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Written by The Wraith
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Tuesday, 21 December 1999 |
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Page 7 of 16
VINE OF THE SOUL
There is a magic intoxicant in northwesternmost South America which the Indians believe call free the soul from corporeal confinement, allowing it to wander free and return to the body at will.
The soul, thus untrammeled, liberates its owner from the realities of everyday life and retroduces him to wondrous realms of what he considers reality and permits him to communicate with his ancestors.
The Kechua term for this inebriating drink- Ayahuasca (“vine of the soul”) -refers to this freeing of the spirit. The plants involved are truly plants of the gods, for their power is laid to supernatural forces residing in their tissues, and they were divine gifts to the earliest Indians on earth.
Ayahuasca has many native names: Caapi, Dapa, Mihi, Kahi, Natema, Pinde, Yajé.
The drink, employed for prophecy, divination, sorcery, and medical purposes, is so deeply rooted in native mythology and philosophy that there can be no doubt of its great age as a part of aboriginal life.
Two closely related species of the malpighiaceous genus Banisteriopsis -B. caapi and B. inebrians- are the most important plants used in preparing Ayahuasca. But other species are apparently used locally on occasion: B. quitensis; Mascagnia glandulifera, M. psilophylla var. antifebrilis; Tetrapteris methystica and T. mucronata. All of these plants are large forest lianas of the same family. Banisteriopsis caapi and B. inebrians are frequently cultivated in order to have a supply close at hand for use.
Many plants of diverse families are often added to the basic drink to alter the intoxicating effects.
The most commonly used admixtures are leaves of B. rusbyana and of the rubiaceous Psychotria carthaginensis or Psychotria viridis.
Other known psychoactive plants, such as Brugmansia suaveolens, Brunfelsia chiricaspi, and B. grandifiora, may also be added. Among the many plants employed are Tobacco; Malouetia tamaquarina and a species of Tabernaemontana of the Apocynaceae; the acanthaceous Teliostachya lanceolata var. crispa or Toe Negra; Calathea veitchiana of the Maranthaceae; the amaranthaceous Alternanthera lehmannii and a species of Iresine; several ferns including Lygodium venustum and Lomariopsis japurensis; Phrygylanthus eugenioides of the mistletoe family; the mint Ocimum micranthum; a species of the sedge genus Cyperus; several cacti including species of Opuntia and Epiphyllum; and a member of the genus Clusia of the Guttiferae.
The natives often have special names for diverse “kinds” of Ayahuasca, although the botanist frequently finds them all representative of the same species.
It is usually difficult to understand the aboriginal method of classification: some may be age forms; others may come from different parts of the liana; still others may be ecological forms growing under varying conditions of soil, shade, moisture, etc.
The natives assert that these “kinds” have a variety of effects, and it is conceivable that they may actually have different chemical compositions.
This possibility is one of the least investigated yet most significant aspects in the study of Ayahuasca.
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