(Jatropha gossypiifolia)
Like Mocura, can be used in floral baths for undoing sorcery and harm. Also used in steam baths when you can see the phlegm appearing on the skin. Cooked in water it can be a purgative for parasites in the stomach and intestines. Two seed are crushed for a child, six for an adult.The crushed leaves are good for cleaning the anus when it is itchy.
It is also a teacher plant to be ‘dieted’. If the rules are not respected it can work against you and make you worse! There are three varieties, white, black and red.
Good for skin problems and wounds… and therefore used after cuts have been deliberately made to make blood brothers. Splinters of chonta (hard palm wood) are used to do this. Not only does it heal but the scars recover the colour of normal skin. All the shamans of the Rio Napo do this, to speed up their apprenticeships by transmitting the wisdom from an older generation. The scares are made to take the form of an armadillo (protection). You can fall from high branches of trees, suffer burns and recover quickly.
Howard G. Charing, is an accomplished international workshop leader on shamanism. He has worked some of the most respected and extraordinary shamans & healers in the Andes, the Amazon Rainforest, and the Philippines. He organises specialist retreats to the Amazon Rainforest He is the author of the best selling book, Plant Spirit Shamanism (Destiny Books USA), and has published numerous articles about plant medicines. Website http://www.shamanism.co.uk
Related Shamanic Teacher Articles