maps • volume xvi number 2 • Autumn 2006 |
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Julia Onnie-Hay
julia@maps.org |
Toward Light in the Darkness: A Review of the SheShamans-MagicMamas and 2nd Amazonian Shamanism Conferences
Julia Onnie-Hay
“We are at the beginning of a worldwide spiritual movement: one
in which women and men trained in various shamanic traditions
insist on their right to openly practice ancient religious rituals as well
as complementary and alternative medicine to restore themselves
to a healthy balance with the world around them.”
-Barbara Tedlock, Ph.D.,
Anthropologist and shaman,
in The Woman in the Shaman’s Body (2005)
“Healers are the white blood cells of the global body
and our white blood cell count is dangerously low.”
-Carlos, apprentice of Don Juan Tangoa Paima, Peruvian curandero,
at the 2nd Amazonian Shamanism Conference
I slowly write this article, midwifing it
into existence, from an internet cafe off a
busy, life-filled street in the Amazonian
city of Iquitos, Peru. I am saturated with
fresh memories of dozens of presentations
by a diverse variety of healers and experts
who work with psychedelic medicines,
as well as many illuminating discussions
with spiritual seekers and scientific
investigators. These individuals have
been courageous enough in their lifejourneys
to venture out of the mainstream
onto the taboo, yet well-beaten, path of
psychedelic healing.
This article is a report on two conferences
where I had the honor of representing
MAPS during the first two weeks of
summer: the SheShamans and Magic-
Mamas Conference in Geyserville, California,
and the 2nd Amazonian Shamanism
Conference in Iquitos, Peru. Both events
were intimate, drawing around one
hundred participants and a dozen presenters,
and because of the strong
synchronicity of their messages, this
article will review both conferences and
situate them within an overview of the
history of global shamanistic healing
traditions.
The shaman, called by many culturally-
specific names including “curandero,” “witch,” and “lightworker,” is, I believe, the original psychedelic therapist. Most
shamans I have met seem to agree that the
medicines themselves are the true teachers.
Yet, these gifted individuals have
administered and facilitated these powerful
medicines for millennia, creating safe
and sacred spaces to navigate the dark,
uncharted territory of spirit and psyche.
Fortunately, in spite of thousands of years
of persecution, a small number of contemporary
shamans and underground psychedelic
therapists continue to practice the
science and art of shamanistic healing
traditions.
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The question
is not if
psychedelic medicines
will ever be legal,
but when and how
they will become
legally
accessible. |
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A History Shrouded in Darkness
Humans have been using psychedelic
medicines, or “plant-spirit medicines,” for
at least several millennia, probably longer,
often in conjunction with shamanistic
healing traditions–widely acknowledged
as the common heritage of both religion
and medicine. Unfortunately, psychedelic
medicines and those who facilitate their
administration have been persecuted by
political and religious powers for hundreds
of years. The witch burnings of the
European Inquisition and the colonization
of the world by the US and Europe are just
two of the series of genocides aimed at
discrediting and destroying indigenous
cultures that honored and used psychedelic
medicines. Still, people in several corners of the globe continued to use the
medicines, often by adapting to new
circumstances and traditions. As western
allopathic medicine developed, chemical
derivatives synthesized from these plants
gained higher trust, prestige and credibility
from the legal, profit-driven medical
establishment.
Over the past two centuries, the
industrial revolution and process of
colonization has accelerated the pace of
the destruction of our natural environment
on Earth and the devaluation of
non-western cultures. The new medical
establishment did not acknowledge the
legitimacy of shamanism or psychedelics,
yet many people all over the world
continued using psychedelic medicines,
quietly. As the international War on
Drugs heightened over the past halfcentury,
psychedelic medicines that our
ancestors used for healing and spiritual
guidance continued to be taboo in mainstream
U.S. society as well as in others that
have been politically, economically and
culturally influenced by the U.S. However,
with the relatively recent successes in
revitalizing legal scientific research on the
healing potential of psychedelic medicines,
more and more people are able to
envision a global society in which psychedelic
medicines are culturally and legally
reintegrated, in which psychedelic
psychotherapists and other contemporary
shamans are respected rather than persecuted,
and in which the medicines are
affordable, safe and accessible. |
SheShamans-MagicMamas
Around eighty women and fifteen
male allies gathered at the eclectic Isis
Oasis Sanctuary in Geyserville, California
for a gathering in celebration of women
who work with entheogens. The conference
participants came from all over
California and even from overseas for
three days of presentations and workshops
led by Adele Getty, Cynthia Palmer, Karen
Vogel, Valerie Corral, Anne Zapf, Sandra
Karpetas, Katherine Harrison (former wife
of the late Terence McKenna), and Jane
Straight. Artistic performances by Lou
Montgomery and others provided festive
entertainment, healers offered massage
and energy work, and artistic wares and
crafts were on display. It was remarkable
to see so many women passionate and informed about psychedelic plants
and substances, in spite of mainstream
society’s ban on these powerful medicines.
The conference opened and closed with
group rituals honoring the spirits of the
visionary plants that fuel the group’s
healing and exploratory work. With
nearly all conference participants standing
in a circle, arms woven together, with
hands clasped to their neighbors’ hearts,
a strong feeling of unity circulated
through the group that was carried
beyond the ritual into daily activities.
Although participants had a wide variety
of spiritual, religious and cultural backgrounds,
they appeared enthusiastic and
open-minded about the rituals. The
closing ritual was facilitated by pagan
priestess and witch Macha Nightmare
with the help of MAPS volunteers Vanessa
Vaudo and Corinna Loomis, an elderly
woman named Mickey from Monterey,
and myself. A closing spiral dance gave
participants the opportunity to gaze into
the eyes of each participant, further
solidifying the connections formed at the
conference. Those connections were the
highlight of the gathering.
One common theme of the presentations
was that women have been working
with psychedelic plants since the beginning
of modern human history and were,
in many cultures, the first shamans and
healers. As elder Cynthia Palmer said in
her presentation, “If we look at women
priestesses and healers of prehistory, they
all worked with psychoactive plants, they
were all gardeners, and they knew if you
ate, smoked or drank certain plants, you
would get in touch with the divine. We
have to get at the root of why we behave
the way we do, and plant medicines are
the great tool to do that.” Another common
theme was the shared love and
respect for psychedelics as healers and
teachers with their own intelligence. As
Katherine Harrison explained, “Plants and
mushrooms are as eager for relationships
with us as we are for them.”
Conference producer Diane Darling
advertised the event as a benefit for the
Womens Entheogen Fund (WEF), a fund
managed by MAPS to offer resources for
exceptional women who help in a variety
of different ways to foster the cultural reintegration
of psychedelic experiences.
Although there was a successful silent
auction that raised about $1,000 for the
WEF and SheShamans contributed
another $1,000, the WEF donated $1,300
towards the event and thus realized only
$700 from SheShamans. All of the conference
participants that I spoke with
expressed a desire for a gathering of wise
women to become an annual event and
also expressed interest in forming smaller
groups that meet regularly to continue
generating the supportive environment
for women to do their work. The urgent
need for a real fundraiser for the WEF
came to light based on numerous projects
envisioned by presenters and participants.
In spite of the legal and socio-economic
hurdles faced by women, “the forces are
too profound, the need is too profound to
disappear. We need to be strong, wise and
prolific in what we do,” said conference
presenter Karen Vogel.
Hopefully, in the future, events such as
SheShamans-MagicMamas that empower
women who work with psychedelics will
continue to be held, in addition to new
events that convey a clear, active intention
to culturally and legally reintegrate
psychedelic medicines into society.
“The peyote spirit walk is frequently
like a night of hell for a morning of
heaven,” explained Anne Zapf, spiritual
counselor at the Peyote Way Church in
Arizona. Likewise, psychedelic healing
work is not all fun and games. While it is
important and great for women to gather
together in celebration of our steadfast call
to work with psychedelics, there is much
hard work to be done for the protection and
survival of the sacred, ancient science of
healing work with psychedelics, especially
by women, perhaps the original shamans. |
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In contrast to
the western
investment
in the power of
the ayahuasca
medicine itself,
it became clear that
the power, skill,
and intention
of the curandero
play a crucial role
in the healing and
visionary work
that takes place
in a ceremony. |
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2nd Amazonian Shamanism
Conference
To help facilitate this conference,
MAPS served as a fiscal agent, processing
credit card orders on behalf of conference
organizer Soga del Alma. In exchange,
Soga del Alma offered MAPS a free
registration for the conference, where I
gave a presentation about MAPS and ran a
MAPS information table.
In contrast to the conference that
happened the preceding week in California,
the 2nd Amazonian Shamanism
Conference was dominated by male healers and presenters. Of the eight
curanderos represented at the conference,
only one was a curandera, a female shaman.
When I asked conference organizer Alan
Shoemaker about this, he noted that the
common South American taboo against
the use of ayahuasca by menstruating
women, and the cumbersome responsibilities
of raising a large family from an early
age dissuade many women from undergoing
the demanding training necessary to
become a curandera. The other nations
represented at the conference (Australia,
New Zealand, Canada, England, Holland,
Sweden, Lapland, Lithuania, France,
Mexico, the United States) apparently are
also not immune to cultural traditions that
prevent women from pursuing psychedelic
healing research and work. The only
two female presenters on the schedule
were myself and Paula C.M. Harbrink
Numan, the apprentice of curandera
Norma Paduro and Vice President of
Estrella Ayahuasca. Still, in terms of
participants, the conference was quite
balanced between men and women, and
the conference obviously could not have
happened without translator Yasmeen
Grant, the friendly Peruvian staff of young
women and men, and Mariella, Alan
Shoemaker’s wife.
This year’s conference was smaller
than last year, but greatly improved
because ample time was allotted for
curanderos to give their own presentations.
Since the majority of conference participants
came to Peru to attend the conference
with the intention of participating in one
or more ayahuasca ceremonies with one or
more curanderos, being able to listen to
each curandero’s philosophy was an
appropriate balance to the presentations
by European and American researchers,
scientists and notables such as Dennis
McKenna, Frank Echenhoffer, Benny
Shanon, Richard Grossman, and Peter
Gorman. While all of the presenters made
significant contributions to the eclectic
discussion of ayahuasca and Amazonian
shamanism, the curanderos were better
able to explain the crucial role that the
curandero plays in shamanic healing.
“A curandero is a person of learning
and wisdom who has developed a clairvoyance
to see the source of a person’s
illness as well as to read their thoughts and emotions,” said Peruvian curandero
Don Juan Tangoa Paima. In contrast to the
western investment in the power of the
ayahuasca medicine itself, it became clear
that the power, skill, and intention of the
curandero play a crucial role in the healing
and visionary work that takes place in a
ceremony. “A curandero is neither guru
nor sage but an individual you can trust
going on the path of an ayahuasca session.
Ayahuasca is the teacher itself,” stated
Benny Shanon in his presentation.
Without the curandero, he emphasized,
that path could lead to dark dead-ends.
After six afternoons and evenings
filled with presentations containing an
enormous variety of often contradictory
information, it is obvious that humanity
is only beginning to comprehend the
powerful nature of ayahuasca as a medicine
and therapeutic tool. One curandero,
Guillermo Arevalo, stated, “Right now in
the Amazon, we can´t say that theres any
pure tradition. It’s mixed. Even the
indigenous are fusing together different
cultural beliefs. This is not a bad thing,
it’s natural. When it comes out of positive
intention, it’s good. When one learns to
balance out these different types of
knowledge, it’s good.”
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Applause, laughs and cheers erupted when Norma Paduro finished her presentation by saying, “Many blessings to President Bush and I pray that he may one day come to drink ayahuasca. Bush, with all his defects, is one of us, one of our brothers, and I wish him happiness.” |
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Because of this “mixing,” there was a
lot of confusion about some of the basic
aspects of Amazonian shamanism, such as
the diet followed before, after, or on a
continuous basis while working with
ayahuasca. For example, most of the
curanderos agreed that the diet includes
abstaining from salt, sugar, spices, and sex,
but Norma Paduro clearly stated (to the
vocal delight of some of the conference
participants) that sex is acceptable during
the diet. Conference participants with
little experience or previous educational
work with ayahuasca and Amazonian
shamanism expressed frustration about
not knowing which curandero’s diet to
follow. Such multivocality in concepts as
important as diet could be dangerous for
those without close guidance. One
curandero stated, “To receive knowledge
from ayahuasca, you must be cleansed
little by little, the way one cleans a
computer of a virus.” Not only can a
person fail to have a powerful experience
with ayahuasca because of disregard or
confusion about diet, it is also possible that the person’s health could be harmed by
drinking ayahuasca without proper
guidance. Like last year’s conference,
participants exhibited a strong display of
faith in the mysterious operations of the
universe, and the complementary recognition
that science has thus far contributed
very little to understanding the healing
and visionary power of psychedelics and
shamanism. “There are plants very sacred,
very capable of doing things that science
says are impossible,” said Elias Mamallacta,
an Ecuadorian curandero.
Many conference participants instead
chose to pursue a mystical understanding
of what ayahuasca is and how curanderismo
works through direct experience. Some
had powerful, life-changing experiences in
which they were blessed with powerful
visions and messages, while other people
became violently ill, purging negative
energies and toxins from their bodies,
while still others perceived very little
during the ayahuasca ceremonies.
“Some people consider ayahuasca a
hallucinogen or drug but for me, it’s a
medicine that cures mind, body and spirit.
I had friends who drank and were disappointed
because they didn’t receive the
visions of DMT. They did not appreciate
the healing that comes with ayahuasca,”
said Percy Garcia, Peruvian curandero,
describing the Western focus on seeing
visions. The curanderos collectively agreed
that ayahuasca uniquely tailors its effects to
each individual through a spiritual intelligence
that operates outside of the scientific
understanding of chemical processes.
According to Don Juan Tangoa Paima, “A lot of foreigners talk about curanderismo
without knowing what it really is.
They think it’s just drinking ayahuasca. I
see a lot of people drinking ayahuasca
without recognizing the spirituality of the
medicine.” Many scientists, Benny Shanon
in particular, expressed doubt as to the
existence of spirits and the spirit realm,
but most conference participants I talked
to acknowledged having personal experiences
that confirm the existence of spirits.
Dennis McKenna stated in his presentation,
“Spiritual evolution is something we
need a lot of. Spiritual experience is
difficult to quantify even though many of
us are coming from a scientific perspective.
Drugs have souls, chemicals have souls, even if synthesized in a lab. Don´t dis the
chemicals. Everything has spirit.”
A concept that united the conference
participants, diverse as we were in our
thoughts and feelings about ayahuasca
and shamanism, was that the medicine can
be a valuable tool in human survival and
evolution. Applause, laughs and cheers
erupted when Peruvian curandera Norma
Paduro finished her presentation by
saying, “Many blessings to President Bush
and I pray that he may one day come to
drink ayahuasca...Bush, with all his
defects, is one of us, one of our brothers,
and I wish him happiness.” The lessons
imparted by ayahuasca and curanderos
were not all taken light-heartedly, though.
Visionary filmmaker Jan Kounen eloquently
explained that, “Drinking ayahuasca
for fun or just to see visions is like
surgeons using heart transplants just for
fun. If you don’t do it carefully, with the
dieta and a good healer, you can touch
realms causing difficult psychological
situations.” In other words, the decision to
drink ayahuasca should not be made
lightly–one should patiently seek out a
good curandera and respect the tradition
that she follows. In such work I have seen
that divine clarity, healing and light can
be found where there was once confusion,
illness and darkness.
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Toward the Light
Both of the conferences were excellent
forums for networking with spiritual
seekers, scientific researchers, students,
practitioners, and shamanic healers, and a
tremendous amount of information was
relayed through dozens of comprehensive
presentations and countless productive
informal discussions. Still, some participants
at both gatherings expressed
concern about a lack of clear intention and
direction. One young woman who attended
both conferences lamented,
“energies and resources were gathered at
both conferences, but how are we going to
move forward? We (advocates of shamanistic
healing with psychedelic medicines)
seem stuck.”
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Courtesy: Jelena Cvetkova |
As environmental and social problems
have grown more dire, and as more people
have studied alternatives to western
allopathic medicine, more people are
turning to the root of all medicine and
religion: global shamanistic healing traditions. The role of MAPS in this
revitalization is to generate the scientific
data and spread the information that will
protect the medicines and shamans from
legal persecution. Just as the Inquisition
and colonization could not destroy
psychedelic medicines and shamanism
completely, the U.S. Drug War is failing
to accomplish its mission and its end is
inevitable. The question is not if psychedelic
medicines will ever be legal, but
when and how they will become legally
accessible. MAPS exists to provide the
structure for these medicines to become
available in legal, safe and affordable
clinics and administered by trained,
trustworthy, licensed, and above all, wellintentioned
therapists: contemporary
shamans.
As more and more folks
learn from psychedelic medicines
and use them for healing,
and as ancient and contemporary
shamanistic modalities of
healing from all over the world
continue to fuse together in a
cultural rejuvenation, the reintegration
of shamanism and
psychedelic medicine is
already underway here, now.
In this time of great suffering,
social injustice, war, illness, imbalance,
spiritual emergency, and environmental
degradation, the participants of the
SheShamans-MagicMamas and 2nd
Amazonian Shamanism Conferences have
shown their willingness to assist in the
healing and evolution of humanity. There
is healing work currently going on and
those with courage and vision must work
to protect the shamans and underground
psychedelic therapists facilitating the
work. It is time for those of us who
attended the two conferences and all
others who are able to use psychedelic medicines under the care and protection of
shamans and underground psychedelic
therapists to help our brothers and sisters
have the same opportunities for healing. It
is time for humanity to collectively move
out of the dark ages of persecution of
shamanism and psychedelic medicines,
and toward the light the medicines so
mercifully, so patiently, so lovingly offer
us when we approach them with respect. |
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