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 Amazonian Vegetalismo

Glossary of most common terms

What follows is just an introduction, a small list of the most common terms fund in this site, and is in no way exhaustive of the complexity and variety of the vocabulary in use among the vegetalistas of the Peruvian Amazon.

AYAHUASCA:

The visionary "vine of the soul" or "vine of the dead" (Banisteriopsis Caapi) that lends its name to the homonymous brew - also know as "la medicina" or "la purga" - prepared by both mestizo and indigenous vegetalistas in the Amazon and South America.

BRUJO:

Generally associated to a sorcerer or witch-doctor whose practice is focussed in causing harm to his/her enemies, either for personal gain (i.e. paid by a client to induce illness or kill a person) or revenge. The 'title' is full of negative association in the Peruvian Amazon, almost without exception, although in some areas of the Andes it may refer to a shaman who is equally capable of causing harm or to heal.

BRUJERIA:

Refers to the practice of the brujo/a, or to a magically induced illness.

DAÑO:

Witchcraft-related harm.

ENCANTERO:

A curandero specialized in working with the encantos.

ENCANTOS:

The encantos may be literally translated as "enchantments" and are special stones with healing properties. They can have

different colours - for instance black, white, aqua, red, emerald - and each colour correspond to a specific use in curing an illness.

ICARO: 

Don Francisco Montes defines the icaro as an "air or force charged with positive energy" - i.e. with healing power - "that all curanderos store inside their body", and are used to pull out the negative energy from the body of a patient. The icaros are magical songs or melodies - either whistled or sang - that the spirit of the teacher plants with which one (usually the shaman) has dieted, have taught him. The longer the diet, the more the icaros (specific to the plants dieted) that may be learnt. They have the power to heal (there are, for instance, specific icaros that cure from snake-bite), to direct, structure, protect and clarify the vision during ayahuasca ceremonies but can also be used for other purposes, for instance to communicate with the spirit-world or for more earthly ends, like winning the love of a woman. The huarmi icaros (from the Quechua huarmi = woman) belong to this latter category and are learnt by "dieting" the perfume.  In our first collection of icaros songs on CD we have presented the beautiful icaro del perfume, sang in Quechua by don Ruperto, which belongs to the category of the huarmi icaros. Some icaros are truly hunting and enchanting melodies that reveal their other-worldly nature. They can also be transmitted from a maestro to a disciple. In this case it is believed they would be less powerful than those learnt directly from the plant-spirits.  As don Francisco puts it: "'every plant has its own icaro, and - conversely - every curandero has his own  idiom, the icaro, with which he communicates with the spirits of the plants. [...] When a vegetalista performs a healing he firstly calls upon the spirit of the plants of the medicina, by singing their related icaros, or he charges his magical phlegm with medicina, and began the cure afterwards." Icaros may be received by dieting with many teacher plants and trees. Thus we have - for instance -  the icaro del tabaco, the icaro del ajo sacha, the icaro del chiric sanango - and many other different ones. 

To another category belong the icaros de la piedra learnt through the dieting of the encantos - or special healing stones. The spirit of each encanto with which a curandero is learning, can also teach its own specific icaro, which is mainly used for spiritual protection. There are also icaros related to the spirits of the elements, such as the icaro del viento, sang to call upon the spirits of the wind. The singing of the icaros is probably the most exquisite way for a shaman to communicate with the spirits, being them from the plant, animal or human realm. Icaros such as the one of the ayaruna (from the Quechua aya = spirit, dead and runa = people) are sang to summon the spirit of dead vegetalistas believed to reside in the underwater world, for help during a cure.  The most powerful icaros are believed to be those sang in Indian tongue (especially Quechua), whilst those sang in Spanish are sometimes regarded as less effective (together with those learnt directly from a maestro, rather than from the plant-spirits) though it is very common to find icaros presenting both the native and the Spanish tongue. The gift of the icaros is not necessarily linked to the condition of shaman (or vegetalista, we use here the two terms as synonymous) and there are people who, despite having received icaros from the plant-spirits, are not shamans (nor make any claim as such). We may say that all vegetalistas possess icaros, but not everyone who possess an icaro is a vegetalista. The power and knowledge of a vegetalista is measured by the number of icaros he possess, since each and every single one of them has been acquired during the 'diet' with plants.

MARIRI or YACHAY:

The mariri is the magical phlegm of a vegetalista, a rather mysterious substance that can be regurgitated at will, which work as spiritual and energetical defence. Francisco Montes describes it as the "defence of the defences" - i.e. the ultimate defensive weapon of a curandero.  In essence the mariri is used for protection from virotes (see below): when a curandero feels he is under attack from a virote, he immediately calls up his maririri. Like the icaros, the mariris can be received either from the plants or from a maestro.  When inherited from another maestro, the mariri is physically passed on from mouth to mouth, through the hands. It can be either used as a sort of "defensive (but not active) virote", to return the attack of an opponent, or to heal.

Don Francisco Montes reputes mapacho (black, jungle tobacco of the gender Nicotiana rustica) to be the "food" of the mariri: if not nourished with mapacho smoke the mariri can come out of the mouth of the vegetalista, exposing him to the danger of having it cut off from a brujo (sorcerer), and thus remaining unprotected.   Two of the mariris that Don Ruperto has, originated one from a special tree - whose flowers he gathered once they naturally fell into the river, and drunk during his diet with the plants -  and one from his grandparents (since a very long time). This latter, however, despite being much older, is reputed by don Ruperto to be less powerful than the one he received directly through the plant, in only three months. 

MESTIZO:

Term referred to people of either non-tribal (South American Indian) culture or ethnic extraction. Usually referred to as a mixture of Indian and Spanish-European blood, originated at the time of the Conquest.

MONTE:

Virgin jungle area, unaffected by human dwellings.

PERFUMERO:

A vegetalista who has learnt the way of the plants by 'dieting' with a perfume extracted by several varieties of 'teacher plants'.

PUSANGA:

Love magic ritual, diffused in the Loreto region of the Peruvian Amazon,  that causes one (either male or female) to fall madly in love with the other person (for sex, love or marriage purposes).  In Peru this practice is very common, and is widely and well accepted by all parts of society, without the negative associations of the western culture.

SACHAMAMA:

From the Quechua "spirit mother of the jungle", the Sachamama is a huge eared boa believed to dwell in the same place for a very long time. Vegetation grows on its body and makes the snake easily be mistaken by a fallen tree. It may devour the unaware hunter who has accidentally stepped on its body.  

SUPAY CHACRA:

The quechua word 'supay chacra'  (translated literally as 'Devil's Garden') is also referred to by anthropologist L.E. Luna as 'Chullachaki Garden'. Unique to the Western Amazon, it refers to a jungle area resembling a chacra - e.g. an agricultural plot -  without human intervention. This is believed by local people to be a power-spot, and ayahuasca rituals held in this place are believed to deliver powerful and vivid visions to the participants. Richard Evans Schultes, the father of modern ethnobotany, describes the "Supay Chacra" as "an interesting and unsolved ecological enigma" (R. E. Schultes, Where the Gods Reign - Plants and People of the Colombian Amazon, Synergetic Press, London 1988, p. 90).

VEGETALISTA:

The shaman or shamanic healer of mestizo culture of the Peruvian Amazon.

VIROTE:

A sharp object that can be made from either thorns (like the ones of the huiririma -  Astrocaryum jauari, the huicungo - Astrocarium vulgare, and the supay-casha caspi - unidentified), animal bones or teeth (for instance, a piranha tooth), usually employed by brujos  to cause harm or to kill. 

YAKUMAMA:

Literally "spirit mother of the water", in Quechua, it is a huge anaconda thought to live at the bottom of lakes and rivers. It's the counterpart - in water -  of what the Sachamama is on earth. 

Thus Luna: ''This is a vision of the supay-chacra or garden of the Chullachaki'' (in Luna, L.E. – Amaringo, P.: Ayahuasca Visions - The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman, Berkeley 1999, p. 78).

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