Extract from In Search of the Ultimate High by Nicholas Saunders, Anja Saunders, Michelle Pauli. Published by Random House. Copyright Anja Saunders 2000. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the copyrightholder.
"It's not what we learn about plants that is important,
but what they can teach us about themselves that is"
Jason Volpe
Contemporary Shamanism for Westerners ... is this not a slight contradiction in terms? If we look at the traditional indigenous village and the role of the shaman therein, certainly. It is not difficult to give a romantic account that would fit an entheo-tourist brochure: "We entered a remote village in the middle of the Amazonian jungle and saw a circle of natives gathered for ceremony. They drank a brew made of divine plants, which gave them beautiful visions, taught them about healing and allowed them to communicate with the spirits".
This is what many hope for when they venture out into the mysterious jungles, deserts and mountains, looking for a special adventure. However, naively, it overlooks the complex social structures and spiritual belief systems which govern these so-called primitive cultures. For westerners it would require years of study experiencing the culture to understand the way that native people use psychoactives. It is only given to a few to explore fully the shamanic way.
Having said that, there is a growing interest in shamanic practices, even though they may be watered down from their origins. Maybe it is our search for new forms of spirituality or the quest for forgotten knowledge that drives the westerner to take his pick from shamanic practices. And who is to say that this cannot be fruitful? It could be that the pick and mix method is the only accessible way to use and integrate shamanic wisdom in an industrialised society.
The accounts in this chapter are not from indigenous people themselves, but from visitors or people who have adopted some of the indigenous ways to give structure and depth to the ceremonies or workshops in which psychoactives are used with spiritual intent. This is the context in which we look at contemporary shamanism for westerners.
How indigenous people use medicine
In indigenous cultures psychoactives have always played an important role. Chemical industries not being present in these societies, the traditional shamanic use of psychoactives is plant based, such as ayahuasca with the Cashinahua, mushrooms for the Mazateks, peyote for the Huichols, or san pedro for the Andean Indians.
Sometimes the ingestion is confined to the shaman, who is at once priest and healer. The concepts of spirit and health are completely interwoven in traditional societies. When someone is physically ill, it is most often seen as an illness of the spirit and therefore healing is not restricted to the body. The 'medicine', as the psychoactive is called in this context, is used to cure physically (for example as a purgative), and at the same time spiritually as in the case of soul retrieval. This is where the psychoactive component of the medicine becomes very important. Through the psychoactive, the healer/shaman gets to see beyond ordinary vision and uses the spirit of the plant to help him diagnose the illness. He can get information about what damages his patient emotionally or see if other spirits have attacked his soul. The plant spirit indicates what his patient needs in order to come back to balance again - a very holistic form of healing. The shaman is often an archetypal wounded healer. He (or she) has gone through a severe illness, even a near-death experience himself, before becoming the village 'medicineman'. He is therefore qualified to travel to the 'world beyond' and speak with the plant-spirits.
In other tribes, all the adults will take the medicine and a form of self-healing takes place through the insights the plant-spirit offers. In a group, people can make their own individual journey, but within a clear ceremonial context. Depending on the tradition, this can take the form of praying to the earth spirits or the ancestors; or the elaborate construction of an altar. It may be that the ceremony is preceded by a period of fasting, dieting or solitude. Meditation of various kinds, dances, special music, ceremonial gestures and clothing may also accompany the taking of the medicine. This is not so different from some of the more 'new age' workshops that are occurring in the western world.
Medicines are considered sacred and there is always a purpose to taking them: for healing, divination, gaining insight or receiving information from the spirit world. Since the spirit world is so much part of the day-to-day touchable world in these cultures, it is not considered so extraordinary to communicate with spirit plants.
All shamans speak of talking to plants as a matter of course. Enriques Gonzales Rubio visited the Mazatec Shamans. They spoke of the mushroom spirit which lives amongst them and as far as they are concerned have always been around to help them. One of the shamans, Don Pablo, says:
"The mushrooms are something wonderful. You can see very deep to
resolve problems. When someone gets sick, their spirit ends up lost somewhere
out there. With the mushroom, you can find their spirit, in the mountains,
the gorges, the basements, the woods, the bottom of the sea. Even in other
planets or the Great Beyond. The practice of eating the mushroom is very
old, very ancient. Before the Spaniards came, the Mazatecos already had
this tradition. I inherited my knowledge from my dead mother. She was a
good healer."
[Paper by Enriques Gonzales Rubio, The Flesh of God: Sacred Mushroom Traditions
among Mazatec Shamans]
The plant medicines are tied up with a whole cosmology. Most indigenous tribes using visionary plants will tell stories of how the plants showed them their origin and the creation of the world.
Red Eagle is a native American shaman. She gives a picture of the world as she came to know it through the plant spirit of Cannabis:
"The whole system is crossed by a huge labyrinth system of tunnels. A shaman enters these tunnels for journeys. Some are guarded, however, and plants such as Cannabis are powerful keepers of tunnel entrances. You have to 'friend' the spirit of the drug, so it will allow you to pass. Via that tunnel you may then enter secret worlds of perception, and access the knowledge taken to these chambers by travellers who came before. In the case of Cannabis the treasure trove is huge, since it is one of the most ancient companions of mankind."
While someone from an indigenous tribe and someone from the industrialised world might find they have a similar individual response to a psychoactive, different social structures mean that the psychoactive plays a very different role in collective social life.
Pedro Fernandes Leite da Luz visited the Hupda-people in the northwestern Amazonian region and looked at the important role that psychoactive plants play in the social life of the Hupda men.
"The Hupda are skilled hunters and specialists in the collection and cultivation of psychoactive and poisonous plants used not only by themselves but also by other neighbouring groups with whom they interact.
Patu Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu is known by the Hupda as 'Patu' and is used daily. Starting around 4:30 pm the sound of the wooden mortar and pestle, that prepares the leaves can be heard in almost all of the households. Then till about 10 at night the men eat Patu and talk about the trails used in hunting, discuss problems affecting the group, or organise a party. As such Patu has an important role in the socialisation of the Hupda men.
Another plant is 'Xenhet', a red powder made from trees of the genus Virola. Xenhet is at the same time a tree, a powder made from the tree, and an 'enchanted being.' This being, the 'Xenhet', is considered to be a man about eight centimetres tall who, when the shaman inhales the powder for the first time, starts living in the shaman's ear. Here he teaches the shaman about the visions and knowledge which come from 'Carpi' (a psychoactive vine) consumption. Extremely valued by the Hupda, the use of Xenhet is fundamental for those who want to be a shaman.
In taking Carpi the Hupda see 'how the world moves,' as they say, which
means the reason for the creation of the world, how it was done, and the
laws which govern its workings. To obtain knowledge, to be intelligent and
have good vision and discernment, it is necessary to take Carpi and to learn
from it the true form and meaning of all things. In spite of being the same
plant, 'Banisteriopsis caapi', the Hupda distinguish seven different types
of Carpi in accord with the maturity of the plant, the part used and the
general appearance of the vine. To ingest Carpi with the goal of having
good visions, one must observe certain procedures. For some days beforehand
one cannot eat anything roasted, salted, warm, or prepared by a menstruating
woman. It is necessary to clean the body repeatedly by taking an emetic
drink, as well as by maintaining sexual abstinence. Both the preparation
and the ingestion of Carpi take place far from the eyes of women and children,
otherwise the drinker may get sick. Carpi is used in fertility rites and
by the shaman to heal and for its capacity to show sickness and its causes.Those
who want to be good hunters also drink Carpi, which will show where to find
game and how not to be perceived by them. Therefore, the Carpi plays an
important role in Hupda society as the principal medicine and also the primary
conduit for all tribal knowledge... "
[Gonzales Rubio, The Flesh of God]
Council on Spiritual Practices Home Page