| San Pedro & Peyote: The Hunter Deer Throughout South America, indigenous names for various different hallucinogenic mixtures refer to the “jaguar,” for example, the Kamsa of Columbia call their most potent brew the mits-kway borrachero which means “intoxicant of the jaguar.” The Chavin culture in Peru have ceramic vessels painted with images of San Pedro in association with jaguars, which date from 1200-600 BC. San Pedro Cactus is a rich source of mescaline. A tribe called the Kubeo, who inhabit the Columbian Amazon, claim that banisteriopsis caapi, one of the two principle ingredients of ayahuasca, causes “men to see people in the bright colors of the jaguar.” (72) A journey to the land where peyote grows is documented by Peter Furst. I reproduce a large portion of it here for the sole fact that this “hunt” involves some very interesting features of Native American “thought” regarding the spirits of the plants and how they must be “captured” with arrows and “sacrificed.” This theme is common and seems to originate from India when the Brahmans would ask Indra to strike down Vrtra, to release the flowing waters and give up the Soma. Although these rites and this country are far removed from India, there is a similar theme in the “ritual”: “Ramon took aim, and the first of his arrows buried itself a fraction of an inch from the crown of the nearest hikuri. He let fly with a second, which hit slightly to one side. Jose ran forward and fired a third, almost straight down. Ramon completed the “kill” by sticking a ceremonial arrow with pendant hawk feathers into the ground on the far side, so that the sacred plant was now enclosed by arrows in each of the four quarters. The Mara’akame bent down to examine the peyote. “Look there,” he said, “how sacred it is, how beautiful, the five-pointed deer!” Remarkably, every one of the peyotes in the cluster had the same number of ribs-five, the sacred number of completion! Later on, he was to string a whole series of “five-pointed” peyotes on a sisel fiber cord and drape it over the horns of Kauyumarie mounted on the vehicles. “The companions formed a circle around the place where Elder Brother lay “dying.” Many sobbed. All prayed loudly. The one called Tatutsi, Great-grandfather, unwrapped Ramon’s basket of power objects, the takwatsi, from the red kerchief in which it was kept and laid it open for Ramon’s use in the complex and lengthy rituals of propitiation of the dead deer and division of its flesh among the communicants. Ramon explained how the kupuri, the life essence of the deer, which, as with humans, resides in the fontanelle, was “rising, rising, rising, like a brilliantly colored rainbow, seeking to escape to the top of the sacred mountains.” Do not be angry, Elder Brother, Ramon implored, do not punish us for killing you, for you have not really died. You will rise again, Ramon was echoed by the pilgrims, we will fee you well, for we have brought you many offerings, we have brought you tobacco, we have |
brought you water from Our Mothers, we have brought you arrows, we have brought you votive gourds, we have brought you maize and your favorite grasses, we have brought you tamales, we have brought you our prayers. We honor you and we give you our devotion. Take them, Elder Brother, take them and give us our life. We offer our devotion to the kakauyarixi who live here in Wirikuta; we have come to be received by them, for we know they await us. We have come from afar to greet you.” (73) This appears to represent the same tradition that was always held by the ancient people, in which the “drug deity” is sacrificed and eaten ritually. It’s very possible this led to rumors of cannibalism among more civilized populations, but ultimately, we now understand that the Catholic Church always knew that it was the mushroom, and not real humans being sacrificed, and it was them pushed the propaganda to the unsuspecting masses and naïve, and dumbed down masses. This is evident as we have seen by the head of St. John the Baptist, St. George and others. The healing properties contained within Peyote are remarkable. The University of Arizona separated a water-soluble crystalline extract of lophophora Williamsi (peyote) with ethanol which “exhibited antibiotic activity against a wide spectrum of bacteria and a species of the imperfect fungi” and furthermore, that “the name peyocactin has been given to the principle anti-microbial component contained in this partially purified substance.” The scientists found that this extract had “inhibitory action against eighteen strains of penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.” (74) Iboga: The Hero of the Heroin Afflicted Ibogaine, made from the Iboga root is a very powerful hallucinogenic substance. This plant has the power to stop addiction dead in its tracks. The success rate is very high and the fact that most people have never heard about it is testimony to the power of the opiate and pharmaceutical manufacturers. It is currently illegal in the United States and can cost as much as $6000 to seek treatment at a clinic in our neighboring Mexico. Fortunately, as I write this in review just prior to publication, the use of Iboga is now decriminalized in Oakland, along with mushrooms and all other naturally derived psychedelics, so Ibogaine treatment in the US may now be just around the corner. In the past, I have been remotely involved in helping two friends “clean up” from heroin and in both cases they were able to quit without any serious discomfort at all. Unfortunately, without low cost follow up treatments, the desire to slip back into previous habits and lifestyles, proves to be a recurring obstacle in treatment. (72) Shamanism and Drug Propaganda, p. 29; Flesh of the Gods, p. 115; Schultes in Reichel-Dolmatoff, The Shaman and the Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs Among the Indians of Colombia, 1975, xii (73) Flesh of the Gods, p. 175 (74) ibid, p. 178 |