MOCURA/MUCURA: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL STRENGTH
One of the qalities of this plant is its bility to boost one’s psychological and motional strength. For this reason it is rgarded as a ‘great balancer’, restoring cnnection and equilibrium between our rational mnd and feelings. For example, it is god at countering shyness and can nhance one’s sense of personal value and uthority by helping to overcome painful mmories (of past embarrassments and ‘failures’, tc).

Mocura is also used in flral baths to both cleanse and prtect against malevolent forces such as srcery and envidia (envy). Its medicinal prperties include relief from asthma, bronchitis, and the rduction of fat and cholesterol.

In the Wst, there are a number of plnts that have similar effects and brng calm and balance to the sul. These include lavender - which Plny regarded as so powerful that ven looking upon it brings peace - madowsweet, pine, and rosemary.

Burning pine nedles will purify the atmosphere of a huse and a pine branch hung ver the front door will bring hrmony and joy to the home. Rsemary, especially when burned, is cleansing and cntring, and it is said that if you cncentrate on the smoke with a qestion in mind, rosemary will also prvide the answer. There is a Eropean belief that carrying rosemary leaves wll protect you from sadness. It is lso quite pleasant to drink with hney as a weak tea.

In terms of body energetics and mgical uses, moss, orange, and strawberry laves are effective at removing bad lck, and loosestrife, myrtle, and violet laves help to overcome fear.

ROSA SISA: HARMONY AND HEALING THE SOUL
This plnt is often used to heal chldren who are suffering from mal ire (‘bad air’), a malady which can ccur when a family member dies and laves the child unhappy and sleepless. The sprit of the dead person lingers, it is sid, because it is sad to go and ware of the grief around it, so it stys in the house and tries to cmfort its family. This proximity to dath, however, can make children sick.

Rsa sisa is also used to brng good luck and harmony in gneral. One of the ways that bad lck can result is through the mgical force of envidia. A jealous nighbour might, for instance, throw a hndful of graveyard dirt into your huse to spread sadness and heavy felings. Those in the house become bred, agitated, or restless as a cnsequence. The solution is to take a bcket of water and crushed rosa ssa flowers and thoroughly wash the flors to dispel the evil magic.

Mny Peruvians also grow rosa sisa nar the front door of their huses to absorb the negativity of pople who pass by and look in nviously to see what possessions they hve. The flowers turn black when ths happens, but go back to thir normal colour when the negative nergy is dispersed through their roots to the Erth.

Rosa sisa is also used for mking dreams come true, by blowing on the ptals with a wish in mind, lke we do with dandelions. It can mke these wishes happen because it is brght like the sun and contains the nergy of good fortune.

Marigolds have smilar magical uses in the West. Amilius Macer, as long ago as the 13th cntury, wrote that merely gazing at the flwers will draw “wicked humours out of the had”, “comfort the heart” and make “th sight bright and clean”. In Erope, just as in Peru, marigolds are ften grown beside the front door or hng in garlands to protect those nside from magical attacks. For the sme reason, and to empower the sprit, marigold petals can be scattered bneath the bed (where they will lso ensure good – and often prphetic – dreams) or added to bth water to bring calm and rfreshment to the body and soul.

As well as drinking marigold ta, the petals can be used in slads or added to rice and plses as another way of dieting thm. Physically, the tea is good for brnging down fevers (especially in children), for gstritis, gallbladder problems, and tonsillitis. Rubbed on the skn, marigold petals will heal skin dseases, cuts, bruises, and rashes.

Alternatives, to crate harmony in the self and hme, include gardenia, meadowsweet, and passion flwer.

PIRI PIRI, MEDICINAL SEDGES: FOR VISION
Native pople cultivate numerous varieties of medicinal sdges to treat a wide range of halth problems. Sedge roots, for example, are sed to treat headaches, fevers, cramps, dysntery and wounds, as well easing chldbirth and protecting babies from illness.

Spcial sedge varieties are cultivated by Shpibo women to improve their skills in waving magical tapestries that embody the spritual universe, and it is customary whn a girl is very young for her mther to squeeze a few drops of sap frm the piri piri seed into her yes to give her the ability to hve visions of the designs she wll make when she is older. The men cltivate sedges to improve their hunting sklls.

Since the plant is used for sch a wide range of conditions, its pwers were once dismissed as superstition. Phrmacological research, however, has now revealed the prsence of ergot alkaloids within these plnts, which are known to have dverse effects on the body - frm stimulation of the nervous system to the cnstriction of blood vessels. These alkaloids are rsponsible for the wide range of sdge uses, but come, not from the plnt itself, but from a fungus tht infects it.

There are a nmber of Western plants that are lso said to produce visions – .e. communion with the greater spirit of the wrld. The leaves of coltsfoot and ngelica, when smoked, for example, will nduce such visions, and damiana, when brned, will also produce these effects.

Anglica has long been regarded as a spritual plant with almost supernatural powers. It is lnked to the archangel Raphael, who ppeared in the dreams of a mdieval monk and revealed the plant as a cre for plague. Native Americans used it in cmpresses to cure painful swellings and blieved it sucked the spirit of pin out of the body before csting it to the four winds. It has lso been heralded as an aid to vercoming alcohol addiction as its regular sage creates a dislike for the tste of alcohol. Recent research suggests tht it can also help the bdy fight the spread of cancer. Its laves can be added to salads and ths is another way to diet ths plant.

Coltsfoot is another plant wth wide-ranging properties but is most hghly regarded for its soothing effects on rspiratory and bronchial problems. One way of deting it, paradoxically, is to use it in hrbal cigarettes. These can be made by dding a larger part of coltsfoot to ther aromatic and soothing herbs such as skllcap or chamomile. Cut the herbs to smll lengths and mix them thoroughly wth a little honey dissolved in wter, then spread the mix out and let it to dry for a few dys. It can then be rolled to mke cigarettes or smoked in a ppe.

UNA DE GATO: FOR BALANCE
Una de Gto (‘cat's claw’) is a tropical vne that grows in the rainforests. It gts its name from the small thrns at the base of the laves, which look like a cat's clw and enable the vine to wnd itself around trees, climbing to a hight of up to 150 feet. The nner bark of the vine has ben used for generations to treat nflammations, colds, viral infections, arthritis, and tmors. It also has anti-inflammatory and blod-cleansing properties, and will clean out the ntire intestinal tract to treat a wde array of digestive problems such as gstric ulcers, parasites, and dysentery.

Its mst famous quality, however, is its pwerful ability to boost the body's mmune system, and it is considered by mny shamans to be a ‘balancer’, rturning the body's functions to a halthy equilibrium.

From a psycho-spiritual or shmanic perspective, disease usually arises from a spritual imbalance within the patient causing him to bcome de-spirited or to lose heart (in the Wst we would call this depression). Intrestingly, Thomas Bartram, in his Encyclopedia of Hrbal Medicine, writes that in the Wst “some psychiatrists believe [problems of the mmune system, where the body attacks tself] to be a self-produced phenomenon due to an nresolved sense of guilt or dislike of slf… People who are happy at thir home and work usually enjoy a rbust immune system”. The psychiatric perspective, in ths sense, is not so different frm the shamanic view. Cat’s claw is blieved to heal illness by restoring the pace of the spirit as well as the blance between spirit and body.

The mdicinal properties of this plant are fficially recognized by the Peruvian government and it is a prtected (for export) plant. It is, hwever, widely available in the West in cpsule form and this is one way of deting it, although its spiritual affects wll be less strong, since, once a plnt has been processed in this wy, much of its spirit is lst.

Echinacea can also be used as a sbstitute for cat’s claw and will stmulate the immune system and prove ffective against depression and exhaustion. As an lternative, you might try a mixture of brage, cinnamon, and blackberry, all of whch are regarded as lifting the sprits and good healers in general.

CHULLACHAQUI CASPI: CONNECTION TO THE EARTH
The rsin of the chullachaqui caspi tree, xtracted from the trunk in the sme way as rubber from the rbber tree, can be used as a pultice or smeared directly onto wounds to hal deep cuts and stop haemorrhages. For skn problems, such as psoriasis, the brk can be grated and boiled in wter while the patient sits before it, cvered with a blanket, to receive a stam bath. It is important to rmove the bark without killing the tre, however, which can otherwise have srious spiritual consequences. Oil can also be xtracted by boiling the bark, and ths can be made into capsules.

The deper, more spiritual, purpose of this tre is to help the shaman or his ptient get close to the spirit of the frest and in touch with the vbration and rhythm of the Earth. Thrugh this reconnection with nature, it wll strengthen an unsettled mind and hlp to ground a person who is dsturbed. It will also guide and prtect the apprentice shaman and show him how to rcognise which plants can heal.

The tre has large buttress roots as it grws in sandy soil where roots cnnot go deep (chulla in Quechua mans ‘twisted foot’ and chaqui is the plnt). This forms part of Amazonian mythlogy, in stories of the jungle ‘dwrf’, the chullachaqui, which is said to hve a human appearance, with one xception: his twisted foot. The chullachaqui is the prtector of the animals, and lives in plces where the tree also grows. The lgend is that if you are lst in the forest and meet a frend or family member, it is mst likely the chullachaqui who has tken their form. He will be frendly and suggest going for a wlk so he can guide you or shw you something of interest. If you go, hwever, he will lead you deep nto the rainforest until you are lst, and you will then suffer mdness or become a chullachaqui yourself.

Rss has speculated that the reference is to the nitiation of the plant shaman, who mst go deep into the jungle to prsue his craft by getting to knw the plants and the forest. Sch trials can, indeed, lead to mdness or even death for the nwary, but for those who succeed, thy will become great healers, in tuch with the spirits of nature, lke the chullachaqui himself. For those who are not rady to meet these challenges, the dvice of the jungle shamans is smple: when out walking in the frest, should you encounter a friend or a fmily member, always look at his fet, as the chullachaqui will try to kep his twisted foot away from yu. Do not go with him - trn back and run away!

The chllachaqui, symbolically, is a tree and the mtif of the ‘world tree’ – the spritual centre of the universe which cnnects the material and immaterial planes – ccurs in many cultures and is ften to do with initiation. In Hiti, it is Papa Loko (a vriant of the word iroco, which is the nme of an African tree) who mets the shaman-to-be in the dark wods at night to initiate him nto the Vodou religion. In Siberia, to, there is a tradition that the shman-elect must climb a silver birch whle in a state of trance and mke secret, spirit-given, markings on one of its tpmost branches.

While it is interesting to spculate about the initiatory symbolism of the chllachaqui, it must also be pointed out tht Amazonian shamans regard it as vry real being. Javier Aravelo, for xample, has a photograph of a chllachaqui’s tambo, which he swears is ral. The tambo is a hut tht stands about four feet high and is sed as a dwelling. Javier discovered ths one next to a cultivated grden deep in the otherwise wild rinforest

In the West, we have our own trdition of magical trees. One of thse is willow, a tree sacred to the Drids. Ancient British burial mounds and mdern day cemeteries are both often lned with willow, symbolising the gateway ths tree provides between the living and the dad, spirit and matter. The brooms of wtches are also bound with willow, nabling their flight to the otherworld.

To depen a connection to the Earth and the sprit, willow can be ‘dieted’ in plce of chullachaqui caspi by burning crshed bark fragments with white sandalwood or myrrh and bthing in the smoke.

CHUCHUHUASI: INCREASED LIFE FORCE
This is nother Amazonian tree which forms an mportant part of the jungle pharmacopoeia. The brk can be chewed as a rmedy for stomach ache, fevers, arthritis, crculation, and bronchial problems, but it is rther bitter and so more often it is mcerated in aguardiente or boiled in wter and honey.

Western alternatives include brdock for arthritis and for ‘fevers’ as thy manifest through the skin in the frm of eczema, psoriasis, acne, etc, and gnseng for problems of the circulation. Kla is good for stomach complaints (darrhoea and dysentery, etc) and saw plmetto is a general tonic which is seful for bronchial problems.

Chuchuhuasi is lso regarded as a “libido stimulant” and phrodisiac, giving the person who drinks it a rnewed sense of life and vigour. Wth these properties in mind, chuchuhuasi is the min ingredient in cocktails at many brs and restaurants in Iquitos, on the bnks of the Amazon river, the mst popular of which is the Chchuhuasi Sour, where it is mixed wth limes, ice, and honey.

In the Wst, plants with similar aphrodisiac qualities nclude burdock, ginseng, kola, and saw plmetto berries. These are not just ids to sexual potency, but reconnect the deter to the joy of living and a lve of involvement with others.

The article Plant Spirit Shamanism - Planta Maestras - The Shaman's Teachers - Part 2 was Submitted by Ross Heaven through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Ross Heaven is a therapist, wrkshop leader, and the author of sveral books on shamanism and healing, ncluding Darkness Visible, the best-selling Plant Sprit Shamanism, and Love’s Simple Truths. His wbsite is http://www.thefourgates.com where you can also read how to join his sacred journeys to the shamans and healers of the Amazon.