09/23/2026
There is a whole life of practice behind what Maria and Joseph bring to the altar at The Hive.
Their paths have been shaped by different traditions, teachers, and experiences, and over the years, those paths have grown together through devotion, discipline, prayer, and service.
Maria has returned to the Amazon year after year to continue learning from her teachers and deepening her relationship with the plants. She has devoted herself to rigorous plant diets, extended fasting, purging, plant baths, prayer, long periods of abstinence, and the disciplines that come with this work. She returns to the jungle year after year because the relationship continues to call her deeper into listening and learning.
Joseph has spent many years walking the Red Road and committing himself to the path of Sun Dance, a practice rooted in prayer, endurance, sacrifice, service, and responsibility. Alongside this path, he has also entered deeply into the plant world, spending years dieting with plants, fasting, purging, praying, and learning to listen.
Together, they continue to return to the Amazon to study, sit with their teachers, diet, pray, and deepen these relationships. Their practice is not something that happens only at the altar. It is woven into the way they live, serve, listen, and continue to remain students.
There are sacrifices in this path. There are often seasons of strong discipline, discomfort, separation, and setting aside their ordinary rhythms of life. They have learned to walk through those seasons together, reminding one another of the life they have chosen: one rooted in service, prayer, and devotion.
This is part of what they bring with them when they sit at the altar: years of learning and practice, years of prayer, deep relationships with teachers and plants, tradition, demanding initiations, the strength of their love, and a commitment to continue learning.
