Table 6 Main items used in healing rituals in the Saraguro community
Elements of the mesa | Description |
|---|---|
Sword or machete | These items are used as a defense against enemies or negative energies that threaten the mesa. |
Bastón de mando | This item represents the maximum power that is present in the ritual. These canes have magical powers: if they are passed through the body of a person, they clean the person of negative energies. |
Stones | Stones serve to cleanse a person and remove his/her negative energies. Some are archaeologically significant and appear to have more power than normal stones. |
Shells | Shells are used as vessels for ingesting the psychoactive species extract. |
San Pedro cactus beverage | Sacred drink used to achieve an ecstatic state and the desired contact with the gods and the supernatural. |
Sugar | Sugar is the symbol of the good, the sweet, the blooming. It is used to prepare a drink with lime juice and carnation flowers that finishes the mesa and completes the ritual. |
Macerated tobacco | Tobacco leaves are extracted in water or alcohol and perfumes. This extract is inhaled to enhance the effect of the San Pedro beverage. |
Extract of wild sacred plants | An extract made from wild sacred plants known as wamingas and trencillas (Lycopodiaceae spp.). It has the power to cure and remove negative energies. |
Aguardiente | Distilled from sugar cane, this item is used as an offering during the ritual. |
Agua Florida and perfumes | These items remove the negative energy during soplada. In this manner, the environment, mesa, yachak, and patients are cleansed. |
Holy water | Holy water removes negative energy during the ceremony. For the yachak, holy water is pure and fresh water that has been collected from lagoons and sacred lakes. |
Rienda | This item is a rope made of cattle tail hair. It represents a sacred element that removes negative energy and diseases while the patient passes it through his/her body, simulating an external cleaning. |
Candle | In the flame of the candle, some visionary yachakkuna can see the health and welfare of a patient. The intensity of the flame indicates the patient’s problem and his/her future. |