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The small community is famous for getting mining companies out of its Amazon territory in northern Ecuador. The Cofan Avies however have another peculiarity, mysterious and fascinating: they are the masters of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant, a teaching “medicine” and a gateway to the world of “spirits”.
“God once lived here on this planet“, tale Isidro Lucitante, 63, patriarch and “taïtan” (shaman) of these nine families spread over 55,000 hectares of rivers and jungles, along the border with Colombia.
“He tore out one of his hairs and stuck it on the ground. Thus was born the yagé (ayahuasca), source of knowledge and wisdom“.
For better or for worse, ayahuasca, a decoction traditionally prepared from the “Banisteriopsis caapi” vine by the peoples of the western Amazon basin, has gained international notoriety.
Depending on the version, it is seen as a miracle cure, a tool for inner exploration and “personal development”, a recreational hallucinogen or conversely a dangerous psychotropic.
In Peru, and to a lesser extent in Ecuador, a whole juicy psychedelic tourism has developed around this plant, which can now be found for sale, in capsules or infusion, on the internet.
Environmental Nobel Prize
Among the Cofan Avie, ayahuasca, called “yagé”, has remained a living culture, shared between generations, connected to the luxuriant nature that surrounds them and to their ancestral cosmogony. Far from any folklorization or commercialism, but open to the world and to a few privileged visitors, including AFP.
Every weekend, family, neighbors and visitors, installed in hammocks, under a maloca (community wooden house) planted in the heart of the great forest, meet there to drink the strange brownish and bitter beverage.
Under the supervision of the “taïtan” Isidro and his assistants, in the scent of tobacco, the songs addressed to the “spirits”, the nausea and the feverish monologues of the participants, it is a chaotic, hypnotic, interior and collective journey, which projects the consciousness into a new unknown space…
“Our culture comes from the knowledge of our ancestors on the medicine of the yagé, millennial plant, sacred plant…“, explains Isidro, face with coppery skin, streaked with makeup with animal motifs.
The yage”is above all a remedy“, underlines the one who sees himself first as a healer.
Picked from the forest, the vine is “crushed, mixed with water, boiled for hours. The cook must fast, follow a special diet. Because it is at this moment that the energy of the plant is prepared“.
In the Lucitante family, the ceremony takes place at nightfall, in the family maloca, painted with multicolored parrots, snakes and panther heads, as well as the faces of illustrious elders.
The Cofan Avies are known in Ecuador for having won a historic legal victory over the mining industry in 2018, with the cancellation by local justice of 52 gold mining concessions awarded by the Ecuadorian state without having consulted or even informed the community.
This fight was crowned in 2022 by the Goldman Prize, the Nobel Prize for defenders of the environment, awarded to Alex Lucitante, one of the leaders of the small community.
“Rebalancing the World”
Alex, 30 and one of the sons of the shaman Isidro, is the one who organized the response to the gold diggers, setting up an indigenous guard, patrols and a system of surveillance drones to collect evidence of violations of their territory.
“It was a long and difficult struggle, to protect our territory and nature, a path where we were inspired by the wisdom of the elders and the knowledge of the yagé.“Alex told AFP.
Necklace of peccary teeth on the chest, red scarf around the neck and feather across the nose, this “hero of biodiversity”, as some NGOs call him, officiates this evening alongside his father as assistant and guitar singer to accompany the journey and the trance of the participants.
“The plant is everything to us, just like our territory. We couldn’t live without one or the other. It is thanks to the medicine of yagé that we can connect with the spirits and (…) rebalance the world. The yagé is a sacred path that invites us to live in harmony with nature.“.
“The yagé does not sell!“, immediately warns Isidro, who denounces its commercial exploitation and unscrupulous individuals “who mess with the plant, it’s not good!“.
“Yagé is not a drug, it is on the contrary a remedy that makes us better“, insists in his cavernous voice the old shaman. “My grandfather drank yagé every week, he died at 115! We are all healthy!“.
It is scientifically recognized that ayahuasca is not addictive, and on the contrary acts against addiction. “Sick people, some drug addicts, come here. They leave feeling calmer, or in better health“, assures Isidro, according to whom the “yagé is a gift from God to take care of humanity“.
“The plant can heal everything, if you do it with faith and respecting the rules“, adds Alex, lifting a discreet veil on the esoteric and initiatory dimension of this hidden knowledge.
“I started drinking yage when I was 5 years old. Since then I have suffered a lot, but that’s how I learned. It’s a very long apprenticeship…“, comments Isidro
The purge”
“Contact with this other world can be dangerous, it is the role of the shaman to guide and protect the practitioner”. warned in 2004 the reference documentary on the subject, “Other worlds”, by filmmaker Jan Kounen.
Drink ”ayahuasca is a risky proposition“, the beverage”acting as a revealer of the psyche, you never know, until you have ingested it, what this powerful hallucinogen will reveal about you (…)“, warns the book “Two teaching plants, tobacco and ayahuasca”.
It is also a trying rite, as indicated by one of the qualifiers of the vine, the “purge”. “You vomit. All the bad food and bad energies accumulated in your body. It’s like a big cleaning“, simply describes Isidro.
Only then”visions can come. First colors. Then, focusing, the jungle appears. Then come the animals, the boa master of the rivers, the catfish, or the jaguar, master of the hunt. And finally people and spirits… but not everyone can see them“, precise, enigmatic, the old sage.
Under the maloca, everyone prepares for the “journey”, the novices in a silence of apprehension, the regulars chatting and joking. The “taitan” calls each one in turn to drink a cup of the disgusting mixture.
Order to turn off the camera, finished journalism. Everyone settles into their hammock. Here begins the way of the serpent…”There I entered the world of visions“, summarized Jan Kounen. “There, I shivered facing my fears, I vomited when I discovered my darkness, and I cried when I walked through the light.“.