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[Image] THE MESSAGE OF THE SHAMAN

An experience among the Equadorian healers: seeking for an          [Image]
implementarion of their energetic field, but also for a different
balance in the World.

At five o'clock in the morning, in the heart of the Andes, beyond 6000 feet
of altitude, it's quite cold. On the Cotopaxi, the tallest active vulcano
in the World, it's even colder. We're in Equador, following an American
researcher, John Perkins, who has been putting in contact Europeans and
North Americans with Latin American shamans.

The wizard-priest-healers believe that the years we're living are the ones
of the great pachakuti , the total change of all living habits which their
people has to undergo every fifty years. The Vulcans of the Andes awaken,
but most of all, people's dreams and desires change drasticallyi. The
change is depicted by the encounter between the eagle and the condor: the
eagle represents technological power for them, but also U.S. and European
aggressiveness, while the condor is the emblem of Latin America. (Unlike
the eagle, this animal feeds on garbage, therefore, it helps to clean up
the environment instead of just exploiting it). Humanity's duty is ,
therefore, is to create a non clashing situation between the condor
(ecology) and the eagle (technological progress), so that the cooperation
can be fruitful.

[Image] It's thanks to the pachakuti that it is now possible to undergo
        such a tough and fascinating journey through Equador in a small
group, between the freezing peaks of the Sierra. The immersion in the
sacred fountain at dawn is one of the fundamental tests you have to take in
order to meet Lolita, one of the oldest shamans in the Sierra. (Here with
two helpers).

But what exactly is a shaman? A healer is not a precise definition.
Curanderos also exist: they're experts of natural medicine, who often heal
even those illnesses that our medicine cannot cure. The shaman goes one
step further: he/she acts as an intermediary between his/her people and the
divinity, who in these places is often identified with nature. Lolita
received her powers directly from the gods, she can lose them anytime if
she fails to renew her contact with their strength or if she does not lead
her people to a harmonious placing in the environment which surrounds them.

In the jungle it's even worse

There's a feeling that shaman science can't be exported, and it is  [Image]
strong in the jungle. The Shuar, inhabitants of the jungle, seem to
be light years away from anyone with our experience. Up to thirty years
ago, they used to cut their enemies' heads and shrink them with a
mysterious treatment, in order to wear them afterwards on their belts. In
the Rain Forest there are all kinds of hazards: starting from the poisonous
Cuenca ant to snakes.

The Shuar ask their shaman to supply them with a potion that will give them
the necessary courage to face the situation: theayahuasca ,which inquichua
dialect, means soul wine. Here Christian Religion and local rites live
together side by side.

Whoever wants to experiment this potion must observe a fast for the whole
day and must undergo a tough pilgrimage to the sacred waterfalls. They also
have to be prepared to vomit and suffer from dissentheria for many hours,
because the first effect of the ayahuasca is to evacuate the body from all
impurities. Only after this will the hallucinogenic effect start, and this
is the effect that should amplify the knowledge of oneself and of one's
energetic body. This trial is not free of hazards.

[Image] The shaman emits terrifying sounds: as if choking, he/she whines,
        spits and wretches. He/she has taken within him/herself all of
his/her patients' illnessess and tries to get rid of them. The following
morning they are refreshed, even radiant. Shamans commit themselves to
leading a normal life, very similar to that of their patients and they
generally speak the dialect of the region they live in.

Shamans give us a message and a duty: that of defending Nature, which is so
important for our wellbeing, and so endangered in these days. In the
encounter with the condor, the eagle must not overcome it with its negative
characteristics, but has to commit itself so that in the pachakuti the
collective dream will change: the desire to consume more and more material
goods must become a dream of collective wellbeing tuned up with Nature
itself.

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