Ayahuasca Medicine: The Shamanic World of Amazonian Sacred Plant Healing

174 Pages·2014·4.17 MB·English

by  Alan Shoemaker

EnthEogEns/shamanism $14.95 S
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“Ayahuasca Medicine is a highly readable collection of incredible stories about mirac- o
ulous healings and life with indigenous healers sure to entice anyone with an interest e
m
in ayahuasca and other psychoactive plants used in Latin America. Cautionary advice
a
admixes with infectious enthusiasm for the topic and provides a valuable contribution
k
to the literature on practical applications of psychedelic plants’ effects.”
e
Rick stRassman, m.D., author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule r
and coauthor of Inner Paths to Outer Space
For more than 20 years American-born Alan Shoemaker has apprenticed and worked
with shamans in Ecuador and Peru, learning the traditional methods of ayahuasca
preparation, the ceremonial rituals for its use, and how to commune with the heal-
ing spirit of this sacred plant as well as the spirit of the San Pedro cactus and other
sacred plant allies. Now a recognized and practicing ayahuasquero (ayahuasca
a
shaman) in Peru, he offers an insider’s account of the ayahuasca tradition and of its
y
use for expanding consciousness and achieving healing through access to other
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dimensions of being.
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Shoemaker details his training and his own curandero practice using ayahuasca
medicine, tobacco purges, psychedelic mushrooms, and other visionary plants. He u
discusses the different traditions of his two foremost teachers and mentors—Don
a
Juan, an ayahuasquero in the Peruvian Amazon, and Valentin, a San Pedro shaman
S
in Ecuador. He reveals the indispensable role played by icaros, the healing songs
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of the plant shaman, and offers firsthand accounts of miraculous healing resulting
from ayahuasca’s ability to reveal the cause of an illness, including how he healed his a
mother from liver cancer.
The author also addresses the rising popularity of Northerners traveling to the m
Amazon to seek healing and mind expansion through ayahuasca and shows how this
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fascination is triggered by humanity’s reawakened need to connect to the universal
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life force.
i
c
AlAN SHoEMAkEr is a formally trained ayahuasquero, curandero,
i
and writer. He is the host of the annual International Amazonian n
Shamanism Conference, administrator of the “Vine of the Soul
e
Intensives,” and founder and director of the Soga Del Alma church
of ayahuasca. He lives with his two children in Iquitos, Peru.
PArk STrEET PrESS
roCHESTEr, VErMoNT
Cover design by Peri Swan
www.ParkStPress.com Cover image by Anderson Debernardi
This book supports the
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Reforestation Project
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AyAhuAscA
Medicine
“Alan Shoemaker has seen it all, and done it all. In this book he
narrates his life story with humor and passion. A read sure to be
of interest!”
Dennis McKenna, Ph.D., ethnopharmacologist
and author of Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss
and coauthor of The Invisible Landscape
“Ayahuasca Medicine is a revealing journey on the Western sha-
manic path with one of the most preeminent gringos on the
Iquitos frontier. Alan Shoemaker’s apprenticeship with the medi-
cine ayahuasca is rich in wonder, frank in detail, and embodies
the cultural metamorphosis those of us who connect with the
power plants must undergo. And as a new generation of Western
seekers comes to the jungle in search of the mystery, Alan’s great-
est wisdom may be his understanding that true healing comes
from within. As well as the plants and the curanderos, Westerners
are being groomed to be their own teachers, and Alan Shoemaker
stands foremost among them.”
Rak Razam, author of
Aya Awakening: A Shamanic Odyssey
“Alan Shoemaker has had more adventures than most people can
even dream of, and he has written a fascinating book of both sto-
ries and ideas. The stories are brash, revelatory, and filled with
self-deprecating humor; the ideas come from an immense knowl-
edge of ayahuasca shamanism. This is a memoir of twenty years
of experience with shamans and seekers and rogues of all kinds
—an honest and deeply personal take on Amazonian shamanic
practices and beliefs.”
Stephan V. Beyer, author of
Singing to the Plants: A Guide to
Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon
“Ayahuasca Medicine is a highly readable collection of incredible
stories about miraculous healings and life with indigenous heal-
ers sure to entice anyone with an interest in ayahuasca and other
psychoactive plants used in Latin America. Cautionary advice
admixes with infectious enthusiasm for the topic, and provides a
valuable contribution to the literature on practical applications of
psychedelic plants’ effects.”
Rick Strassman, M.D., author of
DMT: The Spirit Molecule and coauthor of
Inner Paths to Outer Space
AyAhuAscA
M ed ici n e
The shamanic World of
Amazonian sacred Plant healing
AlAn ShoemAker
Park Street Press
Rochester, Vermont • Toronto, Canada
Park Street Press
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
www.ParkStPress.com
Park Street Press is a division of Inner Traditions International
Copyright © 2014 by Alan Shoemaker
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shoemaker, Alan.
Ayahuasca medicine : the shamanic world of amazonian sacred plant healing /
Alan Shoemaker.
pages cm
Includes index.
Summary: “An insider’s account of the journey to become an ayahuasquero, a
shaman who heals with the visionary vine ayahuasca” — Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-62055-193-6 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-62055-194-3 (e-book)
1. Shamanism. 2. Ayahuasca ceremony. 3. Hallucinogenic plants. 4.
Hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience. I. Title.
GN475.9.S56 2014
299.8΄131—dc23
2013023539
Text design and layout by Brian Boynton
This book was typeset in Garamond Premier Pro with Omni and Gill Sans as
display typefaces
To send correspondence to the author of this book, mail a first-class letter to the
author c/o Inner Traditions • Bear & Company, One Park Street, Rochester, VT
05767, and we will forward the communication, or contact the author directly at
[email protected].
For my children, Liam and Claire Shoemaker,
and to the spirits of the plants
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conTenTs
Foreword by Peter Gorman ix
introduction 1
n
The Quest 4
synchronicities 7
dr. Valentin hampjes 11
san Pedro 18
Breaking through Barriers 28
in search of a Maestro 34
Return to ecuador 47
don Jose Fatima 61
don Fernando’s Brew 65
The Power of the icaros 75
don Juan Tangoa, Ayahuasquero 80
The spirit World 95
diet 102
My initiation 105
epilogue 115
n
Appendix 1. no shortcuts 120
Appendix 2. The Price of Learning 123
Appendix 3. Two icaros from don Pedro 126
Glossary 129
About the Author 136
index 137