#ayahuasca amazon

[shamandrummer]

Ancient Rock Art May Depict Shamanic Music

More than 2,000 years ago, the Tukano people of the Colombian Amazon may have documented the soundtracks to their hallucinogenic experiences in petroglyphs on volcanic boulders. Consisting of what appears to be dancing human figures surrounded by zigzagging lines and other geometric forms, the enigmatic art eludes concrete interpretation, although a new analysis suggests that these abstract shapes may depict the songs that transported participants to other dimensions during Ayahuasca ceremonies. The pre-Columbian designs can be found at Toro Muerto, which contains one of the richest collections of rock art in South America. A desert gorge, the site is strewn with thousands of boulders, some 2,600 of which feature ancient carvings.

Describing the drawings in a new study published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, researchers explain that the artworks contain "an almost overwhelming repetition of images of dancing human figures (known as danzantes), unique in the region, and an extraordinary accumulation of geometric patterns, most often in the form of vertical zigzag, straight and sinuous lines varying in width, sometimes with accompanying dots or circles." Previous attempts to interpret these zigzags have suggested that they may represent snakes, lightning, or water, although the study authors believe they may have an alternative meaning.

Examples of "danzantes" at Toro Muerto. Image credit: Tracings: Polish-Peruvian research team, compiled by J.Z. Wołoszyn/Cambridge Archaeological Journal/2024 (CC BY 4.0)

To build their hypothesis, the researchers point out the striking similarities between the drawings at Toro Muerto and the traditional artwork of the Tukano culture in the Colombian Amazon. In the case of the latter, geometric designs have been linked to the visions induced by the hallucinogenic brew Ayahuasca, which has been ritually ingested by Indigenous Amazonian communities for millennia. According to the Tukano these drawings were 'yajé images', meaning that they showed patterns they had seen while in an altered state of consciousness induced by consuming entheogens. Concentric circles, dots, wavy lines, zigzags and crenellation motifs dominated among them.

Anthropological analyses of these rituals have repeatedly highlighted the importance of music, with songs known as icaros being sung by shamans as a means of communicating with the gods and journeying through the spiritual cosmos. Ritual in many human cultures involves music; it is a key social technology for building and sustaining community. Ritual music is a universal way to address the spirit world and provide some kind of fundamental change in an individual's consciousness or in the ambience of a gathering. Experiences of ego loss and trance are important for integrating the individual into the group and maintaining community, and music is a significant element of such ritual activity.

Intriguingly, studies into the significance of zigzags in Tukano artwork have revealed that "the Tukano saw in them the representations of songs which were an integral part of the ritual, having also agentive power, and constituting a medium for transfer to the mythical time of the beginning." In other words, within a Tukano context, these shapes depict the shamanic music that mesmerizes ritual participants under the effects of Ayahuasca, delivering them to an alternate reality in which they are able to reconnect to their ancestral mythology.

Admitting that their theory is somewhat speculative, the researchers nonetheless conclude that these pre-Hispanic drawings "illustrated a graphically elusive sphere of culture: singing and songs. The interpretation we propose is of course hypothetical, but the conclusions it leads to constitute a logically coherent counter-proposal to previous interpretations of some of the Toro Muerto petroglyphs. We suggest that zigzag lines could be representations of songs, which seems particularly intriguing given the repeated juxtaposition of these patterns with the figures of dancers at Toro Muerto, not only in the more complex compositions but also in the less complex as well."

[psyhaven]

Artwork by Luis Tamani

[ancientvision]

Guardians of the Sacred

by Douglas Wolz

[chaletnz]

Amazon: Ayahuasca Ceremony

I made my way up the hill to the temple around 8.30 for my spiritual awakening. Maestro Alfredo was there waiting for me, and Rodrigo and Segundo (a guy who worked in the kitchen) were both also there. The American couple had backed out at the last moment so it would just be three of us drinking under Maestro Alfredo’s guidance. He introduced himself and told us how he had drank his first ayahuasca at 15 years old with his uncle who taught him all the shamanic practices - he is now 70 years old and has drunk ayahuasca thousands of times. Maestro Alfredo told me to trust him and our ceremony began as a torrential downpour of rain started. First he gave me a few drops of some “Amazon perfume” and I was instructed to rub it over myself. Then the cup of ayahuasca was poured. I took a whiff as I held the small wooden cup, it didn’t smell good but certainly not too bad. I was instructed to introduce myself to the ayahuasca and then drink the full cup in one go. It tasted a lot worse than it smelled so I had to do it in two sips rather than one. I sat back down, then Rodrigo and Segundo took their dose. By this time it was 9pm and the generator was turned off to throw us all into complete darkness. All there was to do now was wait, cradling my sick bucket until the aya kicked in.

The first thing I noticed was that my sense of sound was far heightened. It could’ve been the darkness or the aya, I’m not sure, but I could hear the rain as well as every other sound of the jungle like croaking frogs. I had a loud ringing in my right ear which sounded like a chainsaw - it couldn’t be, so I figured  it must be a boat. In hindsight though, it was raining so heavily and the nearest boat with an engine would have to be about a mile or two away, it was probably my imagination. I was able to slow down the individual sounds and isolate them to listen in more carefully and that’s when I really felt like I was on drugs. The shaman regularly performed songs with his “instrument”, a flax brush, and singing to Ayahuasca to give us her energy. I tried to see some visions asking Aya internally for a glimpse of my future if she would be so kind to show me. In the pitch blackness I started to see coloured outlines drawing themselves, a spark of blue and then an outline of a cat - throughout the night I saw some greens and pinks too drawing random shapes but the cats were recurring, big jungle cat faces like a jaguar, or puma. Most of the visions were hard to make out, a lot of human and animal eyes, I did make out my mum’s face at one point, as well as something else that looked like a cartoon Pokémon but there was nothing super distinct other than the multiple cats. In my head there was some shouting back and forth which sounded like a domestic argument and was kind of scary although I couldn't make out the words. I felt my stomach churning as time passed and eventually I threw up about three times which burned my throat a lot. I started to hear snippets of music in my head, they sounded like songs I’d listen to but not so familiar that I knew them. It seemed like someone had a radio on but I think it was my imagination because I wouldn’t have been able to hear it over the rain if there was one. Maestro Alfredo told me to focus on the messages in my head rather than the images, as I’d said they were weak and hard to see when he asked me what I saw/heard/felt. I thought about my mum, she is the most important. I also had thoughts about my brain not being able to trip “properly” maybe something is wired wrong or different or possibly I have a health issue? About an hour in I realised it was easier to see the visions with my eyes open just staring into the darkness because I was so tired, my body wanted to sleep but the visions are not dreams so I needed to be conscious. I would see maybe three or four continuous sparks of colour making a line drawing of a shape and then changing to another one but then it would fade out into the black. There was nothing so profound or enlightening that I saw or felt or thought and after an hour and a half it seemed to get weaker still and Maestro was closer than before. He’d sounded very far away compared to the boat/chainsaw and the rain and jungle noises when he’d been performing his songs. He said I probably could’ve taken more but he didn’t recommend it now because I’d be up for hours longer. I was tired and the waves of hot and cold had landed on cold also from the wind and rain - at 11pm I pulled on my hoody but was still cold. Wild as I had been sweating the entire time since I’d landed in Iquitos airport. I wanted to lie down in bed but Segundo and Rodrigo were still tripping hard so I had to wait about another 20 minutes for them to come down enough to be able to walk back. The walk back was tricky, pouring rain and a slippery grass slope to climb over, Rodrigo also had to stop at a tree to throw up a lot. Once I got back to my room I felt almost completely lucid though. I tried to sleep but I was still seeing a few coloured sparks trying to draw outlines, I saw a house with a straw thatched roof on fire and others I couldn’t make out before I finally drifted off feeling restless and weak.

The experience was enjoyable, but I didn't feel the enlightenment I think I was expecting from it. I had requested a lesser dose from the Maestro as I was afraid. I would try ayahuasca again, and I would take a full dose, or even slightly more, now I am not afraid of it.

Myself and the shaman Maestro Alfredo

[ayahuascadiaries]

Shamans themselves are silent guides whose teachings are passed on through practical experience, not verbal discourse.

From the book Contemporary voices from anima mundi. Chapter Four: The Sorcerer, the Madman and Grace: Are Archetypes Desacralized Spirits? Thoughts on Shamanism in the Amazon of Jacques Mabit

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

Ayahuasca Medicina

[lovesinistra]

[lahilden]

Embark on a thrilling journey through dimensions and political intrigue as travel writer Aria Chandler fights for her freedom against a tyrannical king, becoming the key to a perilous game of power and survival. Amazon: https://a.co/d/11P4dG9 B & N https://shorturl.at/iny56

[atavist]

Ayahuasca, fortune-tellers, a heroic dog, and more: Inside the race to find four children who survived a plane crash in the Amazon. “Mayday,” issue no. 147, is now available:

Disoriented, Lesly unbuckled her seat belt and wrenched Cristin from her mother’s arms. She used one of the baby’s diapers to stem the flow of blood coming from her head. The smell of fuel filled her nostrils. Debris was scattered everywhere. Lesly saw that Hermán Mendoza and Hernando Murcia were dead, but that Soleiny and Tien were unharmed.

With Cristin in her arms, Lesly led Soleiny and Tien out of the plane. A few yards away, she built a makeshift camp, stringing up a towel and a mosquito net to keep the constant rain and bugs at bay. Then the four children waited to be rescued. Tien kept asking when their mother would wake up. Lesly worried that her brother was too young to grasp the concept of death, so she said she didn’t know.

No one came for them, and Lesly knew it wouldn’t be long before predators arrived, attracted by the bodies. So she gathered a few of Magdalena’s clothes, some farina she found in Mendoza’s bag, and juice, soda, and candy from elsewhere on the plane. She salvaged a few other items that seemed useful: scissors, a first aid kit, diapers, a baby bottle. Then she led her siblings west, using the sun as their guide.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The Amazon's Ashaninka tribe restored their territory. Now they aim to change the region

It was just before dawn when the Ashaninka people, wearing long, tunic-like dresses, began singing traditional songs while playing drums and other instruments. The music drifted through Apiwtxa village, which had welcomed guests from Indigenous communities in Brazil and neighboring Peru, some having traveled three days. As the sun rose, they moved beneath the shadow of a huge mango tree.

The dancing, which would last until the following morning, marked the end of the annual celebration recognizing the Ashaninka territory along the winding Amonia River in the western Amazon. The multi-day, nearly around-the-clock festivities included the ritual of drinking ayahuasca, the sacred psychedelic brew, archery tournaments, climbing towering acai palm trees and face-painting with red dye.

What was once a gathering to commemorate the Ashaninka has evolved into a showcase of what they have done: the village’s self-sufficiency, which comes from growing crops and protecting its forest, is now a model for an ambitious project to help 12 Indigenous territories in western Amazon, amounting to 640,000 hectares (1.6 million acres), about the size of the U.S. state of Delaware.

In November, the Organization of Indigenous People of the Jurua River, known by the Portuguese acronym OPIRJ, secured $6.8 million in support from the Amazon Fund, the world’s largest initiative to combat rainforest deforestation. With Apiwtxa as the model, the grant is geared toward improving Indigenous land management with an emphasis on food production, cultural strengthening and forest surveillance.

“We are expanding everything that we did at Apiwxta to an entire region,” said Ashaninka and OPIRJ leader Francisco Piyãko, speaking in front of his home in Apiwtxa. “This is not only about implementing a project. What is at stake is cultural change. This is essential to protect life, the territory and its peoples.”

Continue reading.

[sylvies-chen]

ok TED LASSO EPISODE 2 THOUGHTS:

keeley wanting to take a blood oath with her coworkers on ayahuasca is so funny like these writers really understand girl culture 😌

dani is the unsung hero of this episode because his lines have such an innocence to them even as he’s telling trent to fuck off which honestly takes talent to portray with such naïveté so kudos to cristo for that!

THE TEAM BEING UPSET EVEN BY THE RUMOUR OF ROY AND KEELEY BREAKING UP hands down the funniest and most amazing scene of the episode like they all know roykeeley are precious and the king and queen must be protected at all costs i love those himbos 🥰

trent is doing his best and honestly we love him for it. I mean look at that face, what’s not to love?

I do think his book will cause some ground to rumble at richmond though. rebecca and keeley and higgins were right in nodding vigorously at ted because it will not be good if it blows up

also rebecca saying yes while seeing a bunch of no gestures just after ted did the same thint mhm yeah soulmates I do believe

roy is being his usual self this episode and you can so clearly see how his mindset with his career last season set the tone for his mindset in his relationship with keeley which led him to break up with her. he’s being stupid because hello, she’s keeley fucking jones, he needs to get over the insecurity, but I also get how his it’s valid as he’s felt it in so many aspects of his life before. him holding onto the news clipping is proof of that. the whole “some people would rather quit than get fired” thing just is so layered with him dumping her out of fear that he would end up dumped one day and have his insecurities about not being good enough for her confirmed. this also means he’s growing and will get over it though, trust in endgame everyone !!

zava is more of a diva then jamie was in season 1 and it is going to be a BLAST watching jamie perhaps revert back to his old self just a *little* bit out of jealousy and watch these two have one big ol’ diva-off (in my head it plays out like a “lip sync battle for your life” on rupaul’s drag race kind of moment but that’s just me)

THE PUB BESTIES ARE BACK OMG

jamie trying to hug roy and roy shoving him away cause he was freaked out was absolutely hilarious like it’s giving fleabag when claire tried to hug her (if anyone hasn’t seen fleabag pls go watch it on amazon prime)

Rupert Mannion is a slimy turd and I hope Rebecca murders him in a violent and unspeakable manner and then gets away with it

also Rebeca yelling at Zava in the bathrooms paralleling when she told Keeley that men give each other jobs in bathrooms all the time!!! Haha!

give me a ten hour episode of Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso batting his eyelashes and making comments about Hallmark Christmas movies and I will be a happy woman

BONUS: the amsterdam snowglobe!!! THEY KEEP TEASING THIS TRIP AND GOOD LORD IT IS GOING TO KILL ME!!!

[talonabraxas]

"Ayahuasca is driven by sound, by song, by whistling. And its ability to transform sound, including vocal sound, into the visual spectrum indicates that some kind of information processing membrane or boundary is being overcome by the pharmacology of this stuff. And things normally experienced as acoustically experienced becomes visibly beheld, and it's quite spectacular." — Terence McKenna

Spirits of Ayahuasca Talon Abraxas

The “spirit liana” Ayahuasca is not called that for nothing

What historians, ethnologists and archaeologists can prove is that humans have used various plant medicines, mostly psychoactive substances, for rituals since the beginning of human times. Mushrooms in particular have been used worldwide. Cave paintings and archaeological finds unequivocally show mushroom forms. These rituals may not only have laid the foundation for cultural formation because they strengthened the cohesion of tribes, but may also be the starting point for spiritual experiences and thus the early forms of polytheistic religions and animism.

Polytheism means believing in several deities, such as in Hinduism or the Greco-Roman gods around Zeus Olympus. Roughly speaking, animism means believing that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. In other words: Animals and plants have spirits. And not only that: people themselves are connected to these animal or plant souls. This type of world view is still widespread today in the Amazon region among indigenous tribes of South America. In the area of origin of Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca means in the Quechua language: “vine of the souls” or “spirit liana”. In Native American myths, the discovery of ayahuasca is synonymous with the emergence of human kind.

-The Spirits Of Ayahuasca – Why We Can See Mystical Creatures In The Other World

[naturalswimmingspirit]

saralato

despedidos da amazônia🌿despedidos da familia🌿

arabellakasler

❣️FAMILIA❣️. Well upon embarking to the lands of Brazil, after months of convincing, our planning mumma lizzie, had more than she bargained for, almost 10 gringos in the mix! What a trip, seriously. Months of joy and challenge. Having to manage the dietary requirements of all of us.. was even a test not many would withstand. Yet with all challenges come great insights. We had to learn to adapt, to compromise, to chat logistical and still find time for emotional, we had to consider many people at all times. That’s hard. So one might ask why did we do this to ourselves ? Hahah The answer simply being because we love one another. And the moments where we help lift each other up to wee in the Amazon river where there are parasites, or have a huge korean feast in the middle of the jungle, all play with fire in a carnival float, come out of all doing ayahuasca together to a home cooked meal by another member, climb mountains and live in a cave living of jackfruit, trying to fit 11 people in one car or just turn around and see what Ruckus we make walking down the market streets, makes it all worth it. I felt this family, as family in the deepest sense, the honeymoon period over as we all showed all our colours, our shadows, our grumpiness and our light. Teasing, tormenting, holding, laughing, loving. As all the family dynamics seem to present itself, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers it all. The depth of being with each other all the time. What a madness. And with all families, it’s time to have a break, and I know I will never travel with a group that big again, or possibly ever live so entwined with so many people. I feel a new phase I enter my life with. To prioritise quality time over quantity, and more internal growth. So yes a time of commemoration is in order Thanks for putting up with me, helping me, and choosing to stay by my side for this wild ride you bunch of brilliant butholes. Each one of you has inspired me in your different lights, and I will take these lessons in my strides. Your all a bunch of filthy fuckers, sugar hoes, faffy McGees, and hilarious beans. Well done we made it out alive !

[naturallyadventured]

arabellakasler

❣️FAMILIA❣️. Well upon embarking to the lands of Brazil, after months of convincing, our planning mumma lizzie, had more than she bargained for, almost 10 gringos in the mix!

What a trip, seriously. Months of joy and challenge. Having to manage the dietary requirements of all of us.. was even a test not many would withstand. Yet with all challenges come great insights.

We had to learn to adapt, to compromise, to chat logistical and still find time for emotional, we had to consider many people at all times. That’s hard.

So one might ask why did we do this to ourselves ? Hahah

The answer simply being because we love one another. And the moments where we help lift each other up to wee in the Amazon river where there are parasites, or have a huge korean feast in the middle of the jungle, all play with fire in a carnival float, come out of all doing ayahuasca together to a home cooked meal by another member, climb mountains and live in a cave living of jackfruit, trying to fit 11 people in one car or just turn around and see what Ruckus we make walking down the market streets, makes it all worth it.

I felt this family, as family in the deepest sense, the honeymoon period over as we all showed all our colours, our shadows, our grumpiness and our light. Teasing, tormenting, holding, laughing, loving. As all the family dynamics seem to present itself, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers it all. The depth of being with each other all the time.

What a madness.

And with all families, it’s time to have a break, and I know I will never travel with a group that big again, or possibly ever live so entwined with so many people. I feel a new phase I enter my life with. To prioritise quality time over quantity, and more internal growth. So yes a time of commemoration is in order

Thanks for putting up with me, helping me, and choosing to stay by my side for this wild ride you bunch of brilliant butholes. Each one of you has inspired me in your different lights, and I will take these lessons in my strides. Your all a bunch of filthy fuckers, sugar hoes, faffy McGees, and hilarious beans. Well done we made it out alive !

[ayahuascadiaries]

Bruce Lamb put forward a somewhat similar sugges-tion, also following research in the Amazon and also in the context of ayahuasca:

Perhaps on some unknown, unconscious level the genetic encoder DNA provides a bridge to biological memories of all living things, an aura of unbounded awareness manifesting itself in the activated mind.

Quote from the book Graham Hancock - Supernatural_ Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind-The Disinformation Company (2007)

[iseo58]

AMAZON RIVER BASIN, Ayahuasca Ceremonial Clothes