A History of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca

Contents

A History of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca

In recent times, the Holy Medicine of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca has become very popular. As people flock to Amazon and other countries for retreats for once-in-a-lifetime experience of meeting the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca, especially for the potential benefits for people with illness or mental disorders and those seeking spiritual enlightenment.

The history of the Holy Medicine and the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca in humanity is known to go back for thousands of years. The Amazonian traditions popularly claim that the history of finding the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca go back to over 5,000 years. Unfortunately, similar to many ancient civilizations, the Amazonians did not use written language as the traditions were exclusively oral and there is a great dearth of archaeological evidences which make it difficult to trace the actual historical roots.

Also, the rainforest is not well known for preserving evidence and traces well.

Traditional History of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca

According to the Tukanoan-speaking Desana of the Colombian region of the Vaupes, the myth of the origin of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca, reminds how one should not take this Holy Medicine lightly and should show one’s utmost respect. The tale begins with the arrival of the first men of the world, who descended upon a glowing and colorful Anaconda-Canoa. After landing in the forest, they built the first hut or ‘Maloca,’ where they were waiting for a gift that Father Sun had promised them. They started to drink alcoholic intoxicants while waiting for the gift. Inside the maloca, the Sun manifested the first woman, called Yage-Woman, also known as the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca, who was already an adult and pregnant. Sensing the incoming labor pain, the Yage-woman went out of the maloca and entered into the forest, where she gave birth to Her Yage (Ayahuasca) Vine son. The newborn shed a strong light that showed the way back to the maloca.

When the Yage-Woman entered the maloca, all the men were frightened, felt dizzy, and paralyzed. Holding the baby-vine in Her hands at the center of the maloca, Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca asked, “who is the father of this Vine-boy?” and one man came forward and answered, “I am the father of this Vine-child,” and with a knife he cut a piece of the umbilical cord, seeing this, other men followed his example, and each took a piece of the Holy B. Caapi Vine. This is how every indigenous Amazonian tribe received a piece of the Father Sun’s gift, the Holy B. Caapi Vine.

From the myth of the origin of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca, it can be seen that the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca Herself is the gift of the Father Sun, and the Holy B. Caapi Vine is one of the aspects or parts of Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca through which humans gain access to Her. The Holy Medicine from the Holy B. Caapi Vine provides the ‘Way’ to meet the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca.

Traditions & Practices

The Sacred Ceremonies where the Holy Medicine of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca is consumed is known to have originated from the indigenous communities of the Upper Amazons and over many thousands of years – where the aim had been to achieve healing, spiritual aims, divinations, artistic inspiration and guidance or foreknowledge of warfare.

The Holy Medicine is also often referred to in the Amazons as ‘Ayawaska’, ‘Yajé’, ‘Yage’ or Caapi. Traditionally, the Holy Medicine is known to have been prepared only with the Holy Banisteriopsis Caapi Vine, without the admixture of any DMT containing Plants. Gradually, the Holy Medicine in the Sacred Ceremonies is popularly prepared with the Holy Banisteriopsis Caapi Vine and usually with Leaves of Psychotria Viridis (Chacruna), or Psychotria Carthagenensis (Amyruca) or Diplopterys Cabrerana (Chaliponga), which all have the psychoactive component DMT (N-N Dimethyl-tryptamine), which is often referred as the ‘God Molecule’.

The Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca taught about the medicinal values of various Plants to the Shamans throughout ages. It is maintained by Shamans, historically, that the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca directly communicated with the Shamans in their altered states of consciousness, through dreams and visions, to provide the knowledge of the Holy Medicine, and also taught to add admixture of DMT from Plants and other admixture from other Plants for their medicinal properties.

Normally, consuming DMT orally is not effective as it is digested in the stomach and does not reach the blood stream. The Holy Medicine with the Holy Banisteriopsis Caapi Vine, containing MOAI allows the DMT to be passed into the bloodstream in the human body. There is evidence of various groups from South America regions who are known to have inhaled or smoked DMT-containing Holy Plants to produce Psychedelic experiences, although they are known to last for much less periods compared with Holy Medicine which is orally ingested.

Some have also tried to suggest that the natives of Tiwanaku accidentally combined the Holy Banisteriopsis Caapi Vine with DMT containing Plants, as each were used individually for medicinal reasons, and that after their combinations they experienced the increased efficacy and continued the use. There has been discussions and debates in scholarly circles regarding whether the preparation process of the Holy Medicine for Shamanistic reasons came about over thousand years or evolved more recently by lively groups. Some refer to absence of historical sources, like the Incans never detailing where the Holy Plants were grown, as well as Europeans who were interested in Botany having never mentioned about the Divine and Holy Mother Ayahuasca, although they had arrived in South America in the 1500s. It has also been argued that the recipe and processes of preparing the Holy Medicine may be relatively recent, based on much older traditions, which were shared when conquistadors had forced various native communities to live with each other in mixed communities. They suggest that the modern recipes could well be very modern incarnations only few hundred years old as opposed to thousand years old based on thousands of years of ancestral knowledge.

However, although there are suggestions by scholars that the traditions and practices of Sacred Ceremonies with the Holy Medicine of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca may have originated in recent times, there is evidence historically the Holy Plant Medicines have been consumed since Ancient times, many thousands of years ago, by various communities, and called by many names.

Thousand year old evidences

In recent years one of the oldest archaeological evidence was discovered by José Capriles, an anthropologist at Penn State University, in a 2010 dig in the Cueva del Chileno site, which was a rock shelter showing human activity going back to four thousand years ago. He and his team of researchers found a bag with small pouch made of three fox snouts which are sewn well together. The leather bag contained the fox-snout pouch, a headband which had decorations, spatulas made from llama bone, and a carved tube with small wooden platform which experts consider was used for inhaling substances and belonged to a possible Shaman in the past to be used in Sacred Ceremonies where the Holy Medicine of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca, may have been consumed. After testing the chemical signatures inside the pouch it was confirmed that the pouch once contained multiple psychoactive substances including Bufotenine, Benzoylecgonine (BZE), Cocaine (possibly from coca leaf), Harmine, possibly Psilocin – a chemical component of Psychedelic mushrooms, and Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

The Holy Banisteriopsis Caapi Vine is one of the primary ingredients of a Sacred Ceremony, which is often combined with DMT-containing ingredients like Psychotria Viridis (Chacruna), or Psychotria Carthagenensis (Amyruca), or the Diplopterys Cabrerana (Chaliponga), which together produce strong Psychedelic experiences.

The Shaman from Cueva del Chileno, from the items in the pouch, can be considered as one of the world’s earliest archaeological evidence of using Psychedelic substances. Although each Shaman may prepare the Holy Medicine with different recipes today, experts like Dennis McKenna agreed that the substances found in the Shaman’s pouch were most likely used for Sacred Ceremonies of the Holy Plant Medicine.

IMAGE 1: The fox-snout pouch was discovered in a larger leather bag which held additional ritual items. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JUAN V. ALBARRACIN-JORDAN AND JOSÉ M. CAPRILES

IMAGE 2: Figurines decorate a carved wooden snuffing tablet from the Cueva del Chileno find. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JUAN V. ALBARRACIN-JORDAN AND JOSÉ M. CAPRILES

IMAGE 3: Tiny spatulas fashioned from llama bone were part of the 1,000-year-old shaman’s kit. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JUAN V. ALBARRACIN-JORDAN AND JOSÉ M. CAPRILES

IMAGE 4: The pouch constructed of three fox snouts stitched together sits atop a colorful textile headband that was also a part of the discovery. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JUAN V. ALBARRACIN-JORDAN AND JOSÉ M. CAPRILES

IMAGE 5: A snuffing tube found in the ritual bundle was carved in the form of a human-like figure, replete with a human-hair braid. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JUAN V. ALBARRACIN-JORDAN AND JOSÉ M. CAPRILES

Mentions in thousands of years old scriptures

The Holy Medicine called Soma or Haoma has been mentioned in various Ancient Scriptures, including in the Ancient Rg Veda, which dates back to 1700-1500 BCE, and the description seem very similar to the Holy Medicine of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca.

The Holy Medicine called Soma or Haoma has been mentioned in various Ancient Scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, as well as the Ancient Rg Veda, which dates back to 1700-1500 BCE, the description of which seem similar to the Holy Medicine of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca.

The quote from the Rg Veda mentioning the Holy Medicine Soma, which Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton translated, reads as follows:

We have drunk the Soma;
We have become Immortal;
We have gone to the Light;
We have found the Gods.
~What can hostility do to us now, and what the malice of a mortal, o Immortal One?

Read article: Ancient Drink Soma compared with the Holy Medicine of the Holy and Divine Mother Ayahuasca.