Interview With Shipibo Ayahuasca Shaman Enrique Lopez in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru – Part 2
Tell us about the use of Tobacco.
Tobacco is very necessary for a shaman’s work. Smoke protects against enemies and badness crossing your path. Before you light a mapacho you icaro it, then you blow the smoke onto your body before the session begins. You can also cure a child of susto (fright) by blowing smoke over it but babies are very sensitive and if very small, they can be made worse – cutipado – in which case you use agua florida. You can also chant to it and the mother’s milk.
What is your state of mind and vision when you go around to each person before the session, blowing?
I am asking the ayahuasca to give every one a good mareacion, or vision. The tobacco makes a kind of bridge with the ayahuasca. We normally prefer the cashimbo (Shipibo pipe) in a ceremony not mapacho cigarettes. It has a strong effect, and also calms people when the effects are too strong.
Some shamans drink pure juice of tobacco macerated with alcohol instead of ayahusca. First he drinks and goes off into another world and has a green vision. That means patterns only.
Sometimes the animals and things you see, have patterns on their skin. It happens when you sing in Shipibo, how do explain this?
What I do when I chant is to call the animals for protection. Otorongos may come near to us but sometimes they get too near and are ferocious and out of control. This can be caused by an enemy who has found a way to harm me. The thick bark and seeds of the Ayauma tree is good to protect against this. You take a vapor bath in it before the session.
Camalonga (a seed) is good too, it returns the harm from where it came and the wrong doer becomes ill. Lupuna and