Bobinsana (Calliandra angustifolia) — the Amazonian heart mistress

Bobinsana

In a long dieta, one to three moons, where the land meets the water — you don't drink her, you meet her.

To sleep more deeplyTo walk through griefTo explore hypnagogia

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✦ Bobinsana · in one breath ✦

She reorganises the heart worn from carrying too much, and teaches it to receive again — the reminder that you were never alone, that you are a we that doesn't know itself yet.

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⊹ The path of the plant

Cautions

✷ Cautions

Long dieta: the Bobinsana dieta (one to three months) is not a harmless experience. Strict dietary restrictions, isolation, and the accompaniment of an experienced practitioner are required. Never undertake a long dieta without a framework.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding: avoid as a principle. Traditionally reputed to be contraceptive.

Children: not recommended as a sustained cure.

Drug interactions: little data available. In case of an ongoing treatment — particularly a cardiac one — seek a doctor's advice before any sustained use.

Allergies: to be avoided in case of a known allergy to the Fabaceae (the pea family).

Cycles of use: the plant asks for cycles of intention, not an indefinite continuous use.

Conservation: Amazonian populations under pressure from deforestation. Choose exclusively sources of respectful harvest.

If in doubt — your doctor before the plant. This page documents a lineage, not a medical protocol.

⊹ Community voices

What the community murmurs.

All reviews (58) →

4.9/5

Average · 58 reviews

Breakdown

5 ★55

4 ★1

3 ★2

2 ★0

1 ★0

Merci infiniment pour la qualité de la Plante sacrée. Au travers la diète, j'ai pu faire connaissance avec son esprit, les guérisons du coeur et des blessures anciennes ont été très profondes et intenses et cela dès le 2 ème jour de prise, je suis très reconnaissant que I infuse earth propose cette Plante incroyable et puissante. Merci encore de tout mon coeur! a vous et à Bobinsana Thank you so much for the quality of the Sacred Plant. Through the diet, I was able to become acquainted with its spirit, the healing of the heart and old wounds was very deep and intense and this from the 2nd day of intake, I am very grateful that I infuse earth offers this incredible and powerful Plant. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart! to you and to Bobinsana.

audrey lehy

Ritual · verified purchase · 24 February 2025

Amazing herb. When I take it I feel extremely relaxed with more awake consciousness and that night after taking it I dreamed very intensely that I plunged into a Rainbow in the cosmos then became this Rainbow and married the Eternity. I was dancing in the cosmos all this after having died, having experienced my own childbirth, having seen myself being born in a room invaded by a white and blurry Light. My whole soul trembled in the dream and I rediscovered true ecstasy. All this after a trip to a somewhat magical island. I woke up and I heard the birds louder than usual. The other night after taking this herb I dreamed very intensely of ants climbing on me in the Amazon.Dreams are extremely powerful and we remember them. Great plant!

Nébuleuse

Ritual · 10 February 2024

It was exciting and an honor to be chosen by this Master Plant 🙏🏼🌺.. a scent that brought me back to the banks of the river in South America.. I used it as a herbal tea and immediately felt peace in my Heart.. as if the pain was melting away.. compassion took over.. the scent is really intoxicating... so much so that I wanted to put it on charcoal as incense ♥️ Thank you .. also for the gift received from the seller .. very kind 🙏🏼♥️☀️ I recommend it!!!!!!!!

Angela Chionna

Ritual · 11 January 2025

Bobinana is a gentle plant teacher if you can get into it. I've been drinking it as a tea for a few days and it's already triggered feelings in me that I've tried to close behind a door inside myself. With the necessary mindfulness, this plant helps to create a connection with the heart. I recommend making the tea with chamomile, this can help digest the emerging emotions more easily. Even as incense, it envelops possible stagnant emotions in a caring arrival. The quality of the herbs delivered is excellent and the arrival of my order arrived abroad much faster than expected. A clear purchase recommendation. I will definitely order again and look forward to trying new herbs from the range. Many thanks again to the seller at this point.

Alexandra

Ritual · 19 March 2024

Le format résineest parfait pour transporter lorsque l'on est en itinéranceet que l'on utilisela médecine de la plante en cure. La possibilité de l'utiliser en tisane ou directement. De très bons conseils en ce qui concerne la quantitéet l'utilisation de la résine.

Emilie

Ritual · verified purchase · 14 October 2025

Received my Bobinsana in just a couple of weeks seeing as it had to from France to Australia! Beautiful quality, and I truly appreciate the added blue lily flower that was added as a gift. Makes a lovely tea, very relaxing and heart opening. Thank you so much! I highly recommend buying from this seller ✨️

Trace

Ritual · 2 March 2024

I have no comparison to the quality, but on the first night I had dreams for the first time in a long time. I let 300ml of water steep for 10 minutes, like drinking tea. Is there a more intensive way of preparing it? The flowers were also ‘TOP’ Many many thanks.

Jasmine

Ritual · 6 November 2024

A subtle Caramel Vibe on the floor, the Heart openning still present, working slowly like the Root of the Sun .. The root of the Earth growing and flowing in all the tissues accros the water élément, softly calming and allowing message in the Dreams, and nourishing insights from the soul .. like the messager of the Sky ♥️ Love ♥️

Paul Theron

Ritual · verified purchase · 30 August 2024

Truly amazing, heart opening herb.

Deko

Ritual · 3 November 2024

I loved the Bobinsana tea. It is extremely high quality and there was great communication keeping me up to date about the product availability. I would highly recommend DreamsHerbsTemple!

Maritta

Ritual · 5 August 2024

I purchased the resin. I am new to working with bobinsana in this way, but you can tell it is well crafted and potent! I definitely recommend all of their products!

Alexandra

Ritual · 2 July 2024

A lovely high-quality bobinsana powder is hard to find, so I was pleased to get hold of this. It has been the perfect supportive herb. I can't wait for you to restock!

Lauri

Ritual · 26 June 2024

Read all 58 reviews →

⊹ ASK YOUR QUESTION ⊹

Ask the Forest about Bobinsana

408 books digested, 97,512 indexed passages. She answers on lineages, synergies, cautions, ritual variations.

⊹ FREQUENT QUESTIONS ⊹

We answer.

What is bobinsana?

Bobinsana (Calliandra angustifolia) is a small tree of the Amazonian riverbanks with pink-white pom-pom flowers, master plant of the Shipibo-Conibo who name her semein — the heart mistress. Daughter of the Tree of Light and Mermaid of the River, she is worked in gentle cure or long dieta to reorganise the heart after a fracture. INFUSE offers her leaves, the powder mix of bark + leaves, and the elixir — wild harvest from Peru.

What are the traditional uses of bobinsana?

In Shipibo curanderismo, she is the plant of the reorganisation of the heart and the support after a shock — heartbreak, separation, ancestral grief, susto (loss of the soul), intergenerational trauma, post-partum depression. It is said that she does not repair the heart, she reorganises it, layer after layer, like water that undoes stone. It is a use transmitted by living lineage, reported as tradition, without clinical promise.

How do I prepare bobinsana?

Three ways depending on the form. Whole leaves — 1 to 2 teaspoons in infusion 5-10 min in simmering water. Bark + leaves powder mix — 1 to 2 teaspoons in a cup of warm plant milk or simmering water (gentle decoction 10 minutes for more potency). Elixir — 5 to 15 drops under the tongue or in a warm drink. One to three times a day depending on intention.

What is the bobinsana dieta?

It is one of the longest classic Shipibo dietas — one to three months of retreat, strict restrictions (no salt, sugar, fat, meat, alcohol, sex, fermented), morning decoction and evening tincture, under the guidance of a maestro. Reserved for serious heart work. The short versions (7 to 21 days) are contemporary adaptations, not the traditional dieta.

Bobinsana and ayahuasca?

Bobinsana is one of the plants most often taken before or after an ayahuasca ceremony — she deepens the cardiac dimension during the opening, reduces emotional defensiveness, and helps the integration of difficult contents in the following days. Rätsch and Beyer also document her among the admixtures that some mestizo shamans add to the brew. Many discover her through this bridge, then return to her for her own value.

Bobinsana or Ajo Sacha, in which order?

The cardinal couple of the Amazonian dieta — Ajo Sacha opens and cleans the ground first, Bobinsana opens the heart afterwards. It is the Shipibo pedagogy — start with the Opener, then continue, after pause, with the heart mistress. The synergy is not an option, it is the grammar itself of the dieta.

Which form of bobinsana should I choose?

For the gentle daily cure and the evening companionship, the whole leaves in infusion. For the concentrated decoction, the framed dieta, and serious ritual work, the bark + leaves powder mix (more potent). For a precise ceremonial use or quick uptake, the elixir by the drop. The three carry the same plant — the grammar varies, not the lineage.

Does bobinsana have precautions?

Yes. To avoid during pregnancy, desire of pregnancy (traditionally reputed contraceptive) and breastfeeding. Medical advice recommended under treatment, particularly cardiac (possible interactions). To avoid in case of Fabaceae allergy (pea family). The long dieta requires a frame — never in autonomy without experienced accompaniment.

⊹ Chapter · Questions ⊹

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One question, one answer — sometimes several voices. The community answers first; INFUSE steps in when it should.

⊹ The forest says ⊹

« Every plant is a door. Bobinsana opens onto a long companionship — listen to it more than you measure it. »

Essence

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⊹ CHAPTER II · ESSENCE ⊹

Mistress of the Heart. River Mermaid. Daughter of the Tree of Light.

The Shipibo-Conibo name her semein — the plant that teaches through water. Native to the Peruvian Amazonian riverbanks, she grows where land touches river, in the várzea, that shifting frontier where the Amazon overflows and withdraws. The plant did not choose her place by chance: she teaches from the in-between.

Her feminine essence, maternal and aqueous, opens a unique function in the pantheon of plantas maestras — that of reorganising the heart after the fracture. Where Ajo Sacha cleans the terrain, Bobinsana works higher up. She is dieted after him, in long retreats of one to three months, sometimes as a bridge-plant before or after ayahuasca, for those whose heart is tired of having carried too much.

𖥸𖥸𖥸

The Shipibo tradition has finely identified something few plants know how to touch: long cardiac fatigue does not only close the capacity to give. It closes, above all, the capacity to receive. Many of the exhausted can still give out of reflex — but they no longer know how to let the love, the tenderness, the gratitude offered to them truly reach them. Bobinsana works particularly on this face. That is her finest precision.

Her grammar is that of the river that overflows then withdraws — exactly the lesson an exhausted heart needs. Overflow, then come back to oneself. Give, then receive. Open, without emptying out.

𖥸𖥸𖥸

The curanderas — the Shipibo women-healers, in whose lineage Bobinsana is often transmitted from mother to daughter — sing her rocking icaro, soft, aqueous, like a mother lulling a child. It is the sound signature of the plant as much as her pharmacological one: that which soothes, that which returns night after night, that which rushes nothing.

For those whose heart needs to learn to receive.

INFUSE Signature

reorganisation of the heart: 10 · long dieta 1-3 months: 10 · ayahuasca-bridge plant: 9 · grammar of the várzea: 9 · aqueous mistress: 9
Register: River Mermaid, Daughter of the Tree of Light, water that undoes stone, icaro that rocks (Shipibo-Conibo semein, Amazonian várzea, curanderas women-healers)

Signature INFUSEIntensity · scored out of 10

Intensity · scored out of 10
reorganisation of the heart		10/10
long dieta 1-3 months		10/10
ayahuasca-bridge plant		9/10
grammar of the várzea		9/10
watery mistress		9/10

RegisterMermaid of the River, Daughter of the Tree of Light, the water that undoes the stone, lulling icaro

Shipibo-Conibo *semein* · Amazonian várzea · *curanderas* women-healers

Tradition

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⊹ CHAPTER III · TRADITION ⊹

Bobinsana (Calliandra angustifolia, of the Fabaceae family) is attributed to the Shipibo-Conibo tradition of the western Peruvian Amazon, where she is worked as a planta maestra — a master plant. The plantas maestras are not medicines in the Western sense: they are teachers. Each has her own personality, her gifts, her demands. Each asks for a dieta — a prolonged ceremonial retreat — in order to be learned properly.

The canonical Shipibo pantheon of plantas maestras unfolds around a grammar of functions: Ajo Sacha the Opener (who cleans the ground), Bobinsana the Mistress of the heart, Chiric Sanango the cold of perception, Ushpawasha Sanango the ash of the paths, Mucura the cleanser, Ayahuma the spirit of thunder, Piñon Colorado the red one, and Ayahuasca the vine of souls — the mother of them all. Each master plant has her icaro, the sacred song that is given to the curandero during the dieta. The icaro of Bobinsana is described in the tradition as "soft, watery, with a rocking rhythm — like a mother singing her child to sleep". The sonic signature meets the signature of the plant: maternal, fluid, persistent.

Bobinsana is dieted long: one to three months, transmitted according to tradition by the healer-women, the curanderas — with whom she is often the principal lineage plant, passed from mother to daughter or from aunt to niece. She is a plant of the heart and of water — she is worked to reorganise what has been broken by trauma or by grief. Christian Rätsch (The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, p. 708-709) and Stephan Beyer (Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon, p. 291-292) both document her among the admixtures of ayahuasca — the plants added to the brew to modulate its effect — Beyer citing combinations such as "bobinsana and lobosanango" and "mapacho, toé and bobinsana".

Tradition names her Mermaid of the River, Daughter of the Tree of Light, the one who comes in dreams like a mother weeping for joy. These images circulate in the Shipibo ethnobotanical accounts in composite form — we pass them on as collective tradition, without attributing them to a named voice we could not trace.

Bobinsana grows in the Amazonian riverine zones (várzea), ecosystems under pressure from deforestation. Choose exclusively sources of respectful harvest.

Preparation

⊹ CHAPTER IV · PREPARATION ⊹

The Amazonian tradition works Bobinsana as a long decoction, as a ritual bath (banho), and more recently as a tincture. INFUSE offers three forms — here are the markers, never prescriptions.

INFUSE form	Traditional marker	Preparation
Whole leaves (100 g)	Gentle infusion	1 to 2 tsp infused 5-10 min in simmering water
Bark + leaf powder mix (100 g / 200 g)	Decoction / drink	1 to 2 tsp in a cup of hot plant milk or of simmering water; for more potency, simmer 10 minutes
Elixir (30 ml)	Occasional ceremonial use	5 to 15 drops under the tongue or in a hot drink

The dieta of the heart — the long apprenticeship. The Shipibo tradition works Bobinsana over one to three months, in retreat, with strict restrictions (no salt, no sugar, no fat, no meat, no alcohol, no sexual contact, nothing fermented), in relative silence. This is not a harmless experience — it calls for isolation and the accompaniment of an experienced practitioner. Never undertake a long dieta without a framework.

For a first encounter outside a dieta, the most fitting path is the daily infusion or decoction, taken slowly, in presence — and the notebook open on waking, to write down what comes up.

Suggested ritual

The ritual of the second door — opening the heart once it has been cleaned

For those who have cleaned the ground and feel it is time to reopen a heart that grief, trauma or a long closing had locked shut.

Prepare the decoction in silence — 1 to 2 tsp of the powder mix in a cup of simmering water or hot plant milk. While it infuses, name what you have come to set down — a closing, a grief not crossed through, a heart you no longer dare let overflow
Light copal or palo santo (strictly ethical sourcing) — mark the threshold between the everyday and the ground of the plant
First sip offered to the Shipibo-Conibo lineage, to the várzea, to the river that overflows and withdraws — gratitude named aloud, however brief
Drink in presence, in small sips, without a screen — picture the border between land and water where the plant grows, the feminine river, the Mermaid who comes like a mother
Notebook open on waking — write down the dreams of the night before the phone, before the coffee. Tradition describes coherent dream apparitions — the anaconda with the soft eye, the mother weeping for joy, the river, the pink-feathered being who rises from the water. Watch what reorganises itself without your having asked

The heart does not repair itself by closing. It learns again to overflow without losing itself. — After the Shipibo-Conibo tradition

We answer.

What is bobinsana?

What are the traditional uses of bobinsana?

How do I prepare bobinsana?

What is the bobinsana dieta?

Bobinsana and ayahuasca?

Bobinsana or Ajo Sacha, in which order?

Which form of bobinsana should I choose?

Does bobinsana have precautions?

INFUSE form

Traditional marker

Preparation

Whole leaves (100 g)

Gentle infusion

1 to 2 tsp infused 5-10 min in simmering water

Bark + leaf powder mix (100 g / 200 g)

Decoction / drink

1 to 2 tsp in a cup of hot plant milk or of simmering water; for more potency, simmer 10 minutes

Elixir (30 ml)

Occasional ceremonial use

5 to 15 drops under the tongue or in a hot drink