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never
before heard outside the Peruvian Amazon
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Listening To The Plants Icaros are shamanic songs and chants learned directly from the spirits of the plants through rigorous plant dietas, or from a human maestro.The icaro may be offered for protection, to summon healing spirits, or to conduct healing energy to the patient through the curandero.
They are used to communicate with the spirits of the natural world, to heal the sick, and to provoke differnt kinds of visual displays or visions in patients medicated with Ayahuasca. The most potent of these songs are those learned from the spirits themselves through dieta, or those received in the dream visions which often follow an ayahuasca ceremony.
Original Ayahuasca icaro recordings never before heard outside the Peruvian Amazon... Read about traditional mestizo icaros and mariris, the sacred healing songs of the Peruvian Amazon...
from The Concept of Plants as Teachers among four Mestizo Shamans of Iquitos, Northeastern Perú by Luis Eduardo Luna.
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basic notion exists that ayahuasca teaches magic melodies known as "icaros."
In fact, being a vegetalista is almost synonymous with mastering a vast
repertiore of icaros - each of the different psychoactive plant spirits
has its own icaro.Different types of icaros serve a variety of purposes
ranging from love magic to divination to the cure of snakebite. "Shirohuehua"
or fun songs, for example, animate the patient, inducing joy and hope.
"Manchari" are sung to lead an abducted soul back to its owner. With the "icaro de aranita," a little spider spins a web around a man and a woman uniting them for all eternity. Icaros are taught by the tutelary spirits of plants and animals: the raya-balsa, for example, an aquatic plant, can teach one to travel under the water. There are even icaros of perfumes, stones and resins. The "sirenas" or mermaids are often invoked in ayahuasca sessions. They appear, singing beautiful icaros, accompanied by string instruments. Their icaros can give one power over the underwater world, particularly over the Bufeo or pink river dolphin. These creatures are feared and seen as mighty sorcerers, yet they are also invested with sexual allure. Men are said to feel an intense pleasure during coitus with dolphins, and are sometimes unable to separate themselves. Icaros are used only during ayahuasca sessions. There is a hierarchy among shamans depending on the number and power of the icaros they know. The icaros sung in Spanish are not as powerful as those in jungle Quechua; mixtures of Quechua with Cocama and Omagua are particularly potent. Yet each shaman has a principal icarowhich represents the essence of his power. In the highly sensitized state of ayahuasca intoxication, the icaros help structure the vision. They can also modify the hallucinations themselves. Luna reports: "There are icaros for increasing or diminishing the intensity and color of the visions, for changing the color perceived, and for directing the emotional contents of the hallucinations." Vegetalistas are masters of synaesthesia. Through using the most interesting acoustic effects produced by whistling and singing, the geometric designs can be seen acoustically. The maestros refer to an icaro as "my painted song," "my words with those designs," or "my ringing pattern." The icaros are the quintessence of shamanic power. A good vegetalista is able to orchestrate beautiful or transformative visions through his or her magic melodies. Competitions sometimes arise between maestros to monopolize the visions of those present - a kind of competitive "jam session" where they unleash all their tricks. Luna describes icaros as having great unearthly beauty and urges ethnomusicologists to record them soon, as they are an evanescent feature of shamanic culture, that is fast disappearing. True ayahuasqueros, he claims, are dying out and their roles are being assumed by charlatans. The key to recognizing a true maestro is ... does he know the magic of the icaros? |
Some
Original Ayahuasca Icaros
...never
before heard outside the Peruvian Amazon
...
from the maestro ayahuasqueros of SpiritQuest
(These recordings
may require greater download time...please be patient, they're worth the
wait.)
The
incomparable legendary maestro banco ayahuasquero
Don
Rober Acho Jarama
Icaro
I
Icaro
II
Icaro
III
Icaro
IV
Hermana
Maria Luisa Tuestes Flores - maestra oracionista
one
of the most dedicated pure curanderas of all time ...
(now
gracing Heaven with her presence but still very much with us ... )
Icaro
I - medicina espiritual
Icaro
II
Icaro
III
Icaro
IV
don
Juan Pahuela - Palero
(ascended)
Icaro
I - spiritual protection
Icaro
II
Icaro
III
Icaro
IV
Icaro
V
don
Antonio Barrera Banda - ayahuasquero
Icaro
I - ancestors
don
Panchito - maestro vegetalista
Icaro
I - journey
don
Daniel - maestro ayahuasquero
Icaro
I - healing
Icaro
II
Icaro
III
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