Questions & Clarity
What You Need to Know
We believe in complete transparency. If something remains unclear, we welcome you to reach out directly.
Who We Are
What is The Sacred Circle Fellowship?
The Sacred Circle Fellowship is a Private Membership Association (PMA) — the ceremonial and community heart of Ayni Munay Ministry. We exist in likeness to a 508(c)(1)(A) religious organization operating under the full protection of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (42 U.S.C. § 2000bb et seq.). ).
We are a living spiritual community — intimate, private, and by invitation only. We do not market, advertise, or solicit from the general public. Every member arrives through a personal referral from someone who knows them and believes they belong here.
Ours is not a retreat center or a therapeutic program. It is a path — one that asks for sincere commitment and rewards that commitment with a depth of transformation that is genuinely rare in today's world.
Who leads the ceremonies?
All ceremonies are personally led by Keith Walters — Founder and Senior Minister of Ayni Munay Ministry — supported by a carefully selected team of highly qualified facilitators, each with significant depth of experience in plant medicine facilitation and each operating at the highest level of their craft.
Our facilitation team is not assembled for convenience. Every person who holds space within our ceremonies has been chosen for the quality of their presence, the integrity of their practice, and their capacity to meet each participant with genuine skill, care, and wisdom. Many carry their own lineage transmissions and years of dedicated ceremonial experience.
Keith holds authentic initiation in two of the world's most demanding healing lineages — the Mestizo Vegetalista lineage of the Amazon Basin under master healers, and the Missoko Bwiti Iboga lineage of Gabon, Africa under the world's most respected Iboga Providers — as well as the Yungdrung Bön lineage, one of the oldest unbroken spiritual lineages on Earth, originating in Pre-Buddhist Tibet. To hold authentic initiation in Ayahuasca and Iboga lineages simultaneously while synergistically weaving them into an authentic, ancient Eastern tradition is extraordinarily rare. Keith carries all of them with integrity, devotion, coherence and over a decade of daily living practice.
Is this legal?
Fully and unequivocally.
Ayni Munay Ministry exists in likeness to a 508(c)(1)(A) religious organization. The Sacred Circle Fellowship operates as a Private Membership Association pursuant to the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
We acknowledge and embrace the doctrine and responsibility of the Establishment Clause placed into the Constitution for the United States of America as the first amendment providing that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and the equal protection of law.Our sacramental practices are conducted exclusively within the private domain between consenting adult members who share sincere spiritual beliefs — protected by the highest law of the land. We believe that the human soul is capable of direct mystical union with God or Source. This union is not merely conceptual or doctrinal, but experiential and transformative. Within our tradition, this realization is cultivated through disciplined spiritual practice and may be deepened through sacramental communion undertaken within a structured and ethical religious framework. This level of legal clarity and integrity is among the rarest things available in the world of sacred plant medicine today.
The Medicines
What sacred medicines do you work with?
The Sacred Circle Fellowship works with several plant medicines, each recognized by Ayni Munay Ministry as a sacred sacrament:
Ayahuasca
Held in the Mestizo Vegetalista lineage of the Amazon Basin. Ayahuasca is a profoundly transformational and purifying medicine that works through the emotional and spiritual body — revealing, clarifying, and reconnecting us to the intelligence of the natural world and our authentic self.
Iboga
Held in the Missoko Bwiti lineage of Gabon, Africa. Known as the "Grandfather Medicine," or "Tree of Life" in African traditions, Iboga is one of the oldest initiatory paths on Earth — precise, direct, and extraordinarily clarifying. It is not a visionary journey. It is an initiation into the root of one's being, their ancestral lineage, and the deepest patterns of the psyche and body.
Tobacco / Nicotiana Rustica (Mapacho)
Tobacco is a master teacher plant that has been utilized by indigenous peoples since antiquity as a ceremonial healing sacrament. This sacrament is utilized by our ministry ceremonially in accordance with Amazonian Vegetalista Lineage protocols as a purifying and grounding medicine to clear the energy field of ceremony participants and the ceremonial space.
Do you combine Ayahuasca and Iboga in the same ceremony?
No — never. This is an important distinction.
Ayahuasca and Iboga are entirely different medicines from entirely different lineages, operating through entirely different mechanisms, and they are never combined or administered in the same ceremonial container. Each is held in its own dedicated space, prepared and conducted in strict accordance with the protocols of its respective lineage.
What is rare — and what Keith uniquely offers — is authentic initiated lineage in both. Members who feel called to work with both medicines over time can do so within a single trusted relationship, guided by someone who carries genuine transmission in each. That continuity of relationship and depth of knowledge across both lineages is exceptionally uncommon anywhere in the world.
I've heard that Ayahuasca ceremonies can be chaotic, loud, and overwhelming. Is that what this is?
This is one of the most important misconceptions we want to address — and we understand why it exists.
There are plant medicine experiences around the world that accommodate 40, 60, or even 90 participants in a single ceremony. In those environments, chaos is not uncommon — people in varying states of preparation sharing a large, uncontained space without the individual attention or ceremonial precision that this work genuinely requires. The purging that many people associate with Ayahuasca is often a direct consequence of inadequate preparation — not an inherent feature of the medicine itself.
Our container is something entirely different. Every member follows a strict preparation protocol — dietary preparation (dieta), cleansing and purification practices, somatic preparation, and intentional mental and emotional groundwork.
When this preparation is honored fully, what emerges is closer to a meditative, precision container — quiet, intentional, and deeply internal. Purging, when it occurs, is minimal and purposeful. Our ceremonies are organized, professionally held, and deeply intentional — conducted with the same precision, care, and seriousness that our sacred lineages have always demanded.
The Membership
Who is this for?
Our members are already living well. They are professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, creators, current and former professional athletes, military veterans, and deeply family-oriented people — high achievers who have built remarkable lives and are now seeking to deepen and enrich these lives.
They are not in crisis. They are not looking to be saved or seeking a magic bullet. They are seeking coherence — the full integration of body, mind, soul, and spirit into a life that is not only successful but genuinely alive.
Most of our members participate in one or two retreats per year, weaving their ceremonial work into an ongoing practice of integration, embodiment, vitality, longevity, and advanced wellness. For them, sacred ceremony is not an event — it is a sacred practice and cornerstone of a conscious, intentional life.
What does the membership journey look like?
Referral & Application
You arrive through a personal referral and complete our membership application, sharing who you are and what has called you to this work.
Personal Review
Keith Walters reviews every application personally within 5-7 days.
Orientation Conversation
If your application resonates, Keith reaches out personally for a one-on-one conversation to explore readiness, answer questions, and begin the relationship.
Health Screening
All members complete a comprehensive confidential health intake before any ceremony is considered. This screening is thorough — and it is the foundation of our safety.
Preparation Protocol
Accepted members receive a comprehensive preparation guide covering dietary, physical, and mental preparation. This protocol is not optional — it is the foundation of everything that follows in ceremony.
Membership & Ongoing Practice
Membership is not a transaction. It is a living relationship — supported by integration guidance, community connection, and the continued presence of Keith and the facilitation team between ceremonies.
How many people are in each ceremony?
Our ceremonies are limited to 10 guests or fewer — and most are held for considerably fewer than that. Some ceremonies are private, held for one or two individuals in a deeply personal container.
This is a non-negotiable commitment. The depth of presence, care, and individual attention that defines our container simply cannot exist at scale. We have chosen depth — always.
Do I need to travel internationally?
No — and understanding why this matters is part of what makes this container unique.
Over the course of more than a decade on this path, I’ve traveled to the Amazon Basin of Peru, the rainforests of Gabon in Central West Africa, and throughout Central and South America to receive rigorous training, initiation, and transmission directly from the lineage holders of these sacred traditions. I hold enormous love and reverence for each of these places and the wisdom traditions they carry. I’ve also experienced firsthand how extraordinarily difficult that journey can be. International travel for ceremony is exhausting — physically, energetically, and logistically. Long flights across multiple time zones, unfamiliar food that challenges the body and nervous system, often in the middle of a strict preparation protocol. Foreign soil, foreign language, the disorientation of being far from home and everything that’s familiar. By the time many people arrive at their ceremony destination, they’re already depleted — their nervous system taxed, their energy field wide open from travel, their body struggling to adapt. And they are being asked to do some of the deepest inner work of their lives. We created Ayni Munay Ministry because we wanted to create a solution - a more accessible way for people to receive these sacred healing tools in the best set and setting possible. When you come to our retreats, you arrive on your own soil. You sleep in your own time zone. You’ve followed a preparation protocol in the comfort of your own home and your own routine. You arrive rested and nourished, grounded and strong — with your full energy available for the work ahead, not depleted from the process of getting there.
Safety & Integration
How do you approach safety?
Safety is not a protocol here — it is a practice, woven into every layer of what we do.
It begins with our legal foundation — a formally recognized religious organization with a comprehensive Private Membership Agreement governing all ceremonial activity. It continues through rigorous medical screening, ensuring every member is genuinely prepared for the specific medicine they will work with. It lives in our preparation protocols — every member follows a comprehensive physical, dietary, and mental readiness process before entering ceremony.
And it is held, moment to moment, by our facilitation team — experienced, trained, and deeply present for every person in our circle throughout the entire ceremonial arc. Safety and sanctity are not in tension here. They are the same thing.
What happens after ceremony?
The ceremony is the beginning — not the destination.
Integration is where the real work lives. What opens in ceremony must be met, tended, and woven into daily life — through the body, through relationship, through practice, and through conscious choice. Without genuine integration, even the most profound ceremonial experience fades.
Our approach to integration includes personal follow-up with Keith and the facilitation team, access to The Sacred Circle community, somatic and advanced wellness guidance, and an ongoing relationship that holds you long after the ceremony has closed. For members who commit to this path over time, the cumulative depth of transformation, vitality, and coherence is unlike anything else available.
What if I'm not sure I'm ready?
That question is worth honoring — and sitting with.
This work is not for everyone and we don't encourage anyone toward this work before they are genuinely ready. If you are curious but uncertain, the most honest next step is simply to apply and have a conversation. There is no pressure, no expectation, and no obligation.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Membership is by application only.
All applications are reviewed personally by Keith Walters.
Apply for Membership
