Salvia Divination
Salvia divinorum is a member of the mint family plants; the Mazatec in Oaxaca, Mexico
has used it for centuries by the shamans or “curanderos.” According to their
beliefs, this plant helps the shaman and the patient to find the real cause of
his/her distress. When someone has been ill for sometime and has received
medical treatment, without results, in a last hope, they go to see the “curandero.”
After hearing to the patient’s case, the shaman decides that the right thing to
do now is to work with salvia divinorum. This peculiar psychoactive plant
has been used in divination rites from ancient times by this culture. They think
that making an inner journey (with the help of salvia divinorum properties), the individual will discover the origin of the disease
and then, once it’s discovered, the shaman help him/her to heal it while still
in trance.
Scientists have studied salvia divinorum as well as the divination rites
performed by the Mazatec “curanderos” since the last decade of the 1950’s. In
addition, all this has been registered since, in ethnobotanical publications,
along with a detailed study of the several hallucinogen mushrooms this culture
also uses in their healing traditions.
However, lets go to the divination rite again. Once the “curandero” knows about
the afflictions of the patient, he decides how to work. Sometimes the patient is
given a brew prepared with salvia divinorum crushed fresh leaves mixed in water
(without boiling), and is asked to drink it, or just the fresh leaves are given
to him/her to start being chewed following the “curandero”’s instructions. In
other cases, it is the shaman the one who goes on trance, and in a few
occasions, both make the trip. (There is an interesting pagan association here)
During most of the process the shaman mixes catholic and ancient prayers to the
gods, and if the patient is not necessarily catholic, the shaman seem to
understand, and asks the patient to pray to who they believe in “but with deep
faith”, it can be the universe power, the stars, nature, whatever. Because
salvia divinorum will act through this faith and find the real origin of the
patient,’s sickness and will heal it with the Gods’ power. Salvia divinorum has
been considered sacred for this civilization and its jealously kept in secret,
it is known that the shamans know the places where this plant grow, and they
make special trips to collect it, and when they find the plant (usually wild),
they knee and start praying before cutting it. With this same care, it is
handled and all the knowledge about salvia and the divination techniques, which
have been transmitted generation after generation to the few “curanderos,” is
kept and cherished for the next generations.
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