Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca, the visionary medicine of the Amazon, is typically used in formal ceremony by the maestro to open and close the dieta.
Tobacco
The Amazonian form of tobacco, smoked as mapacho or ingested as rapé, is often used during dietas for energetic cleansing and connecting with the spirit of the plant or tree being dieted.
Deep Healing
Each master plant or tree is characterized by its ability to offer a special type of healing. Many believe that successful completion of a dedicated plant dieta offers more healing than any other type of healing modality.
Shamanic Apprenticeship
The dieta is the process by which apprentices from the Amazonian tradition of vegatalismo (plant-based shamanism & healing) learn to become curanderos (healers).
Aerial view of the Ucayali River (Peru), where the Shipibo Conibo communities have traditionally been located.
The snake of fertility and life.
Memorable conversations #63_______
Me: "I feel like things are being cleaned, altered, straightened, opened, almost without end, but preparing for that moment that I have been afraid of for a long time. Where the egoic self dissolves and there is only Spirit. I went through it once and in retrospect, I think I passed out that night because I was unable to go through it fully."
Abraham: "I have this experience almost every time I drink ayahuasca. And each time, I get nervous, anxious, and sometimes just want to stop the ceremony and do anything else besides go through it. But then it happens and afterwards, everything is much better. At times, I return to my self and realize I am singing, but do not even remember how long I have been singing."
Me: "Do you mean you go through a full ego dissolution, what many consider the most difficult and profound mystical experience that a human being can undergo, in almost every ayahuasca ceremony?"
[Dionisio Santos describes "the experience of death-rebirth as the initiatory process par excellence, which inevitably lead to a dissolution of all personal, somatic, psycho-socio-cultural religious references."]
Abraham: "Yes. But once it occurs, you are brought back. In a way, that is the cosmic joke of it all. It happens, the indescribeable, but then you come back in an instant, once that gift has been received."
Me: "I can see why you are such an open channel. I think that level of surrender to Spirit is rare, even among curanderos and maestros."
Abraham: "When that moment arrives, just breathe. Hold yourself firm with your hands on the ground. And realize that it is only the death of separation and illusion. It is an extraordinary blessing."
A butterfly explores the fruits and leaves of the Chacruna plant [Psychotria viridis] | Photos by Altinho Machado
El Drago Milenario, the Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco), estimated to be approximately 1000 years old and located on the island of Tenerife, Spain
Pajé Tekahayne of Aldeia Vakaynu of the Shanenawa people | Photo courtesy of Abraham Lozanobrioso
"When I first started dieting Noya Rao, I used to feel such cold during the ayahuasca ceremonies. I would wrap myself in two blankets and would still be shivering from its wind. You will eventually get used to it though, just like we did." - Shipiba curandera Luzmila Mori (decd.) | Photo courtesy of Céline Etcheverry-Mendy and taken circa 2009
A beautiful album of medicine songs by Oksana Priyā Uma Ishwari, a dietera and member of our Dieta studies group, which includes songs such as "Palo Volador" and "Mapacho Song."The album can be found here:
oksanahailo.bandcamp.com/track/palo-volador
Shibibo curandero Olivero Garcia Panduro and his wife, Erminia Sanancin Monzonbite, at Canaan de Cachiaco in 1988 | Photo by R.L. Weber
On the traditional meaning of Haux_______
"For us, Haux was the first sound emitted by the boa constrictor, the cosmological being from which the Huni Kuin (Kaxinawa) people originate, and the one who taught medicine to our people."
"The Haux, many years ago, was used only by the Pajé when starting and completing a chant or healing work, as a greeting to the people gathered and a greeting to the spiritual world, using the language of the boa constrictor."
"Over time, "haux" became a more flexible and commonly used term, meaning a greeting, confirmation, or thanks."
- Tuwe Huni Kuin
_________
"Haux is not a salute. It is a sacred word used in healing rituals."
"Haux in Sheyuki: Sheyuki is a massage when the Pajé uses his hands to massage over the sick part of the patient's body and at the end of the procedure, he joins both hands and blows to the heavens, saying Haux! Let the healing come!"
"Haux in Rakushakin: After a night of drinking Uni (Ayahuasca), the Pajé has divine force in his body and power in his mouth. He has been exuding the force of the miração (mareacion) all night long. So he calls the children and old people together and `atu rakushakin`, he will blow on their heads so that his prayers will vaccinate his people and keep illnesses away. Then he will join both hands and blow to the sky saying Haux! Let the healing come!"
"Haux in Vekushi: It is a spiritual cleansing, when the Pajé burns Sepa, our sacred medicine. The Pajé says Haux! I come to heal!"
"Haux in healing work: Haux is used when the Pajé begins a prayer for healing, which we call Unimai, which means 'it is beginning, it is creating, that a prayer is being born.' The Pajé closes a prayer with Haux. It is also used during breaks. After the Pajé has prayed all night into a clay pot for a sick person, he ends with Haux, which seals his work, meaning 'so be it, may the healing take effect,' giving it to the Creator to bless that work."
...
"Traditionally, if you were not a Pajé and had never dieted Rare Muka, our shamanic initiation plant, you were not allowed to pronounce the word Haux, as Haux was a way for Pajés to exude the power that was within them to pass on the power of healing."
"If you were not a qualified Pajé, and you spoke the word Haux, it was considered an insult to our spiritual leaders. Or you were called Paisma, Txau kesha, which means the mouth of a machete snake, which is worthless."
- Tashka Yawanawa
_______
"Haux is a sacred word for the Yawanawa people and has become trivialized by New Age people. I spoke about this with the late Pajé Tatá, who said with a serious face:
"Haux is puinki natu of whoever says it without knowing what is really means."
Translated, the butthole of whoever writes or says it without knowing what it is.
Then we looked at each other and almost died from laughter."
- Tashka Yawanawa
___________
[Photo is of the late Pajé Tatá of the Yawanawa people by photographer Sebastião Salgado]
The meaning of anything is given by the people who are communicating. There's nothing carved into the stone, and I'm pretty sure the higher energies know the difference.
Gratidão 🪶 hãhãhãrrrã …
A panoramic view of a protected national park within the Amazon Rainforest that stretches from Brazil to Peru: Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor (Brasil) | Parque Nacional Sierra del Divisor (Peru)
Dr. Maria Gilda Yawanawa, is an indigenous woman from the Yawanawa tribe, who overcame significant challenges to graduate from medical school in Cuba. As of 2017, she was working in Rio Branco as a medical physician with a residency in infectious diseases.
She feels that she is on a mission, and eventually plans to return to "that beautiful place," the indigenous territory of the Yawanawa people at the River Gregório.
________
"What I learned in medical school is totally different from the traditional medicine of the [Yawanawa village]. I believe very much in traditional medicine, in the healing of the plants, especially when it comes to spirituality."
"Because a human being is a biopsychosocial being, as we learned in university, so when one sphere of a human is affected, he or she will certainly show symptoms in another sphere, in the body for example. When a person's mind is sick, there can be a lot of suffering."
"I remember caring for our dear Tatá [the late Yawanawá elder Pajé], and he was suffering during the last years of his life. I used to give him Western medicine for some of his conditions that was causing him pain."
"But at night, he would receive spiritual treatment, which was tremendous for me to witness, because I could see that he was healing himself."
"This was a powerful experience for me because I could see the effect of the Western medicine and treatment I was giving to him; while at the same time, I could observe the effect of the prayers of my uncles, my cousins, those who completed their dietas [of Muka]."
"It completely confirmed for me the power and force of the plants, of our prayers, and of the strength of traditional Yawanawa medicine."
- Dr. Maria Gilda Yawanawa
The Death of a Pajé___________
Maestro Abraham: "I was in a nixi pae (ayahuasca) ceremony in a Huni Kuin village when one of the elder Pajés of the Huni Kuin people, began his death process within the force of the miração [mareacion]. He made a strange gurgling noise during the ceremony, then just fell to the floor."
"He was then carried to the center of the circle by his people, and the ceremony continued for the next 7-8 days, until finally he passed."
"We drank ayahuasca continuously during this period, barely eating. The Huni Kuin people changed their traditional nixi pae [ayahuasca] chants during this time. These chants seemed to direct the force of the medicine entirely to the dying Pajé."
"This changed the miração [mareacion] completely for everyone. No matter how much ayahuasca people drank, nobody would go through their own process or cura."
...
"During those days, all of the Huni Kuin Pajés, both the known ones, as well as the unknown ones hidden from public view, began to arrive."
"They arrived wearing their cocars (large feathered crowns), some walking only with the help of other people because of their advanced age."
"These Pajés also drank the Nixi Pae (ayahuasca) and began to sing to the dying elder Pajé, blowing rapé into his nose."
...
"I also noticed that the uncontacted tribes had gathered in the jungle around the village, making whooping noises from within the forest, which they usually do to signal when they are nearby."
"Somehow, the uncontacted indigenous people, who stay away from any contact with outsiders, also seemed to sense the passing of this reknowned Pajé."
🙏🙏🙏
Walter Mees