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What Is Shamanic Healing?
This is what today’s world needs as an antidote to the greed of Homo economicus: the wisdom of the indigenous world for collaboration, cooperation, mutual support, and respect for all of life. This is what the world’s traditional, indigenous healers are providing people that conventional medicine is not.
LEWIS MEHL-MADRONA, M.D., PH.D.
The millennia-old tradition of applying Earth-based techniques with vibrational energy and unseen spirits is generally called shamanic healing. These techniques include energy manipulation; use of sound vibrations, minerals, aromatic oils, and prayers; dietary advice; plant and herbal remedies; bodywork treatment; deciphering dreams; and work with the spirits of ancestors, entities, sacred objects, and nature through entering a trancelike state by consuming hallucinating plants, using sounds like drumming, rattling, or chanting, and performing rituals and ceremonies.
THE QUECHUA PEOPLE AND THEIR HEALING SYSTEM
I was trained in the Quechua healing system as it performed in the village of Iluman by my teacher’s family. The Quechua, or Kichwa, as they prefer to be called in Ecuador, are an indigenous ethnic group that reside in the province of Imbabura, which is named after the mighty dormant volcanic mountain that stands above the fertile, sacred Valley of the Dawn, and they are also in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. The many ethnic groups that composed the powerful Incan empire, who called themselves “children of the sun,” lived in these geographical areas and were united under one Quechua language. Even today there are more than eleven million Inca descendants, who may not all be pure blooded but who speak Quechua in many different dialects.
The Otavalan Quechua (Otavalo is their central capital), who live in the area my teacher, Don José, is from, maintained, against all odds, their traditional identity, with unique music, hairstyles, clothing, handicrafts, festivals and rituals, and belief system despite the Incan and Spanish conquerors and the strong influence of Western industrial high-tech society. Throughout the five hundred years the Spaniards ruled the Quechua, all healing and ritual practices were banned, and the Catholic religion was forced on them.
Despite this the yachaks continued to secretly perform their healing tradition, in hiding and under the cover of darkness. They started to come out in the open only in the late 1980s when their condor and eagle prophecies were revealed to the world. In 2008 the Ecuadorian constitution guaranteed the indigenous their rights to have their traditional medicine. Today there is an indigenous cultural revival: they have started to protect their sacred temples and huacas (sacred objects) and to be proud of their ancient knowledge and culture. Even health clinics and hospitals that incorporate shamanic and Western medicine together are now opening.
The Otavalan are known to be extremely hardworking, industrious, and practical people. They claim that they have had to be, since they were forced into hard labor to produce high quotas for the Spaniard colonialists and they lived in the harsh high-altitude weather of the Andes. This is why I also believe the healing system they developed is also highly practical and time tested.
The Quechua yachaks of the Otavalo area are the healers and spiritual leaders of their communities. They practice many forms of healing techniques. I have experienced some of them myself through Don José. Some, like my teacher, are still very traditional, and some who are younger and more “educated” infuse newer approaches into the old tradition. Some use sound healing and movement, and some stick to the old-fashioned ways in their practices.
Every yachak’s family develops its own style and adaptations and sometimes, since the Inca had the practice of mixing ethnic populations throughout their empire, some shamans mix different traditions as well in their work. You can also sense a strong Christian Catholic influence incorporated into the prayers, altar, and visual presentation on their healing walls. But essentially they hold to a few core beliefs.
THE QUECHUA BELIEF SYSTEM
The Quechua revere the eternal living spirits of nature’s forces such as the apus (mountain gods), Pachamama (Mother Earth), Taita Inti (Father Sun), Mama Killa (Grandmother Moon), Taita Waira (Father Wind), Mama Unu (Mother Water), Mama Ch’aska (Mother Star), and others. In their creation story, it is said that when Taita Inti chose to help humans after Jatun Pachakamak (Wiraqocha, Great Creator) created the universe, he made humans promise never to build or grow more than they needed, to become the guardians of Mother Earth, and to understand that they are connected to all things he created—the plants, animals, rivers, mountains, rocks, sky, and so on.
The Quechua and many shamanic indigenous traditions have three core beliefs: that everything that exists in the universe is alive and contains spirit or conscious energy; that the physical world, as we know and experience it through our five senses, is illusionary—it’s nature and in constant change; and that the invisible worlds, which are composed of spiritual entities in the form of teachers, deities, ancestors, and so forth, are the only permanent worlds, and they interact and impact our daily lives, actions, and thought patterns. In addition the Quechua hold these basic beliefs:
The Quechua believe that the human body, like the universe, consists of two complementary parts: the physical body and the energy or illuminating body (also called aura or parana). This translucent illuminated body is an egg-shaped energy field that surrounds the physical body. It has two energy poles: a North Pole, a few inches above the head, that sends out positive ions and a South Pole, a few inches below the feet, that sends out negative ions. Each pole constantly sends energy beams, thus creating an electromagnetic shield that encapsulates our energy and keeps unwanted energy from penetrating us, much like Earth is protected by the energy shield of the atmosphere. In that energy field we store our memories, traumas, old spirits, and the energies of our ancestors.
According to the Quechua shamans, the human body can also be divided into four symbolic regions, represented by the four cardinal elements: earth, fire, water, and air. The head represents air (in Spanish, aire). It is the place of thoughts, ideas, visions, and intelligence. The pectoral area represents water (agua), the place of feelings and emotions. The midsection or groin represents the sacred fire (mosoc-nina), where passion, sexuality, the vitality of life-giving forces, and creativity are stored. Finally the legs, which represent our connection to Earth (Pachamama), indicate the way we stand in the world, how rooted and grounded we are.
Andes tradition believes in the reincarnation of the spirits of the dead or ushai (soul, spirit), which are believed to be released out of the body at the time of death. Ushai is the fifth element and is as important as the other four—earth, fire, water, and air—since it the union of all of them.
Don Alberto Taxo, a Cotopaxi yachak, teaches that the four psychic planes of soul, astral, physical, and mental are represented by the four elements of fire, air, earth, and water as well, which correspond to the four faculties within each of us, respectively passion, logic, material, and emotions. They represent different levels of vibration and frequency, which exist within the same space, like radio bands on which you can pick up different stations depending on their wavelength. Essentially they are protective casings that allow us simultaneously to experience life at these different levels. Since our consciousness is mostly held at the physical level, we need to make a conscious effort to communicate with the other planes to be fully authentic and engaged in our human experience.
IT’S ALL ABOUT ENERGY
Shamans believe, as science does, that the building blocks of all that exists in the universe are made of energy particles (atomic and subatomic), which, as they move in perpetual motion, rebound on each other, vibrating at different speeds and frequencies that create different physical structures. That vibrating energy is in essence what the shamans call consciousness or spirit.
Take for example the human body, which is made mostly of water, along with oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and calcium and trace amounts of other elements. In addition, a few trillion of bacteria and viruses inhabit our bodies—comprising up to two pounds of our body weight. But that amalgamation of your cells with those bacteria and viruses does not make up who you are. What makes you uniquely you is the continuous eternal energy of your soul—which means there is no death. The essential elements of you don’t die; they are transmuted. Ice, water, and steam provide a simple example of different states of being—the same element in different physical states. What makes these three states different is the speed at which the molecules are moving.
Our thoughts are the result of an electrochemical process. Specialized cells called neurons in the nervous system deliver messages from the brain to the body using electrical and chemical signals. Shamans believe that as they concentrate their intention and thoughts, they can transmit beams of invisible energy to the object of their healing. That enables them to interact with, communicate with, and influence the object and create a demonstrable change (As Japanese researcher Masaro Emoto demonstrated in his breakthrough experiment showing that intentional prayers affect the molecular structure of water). Shamans are also able to interact with other energies or the spirits of, for example, trees, stones, mountains, rivers, animals, and wind; they can learn from these spirits, communicate with them, and influence them. Shamans can send positive, high-frequency energy with messages or prayers for healing, or they can send negative, low-frequency energy to harm others. Quantum physics has come to similar conclusions, which is that the observer changes the outcome of the particles’ behavior and that space and time is a construct of our consciousness.
THE SHAMANIC COSMOLOGY AND HOW IT RELATES TO OUR HEALTH
Is the physical world we are living in the only one that exists? Are there any other invisible worlds? Are those who believe that “what you see is what you get” correct? Is only what is tangible and attainable by the five senses—touch, smell, taste, hearing, and seeing—real? What about those unexplained phenomena we have all experienced at least once in our lifetimes, such as foretelling future events, dreams that become real, visions or communication with the dead or other entities, and telepathy? How can we explain or prove their existence? Humans have asked these important questions since the dawn of civilization.
Many indigenous cultures believe that the known world, the physical world of the five senses, is only one of at least three. They divide the cosmos into three main portions: the lower world, the middle world, and the upper world. Shamanic cosmology was born out of humanity’s profound observations of the natural forces and the mysterious phenomena of our world. It was created to help humans make sense, organize, and accept the inner and the outer worlds in which we live. For millennia, different cultures have developed similar observations, which have probably come from shared human experiences and needs.
The yachaks whom I studied with believe that this cosmological division can be seen in our own body as well. The legs represent the lower world, our connection to Earth; they are our roots. Strong legs are the conduits through which we bring the nutrients and fire into our furnace, or sexual organs. We must have strong legs to survive on this Earth.
The torso, the middle world, is the world of constant physiological and emotional changes. As a bridge between the lower and the upper parts, its digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, and other systems need to be treated with care to keep them healthy and physically powerful.
The head, the upper world, is the place for thoughts, ideas, and spiritual practice and is our connection to the ethereal. We need to train this gate through meditation and prayer.
This cosmological division can also be viewed as the three stages of life: young age—the time of primary impulses, fertility, desires, and action; middle age—the time of change, of reasoning and questioning; and old age—the time of wisdom, reflection, and spirituality.
Each of these worlds contains different characteristics, symbols, powers, and consciousness. Each has a significant role, and each one is relevant to our physical, emotional, and spiritual life. These worlds are not, however, entirely divided; rather, there is a constant invisible energy flow among them through the center of Earth—or our body—and the six cardinal points. To see them and be able to work with them, a shaman enters a nonordinary reality, a shamanic state of consciousness.
The Lower World
The foundation of creation is the underworld or the lower world. It plays a big role in ancient mythologies such as the Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew. Under the influence of Christianity, Hel, the Norse goddess of the underworld and the dead, was vilified and transformed and came to be associated with the concept of punishment by fire and the place where the devil and demons dwell.
Some cultures believe that there are a few levels to the underworld. Different shamans experience these differently in their trance visions. In some parts of Russia, shamans have identified thirteen levels. In the Mayan tradition there are nine, representing the nine levels of consciousness one needs to go through to reach enlightenment. In Norse mythology, there are also nine worlds, with the underworld ruled over by Hel. The ancient Hebrews believed that Sheol (the underworld) is divided into either four subsections or two major ones.
In shamanism the lower world is the realm that is associated with the mother, or feminine energy—the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. It is also associated with what is hiding, developing, and growing inside the womb. It corresponds to the element of fire, the transformative element that resides in Earth’s core. Fire infuses us with our unique life force, our anima. It nurtures us and imbues us with primal passion and sexual potency. It’s probably the reason why the male-dominated church was so afraid of the lower world and chose to vilify and subdue it.
It is in the lower world that the shaman connects to his animal spirit allies for the purpose of bringing messages and knowledge of healing for his clients.
The Middle World
The middle world is also called the physical or terrestrial realm. It is the material world in which we live and that we can easily grasp and interact with through our five senses; we can assess and measure it. We call it our normal world, our reality. Because of that, some of us consider it as the only existing realm.
In the shamanic tradition it is positioned between the two eternal worlds of heaven and the underworld. It is the world of continuous change and flow between two eternal worlds. Many old cultures see the sacred or world tree, with its roots deep in Earth and its crown in the sky, as representing the bridge connecting these two worlds.
In the shamanic tradition the middle world does not really exist. It is a world of dreams, illusions, and make-believe. “The world is as we dream it,” as the shamans deep in the Amazon teach us. Why? you may ask. Because shamans believe that this world is formed solely by the movement of energy particles, which form the world we perceive and experience in our mind. More about that belief in the pages to come.
The middle world is represented by the element of water, which is symbolized by emotion—e-motion as energy in motion. The world is like water in that it is in constant change that, nonetheless, flows in one direction—from birth to death, from beginning to end. Water, the essential element for life, needs boundaries to contain it (the two other worlds), otherwise it is shapeless.
The middle world also possesses unseen earthly powers, magical forces, and spirits, as everything is alive and carries consciousness within it. Shamans journey to the middle world to connect with the spirits of mountains, springs, trees, stones, and other living or nonliving objects, to “see” or “visit” people or events in distant places, to bring knowledge, and to effect change in this realm.
The Upper World
In the upper world one can find the clouds, the air, the celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars—the entire cosmos. It’s where the spirits of our ancestors, angels by many names, gods, and spiritual teachers of all traditions dwell. This is where the soul of the departed ascends to, and new souls descend through this world when they are ready to be materialized. Many spiritual cultures count more than one level in this world—seven, nine, thirteen, eighteen, and even ninety-nine. It is symbolized by the element of air. This realm represents thoughts, ideas, light, inspiration, and a broad perspective. Some believe that after passing through the lower world you emerge within this celestial realm, where we connect with the source of creation or God, Jatun Pachakamak. We think of it as heaven, a place of everlasting joy and bright light, contrary to the lower world, which is marked by death, sadness, and shadows. In Greek mythology Zeus, the king of the gods, rules that realm. Shamans journey to this world to obtain knowledge from the spirits of the ancestors and the dead. The upper world represents the masculine energy, the power of the mind, thoughts, and ideas.
THE PRINCIPLE OF BALANCE
At the core of the shamanic healing tradition is the belief that everything in the universe has two opposing yet complementary forces: dark and light, good and evil, the seen and unseen worlds, rainy and dry seasons, yin and yang. Both are needed to create harmony and balance. We all possess both feminine and masculine energies, the two opposing and complementary forces within us; this is not to be confused with one’s gender or sexual orientation. In our everyday life we need both parts to be whole and to function with harmony.
The feminine energy center is in the left side of the body; it is the life energy that flows straight from the heart and is the source of our lifeblood. It’s the ability to live with full trust, receiving with gratitude the abundance of the universe. It is the energy of walking in tenderness and beauty and the capacity to have faith and fully surrender. It is connected to fertility, motherhood, nurturing, compassion, and deep and turbulent emotions that can be transformed in an instant, much like the element of water. Like Grandmother Moon who shines on us in the dark of night by reflecting the bright sunlight on us, the feminine projects light on our hard-to-reach dark subconscious. This energy is associated with deep knowing, strong perception, and gut feeling or intuition. The feminine connects us to the womb deep inside Earth, life’s core, giving forces that fuel creativity, fiery passion, and intense desires. It is the gravitational force that keeps us grounded to Earth and in reality.
Masculinity, on the other hand, is the energy of logic and thoughts, of big ideas. It is cold qualifying logic, calculated strategy, philosophy, and wisdom that comes from the ethereal world. It is practical and is removed from emotional energy and is symbolized by the blue sky. Its element is air, and without air there is no breath of life. Masculine energy expresses itself by taking a direct, aggressive, and active approach to life. It takes first and asks questions later. It is the warrior who is willing to strike, to kill and protect. Masculine energy is located on the right side of our body.
Honoring those two energetic forces the Quechua built great temples that represented Taita Inti and Mama Killa. These two temples were built in every large population center on nearby opposing hills; some of them still exist but are no longer used for worshipping.
Some years ago, I visited the reconstructed temple of Templo del Sol near Pululahua Crater when the sun was at high noon. I entered the temple and walked for a few minutes through a dark circular tunnel, which signifies the birth canal a newborn passes through as he enters the world. I emerged into a high-ceilinged circular room flooded by bright white light that streamed through a small round opening at the cone-shaped apex of the ceiling. There were three rings of balconies all around the high walls, which were used by visitors for silent prayers and meditations. I watched a local young man walk into the white beam of light and was stunned when his body seemed to completely disappear in the powerful beam; the beam seemed to transform him into light. It’s hard to describe my feelings and body sensations when I myself stood under that strong illuminating beam of light; it was as if the pure white sunlight energized and filled my batteries with healing transformative energy.
Unfortunately, many of the temples were destroyed or built over by the Catholic Church. The most famous one may be El Panecillo Hill in Quito. A huge and imposing statue, the Virgin of Quito, stands on the ruins of the ancient temple of the sun, looking down on the whole valley of Quito.
BALANCING THE MASCULINE AND FEMININE
Unity and balance between the masculine and feminine parts are essential for any healing to occur. True healing must first acknowledge those forces and start an inner dialogue that can lead to honoring those aspects, a process that reunites them and brings them into a supportive relationship. That is why you will see on a shaman’s altar objects that represent these two energies, such as red or white carnations or roses, eggs, musical instruments, and volcanic healing stones. During the heal-ing ceremony, the shaman always begins the healing at the crown of the head and then moves to the left side (feminine) first, to open up the receiving energies, and then goes to the right side (masculine) to open the activation process. To be a good shaman one mustn’t be shy to use the energies of both genders in one’s healing practices as needed, even shape-shifting into the opposite gender.
To be healthy you need both energies or you become imbalanced, like a bodybuilder who overdevelops his upper body and neglects his legs, or people who develop their spirituality and forget their physical body. When someone has too much of one energy and too little of the other, the two forces clash with each other, which creates imbalanced behavior, builds tension, fosters conflicts at work and in personal relationships, and causes physical sickness. I’m sure you know men who are afraid to show their feminine side and so tend to be overly aggressive, or women who are afraid to show their masculine side and remain subordinate. The reverse is also true: men who are overly feminine and women who are overly masculine. A man or a woman who is too male is like a corporate lawyer who leaves his heart at home when he goes to work.
I have seen this imbalance in my practice many times.
ILLNESS THROUGH IMBALANCE
In contrast to Western medicine, traditional shamanic healing is not necessarily about curing someone’s symptoms or manifestations of illness. Rather, it sees the sick person as a whole complex environment and makes an effort to reinstate the person’s overall health. True healing happens by restoring harmonious balance and connection to nature and fostering oneness among the person’s body, soul, and spirit. The shaman aspires to locate the deeper cause of the client’s condition, which may be emotional or spiritual in nature, and bring the client back into alignment with his or her soul’s calling, spirit’s purpose, and daily path.
The Quechua strongly believe that all physical, mental, and spiritual problems are essentially the results of an imbalance in our energy bodies. This imbalance in our energy body results from polluted energy penetrating our illuminated body—that oval sphere that envelopes us.
Bad energy can be easily transferred through words and sounds, through our mind using curses and the evil eye, and through emotions such as jealousy and envy (envidia). If you become jealous or envious, for example, you can transmit that bad energy to your family, friends, and clients. Just being in or around physical places that contain negative air or wind energy (mal aire or mal viento), like the location of a murder, a battlefield, or a natural disaster can transmit negative energy to us. These conditions can occur by meeting harmful spirits (duende) or harmful energy attachments or intrusions sent either intentionally or unintentionally by another person as in witchcraft (brujeria). A trauma, shock, or sudden fright (susto or espanto) can unbalance the energy and cause a soul loss.
Negative energy (Supay) has a lower vibration. It is stagnant energy, thick, heavy, without life force, and essentially related to evil and death. Positive energy (Kawsay) flows freely, is moving and changing like life itself, and is recognized as light, a higher vibration.
The shaman’s sole work is to bring his client back into a state of balance and harmony. An Ecuadorian shaman once told me, “Listen to me carefully. I’m going to tell you the three most important principles of shamanic healing: (1) be in balance with yourself, (2) be in balance with your family and community, (3) be in balance with Mother Earth. That’s it. It is all about being in balance.” Sounds so simple, but it is not.
This is the balance between the earthly heavy and dark forces and the heavenly forces of spiritual and light or the balance between feminine and masculine energies, found by opening all the energy blocks in the body. Opening the body’s energy blocks and cleansing negativity will help to lift anxiety, depression, fatigue, and emotional trauma—opening pathways for happier relationships, peacefulness, better sleep, higher energy, better concentration, and the attainment of abundance.
Shamans believe that the major part of healing is done by none other than Mother Earth, herself, Pachamama. Mother Earth—who goes by other names: Alpa Mama, Mama Terra, Ima Adama—is the real healer. The shaman’s body and spirit become a vessel that channels her energy and her vibrations, which do the actual healing. Therefore, the shaman must be humble and take no credit for the results of the healing he performs, as remarkable as the healing might be. As Ipupiara used to say, “Mother Earth is doing 50 percent of the work, the patient is doing 40 percent, and the shaman only 10 percent. So how can one take credit for that 10 percent?”
WHAT BLOCKS US
Many of us find ourselves asking the same nagging questions throughout our lives: Why can’t I become a better and a happier person? What stops me from reaching my career goals or making money? Why am I so afraid of finding a partner or making a commitment in my relationships? Why do people always take advantage of me?
Sound familiar? We may feel helpless and not know what stops us from living to our full potential. Some of us take all the blame on ourselves: “I’m too weak, too stupid, too this, too that. I draw bad luck to me.” Some blame others: “It’s all my parents’ or my siblings’ faults. It’s because of the place and circumstances into which I was born.” Some feel they are the victims of an uncontrollable situation, and it is out of their hands: “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Likely, it’s some of all of the above.
Energy blockages can be caused by a variety of incidents or circumstances. It could be a seemingly innocuous life event that is not easily remembered and has been brushed off as not a big deal. Or the client may have witnessed or experienced violence, a threat or trauma, or physical or sexual abuse. Many negative energy blockages originate from old fears, guilt, negative beliefs, and judgment put on us by our immediate family members. The blockage can also come from other people’s curses, projected energetic hooks, or spirit attachments. Past life incidents or the unfinished business of ancestors and their interference in the client’s life can also contribute to blockages.
These blockages are obstacles that get in the way of our material and spiritual abundance. Sometimes we feel we do not deserve to have what we want. We may have an inner wish to not take on responsibilities, as the more we have, the more we have to take care of.
DIAGNOSING AND REMOVING BLOCKAGES
The shamanic healing way attempts first to find the true cause of the blockage or obstacle and then remove it from its root. Those blockages could be physical, emotional, or spiritual. By removing the obstacles that clog the river of life, it can flow freely again and restore the flow of the client’s energy so she can become a more integral part of nature and society.
It is hard to see energy blocks and to locate them within you. We can only sense their existence in our physical bodies or energy fields using our intuition and sensory powers. Some shamans are able to see energy blocks as a dark mass in their clients’ physical body or illuminated energy body. They learn to scan their clients’ inner physical and energy bodies with their knowing eyes and intuitive feelings.
To diagnose blockages shamans employ a number of tools. They can connect with and receive information via their spirit helpers. Shamans in the Amazon and other cultures can see these blockages once they ingest special medicinal plants. Some can locate them through candle reading, in which a client brushes a candle over his or her body and the candle absorbs the client’s energy. Once lit, the shaman can use it to spot any blockages. They may also read the reflections in obsidian and glass mirrors. Some shamans can lay hands on or above their clients’ body and detect where negative energy lies by the different temperature it emits from the body. Some people can see it from far away. Some shamans see entities that intrude on a person’s body in the form of people or animals. In my healing workshops, I teach people to successfully see and feel negative energies, and they are always surprised at their ability to do so.
Reinstating the energy flow clogged by those blockages can be a challenge. Throughout the ages, shamans have developed numerous tools and methods to remove these blockages and obstacles from their clients. Shamans can use ceremonies using the four elements: fire (transformation of the old), water (purifying and flow), air (blowing away), and earth (grounding). They make metaphysical incisions using metal or wood swords and spears, and they also use prayers and chants. Some use cord-cutting ceremonies to break a connection to an unhealthy relationship, deep breath work, and healing with sounds—all to remove those barriers. They can engage in soul retrieval, the process in which a shaman locates a missing part of the client’s soul and reunites it with her client; shamanic journeys with spirit guides to seek knowledge and answers on behalf of the client; positive affirmations and meditations; fire ceremonies to burn old negative energy and bring transformation; curse removal; and much more. Of course, each culture or tradition does it differently and uses different ingredients based on its locations, but the principles are similar.
Throughout the healing session the shaman evokes the apus (mountain gods), the spirits of the four elements, and also the spirits of rocks, plants, rivers, and animals to awaken and activate the client’s five senses: touch, smell, hearing, sight, and taste—and hopefully the sixth one by opening the third eye to “see.” His goal is to infuse his client with feelings of emotional and physical well-being to induce balance and facilitate the process of healing. To accomplish this the shaman facilitates a deep connection between the patient and the feeling of oneness with the universe (the Great Creator). This is done through the opening of blocked energy channels among all four body areas and spirit.
Every item used in the healing ceremony is not chosen randomly by the shaman. Each item carries special spiritual energy and symbolic meaning and has been time-tested to bring good results.
In the following two sections, I explore in more detail healing with sound and working with nina, the sacred fire.
HEALING WITH SOUNDS AND MUSIC
Among the methods that Ipupiara taught was the drum-healing technique. He would say, “Sound vibration is like a deep tissue massage that penetrates the hard-to-get-to inner organs. It rearranges the physical and emotional bodies.”
The shaman’s voice and the musical instruments he plays have an important role in all shamanic healing traditions. Drums, flutes, rattles, ocarinas, bells, string instruments, and conch shells are some of the instruments that are used for clearing blocked energy, stimulating hard-to-reach inner organs, and cleansing the energy body that surrounds the physical body.
Some shamans incorporate sound into their regular sessions. They use it to first go inward to get into a trance and then outward to send their intentions to their clients. Some shamans use sound healing, which the Quechua call taki sami, as an exclusive method. They believe that the pulsation of musical tones interacts, rearranges, and activates the body’s own vibrational energy. Sounds can invoke a state of ecstasy to bring about visions and heightened consciousness, can stir up negative energy and trauma trapped in the body’s tissues and organs and thus enable them to flow out, or can harmonize the person with the vibrations of the universe or the Great Spirit.
The Quechua shamans believe that each organ in the body vibrates to different frequencies and the healer must harmonize with that frequency. The lower and heavy tones come from Earth, starting with the feet, while the highest tones come from above and aim above the crown of the head.
The composition of the instruments is of great importance; for example to heal knee and other joint problems, the shaman plays with reeds or bamboo flutes or panpipes because these plants have joints and grow in or near the water and so promote energy flow. Clay instruments, with their earthly lower tones, are best for the legs. Blowing the sounds of a conch shell, which suggests water, on a client’s spine or other areas is good for emotional release. A high-pitched ocarina is used for the mind and higher consciousness. Metal bells or chimes in different tones are used for balancing both energy and the physical body.
I had a personal experience with the power of sound. It was in 1997 on my first trip to Miazal, a Shuar community in the heart of Amazonian Ecuador during an ayahuasca ceremony led by the shaman Daniel Guachapa. He sat in front of me on a turtle-shaped wooden bench as I lay half naked on a bench made from a turned-over dugout canoe, which was set along the bamboo wall of the hut we were in. He opened with an icaro, or sacred spirit chant. The repetitive melody filled the thick, warm jungle night air. The vibrations of his raspy voice and the continued beating of the chakapa—a rattle made of dried leaves—filled my head and penetrated every cell of my body. I entered into a trancelike state and I let go. Strange visions started to appear in my mind, transporting me to different realities. His icaro guided his spirit helpers to release bad energy I had been accumulating for a long time. I found myself humming his icaro. “I passed on my teaching to you this way,” he said the next day.
Don José chants and whistles throughout the entire healing ceremony. Doing this helps to transport his clients to altered realities, allowing them to relax their bodies so that healing can occur. “The voice vibrations are the gateway to connect to spirits,” he said. He also uses a high-vibration bell and a high-pitched ocarina to connect the client with his or her soul.
Don Oscar Santillan, an Ecuadorian shaman, plays different flutes made of bamboo, clay, jade stone, and condor feathers and bones or the larger conch to stimulate the area of his clients that needs clearing and healing. Each pitch is directed to a different organ as the air or wind element moves and shifts inner body and out-of-the-body energies.
One bright and clear morning in Tumbaco, near Quito in Ecuador, I climbed a steep hill with Susana Tapia Leon and her client, an American musician and songwriter. Once we arrived at the top of the hill, she sat her client down on a rock facing the vast valley below and had her do some deep breathing techniques. She then instructed her to sing. At first the client produced lovely, childlike gentle sounds. “Go for more,” Susana encouraged her. “I can’t,” she said, weeping. “I can’t do it. I don’t know how.” Soon the woman started to cry hard. Susana let her discharge. “Now sing from your vagina, from your guts,” Susana sternly instructed her. She sat behind her client, hugging her body strongly. “Start now,” Susana demanded.
With a big effort first, the cracking sounds of a wounded animal came out of her open mouth. Childhood pain, unspoken grief, and deep-rooted anger were released into the void below. Susana kept embracing her strongly. “Now sing.” This time a new voice came out of her client—clear, natural, and full. “I never let myself release those deep emotions before,” she later confided to us as we made our way back down the mountain.
Waterfalls are an excellent place for sound healing in the same way. As you step under the gushing noisy water to clean your body, howl, scream, and pray to release the stuck energies in your body.
NINA: THE SACRED FIRE
According to Don Alberto Taxo, mosoc-nina means “sacred fire” in Quechua. The mosoc-nina energy center resides in the lower belly, about three fingers width below the navel. The nina enables us to be grounded and creates motion, strength, and balance. It is associated with the eternal flame, the life-giving force that radiates to the rest of our body and spirit. It is the furnace that empowers the rest of our body. It is the cauldron of passion and creativity and the womb where life is conceived and germinates. It is the source of sexual energy and vitality.
Other cultures also recognize that energy center in our bodies, and you may find different names and descriptions for it. In the Tree of Life of the Jewish kabbalah, it is Yesod, the foundation, the ninth Sefirah. It is called dantien in Qigong, hara in the Japanese tradition, or kath in the Sufi tradition. In the Hindu tradition of the seven chakras, it is the second sacral chakra, also called svadhisthana.
Nina is not about the sex drive; in fact, there is no word for sex in Quechua. Instead, the word describes the event when two people are engaged in the act of sharing sacred fire and in so doing merge the two most powerful male and female universal energy sources—the eternal fire of Taita Inti, father sun, and the passionate magma core of Pachamama.
Nina is the spark that resides in our body and soul. Awakening and restoring the sacred fire within my clients is an important part of my healing work. In my experience many people in our society for reasons of cultural conditioning and taboos, sexual abuse, trauma, and fears are unconsciously and consciously avoiding or hiding this part of themselves. It sits there like a dormant volcano waiting to explode, like a dam waiting to crack. If nina is blocked and not expressed, it can result in repressed anger and a life of resentment and depression, which can then lead to many afflictions and suffering. No wonder so many people in Western society are sedating themselves.
The shaman’s role is to ignite that sacred fire, which then starts a chain reaction in the client’s physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. By pulling Earth’s magma through the bare feet and up through the legs to the nina area, the connection between Mother Earth (earth element) and nina (fire element) is restored, and the client feels his or her power renewed. This life-giving energy starts to flow into our emotional body (water element), which includes the abdomen, lungs, and heart, and then goes through our throat, the place of expression, and on into our head-mind and thoughts (air element), which helps us connect to the heavens and spirit. Thus the flow of the river of light is opened, restoring the cycle of life and health and enabling us to connect to ushai, the fifth element, whose role is to unite and bring balance to all the elements of life. Don Alberto always said that it is important that the shaman himself intimately connects with, fully understands, and deeply feels the nature of each of the five elements in order to facilitate effective healing.
There are a couple of techniques for detecting the nina in a client’s body. The shamans of the Andes use a candle-reading system, which will be detailed later on, but in short the client first rubs a white candle over his entire body and then the shaman lights the candle and examines the flame, in particular the area where the wick meets the wax. The color, intensity, size, and shape of the flame tells the shaman the state of the nina. Another technique is to place the palms of your hands over this area of the body and feel the temperature and energy that radiates from there.
LA LIMPIA: CEREMONIAL HEALING
The Andean traditional energy cleansing La Limpia is used frequently whenever people get sick, attract bad luck, or other misfortunes arise in their lives. It is a powerful physical and spiritual purification process that can balance the energy field by removing or extracting stale and negative energies. Many other shamanic traditions recognize the importance of clearing the illuminated energy field around us and have similar ceremonies using other means like feathers, smoke, crystals, water, and other methods.
La Limpia ceremony, like most shamanic ceremonies, is usually held at midday, midnight, sunrise, or sundown, as those are the most auspicious times of the day. These are betwixt and between times, when the borders of the physical and spiritual worlds blur, creating a portal through which a shaman and his client can enter into other worlds.
If this illuminated energy shield breaks down or becomes weak, outside negative energy can penetrate our energy field, and we start living in imbalance, which can then lead us to develop physical, emotional, and spiritual diseases. I’m sure you have experienced imbalanced energy penetrating your field; for example, while riding a subway or a bus, or being in a public place, you suddenly felt bad energy coming from the person sitting next to you or someone stared at you intensely and you started to feel bad yourself. Perhaps you were initially in a good mood but then felt yourself getting sick.
To protect both the shaman and the client during a cleansing session, it is important to open a window to allow the bad energy that is released from the client to easily flow out and escape into the universe, where it can be transformed. Or even better, the shaman can do the cleansing right in nature. Both of these measures protect the shaman from absorbing bad energy during the session. For additional protection the shaman can also blow or rub Agua de Florida on his or her hands or rub the hands in sea salt. This acts like a shield against negative energy, while allowing the shaman’s energy to come through.
It is essential that healers practice regular energy-cleansing ceremonies on themselves and also in their home or office. A lot of healers, therapists, and others who work with many clients, after three or four years of practice, experience fatigue and are surprised to see their clients declining. This results from the healer not protecting and taking care of him- or herself.
Cleansing and protection are perfect methods for teachers and healers from all disciplines, such as reiki, massage therapy, dance therapy, and psychotherapy, But really anyone who works with other people, whether in an office or in customer service, can benefit from regular cleansing.
Here are the eleven stages of La Limpia as I understand them. Other yachaks may perform them differently sometimes as different people need different tools and techniques. (See full instructions.)
SPIRIT POSSESSION
Often people contact me when they feel they are haunted or possessed by uninvited entities. These entities enter their bodies and crawl up and down, causing unbearable pains and instructing them how to think, act, and speak. These ordinary people feel hijacked by unknown forces and they are desperate. Most don’t have any previous religious or spiritual backgrounds. Often they wonder how and why this could happen to them. They feel they were normal beforehand and want to know if they have lost their minds. They wonder if their experiences are real.
Are they imagining it? Are they acting out old traumas or re-experiencing them? Did they allow spirit to invade them or bring it upon themselves? And if so, are they responsible to discharge the entity on their own? All valid questions, I have learned never to contest their stories or experiences. They are valid, they are suffering, and they need help . . . fast.
In all human traditions stories are passed on containing accounts of individuals whose bodies and spirits were overtaken by evil spirits. There are Jinni stories of demons, or bad supernatural spirits, of the Arab and Muslim world. You can find many references to good and bad entities in the Christian Bible and in Tibetan, Buddhist, and Chinese mythologies. Jewish tradition claims two universal opposing forces: God and Satan. They are beautifully expressed in the Hebrew language: God’s name is SHa DDaI and the word for “evil being” is SHEDD, which omits the letter I—yud, which symbolizes God—arguing that the state of evil is the lack of God’s energy. Similar to reversing the English word live to spell evil. In Quechua, Kawsay means life-energy and Supay means non-life energy, or devil.
Spirit possession mostly happens to people who live in deep fear as evil feeds off fear and dark heavy energies. Their energy field shield—that orb of protection that surrounds each of us (just like the atmosphere protects the Earth)—is weakened and fractured by heavy negative energies. This can take the form of physical or emotional traumas, violence, intentional and unintentional curses, jealousy, and more. Possession also can happen by being in harmful physical areas, such as homes where violence occurred or battlefields. Negative energies could be spirits of disgruntled deceased people, which attach to live people’s energy fields or enter deeper and possess their bodies. Negative energy can also be manifested as a cloudlike dark energy that roams independently in the universe looking for frightened, vulnerable people to let them in through the cracks of their energy fields so that they can do evil’s work. Evil feeds on fear and darkness.
SITRA ACHRA
My great-grandfather Mordechi Zundel Margolis, a tzaddik (righteous) kabbalistic rabbi from Kolono, Poland, devoted his life to the war with the Sitra Achra, an Aramaic phrase meaning “other side.” He claimed that in the war between the dark and light forces, the dark ones wanted to divert him from the righteous path.
According to my great-grandfather, when God created the world, he gave people the freedom to choose good or bad. Choosing good means following God’s ways, whereas choosing bad means distancing oneself from God and going after all kinds of earthly passions. Inside us we have our soul, which is our truest and purest manifestation. The soul wants us to live in tune with it, to be with God and do good deeds.
Beyond freedom of will, God created bad forces that exist outside human beings. According to my great-grandfather, these bad forces try to force a person to behave in ways opposite to his true soul—that is, to do bad things. These forces are what constitute Sitra Achra, the opposite of good. They seek to darken the world and consistently try to make a person choose bad over good. Because everyone has the power to choose good over bad, the bad forces are created so people can realize their inner powers. When we do not succumb to the bad forces or our negative impulses, we create happiness in the upper worlds and the light of happiness spreads down into the lower worlds.
Before I had a personal dramatic encounter with these forces, I tended to look at them from a psychological or even so-called new age approach. I thought evil was illusionary and existed only because humans believe in its existence. I followed an approach that said spirits are neither good nor bad, benevolent nor malevolent, but can be so because of the projections of the mind. According to this approach, evil is a state of mind, and the key to deal with it is the power to change the mind by achieving a higher consciousness through various breathing or meditation techniques. Or evil can be diffused by using positive imagery and words and avoiding words that have negative connotations. Another view suggests that evil and suffering exist to help us learn life lessons and work through karma. From this perspective, bad and evil spirits are our most valuable teachers.
AN ENCOUNTER WITH EVIL FORCES
I have been going to the Amazon for fifteen years to learn from South American shamans. A few years ago, on the bank of one of the Rio Negro tributaries in the Brazilian Amazon, I took part in a sacred ayahuasca ceremony led by an Ipixuna tribal elder.
As the effect of the bitter brew took hold on me, I heard syrupy-sweet angelic sounds and then saw gentle-looking, whitish spirits hovering above me in a soft whirling dance. This time it will be an easy ceremony, was the happy thought that relaxed me. But that was not to be. After a while, those sweet spirits came closer and asked me to convert to their religious teachings. Naively, I politely refused, asserting my atheistic upbringing at the kibbutz where I was raised. But they kept sweet-talking me, promising salvation and all of my heart’s desires in return. A red flag came up in my mind: who are these spirits.
Suspicion flowed into my body. They kept trying to tempt me. “If you follow our teachings, you will get what you want and become who you want to be.” I became agitated. We started to verbally wrestle with each other.
“It’s a trap, it’s a trap, it’s a trap!” I heard the ayahuasca spirit warn me. “Don’t fall into the hands of evil. Look and see their real faces.”
I looked up again and now recognized their true faces: they were contorted and ash dark with hollow eyes. I was taken aback. We began to argue again. They laughed acidly, saying, in a superior fashion, “You can’t resist us. We rule millions of people around the world who follow us blindly!” We continued to wrestle for what seemed like a long time. At last, totally exhausted, I found my inner power and declared as loudly as I could, “I choose to follow the light! I’d rather give up my life than join you!” Again, I heard them ridiculing me. An inner voice came, doubting this statement immediately. I don’t know how this idea came about but I found myself using all the energy I could muster in my shaky body to gather in the powers of light. Then I threw that energy toward them like I was a native warrior throwing a chonta spear on a group of ferocious wild pigs. I did not let go. I thrust it over and over again, until they slowly receded and finally disappeared into the dark void. My body relaxed. I was grateful to feel the reed mat under me.
I took a few deep breaths and looked up at the deep, starless sky. To my awe, just in front of me floating in midair was an unrecognized male figure. He looked like a spiritual teacher because he was engulfed in bright light. He opened his arms and said sadly, “The universal evil forces took over our ancient Hebrew spiritual teachings. They truly intend to conquer the world by fear and deceit.” “Yeshua?” I asked.
At that instant I saw an extraordinary beam of light and love streaming from my heart toward this humble and loving fellow man. I felt great kinship with this man who was born and lived close to where I did. Then, I realized that a soft bright light surrounded me completely too. “You are part of me,” he said kindly, and he slowly vanished.
My head began clearing. The bitter brew’s effect slowly dissipated from my mouth and body. I heard the wind blowing through the jungle’s leaves. Loud cicadas sang and the rhythmic cacophony of sounds of big toads and tiny green frogs filled the cooling night air. Bewildered by this unexpected vision and message, I lay on my mat for a long while mulling its meaning in my head.
THE SHAMANIC APPROACH
When I speak about evil spirits, I make a distinction between four types, which are slightly different in manifestation, origin, and experience. Though many times they can blend into each other, I still believe that it is helpful in shamanic work to make distinctions among them.
First, independent evil spirits come from a different realm than the one we live in and may take many forms, often of ghastly animal-like creatures. In the Tukano Amazonian language, they are called akuras or what we may think of as gargoyles.
Another type is simply bad spirits that are shape-shifting energy forms: they can be shapeless or can appear in human form. Sometimes these bad spirits are those of deceased people who were angry or frightened during their lives and died with those energies and have continued to spread them. Often people who are unhappy because of their “untimely” death continue to spread a kind of angry energy.
Third, there is bad energy that does not have a human appearance but is sent by humans to hurt each other, such as curses and the evil eye or sending out emotions like jealousy.
Last, these negative energies can also be found in certain geographical locations like land, springs, mountains, cemeteries, battlegrounds, and human habitats where traumas and violent activities occurred like wars, battles, murders, torture, and so on.
Accepting the view that evil can be an independent force in the universe may seem primitive and uneducated or a superstition from the past. Some shamanic traditions hold that there are no good or bad energies—just energy—and that assigning it is only a construct of our mind. But looking only for the light and not acknowledging the shadows and darkness is like denying the existence of night. One Amazonian tradition holds that several evil forces possess every person all the time. These can manifest as addiction, anger, sexual misdeeds, jealousy, lying, greed, stealing, and so forth. These characteristics are caused by an intrusion of negative forces, which can be removed by the local shamans.
SOME MODERN EXAMPLES OF POSSESSION
In my workshops on shamanic self-defense, participants tell personal stories about their own encounters with evil spirits in various forms. In my healing practice I have encountered many clients who have suffered from some kind of possession. What follows are some examples of possession, with the names changed to provide anonymity.
Kathy, a professional in the world of finance, was hearing male voices who gave her misguided driving instructions, reprimanded her on her bad behavior, and sometimes punished her by preventing her from obtaining the jobs she was applying for.
Helen, a young beautician, claimed she was possessed by an evil entity that caused people she was in close contact with to have bad accidents.
Mary, a filmmaker, had her right hand shaking uncontrollably. The best neurologists in New York City saw her, and they could not find anything wrong. She believed it was caused by an evil intrusion. She was right. After a series of treatments, the hand stabilized.
Paul, an author, claimed evil spirits that resided in his stomach told him to hurt himself and mutilate other people.
Jane claimed she woke up at two in the morning to see a dark force in her bedroom, which then proceeded to strangle her. This vision repeated itself for a few months.
Brandon, a CEO for a high-tech start-up, encountered alien evil spirits during and after consuming ayahuasca. After repossession he resumed normal life.
Bruce, a practicing shaman, was having panic attacks due to the intrusions of negative spirits he absorbed during healing sessions with his clients.
John was cursed by his father, who told him from an early age that he was stupid and that he would never produce or do anything good or worthwhile. After a healing session, he went on to become successful.
Lidia was convinced a snake named Charlie had taken residence in her left leg and from time to time climbed up her spine. After his removal, she came back and asked to reinstate her friend. She missed his company.
People who experience possession report feeling engulfed by dark energy or a cloud that blocks them from moving on with their lives and prevents them from getting new jobs or pursuing their careers or finding the relationships they want. What makes seemingly sophisticated, educated, ordinary people living in today’s highly sophisticated technological society and who are not necessarily interested in spiritual work experience these kinds of phenomena and seek the help of shamanic healers? Many of them come to a shaman after having given up on finding answers or help from Western medicine and psychiatrists. Some have been disappointed by the answers given by their religious teachers. When these sources do not reveal the source of their problems, they turn to shamanic healing as the last resort.
From a shamanic perspective, as I understand it, symptoms of spirit possession and bad energy can be detected in individuals and can also be found on a large scale in political parties and corporations and even in the spirit of an entire nation. When an individual is possessed by an evil or bad spirit, he or she will exhibit various physical, emotional, and spiritual patterns. The afflicted person may be unable to take charge of his life, feel shackled by unseen forces, and experience uncontrollable body shaking or a dribbling mouth. She may speak in tongues and have opaque eyes and sweaty sticky palms. He may experience paranoia, hysteria, a distortion of reality, soul loss, and a lack of empathy and may faint for no apparent reason and exhibit sudden radical changes in behavior. She may have a lack of reverence for universal oneness and unity and disrespect the well-being of Earth. I don’t mean to imply that these symptoms automatically indicate possession, but I do find that one or more of these symptoms do appear in my clients who are possessed.
HOW TO DETECT EVIL SPIRITS
I asked Ipupiara about the nature of evil. He looked me straight in the eyes with his wise brown eyes and said, “It is hard to detect negative energy when it is not showing its real face, which it often does not do because of its deceiving and shape-shifting nature. Many times it appears as a force for good, love, and light. But evil or negative energy promotes suffering in others, which sometimes they accept in return for a temporary gain of money and power.”
He continued, “It thrives on igniting fear, unleashing anger, creating separation and division, and calling for revenge. It creates helplessness and depression, mentally and economically. This heavy energy wants to slow things down and bring life to a stop. If not cleared, it seeps through our clothing and skin, into our mind, tissues, organs, and bones, resulting in sickness or even death.
“On the other hand, positive energy or light energy is easier to recognize because the forces of good tend not to harm anyone. This energy treats all beings with love and equality and shows reverence for Mother Earth. It is our role as shamans to remove negative energies and replace them with positive energies that restore health and balance to our clients’ lives.”
“But Ipupiara,” I said, “why do some people do evil to others?” Ipupiara explained that “some people do bad things not because they were born bad—no one is—but because of the negative energy of outside forces they can’t control, which they allow in out of fear.”
THE POWERS THAT SHAPE OUR LIVES
The ongoing battle between good and evil in the unseen worlds constantly shapes our experience of reality. We are all affected by it. These forces can be sent by other people, or they can come from greedy corporations, repressive governments, and radical political parties. These energies live in violent programs on television, the radio, the Internet, and other media. And as Ipupiara so wisely noted, evil can be difficult to recognize because it is secretive and elusive. Evil can impersonate the images of good and light, using deceptive words, such as freedom, democracy, liberty, love, health, and so forth.
So how can we decipher a message and decide whether it is good or evil? There is no way to tell immediately, 100 percent of the time, if a person, spirit, or message is good or bad. We need to pay close attention, read between the lines, and discover the real intentions of a person or corporation. We can investigate and determine whether an institution or individual is saying or doing things that are supportive of life or destructive to life, causing harm to others.
Good spirits never take over or possess a person’s physical body, energy body, or mind. They do not cause harm. They support and guard us and treat all beings and nature herself with reverence. Good spirits work in light, transparency, and love.
Over the course of thousands of years, shamans from traditions all around the world have devised impressive toolkits for working with evil spirits. These include performing ceremonies and using herbs, minerals, stones, plants, eggs, candles, amulets, and so forth, as well as spiritual practices, such as prayers and energy shielding to protect people and their environments from the malicious, negative energies of evil spirits. We need to learn, practice, and become experts in these techniques and, by using them, cease to fear encounters with evil spirits and bad energies.
THE BAG OF BONES SHAMAN
All these healing tools and elaborate techniques are useful, but may not be as crucial as you might think in shamanic healing. Ipupiara once told me an intriguing story, which I have retold many times in my workshops to illustrate this point.
For many years he and his curandera (healer) wife heard of a legendary old woman shaman who lived a few canoe days away from their Taruma compound in Rio Negro. This old woman’s reputation had spread all across the rain forest, and they were burning with a deep desire and determination to discover once and for all the secret of her mythical power before she passed away. So on one of their visits to their compound, they decided that this might be the perfect opportunity to visit her. After three grueling days of travel by canoe, hiking in the muddy flooded Amazon forest, and sleeping in different communities, they arrived at her community. They found her simple stilt wooden hut, and to their surprise, the old woman was already waiting at the top of the stairs as if she knew they were coming.
The old woman, wearing a simple T-shirt and a skirt, invited them to climb up the weathered cracked steps to her humble home. Following customary pleasantries, they settled in and began looking around curiously, expecting to see her altar with the sacred healing power items. But there was no altar to be found. Where is she hiding it? They wondered, glancing at each other. The only things in the bare room were a rough wooden sleeping platform and a bundle of old clothes tucked in the far corner. They looked at each other in amazement.
It was getting late; the sun had started to set over the trees in the west, and Ipupiara, who did not want to leave empty-handed, could no longer contain his curiosity. He took a big breath and at the right moment asked the old woman, “Please, can you show us the tools you use for your healing miracles, which you are so well known for?”
The petite, old “bag of bones,” as Ipupiara described her, smiled a big toothless grin; her face, wrinkled like a dried raisin, brightened. She looked at him mischievously, a special spark in her dark eyes. Then she grabbed him by the hand and led him to an open window. There, pulling up her tiny body, she stretched across the windowsill and reached toward the nearest tree. In one quick movement she broke off a small twig, turned to Ipupiara, and said in her cracked old voice, handing him the twig, “Here, this is all you need.” And she belly laughed so hard. Ipupiara and his wife were naturally disappointed. How did she outsmart us? They wondered.
In my usual skepticism, I naturally thought this was just a nice little story, a simple way to demonstrate his teaching. But to my total surprise, a few years later, while visiting Novo Airão, a small town located on the Rio Negro, where we went swimming with a group of pink river dolphins, Ipupiara met, entirely by chance, an old friend. He was an elder Waimiri-Atroari shaman who agreed to perform healing ceremonies for our small group on the deck of our boat. It was a courageous act of forgiveness by him, Ipupiara explained. In the aftermath of the collapse of the hydraulic dam the government built in the 1960s on their territory, this tribe swore never to engage with white people again. The dam collapsed on its first night of operation, taking with its gushing waters most of the tribe’s population. It was their holocaust. You can’t find this disaster mentioned in any official Brazilian records. More recently, the government had massacred some two thousand of them as they protested the building of BR-174, a new highway, and a new Balbina dam in their territory.
There he stood, a small man with bright narrow eyes, a big smile on his dark face, wrinkled by the unforgiving sun, wearing a large blue cotton hat. Holding a small branch in his right hand, he murmured a healing prayer and proceeded to carefully measure his client’s body parts, calculating the proportions, the width and heights of his shoulders, the relation to the position of the neck, spine, and so on. He gave each of us an accurate physical, emotional, and spiritual diagnostic and proceeded to give us healing advice and instructions. We were all truly amazed by the simplicity and his accuracy. Above all I learned to trust Ipupiara’s far-fetched stories.
LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED
Don José went a step further. He once told to me, “You know, I really only heal with one thing, with love.” I looked at him in shock. I had been trying hard to learn all his complicated teachings for a few years by then. “Only love,” he said and looked me straight in the eyes. “As the shaman stands in front of his client, he must remember that his client is also a manifestation of the apus [mountain gods] and the Great Creator. He needs to become the instrument through which flows the universal energy. The shaman must simultaneously be open and vulnerable enough to be intuitive and yet be as powerful as a warrior.” He added firmly, “He must stop himself from making any judgment regarding the patient’s character, body shape, or anything else and allow the energy of healing love to flow through him and direct him.”
Ipupiara on another occasion said, “You heal with your heart intention, no matter what you know and how big a toolbox you’ve got.”
THE RIVER AS TEACHER
A river is a perfect teacher to contemplate and learn about your life’s journey. Some years ago on a beautiful afternoon at Harriman Park, in upstate New York, I sat on a black rock by a stream that flowed into the Hudson River. The clear, cold water rushed down the densely forested mountain. With happy bubbling sounds the water twisted and snaked its way between huge ancient black boulders and smaller rocks that had been brought down from far away by the melting glaciers of the previous ice age. Small pools and foamy waterfalls, dense green moss and white froth covered the bottoms of the small and large rocks as the water continued to flow, caressing the round pebbles and making sweet murmuring sounds. I observed the stream for a while. I closed my eyes and fell into deep meditation; the stream was teaching me.
Some fallen leaves and small branches floated downstream, and some got stuck and rotted in their place. Did they rot to give life for others? Was this their life purpose? Water never stops flowing by the formidable rocks; it finds ways around them and moves on or seeps into the earth. Those powerful hard rocks were polished, smoothed, and shaped by the never-ending stream of soft vulnerable water. Water collected in a muddy pool. I may not have been able to drink it, but it gave life to mosquitoes, frogs, dragonflies, deer, bears, and other forms of life. Would the trees be here if it wasn’t for this stream? What was happening under the perfectly calm surface? Where did the water come from and where did it go from there, to the river, to the ocean, evaporating into thin air? What did it carry with it? Why did the stream never stop running? For me, the observer, the water was always flowing, but the single drop I just saw there was already miles away or even evaporated altogether. How did she feel?
Years later, near Manaus, in Brazil’s Amazon at the Meeting of Waters—that sacred point to the local Manaós tribe where two colossal rivers, the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões, the Amazon’s tributaries, meet—I would learn other lessons on integration and unity with my Ipupiara and our small group. I was standing on a little river boat getting closer to performing the blessings ceremony for Yara, the Amazonian goddess of all water. Far out and all around us I could see broken trees, plants, and other debris from thousands of miles away being carried along by the two rivers’ fast currents, as they sped on their way to unite with each other, creating a long wedding trail. The two rivers—the black one with its warmer, slower moving water and the red river with its colder water—journey side by side for many miles, slowly trying to merge with each other. They will finally succeed only when the two temperatures become one, the speed becomes one, and the rivers’ colors become one. A great lesson and metaphor on how to unite our Western and Southern cultures together or any two cultures as a matter of fact. On the surface each of them looks awfully peaceful and lazy, but their undercurrents run swiftly and dangerously. Don’t be fooled: deep under the calm surface in the muddy water dangerous fish with huge mouths and sharp teeth swim looking for prey. A fisherman was swallowed alive a week before our visit. Yara is known to be a temperamental goddess with mood swings that can change in a split second, creating a big storm with high, crushing waves. I experienced it a few times myself as she violently rocked our riverboat.
SAYING YES TO LIFE: ABUNDANCE STARTS WITH YOU
Every shamanic tradition has time-tested techniques for removing the energy blocks that prevent you from connecting with the flow of life. Our fears, which come from negative experiences or beliefs, convince us that we are not capable, that we’re inadequate or undeserving. We deny ourselves, often without even realizing it. Rather than allowing the universe to flow through us so we can receive the many opportunities it makes available, we stay stuck within our familiar limitations, like prisoners in our own comfortable cell.
Yes, abundance starts with you. By letting your river flow again, you will start to be in the flow of life and attract abundance to flow with you.
Here are some points to think about and work with. Be grateful and give thanks for everything that happens to you, both the “good” and the “bad.” Both your “friends” and your “enemies” are your teachers; thank them for the opportunity they give you to learn more about yourself. Don’t carry grudges; forgive yourself and others, especially your parents and siblings. Find what your life purpose is and what makes you joyful and passionate and pursue it with passion. Find faith in nature, in God, in the Great Creator. To flow in abundance is to share and give to others, to your community, and to those who need more then you do.
THE INCA WAY: FAITH
Don José, after using the traditional diagnostic candle reading, often reprimanded those he diagnosed for their lack of faith. For indigenous people, living life without complete faith is unthinkable. Some clients asked, “Faith in what?” And he used to say, “Trust in the the apus, in Pachamama, and in Jatun Pachakamak.”
“But how do you gain faith?” they asked in puzzlement. He then would look them in the eyes and with unflinching conviction in his fierce black eyes say, “You need to pray from your heart in earnest and concentrate on developing full trust in the universe.” Come to think of it, no healing can occur without faith.
But what does it take to develop trust in a world where fear, deceit, and competition for power and scarcity of resources is the norm? Can you learn trust in the universe when we are so removed from nature ourselves? Can you learn to trust people who disappointed and harmed you? How can we learn that those obstacles are essentially opportunities for healing ourselves?
The Inca way of bringing healing and abundance into one’s life is through an alignment with Earth, the universe, and our soul purpose or the mythic vision of our life. Only then can you enter into a balancing reciprocal relationship of give and take, in which you live in equilibrium and gratitude and trust Pachamama to truly provide you with all your needs.
In the Andes a special despacho ceremony is usually performed to bring about abundance by offering gratitude to Pachamama and the apus. In this ceremony participants place various grains, other food items, minerals, flowers, amulets, and personal prayers of gratitude or requests written on paper onto an offering blanket. At the end of the ceremony, the shaman wraps all the offerings in the blanket, making a bundle, and “dispatches” it to the spirits by burning the bundle in a fire or burying it in the earth. Fire ceremonies are used by many shamanic traditions to cast off negativity and other obstacles to make room for transformation and abundance.
Most ancient cultures had gods or goddesses of prosperity and abundance, for which they performed special ceremonies and prayers. Some are still celebrated, such as Saramama the corn mother; the Bolivian Ekeko, the mustached Andean god; the goddess Lakshmi, honored by the Hindus; the Celtic Letha; Isis in old Egypt; Frigga of the Norse; the Mongolian goddess Itugen—and many more.
The core shamanic belief is that the Great Creator created the universe perfectly and in full harmony. The universe can provide humans and all living beings with everything we need for our physical, spiritual, and emotional existence. Truly, there is plenty all around us to support and share with all beings on this Earth. So why is it that so many people live in scarcity? Why do some people lack trust in the possibility that we can all live in abundance and have to resort to hoarding fortune and resources at the expense of other humans and animals?
To believe in the unseen forces of life, you need to give up on existential control. You will gain emotional and spiritual freedom. It all comes down to faith. Scarcity comes from fear of not having enough for me to share with others and fear of poverty and of death. It leads to power grabbing, greed, and the distortion of reality. Scarcity is in the service and support of what we call the shadows or evil, the dark forces of the universe.