Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon's Sacred Vine

by Luis Eduardo Luna

Overview

The Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon’s Sacred Vine, is a panorama of texts translated from nearly a dozen languages on the ayahuasca experience. These include indigenous mythic narratives, testimonies, and religious hymns, as well as stories related by Western travelers, scientists, and writers who have had contact with ayahuasca in different contexts.

In addition to contributions from Wade Davis, Dennis McKenna, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmotoff and Richard Spruce, the new edition includes essays from Graham Hancock, Alex Grey, Jeremy Narby, Susana Bustos, and a section on Ayahuasca art. The Ayahuasca Reader remains the most comprehensive collection of authoritative writings on the subject ever published. An essential reference for anthropology, ethnobotany and Latin American literature studies, it will be of intense interest to students of Amazonian indigenous culture, Native American spirituality, and metaphysical studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780907791607
Publisher:	Synergetic Press
Publication date:	09/07/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Luis Eduardo Luna Luis Eduardo Luna was born in Florencia, in the Colombian Amazon region. He is both a Guggenheim fellow and Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. Luna worked with Pablo Amaringo to establish the internationally recognized USKO-AYAR Amazonian School of Painting in Pucallpa, Peru. From 1994-1998, he taught as a Professor of Anthropology in Brazil, and currently teaches as a Senior Lecturer at the Swedish School of Economics in Helsinki. He has also been an Associate of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University since 1986.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
I	Ayahuasca Myths and Testimonies	19
	A Visit to the Second Heaven: A Siona Narrative of the Yage Experience	21
	Two Ayahuasca Myths from the Cashinahua of Northwestern Brazil	31
	Mythologies of the Vine	36
	A Huaorani Myth of the First Miiyabu (Ayahuasca Vine)	41
	Yaje: Myth and Ritual	46
	The Creation Myth	48
	Unamarai, Father of Yaje	51
	Initiation Experience	55
	Light of This World	63
	At the End You See God	67
II	Ayahuasca Cultural Encounters	81
	On Some Remarkable Narcotics of the Amazon Valley and Orinoco	83
	A Yaje Session	87
	Yage Nostalgia	93
	Discovering the Way	98
	The Spears of Twilight: Life and Death in the Amazon Jungle (excerpt)	102
	One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest (excerpt)	105
	Jaguar-Becoming	107
	The Jaguar Who Would Not Say Her Prayers: Changing Polarities in Upper Amazonian Shamanism	113
	Montage	120
	Design Therapy	127
III	New Religions: Santo Daime, Barquinha, and Uniao do Vegetal (UDV)	133
	Hymns	135
	Received by Raimundo Irineu Serra	135
	Received by Sebastiao Mota de Melo	139
	Received by Alfredo Gregorio de Melo	141
	Received by Daniel Pereira de Matos	142
	Received by Francisca Campos do Nascimento	144
	The Book of Visions: Journey to Santo Daime (excerpt)	145
	An Unusual Experience with "Hoasca": A Lesson from the Teacher	154
IV	Writing Ayahuasca	159
	The Yage Letters (excerpt)	161
	At Play in the Fields of the Lord (excerpt)	164
	Ten Poems on a Sunday Afternoon	172
	Men of Chazuta	178
	The Three Halves of Ino Moxo (excerpt)	183
	The Real World of Manuel Cordova	191
	Ayahuasca, or What There is at the End	198
	The Storyteller (excerpt)	203
	Returning	208
	Aerial Waters (excerpt)	211
	The Mother of the Voice in the Ear (excerpt)	214
	Last River (and Other Poems)	219
	Rio Napo	222
	Bibliography	223
Appendix	Selected Works in Their Original Languages	231
	Notes on Contributors	242
	Index	249

Editorial Reviews

Ayahuasca is a sacred drink of the indigenous peoples of the Upper Amazon and Orinoco basins, and is used for divination, healing, and other cosmogonic/shamanic purposes. The Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters With The Amazon's Sacred Vine is a compilation of texts translated from several languages on the ayahuasca experiences. These accounts including indigenous mythic narratives and testimonies, religious hymns, and narratives related by western travelers, scientists, and writers who came into contact with ayahuasca in a variety of contexts. The Ayahuasca Reader is a seminal, benchmark publication and will be of intense interest to students of Amazonian indigenous culture, Native American spirituality, and metaphysical studies.

"Obviously the finest collection on the subject and a must-read for anybody interested in ayahuasca.” - Jeremy Narby

From the Publisher