Ayawáskha Ritual Structure

The thesis as a Reading Ritual

Contents:

An ancient therapy

‘La Pinta’, the Vision of the brew

Performing the Ritual

Spatial Interaction

Design Elements for Architecture

Ritual Reconstruction

The Ritual, An Entheogenic Praxis

- Part One -

Ritul Artefacts

The tools for healing

Fig 1.12

An ancient therapy

Taking Ayawáskha is an exhaustive therapeutic experience, it is an empirical psychotherapy performed in a context of the ritual. It is a simultaneous cleaning of the physical and psychological impurities that unblocks the obstacles that prevent us from the visionary capacity which, for indigenous people, is innate in the human being. The body is purified by the acts of the Taita during the ritual, the mind works through a process of self-knowledge, surrounding voluntarily the ego to the visions, challenging our vulnerability and ultimately having a direct contact with the ethereal where the ‘spirits’ become real. Ayawáskha transforms our personalities through a sequence of feelings that, starting with fear, goes through self-recognition, repentance and determination to change, to end in purge followed by an ecstasy that reinforces the lessons learnt in the process.

La Pinta, the Vision of the brew

According to Dr Richard Evans Schultes, an American biologist first to chemically study the brew, Ayawáskha is a preparation with of the species liana of the genus Banisteriopsis Caapi. The bark of the B. Caapi contains Beta-carbolic alkaloids (harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine), capable of inducing visions generally in blue, grey or purple colours. The natives usually use admixtures to increase the duration and intensity of these effects. The most common are the leaves of Diplopterys Cabrerana, another liana of the same family known as chagropanga in Kichwa language, or those of a Psychotria viridis shrub or chaqruy which means ‘to mix’. In the leaves of D. cabrerana and P. viridis have been isolated other types of psychoactive alkaloids called tryptamines, which at the same time contains a substance whose name is Dimethyltryptamine or DMT. 14

Tryptamines are naturally found in mammals’ brain as neuromodulator or neurotransmitters. It binds to trace amines, the receptors substance, which initiates a physiological response when combined together. Similarly, DMT is a chemical substance derivative and a structural analog of tryptamines that occurs in many plants, animals and naturally in the human brain in small amounts.15 We, as human beings, cannot benefit from these alkaloids as the stomach and lower intestines of mammals naturally produce an enzyme called Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) which breaks down the visionary substance of DMT before it crosses the blood-brain barrier to enter the central nervous system.

14-Weiskopf, Yajé, el nuevo purgatorio, 10.

However, the B. Caapi vine contains beta-carbolic alkaloids, the ingredient used to counteract the effect of MAO. Hence, for indigenous people is the vine who opens the possibility to experience the benefits from the DMT, ‘it is only that combination of active ingredients that allows the brew to expand consciousness and produce visions’16

These visions, known as ‘Pinta’, take the form of multicoloured mental images that range from vivid portraits of plants, animals and mythical beings to scenes of our own lives. The ritual is one of the few spaces in our society where a certain degree of madness is tolerated and this is, perhaps, its greatest value in the therapeutic sense. Of course, it is madness controlled by the Taita, who, in his own native way, acts as a psychotherapist for those who are afflicted.17

There are several modalities of use of ayawáskha nowadays, it varies according to the purpose it is used for and the context. Based on J. Weiskopf description there are four major modalities:18 1. The mestizo, based on the indigenous tradition and limited to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. 2. Medicinal: managed by Western doctors in South America. 3. Therapeutically, for people seeking self-realization. 4. Religious, groups that use ayawáskha to worship a god such as Santo Daime in Brasil. Adding a 5th the Illegitimate, when used illegally as a drug outside the culture for recreational purpose.

15-Carbonaro; Gatch, “Neuropharmacology of N,N-dimethyltryptamine”. Brain Research Bulletin. 126 (Pt. 1): 74–88.

16-Weiskopf,

Finally! I can see something… Seems like a door… …But ... ...to no where