Rainforest Medicine: Preserving Indigenous Science and Biodiversity in the Upper Amazon

Rainforest Medicine: Preserving Indigenous Science and Biodiversity in the Upper Amazon

Rainforest Medicine: Preserving Indigenous Science and Biodiversity in the Upper Amazon

Rainforest Medicine: Preserving Indigenous Science and Biodiversity in the Upper Amazon

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Overview

Chronicling the practices, legends, and wisdom of the vanishing traditions of the upper Amazon, this book reveals the area's indigenous peoples' approach to living in harmony with the natural world. Rainforest Medicine features in-depth essays on plant-based medicine and indigenous science from four distinct Amazonian societies: deep forest and urban, lowland rainforest and mountain.

The book is illustrated with unique botanical and cultural drawings by Secoya elder and traditional healer Agustin Payaguaje and horticulturalist Thomas Y. Wang as well as by the author himself. Payaguaje shares his sincere imaginal view into the spiritual life of the Secoya; plates of petroglyphs from the sacred valley of Cotundo relate to an ancient language, and other illustrations show traditional Secoya ayahuasca symbols and indigenous origin myths. Two color sections showcase photos of the plants and people of the region, and include plates of previously unpublished full-color paintings by Pablo Cesar Amaringo (1938-2009), an acclaimed Peruvian artist renowned for his intricate, colorful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogenic plant brew, ayahuasca ("vine of the soul" in Quechua languages).

Today the once-dense mysterious rainforest realms are under assault as the indiscriminate colonial frontier of resource extraction moves across the region; as the forest disappears, the traditional human legacy of sustainable utilization of this rich ecosystem is also being buried under modern realities. With over 20 years experience of ground-level environmental and cultural conservation, author Jonathon Miller Weisberger's commitment to preserving the fascinating, unfathomably precious relics of the indigenous legacy shines through. Chief among these treasures is the "shimmering" "golden" plant-medicine science of ayahuasca or yajé, a rainforest vine that was popularized in the 1950s by Western travelers such as William Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg. It has been sampled, reviled, and celebrated by outsiders ever since.

Currently sought after by many in the industrialized West for its powerful psychotropic and life-transforming effects, this sacred brew is often imbibed by visitors to the upper Amazon and curious seekers in faraway venues, sometimes with little to no working knowledge of its principles and precepts. Perceiving that there is an evident need for in-depth information on ayahuasca if it is to be used beyond its traditional context for healing and spiritual illumination in the future, Miller Weisberger focuses on the fundamental knowledge and practices that guide the use of ayahuasca in indigenous cultures. Weaving first-person narrative with anthropological and ethnobotanical information, Rainforest Medicine aims to preserve both the record and ongoing reality of ayahuasca's unique tradition and, of course, the priceless forest that gave birth to these sacred vines. Featuring words from Amazonian shamans--the living torchbearers of these sophisticated spiritual practices--the book stands as testimony to this sacred plant medicine's power in shaping and healing individuals, communities, and nature alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781583946237
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Publication date: 09/17/2013
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 432
Sales rank: 717,035
File size: 30 MB
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About the Author

Ethnobotanist JONATHON "SPARROW" MILLER WEISBERGER was raised in Ecuador and the U.S. He has collected over 2,000 herbarium specimens, including first-time collections of several new species. From 1990 to 2000, Jonathon lived in the Ecuadorian Amazon among five indigenous nationalities, and was influential in the creation of three reserves including the Napo-Galeras National Park. He participated in the demarcation of Waorani territory and in groundwork that helped the Secoya people retain a significant tract of their ancestral homelands. He is the executive director of the Council for Cultural and Biological Diversity (known in Latin America as Fundación OSA), supporting rainforest conservation and cultural heritage projects in Ecuador and Costa Rica. He is the steward of Guaria de Osa Ecolodge (guariadeosa.com), a rainforest and ocean discovery and education center on the remote Osa peninsula, Costa Rica. The author lives in Guaria de Osa, Costa Rica.

Table of Contents

Foreword Daniel Pinchbeck xi

Author's Preface xv

Chapter 1 Introduction to Indigenous Science in the Upper Amazon 1

A Celestial University 4

A Unified Worldview and Way of Being 11

Good Masters Are Hard to Find 15

A Show of Power 18

Obtaining Healing Plants from the Celestial Realm 19

More Mysterious Affirmations from the Yagé 22

Meeting the Chiefs of the Animals 24

Raising and Lowering the Mythic Underworld Nets 28

Cloth, Thread, and Needles from the Crab Jaguar's Store 28

The Future of Ayahuasca 30

Chapter 2 Degradation of the Spiritual Science: Sorcery and Superstition 33

No Tolerance for Sorcery 39

Cleansing Temptations of Sorcery on the Sun Canoe, a Secoya Practice 41

Perils and Pitfalls on the Path of Shamanism 43

Reining in Sorcery 47

Chapter 3 The Gift of Ayahuasca 53

Various Approaches to Ayahuasca and Yagé 58

Important Differences in the Consumption of Ayahuasca and Yagé 60

The Meaning of the Names Ayahuasca and Yagé 64

A Medicine Capable of Inspecting the Innermost Vibrations of Mind 67

Origins of Ayahuasca 70

Chapter 4 Elements of the Experience 85

Sacred Songs of the Medicine 86

Yagé Toyá: Designs of the Visionary Realms 105

The Ceremony of Yagé 113

Cultivating the Sacred Within 117

La Dieta: For Purification and Spiritual Mastery 118

Chapter 5 Preparing a Proper Brew 137

Sourcing and Harvesting Ayahuasca 138

Cooking the Plants into a Sacred Drink 151

Chapter 6 The Celestial Summer of the Cicadas 167

Meeting the Cicada People 172

Downy Cicada Jaguar, Diety of the Southern Cross 173

Two Frogs in the Learning of the Tradition 174

Sacred Plant-Based Technologies of the Celestial Summer 177

About the Secoya, People of the Multicolored River 184

Fulfilling the Dream of a Yagé Drinker to Reclaim Ancestral Lands 190

Sharing the Oral Tradition from a Jaguar-Centered Worldview 195

Chapter 7 The Deep-Forest Perspective of the Waorani 211

Meñeiriwempo: Protector Deity of the Waorani People 213

Songs of Hidden People 215

Two Waorani Set the Clouds on Fire 216

Insights into the First Contact 219

The Right of Non-Contact 221

The Origin of Those Who Ate Their Father 223

The Good Way of the Ancestors 224

Working on the Demarcation of Waorani Territory 225

Village Life 228

Becoming an Iroinga 229

Origin Myth of the First Miiyabu 232

The Subtle Use of Miiyabu 237

Chapter 8 The Eyebrows of the Andes 239

The Perspectives of the Condor and King Vulture 241

The Tropical Wet Forest: A Conservation Priority 244

Napo-Galeras: The End of the World Jaguar Mountain 246

Lessons of the Mountain: Powerful Spirits and Places 250

Unkiyabe: Galeras Mountain in Waorani Tradition 256

Jaicunti: Galeras Mountain in Secoya Tradition 257

Modern-Day Adventures in Caretaking a Sacred Mountain 259

Establishing and Protecting Napo-Galeras National Park 262

Wairachina Sacha, Rainforest of the Purifying Winds 267

Chapter 9 Lineage Holders of the Ancient Traditions, Deep Forest and Urban 271

Urban Ayahuasqueros of Peru 273

Don Casimiro Mamallacta, Seventh-Generation Keeper of a Sacred Mountain 282

Amazanga Community 286

Stories of the Old Waorani Warriors 292

Torchbearers in the Darkness 299

Conclusion 301

Endnotes 307

Glossary 353

Bibliography 371

Index 381

Acknowledgments 403

About the Author and Contributors 404

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