Shamans from different culturesand traditions have been usingpsychoactive plants since thedawn of human emergence.

These plants have been usedtraditionally for guidancedivination, healing, maintaining

a balance with the spirit orconsciousness of the living world.

The

MESA

NORTEÑAthe use of san pedro cactus andhealing altars in the shamanictradition of Northern Peru

HOWARD G. CHARING& PETER CLOUDSLEYtalk with Maestro JUAN NAVARRO

The hallucinogenic san pedrocactus has been used sinceancient times, and in Peru thetradition has been unbroken forover 3,000 years. The earliestdepiction of the cactus is a carvingshowing a mythological beingholding a san pedro, and datesfrom about 1300 BC. It comes fromthe Chavín culture (c.1400-400BCE) and was found in a temple atChavín de Huantar, in the northernhighlands of Peru. Later, theMochica culture (c.500 CE) usedthe cactus in their iconography.

Even in present day mythology, itis told that God hid the keys to heaven in a secret placeand san pedro used the magical powers of a cactus todiscover this place; later the cactus was named after him.

LA MESA NORTEÑA Juan Navarro was born in the highland village ofSomate, department of Piura. He is a descendant of along lineage of healers and shamans working with themagical powers of the sacred lakes known as LasHuaringas which stand at 4,000 metres and have beenrevered since earliest Peruvian civilization. At the age ofeight Juan made his first pilgrimage to Las Huaringas,and took san pedro for the first time. Every month or twoit is necessary to return here to accumulate energy andprotection to heal his people. As well as locals andLimeños (people from Lima), pilgrims also come frommany parts of South America.

During the sessions Juan works untiringly, assisted byhis two sons - as is common in this tradition - in anintricate sequence of processes, including invocation,diagnosis, divination, and healing with natural objects, orartes. The artes are initially placed on the maestro’s altar ormesa, and picked up when required during the ceremony.

These artes are an astonishing and beautiful array ofshells, swords, magnets, quartzes, objects resemblingsexual organs, rocks which spark when struck together,and stones from animals’ stomachs which they haveswallowed to aid digestion!

The artes are collected from pre-Colombian tombs,and sacred energetic places, particularly Las Huaringas.They bring magical qualities to the ceremony where,under the visionary influence of san pedro, their invisiblepowers may be experienced.

The maestro’s mesa - a weaving placed on theground on which all the artes are placed, (mesa alsomeans ‘table’ in Spanish) - is a representation of theforces of nature and the cosmos. Through the mesa theshaman is able to work with and influence these forcesto diagnose and heal disease.

The traditional mesa norteña has three areas: on theleft is the campo ganadero or ‘field of the dark’; on theright is the campo justiciero or the ‘field of the light’(justiciero means justice); and in the centre is thecampo medio or ‘neutral field’, which is the place ofbalance between the forces of light and dark. It isimportant for us not to look at these forces as positiveor negative - it is what we human beings do with theseforces which is important.

Talking with Juan Navarro ....What is the relationship of the maestro with san pedro?In the north of Peru the power of san pedro works in combination withtobacco. Also the sacred lakes Las Huaringas are very important. This iswhere we go to find the most powerful healing herbs which we use toenergize our people. We use dominio [linking one’s intent with the spiritpower of the plants] to give strength and protection from supernaturalforces such as sorcery and negative thoughts.

It is also put into the seguros - amulet bottles filled with perfume, plantsand seeds gathered from Las Huaringas. You keep them in your home forprotection and to make your life go well.

These plants do not have any secondary effects on the nervous system,nor do they provoke hallucinations. San pedro has strength and is mildlyhallucinatory, but you cannot become addicted. It doesn’t do any harm toyour body, rather it helps the maestro to see what the problem is with hispatient. Of course some people have this gift born in them - as ourancestors used to say, it is in the blood of a shaman.

Is san pedro a ‘teacher plant’?Of course, but it has a certain mystery. You have to be compatible with itbecause it doesn’t work for everybody. The shaman has a special k

Although the contents and formof the artes vary from tradition totradition, the mesa rituals serve toremind us that the use and powerof symbols extends throughout allcultures.

SAN PEDRO San pedro (trichocereus pachanoi)grows on the dry eastern slopes ofthe Andes, between 2,000 - 3,000metres above sea level, andcommonly reaches six metres ormore in height. It is also grown bylocal shamans in their herbgardens.

As can be imagined, earlyEuropean missionaries held thenative practices in considerablecontempt, and indeed were verynegative when reporting the use ofthe san pedro. Yet a Spanishmissionary, cited by ChristianRätsch, grudgingly admitted thecactus’ medicinal value in the midstof a tirade reviling it:

“It is a plant with whose aid thedevil is able to strengthen theIndians in their idolatry; thosewho drink its juice lose theirsenses and are as if dead; they

are almost carried away by thedrink and dream a thousandunusual things and believe thatthey are true. The juice is goodagainst burning of the kidneysand, in small amounts, is alsogood against high fever,hepatitis, and burning in thebladder.”

A shaman’s account of the cactusis in radical contrast:

“It first ... produces ...drowsiness or a dreamy stateand a feeling of lethargy ... aslight dizziness ... then a great‘vision’, a clearing of all thefaculties ... it produces a lightnumbness in the body andafterwards a tranquillity. And thencomes detachment, a type ofvisual force ... inclusive of all thesenses ... including the sixthsense, the telepathic sense oftransmitting oneself across timeand matter ... like a kind ofremoval of one’s thought to adistant dimension.”

San pedro, considered the ‘maestroof the maestros’, enables the

shaman to make a bridge betweenthe visible and the invisible worldfor his people.The Quechua namefor it is punku, which means‘doorway’. The doorway connectsthe patient’s body to his spirit; toheal the body we must heal thespirit. San pedro can show us thepsychic causes of illness intuitivelyor in mythical dream language.

The effects of san pedro workthrough various stages, beginningwith an expanded physicalawareness in the body. Soon thisis followed by euphoric feelingsand then, after several hours,psychic and visionary effectsbecome more noticeable.

San pedrobalances

the nervoussystem so

people losetheir fears,frights and

traumas, andit charges

people withpositiveenergy

SH SUMMER 2004 29

relationship with it. It circulates inthe body of the patient and where itfinds abnormality it enables theshaman to detect it. It lets himknow the pain they feel andwhereabouts it is.

So it is the link between patientand maestro. It also purifies theblood of the person who drinks it. Itbalances the nervous system sopeople lose their fears, frights andtraumas, and it charges people withpositive energy.

Everyone must drink so that themaestro can connect with them.Only the dose may vary fromperson to person because noteveryone is as strong.

What about the ‘singado’?[inhalation of tobacco juicethrough the nostrils]The tobacco leaf is left for two tothree months in contact with honey,and when required for the singadoit is macerated with aguardiente, oralcohol. How it functions dependson which nostril is used; whentaken in by the left side it is forliberating us of negative energy,including psychosomatic ills, painsin the body, bad influences of otherpeople - or ‘envy’ as we call it here.As you take it in you must

concentrate on the situation whichis going badly, or the person whichis giving out a negative energy.

When taken through the rightnostril it is for rehabilitating andenergizing, so that your projects gowell. It’s not for getting high on.Afterwards you can spit thetobacco out or swallow it, it doesn’tmatter. It has an interrelation withthe san pedro in the body, andintensifies the visionary effects.

Tobacco is an important plant inthe ceremonies - can yousmoke in the session?No, no, no. It may be the same plantbut here another element comesinto play, which is fire. As thesession is carried out in darkness,the fire in the darkness can perturb,create a negative reflection orvision. It can cause trauma.

You use a chungana [rattle]during the san pedro sessionsand I ‘see’ the sound as a beamof a light penetratingthe darkness. Yes, sound and light areinterrelated. Chunganas are used toinvoke the spirits of the dead,whether of family or of greathealers, so that they may feel

comfortable with us. The chunganasare to give us ‘enchantment’(protection and positive energy) andthey have a relaxing effect whentaking san pedro.

What is the power of the artes -the objects on the mesa?They come from Las Huaringas,where a special energy is bestowedon everything, including the healingherbs which grow there and nowhereelse. If you bathe in the lakes it takesaway all your ills. You bathe with theintention of leaving everythingnegative behind. People go there toleave their enemies behind, so theycan’t do them any harm.

After bathing, the maestrocleanses you with these artes,swords, bars, chontas (bamboostaffs), saints, and even huacos(the powers from ancient sacredsites). They ‘flourish’ you - sprayingyou with agua florida (perfume)and herb macerations, and givingyou sweet things like limes andhoney, so your life flourishes.

We maestros also need to go toLas Huaringas regularly because wemake enemies from healing people,so we need to protect ourselves.

The reason for this is that twoforces exist: the good and the bad.The bad forces are from the pactswhich the brujos (sorcerors withnegative intentions) make with thedevil. The brujo is the rival of thecurandero or healer. So when thecurandero heals, he makes anenemy of the brujo. It’s not somuch because he sends the badmagic back, as because he doesthe opposite thing to him, and theywant supremacy in the battle.

Not far from Las Huaringas is aplace called Sondor, which has itsown lakes. This is where evil magicis practiced and where they do harmin a variety of ways. I know becauseas a curandero I must know howsorcery is practiced, in order todefend myself and my patients.

Do people go there secretly?Of course no one admits to goingthere, but they pass throughHuancabamba just like the otherswho are going to Las Huaringas. Iknow various people who practicebad magic at a distance. They do itusing physical means,concentrating, summoning up aperson’s soul, knowing theircharacteristics etc. and can makethem suffer an accident, or make

AncientPeruviantextiledepictinga figuresurroundedby san pedrocactus

SH SUMMER 2004 30

an organ ill or whatever, or maketheir work go badly wrong.Theyhave the power to get to their spirit.

And people can even do harm tothemselves. For example, if aperson has bad intentions towardsanother and that person is wellprotected with an encanto, (amulet)then he will do himself harm.

How does the ‘rastreo’[diagnosis through psychicmeans] work? Are you in analtered state?No, I’m completely normal andlucid. What allows the reading of aperson’s past, present or future, isthe strength of the san pedro andtobacco. It is an innate capability -not everybody has the gift, youcan’t learn it from someone, it isinherited. The perceptions come

through any one of the senses -sound, vision, smell, or a feelinginside of what the person isfeeling, a weakness, a pain orwhatever. Sometimes, for instance,a bad taste in the mouth mayindicate a bad liver.

All the things on the mesa areperfectly normal, natural things:chontas, swords, stones etc. Theyhave just received a treatment -like a radio tuned to a certainfrequency - so they can healparticular things, weaknesses orwhatever. But always it isnecessary to concentrate on thesacred lakes, Las Huaringas.

Is it necessary for the maestroto take san pedro to havevision?Of course, he must take san pedro

and tobacco. But it is to protecthimself from the person’snegativity and illness, not becausehe needs it to have the vision.

JUAN NAVARRO is a descendant of a longlineage of healers and shamans working withthe magical powers of Las Huaringas.

PETER CLOUDSLEY has built up anexstensive archive of traditional Peruvianmusic and interviews. He teaches courses onmusic and popular culture in Latin Americaand speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese.

HOWARD G. CHARING is a co-director ofEagle's Wing Centre for ContemporaryShamanism. He has studied plant spiritmedicine with shamans and healers of theAndes, Amazon Rainforest, and thePhilippines. He has been initiated in thelineage of the Maestros of the Rio Napocommunity in the Upper Amazon and has beenbaptised into the Shipibo tribe. Howardorganises journeys to meet and work withthese maestros.

Details are on www.shamanism.co.ukor telephone (01273) 882 027

Photo of San Pedro Growing in pots© Organic Shamanic

we mustacknowledge

that we, ashumans, haverealised fromearliest times

that knowledgegoes beyond

sensoryawareness orthe rational

way ofunderstanding

the world

San pedrocan take us

directly to atelepathic

communionand show usthat there is

no suchthing as aninanimate

object

Everythingin the universeis alive and hasa spirit. This isthe gift of the

plants whichoffer us a

doorway intothe infinite

Peoplegather for a

san pedroCeremony.

On the floorthe maestro

has set uphis mesa

SH SUMMER 2004 31