ABOUT | Sacred Seed

How it all started

Our Story

The Sacred Seed

Sacred Seed is both a name and a metaphor rooted in ancient wisdom. We believe the work with sacred plants is an initiation, humanity and the Earth are entering a new era, one spoken of in prophecies and carried through ancestral traditions.

Like the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, or the seed breaking open to become a plant, true growth requires the right elements: fertile soil, sunlight, water, and care.

Each person who comes here is a seed. And depending on how that seed is nourished, it can grow into its full potential.

Our role is to create the conditions: a safe, supported, and sacred space, where people can undergo their own initiatory process of transformation.

How The Seeds Were Planted

Sacred Seed's story is woven from lives crossing at the right moment.

Gabriel spent his twenties on a journey he didn't plan but couldn't avoid. Life pulled him into ancestral medicines, shamanism, and deep personal healing.

His father's illness brought him to Vilcabamba, where the valley's energy became a turning point. Years of ceremony and integration shaped his vision of what true healing spaces require—and what they must avoid.

Years later, Víctor arrived. From the outside, his life in film and fashion looked like success—celebrity networks, international projects, constant travel. But inside, he was in crisis. Divorce and disillusion left him searching for real change.

How The Seeds Were Planted

Reuniting with Gabriel after more than 15 years, he was guided through his first Ayahuasca experience alongside medicine carriers like La Caracola and Tséentsak, a Shuar elder. It was a profound initiation.

Meanwhile, Víctor's mother, Raquel, was living at LaSofía—a vast and beautiful property she longed to put to meaningful use. Introduced to plant medicine by La Caracola, she too felt the pull to create a sanctuary for healing and community.

The land, the family, the guides, the vision—all the pieces were in place.

Bringing them together gave birth to Sacred Seed. Not as a business plan, but as a prayer aligned with purpose.

Protecting the Sacred

Spiritual tourism is booming. Retreat centers multiply. Yet too many lack safety, respect, and authenticity.

We have sat in those ceremonies. We have seen the shortcuts, the missing care, the risks that leave people more lost than found.

Sacred Seed was created to do things differently—serving with integrity, honoring the Earth, respecting Indigenous lineages, and welcoming every guest as family.

We work closely with our local community—cultivating and replanting sacred medicines, sourcing from local farmers and artisans, preserving ancestral cultural knowledge, and creating meaningful employment.

This isn't just about healing individuals; it's about nurturing the ecosystem that makes healing possible.

Growth is not our goal. Service and community are.

If growth comes, it will be because we've served well.

More Than Ceremony

We work with Ayahuasca, Huachuma, psilocybin mushrooms, Rapé, Kambo, and other ancestral medicines, guided by a network of local healers rooted in Amazonian and Andean traditions—including La Caracola, Victor Macas and Tséentsak Saant Juank, a 70-year-old Shuar shaman.

But ceremony is just the beginning. LaSofía is a working farm where rivers flow, bees pollinate, and guests place their hands in the soil.

Here, healing means more than visions—it means movement, nourishment, breathwork, yoga, art, music, and reconnecting with the living Earth.

Our approach is holistic: cleanse the body, expand the mind, restore the soul.

Integration is not an afterthought—it is woven into everything we do. Through ongoing community and consistent practices, Sacred Seed supports each guest long after they leave the valley.

Because transformation doesn't happen in a weekend; it unfolds over time, with the right container and the right guidance.

The Seeds We Plant

Sacred Seed began in Vilcabamba, but its vision extends beyond any single place.

These seeds are meant to be planted wherever healing is needed—creating spaces where ancient wisdom meets modern seekers, and transformation is held with reverence.

At its heart, Sacred Seed is a homecoming—to yourself, to the Earth, to the wisdom that has been waiting all along.

Step into the Earth. Step into yourself.

The Team

SHUAR SHAMAN

Tséntsak, elder healer of Sacred Seed, carries the ancestral medicine of the Shuar people. Born in the Amazon jungle of Macas, Ecuador, he began his training at age nine under the guidance of his father and ancestral spirits. By fifteen, he was already serving as a shaman, rooted in the wisdom of Ayahuasca—known in his culture as Natem. With over five decades of experience, Tséntsak now offers sacred ceremony and healing at Finca La Sofía, supporting those seeking clarity, peace, and a return to their essence through the ancient path of Amazonian medicine.

Tséntsak

MEDICINE WOMAN

Caracola, therapist and guide at Sacred Seed, brings 16 years of experience in ancestral medicine. Born in Loja, Ecuador, and rooted in Vilcabamba, she holds deep reverence for the land’s healing energy and the clarity it offers those on the path of transformation. Her work blends ceremony and microdosing protocols using Kambo, Ayahuasca, San Pedro, and Psilocybin—tools she’s used to heal herself and guide others back to authenticity, empowerment, and inner truth.

La Caracola

ANDEAN DOCTOR

Victor, Andean doctor at Sacred Seed, blends ancestral wisdom and formal training to guide others in healing. Originally from Saraguro, Ecuador, he comes from a long lineage of shamans and has dedicated over 20 years to the study and practice of Andean medicine. His work with sacred plants like Ayahuasca and San Pedro honors both tradition and consciousness, helping people awaken to their path with strength, clarity, and connection to nature.

VICTOR MACAS

WELLNESS DIRECTOR

Gabriel, co-founder of Sacred Seed, bridges ancestral wisdom with modern healing. Born in Ecuador, his journey led him through law, business, and deep spiritual study across the Americas. After years of learning from Indigenous traditions and supporting his father through cancer, he rooted himself in Vilcabamba, where he now creates sacred spaces for transformation, family, and community.

GABRIEL CUCALON

LOCATION MANAGER

Raquel is the heart of Casa Hacienda LaSofía. Seven years ago, she left the city to steward her family's 13-hectare farm, awakening to ancestral healing practices passed down from her father, one of Ecuador's first environmental lawyers and indigenous rights activists.

Today, her thriving chakra garden produces medicinal herbs, fresh eggs, honey, panela, and abundant fruit, all cultivated organically. As your host, Raquel ensures every guest feels at home, sharing her knowledge and nurturing the land that holds your transformation.

RAQUEL VIVAR

BUSINESS DIRECTOR

Victor Bastidas, Co-founder, was raised in the Vilcabamba valley. His background includes business studies in China and a professional career in film and video in England.

Following a return home, a pivotal Ayahuasca ceremony inspired a new direction. Recognizing the region's critical need for ecological awareness and conservation, he dedicated himself to co-founding Sacred Seed.

VICTOR BASTIDAS

Ceremony Spaces

At LaSofía, our ceremony spaces are designed with intention—open to the elements, grounded in the earth, and held by the land itself.

Our primary meditation hall sits elevated among the trees, with slatted wooden walls that invite the mountain breeze and frame views of the surrounding valley. Natural light filters through during the day, while candlelight creates an intimate glow at night. The space is simple, uncluttered, and intentionally designed for presence—large enough for our intimate groups, yet close enough to feel the heartbeat of those beside you.

Beyond the meditation hall, LaSofía offers sacred spaces throughout the property: a traditional maloca for deeper ceremonial work, a temazcal (sweat lodge) for purification, and quiet corners for personal reflection. The land itself becomes ceremony space—by the river, under ancient trees, or in the chakra garden where the earth holds you.

Every ceremony is prepared with care. The space is cleansed with palo santo, sage, copal, and tobacco.

Blankets, cushions, and personal altars create comfort. And whether you're in deep journey or quiet integration, you're held—by the facilitators, by the land, and by the sacred container we create together.

Food as Medicine

At Sacred Seed, healing begins at the table. Every meal is an extension of the land that holds you—grown in Raquel's thriving chakra garden, harvested with intention, and prepared with care.

LaSofía's 13 hectares provide everything we need: medicinal herbs, aromatic spices, seasonal vegetables, and fruit trees offering papaya, mango, citrus, and zapote. Our sugarcane fields supply golden panela from our artisanal molienda. Each morning, you'll wake to fresh eggs from our hens and honey from our bees.

Meals honor the dieta, traditional dietary protocols that prepare body and spirit for medicine work. From raw vegan to ketogenic, paleo, or traditional Ecuadorian cuisine, every plate is light, clean, and adapted to support you through preparation, ceremony, and integration.

This isn't just farm-to-table. It's family-to-family nourishment, where the land that holds your transformation also feeds you, and every meal becomes part of the healing itself.