"...The songs are like lullabies to the spirits, soft and almost wistful invocations to them and this quality makes the atmosphere of the whole CD delightful...A delightful collection."

Nick Wood

Sacred Hoop Magazine

Ernesto Cardenal, The Music of the Spheres

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This icaros CD is sold out and out of print. We don't know when next copy will be available!

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A very limited production CD of a wonderful icaros (magical songs, taught to the shaman by the plant spirits),   compilation recorded live in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, during healing sessions and traditional ayahuasca ceremonies!

Click here to listen at the splendid icaros of don Leoncio in Real Player.

On Icaros

Derived most likely from the jungle Quichua verb ikaray, “to blow smoke” for healing (1) the Spanish word icaros designates the magical lyrics, incantations, either whistled or spoken, learnt by the shaman through the ‘dieting’ of plant teachers. The icaros are used in a variety of ritual contests, especially (but not only) during healing sessions and during ayahuasca ceremonies, to establish contact with the spirit world. The ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), which lends its name to the homonymous magical brew, ranks - along with the Coca plant and the San Pedro cactus - as the most sacred plant in Peru. The singing of the icaros - learnt by the initiate from the mother spirit (madre) of the plants, animals, stones, or other elemental entities - is of paramount importance in the healing process (for the diagnosis and cure of an illness). Icaros may be also used for  a variety of other shamanic tasks, ranging from protection, to the performing of love magic rituals (pusanga), or soul loss recovery, to quote a few.  The icaros may be intertwined (2) with other magical aspects of shamanism in the Peruvian Amazon: the yachay or mariri (this is - to those that can see it during the effects of ayahuasca - the whitish substance, the magical phlegm, that the shaman keeps inside his body and regurgitates at will), the arkana (or spiritual defence), the virotes (‘active’ and ‘passive’ magical darts used, respectively, by brujos - e.g. sorcerers - and shamans alike, to attack or defend from an enemy), and the genios (or guardian spirits) of animals and plants. Icaros are essential in communicating with the spirits of the plant teachers (hence their importance in the preparation of the ayahuasca brew and during ayahuasca rituals), and reinforce the effects of shamanic prescribed remedies, either for healing or for bringing good luck in love and work. All the icaros featured in this compilation are icaros de la medicina, magical songs for healing during ayahuasca rituals.

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This icaros CD is sold out and out of print. We don't know when next copy will be available!

Contact us to Pre-Order a copy for next print, or for similar future Icaros CDs productions.

Appeal

Please support our work by purchasing original copies of the icaros CD. We are a small, independent organization and need your help to continue with these productions. El Mundo Magico has entirely financed the making of this CD, from the recording level, to the selection of the icaros to be presented, to the complex editing and mastering phase, to the final production and promotion. Editing these songs proved to be more than a challenge, given the live nature of the recordings and - in special mode - the settings and 'complementary bodily sounds' usually accompanying all ayahuasca ceremonies! 

We are exploring ways to promote our icaros CD, as well as future productions, to a wider audience and very much welcome any contribution, suggestion, idea or project - compatible with the magical and sacred nature of these songs - that would bring benefits to all parts involved, including our shamans - keepers of this knowledge and without whom this work would never have been realized in first instance - in a ethically-sound way. Our appeal is especially addressed to people working in the music environment, musicians and producers alike, and to individuals, organizations, or institutions which purse among their aims the preservation of native and shamanic cultures of the Amazon. 

More on icaros in the:

Glossary of most common terms used in vegetalismo

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Email: El Mundo Magico  info@elmundomagico.org

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