through the intensity of the experience itself. The pain is not incidental. It is the mechanism. The plant enters through the burning and clears through the surrender required to meet it.
Many people report that after sananga the world looks different — literally more vivid, more defined. Colors sharpen. The mind quiets. A sense of alignment and presence settles in that can last for hours. It is a powerful reset for both the nervous system and the spirit.
When your eyes are clear, your spirit is attuned. Sananga is often used before deeper ceremony for this reason — not to intensify the experience, but to clear the field of perception so that what comes through can land without distortion.
One drop is applied to each eye. The burning sensation is immediate and intense — it spreads from the eyes through the face and sometimes the whole body. Most people move through the peak within five to ten minutes. Tears flow freely. Those who learn to breathe through it and keep the eyes soft tend to move through more quickly and fully.
What follows the intensity is consistently described as clarity — a settling, a sharpening, a sense that something unnecessary has been washed away. The eyes feel open. The mind feels still. The body feels more present in itself.
The burning sensation is temporary and leaves no lasting physical effect. Please disclose any eye conditions before your session.
All Rapé & Sananga clients are asked to complete an intake form before their ceremony. You can indicate which medicines you are consenting to receive — both, or either one on its own.
Complete Intake Form →Add Rapé or Sananga to any session — complimentary. Or book either as a standalone ceremony. Text to ask any questions or to book.