Weaving Music into Art

The Shipibo are a tribe from the Amazonian rainforest in Peru credited with holding the traditions of the powerful entheogenic brew ayahuasca ("vine of souls"). This ancient tribe is known both for their beautiful geometric textiles and for their long history of using ayahuasca as an entheogen. This plant sacrament induces visual and auditory stimulation for the purpose of self-revelation and healing. In the Shipibo culture, shamans -- called curanderos -- work as plant-based healers of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual disorders. Their knowledge and healing power are said to come from the plants themselves.  

Shipibo shamans have a custom in which a they live for months in isolation and ingest different plants in order to connect with the spirits of the plants. According to Shipibo shamanism, each plant has a different personality, just like people. Once a plant is ingested, the shaman may be inspired to write a song. These songs, known as icaros, are then used in healing ceremonies, and eventually translated into geometric patterns in order to adorn tapestries with their messages. Each song and corresponding pattern embody the energy of a specific Amazonian plant. The colorful designs are a woven visualization of each plant's song, almost serving as a musical score.

Shipibo textiles reflect the tribe's culture and cosmology. Largely geometric in nature, the designs feature the square, the rhombus, the octagon and the cross, which represents the southern Cross constellation. Other symbols featured in the designs are the Cosmic Serpent, the Anaconda and various plant forms, notably the caapi vine used in the preparation of the ayahuasca brew. Shipibo patterns are believed to heal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ailments, with each design carrying its own meaning. Some are said to bring wisdom or protection; others attract abundance. The textiles are worn as skirts, placed on tables or beds, hung on walls or used in ceremony.
 

There is an fascinating connection between the visual and aural in Shipibo art: the Shipibo can paint the pattern by listening to an icaro, or they can inversely hear the song by simply viewing the design. Shipibo shamans, under the influence of the psychedelic affects of ayahuasca, undergo a sort of biological feedback mechanism which affects the visual cortex, allowing the music to be seen, and then translated into artwork. Known as synesthesia, this is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway, in this case seeing by hearing, or hearing by seeing.
 

After discovering cymatics, the scientific study of geometric patterns created by sound vibrations, Irish artist Tanya Harris traveled to Peru in 2014 to explore the "visual music" of Shipibo art. Harris discovered cymatics while studying for an MA in Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins in London. Harris spent a month with the Shipibo and participated in ayahuasca ceremonies. During one of her last ceremonies, she received insight from ayahuasca that she should ask a shaman if she could record her singing a particular song and also get from her the geometric tapestry translation of the song. 

 

So, using a handy video recorder, Harris carefully recorded the shaman's icaro about a plant called marosa. Harris found striking visual similarities between the shapes created by her cymatic patterns and the designs created by the Shipibo as illustrations of their songs. For Harris, it was simply confirmation that "sound is a primordial, creative force." Her experiences with the Shipibo are described in this short video, Consciousness Resides in Geometry.

Shamanism and Curanderismo in Peru

In the Andes, shamanism is more properly known as curanderismo (from the Spanish curar: to heal). It is a form of folk healing that includes various techniques such as prayer, herbal medicine, healing rituals, spiritualism, and psychic healing. As with other forms of shamanism, the curanderos' knowledge of healing may be passed down from relatives or learned through apprenticeships. In other cases healing powers may simply arise spontaneously in a curandero or curandera and be described by the healer as a don, or divine gift. Curanderismo in Peru is usually the first point of call for anyone suffering from an illness or problem. It has proven effective for thousands of years and there is still some suspicion of orthodox medicine, precisely because its physicians refuse to treat the whole person or to acknowledge the existence of God and the soul. Read more.

My Life as an Incan Shaman

Born and raised in the Andean highlands, Elena Camargo Radford is one of the first female shamans from Peru. Elena comes from an ancient Incan lineage steeped in shamanic teachings and practices. She has inherited and uses the sacred language and multi-dimensional communication skills developed by her people over thousands of years. Elena's practice of Inca shamanism includes, activating water, crystals, and the information within them that allows people to clear their DNA. The single mom and former Mormon teaches the ancient wisdom path of her people to groups throughout the USA, particularly in Utah, where she and her family reside. Read more of Elena's story.

"The Time of the Black Jaguar"

Arkan Lushwala is an indigenous shaman from Peru who has traveled across the globe sharing his insights, focused on teaching what we can do, what we can learn, and how we can restore balance to the planet. Like most indigenous shamans, Arkan believes that we humans have all the necessary talents to be reciprocal caretakers of Mother Earth. In his recently published book, The Time of the Black Jaguar: An Offering of Indigenous Wisdom for the Continuity of Life on Earth, Arkan reveals our true capacities in a strong and clear way, offering the reader not only information, but a genuine opportunity to participate in the healing work that needs to be done to save our planet. I highly recommend this book to all people who are awake and ready to engage in the real shamanic work of our time.

Our Ancestors, the Acoustical Engineers

Chavín de Huántar

New discoveries in the young field of archaeoacoustics hint that just as we create elaborate sonic environments with our electronic stereos and theatre sound systems, the ancients may have sculpted their soundscapes as well. In a recent article in Discover Magazine, archaeologists demonstrated that ancient builders of the temple complex of Chavín de Huántar in central Peru designed subterranean soundscapes as stirring as any special effects. In short, the temple's designers may have been not only expert architects but also skilled acoustical engineers. View the Chavín acoustic findings video.