Cactus of Mystery

by Ross Heaven

  ANGELA, NURSE,

  AUSTRALIA

  San Pedro was so amazing . . . a lot of love and a lot of understanding. It was like seeing for the first time in my life, not with my eyes but with my heart and soul.

  LAURA, STUDENT,

  SOUTH AFRICA

  The most life-changing and healing experience I have ever had, including having a week of ayahuasca ceremonies seven years ago. There was much that was taught and at least one chronic health condition was healed. It was not only the San Pedro journeys but the entire events that were full of magic, learning, and healing. I am grateful that this program exists and for the work that all involved have done to make it so powerful and accessible to as many as possible.

  ROBYN, MASSAGE THERAPIST,

  CANADA

  The energy I brought back is magical. I am still basking in the love of San Pedro and this happiness is staying in my heart.

  SONNA-RA, HEALER,

  NEW ZEALAND

  Thank you is not adequate. The whole experience was magical and sacred! It brought me home within myself. I wish that every person could experience San Pedro. The world’s heart would beat freer and more fiercely than ever before!

  ERIN, ADMINISTRATOR,

  UNITED STATES

  A big thank you for everything. I really appreciate it. I have noticed changes in my life already.

  FERNY, MODEL,

  SOUTH AFRICA

  I would like to thank you for the two best weeks of my life. I had such a positive experience I long to return and never leave. With San Pedro now with me I know I have a powerful ally. I know that I’ll someday soon be hanging out with you again. Til that day comes keep spreading positivity to all that you meet and stay safe, my friend.

  JASON, PH.D. STUDENT AND LECTURER,

  UNITED STATES

  The San Pedro ceremonies were excellent and I am very happy with the guidance and help from all the shamans who attended us. It was top class. I received greater healing than I expected and feel it still to this day. Something was given back to me and my life is richer from it. I thank everyone concerned who helped to make the two weeks in Cusco an experience I will never forget. A must-do once in your life that I recommend to everyone.

  DARRYL, SELF-EMPLOYED,

  SWEDEN

  Footnotes

  *1 This more neutral perspective, beyond “good” and “evil,” is supported by the shamans whom Bonnie Glass-Coffin worked with. In their view, simply, “The right side of the mesa is frequently called banco curandero (curing bench or bank), while the left side of the mesa is frequently called the banco ganadero.” Ganadero has several meanings in Spanish, including the occupational name given to those who herd livestock (ganado) and the nominative reference given to “one who wins or dominates” (from the verb ganar). —R.H.

  *2 Navarro belongs to what I have come to call the “old school” of shamans who employ far more ritual and have a much more rigid structure to their ceremonies than the “new wave” of modern practitioners—like La Gringa and Michael Simonato—who are generally more content to play a secondary role to the healing of the plant and who are the main focus of this book. —R.H.

  *3 This “dreaming state” was also aided by a plant, LSD, a synthetic produced from ergot, a fungus that grows on wheat and has been suggested as the basis for the “flying ointments” of European witches. —R.H.

  *4 Including tyramine, hordenine, 3-methoxytyramine, anhalaninine, anhalonidine, 3,4-dimethoxyphen-ethylamine, 3,4-dimethoxy-4-hydroxy-B-phenethylamine, and 3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxy-B-phenethylamine. —R.H.

  *5 Other plants that might be added to San Pedro include perejil (Petroselinum crispum) for overcoming dano (sorcery) and susto (fright, or for “forgetting love or trauma”) and apio cimarron (Apium graveolens) for curing nervous disorders, insomnia, and anxiety as well as physical problems such as bronchitis and colic. —R.H.

  *6 Envidia—or envy—is regarded in Peru as one of the most common causes of disease. Those affected by it may become so overwhelmed by jealousy of another person’s looks, good fortune, or belongings that they lose their mental or emotional balance and become ill. The disease may express itself as rage, which, if repressed, can give rise to a blockage in the digestive system and to excess bile and acidity in the stomach. If expressed it may manifest instead as mal d’ojo—the evil eye—where the person affected by envidia directs negative energy with such force toward someone they resent that this can lead to suffering and illness for the one who receives it. Many homes in Peru have marigolds outside their doors as these flowers are said to absorb and diffuse the harmful energies of the evil eye. —R.H.

  *7 Tóe (Brugmansia suaveolens)—also known as floripondio, maikoa ( Jivaro), chuchupanda (Amahuaca), aiipa (Amarakaeri), kanachiari (Shipibo-Conibo), and by many other names—is part of the Solanaceae family. Its principal biochemicals are the tropane alkaloids hyoscyamine, atropine, and scopolamine. The plant is used in magical practices for shamanic flight, visionary journeys, shape-shifting, and divination by curanderos (healers) and brujos (witches). In the Andes it is commonly taken as an infusion of pulverized seeds, while in the Amazon leaves and/or flowers are more usually added to ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) to fortify the visionary effects of the “vine of souls.” Tóe intoxication is marked by frenzied initial effects followed by deep sleep in which visions occur that enable the shamans who drink it to diagnose the origin and nature of disease, to communicate with ancestral spirits, and to divine the future. —R.H.

  *8 The mesa is both the altar, or sacred space, of the shaman and his “work station” containing the healing tools of his profession. Many mesas have three defined areas or “fields”—the “dark” field where the origins of disease may be determined, the “light” where healing may be found and positive energy restored, and the center, which is the place of harmony and balance and symbolically the bridge, which must be crossed between ill health and well-being. These different fields also represent what Orellana calls “the three worlds,” which compose the cosmological map used by shamans during their flight to other realms. —R.H.

  *9 This notion of the “three worlds: the upper world, this world, and the internal world” corresponds broadly to (but differs slightly from) the typical cosmology of the shaman, which provides the map of the spiritual otherworld traversed by healers of many traditions. The three realms of spirit are depicted by these shamans as forming a circle containing the World Tree or axis mundi (the center of all things) and divided into three levels: what the anthropologist Michael Harner has called the upper, middle, and lower worlds. The former is the source of angelic, philosophical, or “higher” powers, while the latter is the home of elemental and animal powers. The middle world, meanwhile, is the spiritual equivalent of mundane reality, the place of the ancestors and the realm of ideas and energies, which can be manifested through our thoughts and actions. —R.H.

  †10 Artes (or arts) are the power objects or tools used by Andean healers. As Orellana explains, they may include swords (which are typically employed as weapons against negative forces and to cut through black magic); chonta staffs (which might be run over the body to absorb ill health or cause the flow of useful energy); and crystals, rocks, and herbs (for grounding or, in the case of crystals, “illuminating” a patient and to summon the forces of healing). Others may appear more bizarre, such as car headlights (for “light”) or animal fetuses (for “new beginnings and growth”), but all have a symbolic and spiritual purpose as containers of power and representations of healing. Since the arrival of the Spanish in Peru it is also common to see Catholic symbols like crosses and rosaries used on mesas. —R.H.

  *11 The olfactory is one of our most developed and ancient senses, and science has shown that aromas and scents can have a subtle but profound effect on our feelings and moods. In Peru specialist shamans called perfumeros use these qualities to change states of mind and create good health by blending flowers and herbs to make perfumes and potions, which are said
to be so strong that they can control the fates as well as human behavior—such as the pusanga (the so-called “love medicine of the Amazon”), which can cause someone to fall madly in love with the person who wears it or attract financial success and good fortune when sprayed in business premises. —R.H.

  †12 The idea of “playing” with the brain, with the health of a patient, and with universal forces is a common one in the Andes—as in this incantation about hummingbirds (an affectionate term for San Pedro and the shamans who use it to heal) by the Peruvian healer Eduardo Calderon:

  Los chupaflores juntan

  The hummingbirds gather

  Todos los dolores malos y enfermedades

  All the bad pains and sicknesses

  Juegan con sus encantos

  They play with their enchantments

  The shamanic understanding behind the use of the word play is that good and bad health, luck, or ill fortune (and indeed the whole of human existence) are the result of an interplay of forces, some seen and some unseen, that determine our fates and that these forces can be controlled by the will of the shaman and the use of magical practices. It is also a reminder to both healer and patient that life and health, while serious, should not be solemn matters. —R.H.

  ‡13 “Illness begins in the mind.” One of the common notions in the Andes is that of good and bad “ideas.” The concept really refers to what we might call thoughtforms so that when someone says, for example, that you have “good ideas” they do not mean that you are a creative genius as we might use the term in the West, but that your thoughts (which in turn generate your actions and so manifest reality) are in alignment with the truth and goodness that is at the heart of existence. Conversely, if you are said to have “bad ideas” it means that you are in some way out of balance with the way things really are and may, therefore, be inviting disease into your life. Shamans also talk about good and bad “winds.” These are an accumulation of thoughts and energies, which are attracted to each other because they share a common affinity. The energies of many people having positive and uplifting thoughts can create a good wind, for example, while negative ideas can also band together to form a bad wind, which becomes a sentient force that circulates in the world bringing misfortune and illness. The concept is not dissimilar to Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious. —R.H.

  *14 Juan Navarro is another of the San Pedro shamans I have worked with. On his mesa Navarro has more than a hundred different artes including several staffs, chonta, swords, and metal bars, as well as Catholic artifacts and other items of power. —R.H.

  †15 Florida water—or agua florida—is a cologne made from flowers and herbs with magical qualities to attract good fortune, dispel evil spirits, or protect against disease. Many different varieties can be found in Peru, such as rosa (rose), ruda (rue), and clavelles (carnations), each with its own spiritual purpose. In ceremonies these perfumes may be rubbed on the body or sprayed on participants to “flourish” them and balance the energies of the body. —R.H.

  *16 Singado is a tincture of alcohol, tobacco, and honey, which is snorted into the nostrils to cleanse the body and attract good luck. The seguro is a combination of plants with symbolic and magical qualities, which is used as a charm, and in some applications may also act as a “friend” or counsellor for the person who owns it (see my book, Plant Spirit Shamanism, for more details of this). Tobacco is one of the sacred plants of Peru and used as a healer and cleanser in its own right and also as a channel for spiritual energies. —R.H.

  *17 Wikipedia says of the munay ki that it is:

  A series of nine rites brought to Western society by Dr. Alberto Villoldo, a medical anthropologist who has studied the shamanic healing practices of the Amazon and Inca shamans for more than twenty-five years. Dr. Villoldo assembled the munay ki as a series of fabricated rites [that he] states are derived from . . . the great initiations from the Indus Valley that were brought to the Americas by the first medicine men and women who crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia during the glacial period some 30,000 years ago and who were known as the Laika, the Earthkeepers of old. . . . Some believe it is an evolution of traditional shamanic practice while others hold it represents a “fast food” version of high commercial appeal but little value. People who have received the munay ki rites generally report satisfaction with the results. —R.H.

  *18 Tobacco leaf macerated in honey and alcohol, which many shamans ask participants to snort into their nostrils to clear negative energies and bring good luck. —R.H.

  †19 A plant-based perfume with healing properties. —R.H.

  ‡20 A cloth altar that is laid out in a specific ritual way. —R.H.

  §21 A concept not dissimilar to that of kundalini energy, which is believed in the Hindu tradition to reside at the base of the spine and to rise as a result of spiritual awakening, leading eventually to enlightenment as it reaches the third eye. —R.H.

  ¶22 Wooden staffs sometimes used to beat participants and move their spiritual energies around. —R.H.

  *23 In his interview in this book, Orellana makes a distinction between nighttime ceremonies held for healing and daytime ceremonies that encourage spiritual growth and enhance the fertility of the land. La Gringa does not recognize this distinction and holds ceremonies in the day that have the dual function of healing and spiritual evolution. —R.H.

  *24 At Chavin de Huantar for example (said to be the birthplace of the San Pedro “cult”) anthropologists believe that San Pedro ceremonies and initiations were conducted in underground chambers. Only rudimentary light would enter through small “windows” (actually thin channels dug out of the rock), and mirrors would be placed strategically to direct this light in particular ways so as to create a disorientating otherworldly feel. There are other channels dug into the caves so that running water could be directed to specific locations, its sound creating an odd, echoing eeriness. The initiate, led into this chamber in darkness, would not expect any of this, and having drunk San Pedro would be totally unprepared and unable to comprehend this other world he had been brought to. In this way the familiar landscape of “reality” would vanish and he would be face-to-face with the spirits. —R.H.

  *25 Epigraph translated by Benny Shanon in The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience. —R.H.

  *26 Guayusa is a rainforest plant that, like all plants, has many uses and functions—not just one as we are commonly taught to view plants in the West. One use, as suggested here, is as a purge in order to purify for the day. Another is as an aid to “lucid dreaming” and for this reason guayusa may also be known as “the night watchman’s plant” as it enables those who drink it to remain aware of their surroundings even when they are sleeping. —R.H.

  *27 Puma is a shaman who lives near Cusco. He began training as a healer as a young boy after he was struck by lightening, a sure sign of a shamanic calling in the Andes. “Remember who you are, remember where you came from” is a mantra he often repeats to participants during limpias, cleansings prior to San Pedro ceremonies. He means by it that all men are “Princes” and all women “Princesses” and that we all came from God. Indeed, we are God and capable, therefore, of healing ourselves and others by simply embracing this truth with the aid of teachers like San Pedro. —R.H.

  *28 The Magical Earth is a healing retreat in the Amazon rainf orest where participants take part in ayahuasca ceremonies and recieve healings and cleansings with other medicine plants as well as seminars and workshops on Amazonian shamanism. —R.H.

  *29 Dietas—regimes for working with the spirits of plants—are an important part of the healing experience when learning from teacher plants and can be a journey of self-exploration and discovery in themselves, bringing greater self-awareness and understanding of our routines and habits. They also enhance the visionary experience. —R.H.

  *30 Eidetic imagery: “The ability to retain an accurate, detailed visual image of a complex scene or pattern (sometimes popularly
known as photographic memory) or the ability, possessed by a minority of people, to ‘see’ an image that is the exact copy of the original sensory experience” (Gray and Gummerman). —R.H.

  *31 NAIRD stands for National Association of Independent Record Distributors.

  *32 The Doctrine of Signatures was first postulated by Paracelus, a sixteenth-century alchemist, plant doctor, and revolutionary philosopher, and has been confirmed over centuries of herbal practice. There is more on the subject in my book Plant Spirit Shamanism (Destiny Books, 2006). —R.H.

  Endnotes

  Introduction

  1. Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987). Quoted in Bonnie Glass-Coffin, The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998).

  2. Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, and Christian Ratsch, Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers (Rochester, Vt.: Healing Arts Press, 2001).

  3. Douglas Sharon, Wizard of the Four Winds (New York: Free Press, 1978).

  4. Jim DeKorne, Psychedelic Shamanism (Port Townsend, Wash.: Breakout Productions, 1994).

  5. Bonnie Glass-Coffin, Gift of Life.

  6. Eduardo Calderon, Richard Cowan, Douglas Sharon, and F. Kaye Sharon, Eduardo El Curandero: The Words of a Peruvian Healer (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2000).

  7. Schultes, Hofmann, and Ratsch, Plants of the Gods.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Calderon, Cowan, Sharon, and Sharon, Eduardo El Curandero.

  10. Glass-Coffin, Gift of Life.

  11. Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing, Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul (Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books, 2006).

  12. Peter T. Furst, Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens (Lake Zurich, Ill.: Waveland Press Inc., reprint edition, 1990).