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Yajé - El Nuevo Purgatorio
by Jimmy Weiskopf

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Jimmy Weiskopf writes:
"Andrea Echeverri and Hector Buitrago are the two halves of the Colombian Latin-rock duo, Aterciopelados, winners of a Grammy Latino prize in 2001 . . . and dedicated drinkers of yajé. They are followers of the shaman I have learnt most from, don Antonio, and form part of a group of educated, urban people who regularly take part in the rituals he holds in Bogotá."


Jimmy clowning around after a session with Benjamín, the son of don Antonio and Hector Buitrago, of the Aterciopelados rock group. Benjamín is a talented artist whose pictures of indigenous customs and yajé rituals are among the best I have seen. He is also active in defending the rights of his people: he ran twice for the Colombian Senate and was, for a time, the director of the Bureau of Indigenous Affairs, the government agency responsible for Native American communities in Colombia. Apart from being a musician with an international reputation , Hector is a committed yajé-drinker and a serious and well-informed student of spiritual disciplines.

Jimmy with the Santo Daime group in Manaus, Brazil, taken at the end of a ritual.

"A recent experience of Santo Daime, while superficial and limited to one of its churches, has forced me to question some of the most profound convictions I have developed about the way to drink yajé after more than a decade of training with indigenous masters and mestizo ones who derive from the same tradition. Up to knowing Daime, I had always believed that the indigenous school is the only authentic source of real knowledge and its practices represent the only true method of entering into contact with the spirits of the vine."

"Now I am not so sure, especially when I reflect on all the conflicts that are arising nowadays about the indigenous use of yajé in Colombia. They range from internal ones among the Indians themselves about the extent to which they should divulge their science to outsiders to fights among their White followers about which of them are the true defendors of the indigenous ethic. In addition, there are increasing numbers of phoney indigenous shamans, or those who pretend to be their disciples without having real qualifications, who are trying to cash in on the mini-boom in yajé and the exotic appeal of Indians, which means that the original ideas of yajé are getting so diluted or prostituted that, in some cases, rituals with so-called indigenous shamans are a travesty of what yajé is or how it should be done."

"I put most of the blame for these problems on us White men, not the Indians, but the fact is that with all the outside pressures the authentic indigenous shamans are facing nowadays, it becomes harder and harder for an outsider to undertake a genuine apprenticeship with them and so one is inevitably forced to question the value of doing yajé with them (I mean in a prolonged and serious way) when it implies so many hassles from so many different sectors of both White and Indian society. I am not saying that I have become a convert to Daime - I suppose I am too much of an individualistic Colombian for that - but doing ayahuasca with them is a great relief from these kinds of cross-cultural conflicts."

"For one thing the history of Daime shows that the indigenous school is not the only one which has a tradition, considering that the origins of Daime go back to the early years of the previous century. To begin with, it was hard to adapt to their discipline, after the free-and-easy style of doing yajé in Colombia and especially difficult to accept their Christian orientation, since I am Jewish by blood and pagan by inclination. But I came away absolutely convinced that they know how to unleash the full power of the vine and, moreover, are ethical, inspired and tolerant of other spiritual approaches to yajé. Their music is full of joy and beauty, their potion strong and authentic and, on a personal level, the people in Manaus were extremely kind and helpful to a newcomer like myself. Of all the attempts to remove yajé from its traditional cultural context and adapt it to contemporary conditions, Daime is the best fusion I have ever seen, by virtue of its seriousness and absence of ulterior motives; the aesthetics of its ritual; and the general atmosphere of peace and harmony that I found in Manaus (it may be different in other parts). The latter quite a contrast to Colombia, where the one word that fits the present situation is "conflictive." I want to return to Brazil and go more deeply into their magic. If you want to know more about them, look at: www.santodaime.org

Chacruna bushes growing on the Daime estate in Manaus. These plants were the first thing I fixed on when I was waiting around for the start of the first ceremony I participated in with them. Called "folha" (leaf, in Portuguese) by the Daime people (or sometimes chacrona) the plant, Psychotria viridis, is a classic complement to the B. caapi vine, that is, you cook the two to prepare the potion that is known as yajé or ayahuasca, ambiguous terms in that they are sometimes also used for the vine or the leaf, respectively, depending on what part of the Amazon basin you are in.

The complement or "mezcla" (admixture) used in most parts of Colombia is a different species and relatively hardy. But almost all of the native ayahuasqueros I have spoken to in Peru and Leticia, where they use P. viridis as well, tell me that the latter is a very delicate plant and that the grower needs to be a person with an especially pure energy to make it prosper. One indigenous shaman I know, who seems to meet this requirement, nevertheless lets his wife handle the chacruna, because it just does not flourish in his hands.

All this by way of explaining the impact these bushes made on me. It was, for me anyway, a very clear sign that the Daime people know what they are doing: I have never seen plants of these dimensions anywhere else. This conviction is what kept me going through some difficult moments in my first session with Daime.

I was, as I say, impressed by the quality of their ayahuasca potion, which they prepare themselves, with these leaves and with vines they grow or acquire from other places: their place is not that big and you need a lot of raw material to supply the scores of people who participate in their ceremonies at least twice a month. One other detail also showed their respect for the vine: a little wooden structure, gaily painted and resembling a doll´s house, where they store the potion when it is not in use. The real authenticity of yajé does not consist of talking a lot of pseudo-mystical nonsense: it is found in these small details of reverence for the plants.

Jimmy´s son and wife with chacruna plants, giving some idea of their size.

Jimmy and son Rafael with Taita Isaías Mavisoy. Taita Isaías is a healer of the Ingano ethnic group, like don Antonio, but he lives in the lowland, not Andean part, of the Putumayo. He was a disciple of one of the most renowned shamans of the past generation, his uncle Santiago Mutumbajoy, the leading character in Michael Taussig's classic study of the Colombian yajé culture Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man. He represents a new generation of indigenous shamans who are willing to share their knowledge with western society, but respect the traditions of the past and maintain a disciplined, reverent and rigorous approach to their healing rituals. He is a member of the UMIYAC, a guild of traditional healers who seek to protect their cultural heritage, guarantee an ethical use of yajé and win recognition for their intellectual property rights over traditional healing plants. Despite his youth, he has been granted the right to wear the "corona", the feather crown of a yajé master, by the elders of this guild. He is a mine of knowledge about indigenous yajé customs of the past and unlike some shamans of the same background, he shares his stories with outsiders.

Jimmy with don Miguel Shunya, an eminent native ayahuasquero of Leticia, taken at the Leticia campus of the National University of Colombia, where Jimmy occasionally works as an English teacher.

Don Miguel is of the Kokama race, which is spread along the big river, practically from Manaus to Iquitos. One of the major Indian races of the pre-Columbian Amazon, they are nowadays one of the few surviving indigenous groups native to the region around Leticia that have a tradition of yajé: for the most part, the others employ coca and tobacco for shamanic purposes.

Don Miguel does his ceremonies in his home on an island upriver of Leticia.

The book Taita Isaías is looking at is Pablo Amaringo's volume of ayahuasca visions. Taita Isaías had never heard of Amaringo before I showed him these paintings in my apartment, nor had he ever traveled to Peru. But he instantly recognized a dozen of the visions portrayed in the book as ones he has seen himself in the trance of yajé, which supports the view that at least some of the visions are universal and cannot be explained away in terms of cultural conditioning. The yajé he prepares is excellent: it purges well, inspires and brings a strong visionary experience. He is also a top-rate shaman, who concentrates on his work and focuses a strong cleansing energy on his patients, so that you immediately feel the benefit of his incantation and healing gestures. He also has a special method of cooking which removes some of the bitterness from the remedy.

This photo was taken at dawn after an all-night session with Taita Isaías in a recreational center in the foothills of the Andes, about an hour and a half by bus from Bogotá. He wears the traditional ceremonial dress of an Ingano healer: the cusma, a long, sleeveless tunic of one color and strings of beads known as chakiras, which are adorned with the fangs of jungle animals (very heavy, by the way). The only thing that is missing is the feather crown, because, at the time this picture was taken, he was still a seguidor, that is, a follower of elder shamans who has got past the stage of being an "apprentice" but has still to attain the rank of a taita or master, which he now has and for which he was given a feather crown especially made for him by an elderly shaman.

Anyone who knows where to look for it can buy a feather crown exactly like the ones the taitas wear, but if you don't acquire it in the traditional way, it is just a meaningless ornament. So don't be fooled by the costume a healer wears: the important thing is that he has the experience and knowledge to wear it with authority.

Note also, the rama, the leaf-fan used to conjure the yajé and heal the sick; the characteristic plastic container used for transporting the remedy from the jungle to the city; and the beautiful coffee-zone landscape in the background. This session was an example of a new phenomenon that is taking place in urban yajé circles in Colombia. It was an organized event of a day and a half, which included preparatory body work and meditation, lectures by the Taita and experienced drinkers on different aspects of yajé, the Saturday night session and a post-session group analysis of the experience on Sunday morning. It took place in a beautiful country retreat and the cost of the seminar also included transport to and from Bogotá, food, and lodging for the night of the ceremony. This kind of event is useful for the person who has never done yajé before and enables him to have more understanding of the experience.

"Their recent album, Gozo Poderoso (Powerful Joy), is inspired by their experiences of yajé with taita Antonio, of whom they say: "We have had the luck of meeting the taita and learning much from him. He is a shaman, a traditional healer and a very wise person, whose thought is incredible: everything he says is very profound. He has taught us to compenetrate ourselves more with our music and this has been the most important of all of his teachings. He has renewed and strengthened our relationship with music." In a recent interview, Andrea added that yajé has helped her to overcome attacks of depression, resolve intimate emotional conflicts and get to know herself better."

Morning after a yajé session, realized by Taita Isaías Mavisoy, a renowned Colombian shaman, seen wearing his ceremonial dress of kusma (the white tunic), feather crown and beads. The session was filmed for a documentary film on traditional medicinal plants of South America, including but not limited to yajé. The person being interviewed is Antonio Bianchi, an Italian doctor who is also an investigator of the botanical side of yajé and has published scholarly articles on the subject of the "complement" plants. The person kneeling in the foreground is Ricardo Díaz, editor of the Colombian magazine, "Visión Chamánica", which is dedicated to shamanic practices in Colombia, with a special emphasis on yajé. If you want to know more about his work, consult his website: www.visionchamanica.com

Followers of Taita Isaías, after the session that was filmed for a documentary on traditional medicinal plants. The director of the film is Antonio Bianchi, an Italian doctor and expert on yajé, and it was sponsored by an Italian NGO, the Centro Orientamento Educativo, of Milan, under their "Forest Medicine Program". It covers the use of healing plants by indigenous and Afro-American communities in Colombia, Peru and Brazil and includes an interview with Pablo Amaringo, the Santo Daime ritual of preparing ayahuasca, the traditional use of guaraná in Brazil, the cultivation of sangre de drago by a peasant cooperative in Peru, among other fascinating subjects. The participation of Jimmy and his friends was meant to display the urban use of yajé, though the ritual took place in a little house he has in the mountains near Bogotá. The film will be shown on cultural television channels in Europe in 2003.

Jimmy showing Taita Isaías some of the medicinal plants he has sown on his little parcel of land in the Colombian Andes.

I have recently come under the spell of Taita Diomedes Días, who, while a mestizo by birth, is for all practical purposes a leading exponent of the Kofán school of indigenous yajé. He is related to Taita Querubín, perhaps the most eminent Taita of Colombia, by marriage: his wife is Kofán and he has drunk yajé with Querubín and other legendary shamans of the tribe for decades. His rituals on the outskirts of Bogotá attract an average of fifty or sixty people every Saturday but more important, they are very harmonious. And even more important than that, his remedy is among the best I have known in twelve years of drinking yajé in three countries: very "pintoso" - gives extraordinary visions.

He is a man of strong ethical convictions, an empirical expert on botany (because of, not despite, being illiterate), a man of great vitality, humor, spark, charisma, call it what you will, he is the real thing and it is a privilege to be able to drink with him. As a colleague of Taita Querubín, he is internationally known: the two recently held rituals in Germany. For more information about their German adventure, see: http://www.cafeweltgeist.org/magazin/mai03_taitas.html The text is in German, but there is a photo of the taitas in Germany. And I think most readers will be able to decipher the title of the web site: "The Jaguar Men Come to Germany" !!!!!!!

Jimmy, with a yajé vine on a farm in the Andes (altitude, 1,700 meters above sea level). More and more white enthusiasts who live in Bogotá are growing the plant in country places they have near the city. It is more for reasons of curiosity or to express their commitment to yajé than as a practical enterprise. Although there are many hot-climate areas within an hour or two car´s journey from Bogotá, the terrain is too high, too rocky and, above all, too dry for the plant to prosper as it should. In the jungle, the vine matures to the point where it can be used to prepare the brew in about four to five years, though it is better to let it grow longer and thicker. In the regions around Bogotá, you would need 30 years to reach the same growth. But it is great to see the plant growing on your friends´ farms.

Jimmy with Taita Luis (Lucho) Flórez. Taita Lucho lives in the heart of the yajé culture of Colombia, Mocoa, the capital of the Putumayo, where he cultivates the plant and realizes ceremonies in a maloca he has built there. While he is a mestizo, schooled in the indigenous tradition, who has learned from some of the country´s leading Indian shamans, he has a distinctive style, both in his ritual gestures and especially his music. His sessions are centered round the continuous sounding of big drums by his followers and the songs he has composed and sings on his guitar are unlike those of the other Colombian healers I know. Though they roughly fit into the genre of "Andean" music, the folkloric style of Ecuador, Peru and southern Colombia and often figures in ayahuasca ceremonies, they have a special flavor of their own: it is almost as though he has taken an exponential leap into a "New Age" sensibility, without being pretentious or betraying the indigenous tradition. He travels widely and does not come to Bogotá that frequently, so I have only been able to do a few sessions with him, but he is a very good healer and a pleasant, approachable person. He also cooks what, to my knowledge, is an unusual brew: a sweet concentrated "honey", which, diluted in water, makes for a powerful trance.

Michael Taussig, on a recent visit to Colombia, in Jimmy´s apartment in downtown Bogotá. Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the place where I studied, Columbia University, he is the author of what for my money is the best book ever written about yajé in Colombia, which is also virtually the only serious history, in any language, of the Putumayo: Shamanism, Colonialism and the Wild Man (a striking title for a classic work!). Taita Isaías (pictured on this site) was a kid when Taussig was doing his field work with his uncle in the Putumayo and he fondly remembers him as "Don Miguel". And Oscar Román (also seen here) clearly recognized some of his forefathers when I showed him the book´s photos of the tragic rubber-boom era. It is one of those books that keep resounding.

Michael is just as legendary in intellectual circles in Colombia, a country that fascinates him as much as it does me and where he has many friends and admirers. I quote him a lot in my own book, because he has been an inspiration to me and I hope the following will serve as a modest tribute:

" Before I drank yajé for the first time around 1990 I had read little about it and the little I had read misled me. Above all, the classic book by Reichel-Dolmatoff, The Shaman and the Jaguar, which crossed my path long before I had met a single person who had actually done the ritual. For me it was like any chronicle of a journey to a far-off place. Despite already having lived in Colombia for many years, I had not even thought of the possibility of drinking yajé with its indigenous peoples, because I had the impression that such rituals only took place in the most remote corners of the Amazon. I suspect that if I had read another book, that of Michael Taussig, which deals with the dissemination of yajé among the popular classes of the Putumayo, I would have got to yajé much sooner.

What sustained me during many spells of depression in the jungle in those early years was the idea that I was doing something novel - immersing myself in the human and anecdotal side of its native cultures of yajé. It would have been pretentious to imagine myself an ´explorer´, considering that the community I then visited attracted people from all over Colombia and even a few overseas researchers. But at that time I knew of no other gringo who had gone to the region with the idea of compiling the stories of white and black magic that surround the ritual, nor had made an effort to become familiar with its indigenous practitioners, not as an object of ethnographical study but as ordinary human beings, complex and troubled, who live in a difficult modern context. Now I feel the mortification of realizing that this focus, which I thought was mine, Taussig had perfected twenty years before. What is more, he did with such a masterly psychological discernment and such a profound knowledge of the bitter history and conflictive socio-economic background of the Putumayo that he left in the shade almost everyone who writes about the contemporary use of yajé in Colombia." (Excerpt, translated by the author, from Yajé: el nuevo Purgatorio)

Jimmy, with Taita Querubín and followers, at a recent session on the outskirts of Bogotá.

Jimmy giving a talk on yajé in November, 1993 at the cultural center of the Banco de la República (Colombian Central Bank) in Ipiales, Nariño, a city on the frontier with Ecuador. The subject was not yajé specifically, but "Shamanism and the indigenous cosmovision". In the background you can see one of my co-speakers, in pink sweater, the Colombian anthropologist Luís Cayón, who gave a very interesting and informative lecture on the ritual and symbolic significance of the maloca, the indigenous long-house of the Amazon, the whole structure of which follows a complex series of indigenous ideas about the cosmos and the otherworlds.

Another picture of Jimmy at the Banco de la República in Ipiales. In the background you can see the shadowed figure of Fernando Urbina, anthropologist from the National University of Colombia, and a world expert on the indigenous cultures of the Amazon. As well as being a prolific writer on the subject, he has a tremendous and virtually unique photo archive, dating back four decades. Its value is beyond compare, because many of the cultural practices he witnessed and photographed no longer exist.