Shaman Ceremony (Act 2)

Another amazing shaman ceremony today. It was much more involved than the one I participated in... it lasted approximately 2 hours. It was performed by both a man and a women at the same time, on 3 very lucky volunteers. The ceremony was conducted near some natural hot springs that were quite mineral rich, surrounded my large mountains. It was a very tranquil setting, and most fitting for the religous cleansing and healing.

The shamans and their assistants created a circle of rose petals and food, including bread, pineapple, grapes, apples, oranges, different grains that represented the gifts from mother earth, a fermented sugarcane alcohol that played an important role in the ceremony, and other various spices and aromatic incenses. Both shamans said prayers outside the circle at the same time, though they were both different. After prayers, the shamans would put the sugarcane alcohol in their mouth and then spray it on their hands and arms, then they would wipe their face. This was to cleanse them. They soon did the same to the volunteers in the ceremony, spraying alcohol in their face, then allowing them to wipe upward, the midsection, wiping downard, and on the legs, wiping downward again.

After the cleansing the shaman (only the female) began the traditional diagnosis using a cuy. After thoroughly rubbing the cuy over the body, the volunteer had to spit on the cuy 3 times. The shaman then skinned the cuy (without the use of knife!) and diagnosed the volunteers. Again, each diagnosis was dead on, from pains in the neck, blood circulation, past injuries, problems with digestion, drug use, and sleeping difficulties. In one diagnosis (of a native Ecuadorian) the shaman said that someone was using witchcraft against the volunteer and was extremely jealous. The shaman said not to worry that the ceremony would cleanse her, and that she had the necessary remedies to rid the patient of her illnesses.

After the diagnosis, the volunteers were cleansed. The shamans used aromatic plants and brushed the evil spirits away from the body. They ¨threw¨the evil spirits into the water, which would kill them. The cleansing of evil spirits also included the use of eggs, which absorb negative energy and are disposed, and more sugarcane alcohol being sprayed in the face, midsection and legs. After the plants and the eggs, the shamans used rocks for the rough equivalent of a massage. During the entire ceremony, but especially during the cleansing portion, the shamans would make ¨swishing¨sounds than somewhat resembled violent gusts of wind. Most of the spoken word was in Kichwa, but lots of Spanish was also used.

After the cleansing, the participants had to submerge themselves in the mineral pond. After the submersion, another cleansing like the one described above. Near the end of the ceremony, there were many blessing, the Lord´s prayer (at least twice), Hail Marys, and other Catholic invocations.

We ended the ceremony by sitting in a circle and eating the fruit and bread from the ceremony. Wine was also passed around in a circle, each onlooker taking two drinks. The rest of the material, like the rose petals, were disposed of far away from the site, as they had absorbed all of the negative energy from the participants during the ceremony and had to be disposed of properly, or the negative energy would come back.