By: Fidel Aguinda.
MOMENTS IN THE CEREMONY
Spiritual healing
Our ancestors have left us a deep faith in the wonder of the spiritual world and it is the sacred plant Yagé that has allowed us to know it. In this sense, we must follow step by step the procedure and the rules that have to do with the preparation of the ceremonies.
It is advisable to cut the Yagé vine 8 to 5 days before making the preparation. The person who does it must keep in mind the objective for which the taita has ordered it.
The ceremony begins when you are cooking or preparing raw food (mashed in a pestle), which are the two ways it is done ancestrally. The "drunkenness" comes after noon, but the cook must look good, this person waits for the taita and his guests in the ceremonial house.
When everyone is in the places they have been ordered to, incense is lit and people begin to drink it. First, the person who is going to lead, whether it is the taita, curaca or in other cases whoever he authorizes to do so, does it; then the disciples or apprentices, the women and the children take it.
You should wait a moment while they react, either by talking or invoking Mother Nature, the spirit of Yagé, to illuminate the mind and give strength to the body. When the elder or elders are already in tune, they receive that energetic force of the invisible spirits and everything that is the ancestral force, in the vision it seems that it incorporates, penetrates into their body and feels harmonious, clears their mind.
Requests are made in the native language so that Mother Nature and God help us defend our people and all the people who come or are with us around our beliefs, norms and principles, when the effect wears off a bit, the taita sings and performs his spiritual orders by healing the pot where the Yagé is, once he finishes, he takes it and gives it to the people who are participating in the ceremony, from this moment everyone must be silent because the concentration comes where the elder is singing, dancing and invoking the spirits to perform the healings to the patients, or the orientations for the town or a particular person, there he develops his mental strength through the effect of Yagé. This is the most sacred and beautiful moment of the Yagé ceremony; then the healings are performed.
In the morning they gather to talk, then they tell stories of our ancestors, events of their own, how life was before, hunting, fishing, parties or some memories of their life as apprentices and they also share what they analyzed in this ceremony and finally they sit down to talk with the young people or the people they have called to advise, guide on how they should live, their behavior respecting other people, working, looking for the health and well-being of all. Here the ceremony ends, the participants are thanked and everyone goes home.
OBJECTIVES OF THE CEREMONY
Ceremonies are held to heal people, to advise those who have had bad behavior; to guide the entire community, to teach the use of the science of Yagé; to transmit the knowledge of our ancestors, to learn traditional medicine; to plan community work, to defend our people, to analyze the rights in our culture, to awaken the spirit, the mind, to manage our coexistence, to seek unity and to protect the entire community.
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