Mazatec shamanism

Mazatec shamanism

The Mazatec Shamans are known for their ritual use of psilocybe mushrooms. Some shamans on occasion use other plants, such as Salvia divinorum and morning glory seeds. María Sabina was one of the best known of the Mazatec Shamans.

There is little information concerning the Mazatec people generally before the arrival of the Spanish and less concerning their spiritual practices.

Several researchers have commented on the difficulty in obtaining information, as the Mazatec shamans tend to be secretive and protective of their practices.

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  • Sabina, Maria — (1888–1985)    Mazatec Indian curandera who was “discovered” in the 1950s by the ethnomycologist Gordon Wasson. Wasson held Sabina’s veledas (healing ceremonies involving the ingestion of psilocybin mushrooms) to be the archetypical residue of a… …   Historical dictionary of shamanism

  • Halifax, Joan —    According to her website, Joan Halifax Roshi is “a Buddhist teacher, Shaman and anthropologist,” having been a faculty member of Columbia University, the University of Miami School of Medicine, the New School for Social Research, the Naropa… …   Historical dictionary of shamanism

  • Mushrooms —    While entheogen use is often perceived to be prevalent in shamanism worldwide, few indigenous shamans have made mushroom use an important part of their practice. Most of these are located in Central America and South America. Ob Ugrian and… …   Historical dictionary of shamanism

  • Wasson, R. Gordon — (1898–1996)    American banker and amateur mycologist whose study of “ethnomycology” with his wife Valentina began on a delayed honeymoon in the Catskill Mountains of New York. The Wassons became convinced that the human religious impulse began… …   Historical dictionary of shamanism

  • Psilocybin —    A hallucinogenic or entheogenic alkaloid (4 phosphoryloxyN, N dimethyltryptamine) of the tryptamine family present in many species of fungi, the best known being the genus Psilocybe, including Psilocybe cubensis and Psilocybe semilanceata… …   Historical dictionary of shamanism

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  • Salvia divinorum — Salvia divinorum …   Wikipedia

  • Andrew Calimach — (1953 ) is a Romanian American author. He is a matrilineal descendant of the Callimachi noble family of Moldavia and is known for his writings on the subject of same sex relations in Greek mythologyWorksCalimach researched and compiled the… …   Wikipedia

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