ANNOUNCING
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Shipibo Geometric Designs
Photo by Howard G Charing
Ícaro: The word ícaro comes from the Quechua word icarai, meaning “to blow.” Ícaros are magical chants that are sung or whistled by shamans during Ayahuasca ceremonies. There are several kinds of ícaros. At the beginning of a ceremony their purpose is to provoke the mareación or visionary trance state, and to render the mind more susceptible for visions to penetrate. The shaman on his plant diet learns the ícaros directly from the plant spirits.
Ícaros have great power and influence on the visionary experience of people drinking ayahuasca in a ceremony. Pablo Amaringo also regarded the ícaro as the sound of the universe—the planets, stars, comets,and supernovas. He said that everything is created by music, by vibration, by sound. Ícaros are the music of creation (source: The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo).
On a personal note, I recall one night time Ayahuasca ceremony in the 1990’s with a Shipibo Shaman (Mateus Castro), held in a small clearing in the Amazon rainforest. It was a beautiful clear night, there was no moon, and the sky was filled with hundreds of thousands of glistening stars; just looking up at the sky made my head swim. We were surrounded by trees and bushes, but could only discern their shapes and silhouettes. It felt as if I was in nature’s primordial theatre. When I had drank the Ayahuasca, the shaman started to chant his Icaros, and within a few minutes, there was the song of birds, fireflies flitting everywhere, the jungle around us was responding to the chants of the shaman. It was an exquisite experience, and the following day, when I discussed the opening experience, with the birds and insects appearing when he sang the first Icaro, he replied, “the first chant was to summon and ask the birds, and the insects for their protection”.
Shipibo Geometric Designs
photo: Howard G Charing
There are several different kinds of icaros, at the beginning of the session. Their purpose is to invoke the mareacion or effects, other Icaros call the spirit of Ayahuasca to open visions ‘as though exposing the optic nerve to light’.
There are icaros for calling the ‘doctors’, or plant spirits, for healing, while other icaros call animal spirits, which protect and rid patients of spells. Healing icaros may be for specific conditions like ‘manchare’ which a child may suffer when it gets a fright.
The arts of the Shipibo, especially textile designs, are closely related to Ayahuasca icaros. The words of the chants are symbolic stories telling of the ability of nature to heal itself. For example the crystalline waters from a stream wash, cleanse, and purify a person who is unwell, while coloured flowers attract the hummingbirds whose delicate wings fan healing energies.
CONTINUE READING: THE AYAHUASCA ICAROS OF THE SHIPIBO AND LISTEN TO THEIR ICAROS
Medicinal and Shamanic Plants of Peru, a set on Flickr.
I’ve been adding more photos from the archives.
Shamans of Peru, a set on Flickr.
A Photo Gallery of some of the Peruvian Shamans that we have worked with over the years.
An interview titled ‘Love, Magic, and the Vine of the Soul’. Amazonian shaman Javier Arevalo interviewed by Howard g Charing, and Peter Cloudsley. This article first appeared in Sacred Hoop Magazine issue 36 in 2002
Unai Shipash by Pablo Amaringo
Unai Shipash (Musas del Tiempo y Espacio)
The muses of time can be seen in the upper sphere and the accompanying muses of space in the lower sphere. The two divinities in yellow are virtudes (virtues), they represent elevated qualities of love, compassion and kindness.
The muses in the lower sphere watch over the entire biosphere from the ozone layer down to the depths of the ocean. Time and space appears united to us, and we are a part of them, but an alternate time and space also exists beyond our everyday experience which we can perceive through the eye of ayahuasca.
This painting is featured in the book ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo‘ published by Inner Traditions 2011. Authors Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley.
Click to visit the website of the book for articles and interviews with Pablo Amaringo, also photo galleries and see the paintings with summary narratives.
To purchase high quality fine art reproductions and Greeting Cards of the paintings click to visit our store
The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley
This stone is forged in space and brought down to earth when summoned by the sumiruna (the highest grade of shaman) for initiating his disciples in voyaging to other galaxies. The sumirunas below are learning how to receive spiritual fire and how to withstand extreme conditions which they will experience on their lone voyages.
The eagle represents the sublime beauty of the stone, the jaguar its magnetic power and the bull its soul. Above you see the puya runas (cloud people) and the guacamayo runa: people with the head of a guacamayo and the body of a man.
Encanto Rumi is featured in the book ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo’ published by Inner Traditions 2011. Authors Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley.
Visit the website of the book for articles and interviews with Pablo Amaringo, also photo galleries and see the paintings with summary narratives.
http://www.ayahuascavisions.com
To purchase high quality fine art reproductions of the paintings visit our store at;
http://www.ayahuasca_visions.imagekind.com
The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley
Jehua Supai – Espiritus Sublimes
Here you see a sumiruna, a great maestro and man of esoteric knowledge who can transform his physical body into pure spirit. He is surrounded by a magnificent aguajal: a wet area where aguaje palms grow. An aguajal is a temple of nature, a beautiful sacred grove where the spirits like to gather.
He calls the yana puyurunas, spirit people of black clouds whose faces appear in the sky above him. They teach how to heal using the wind, the mist and the dew. They can heal illnesses arising from problems of love or separation and also legal problems.
Jehua Supai is featured in the book ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo‘ published by Inner Traditions 2011. Authors Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley.
Visit the website of the book for articles and interviews with Pablo Amaringo, also photo galleries and see the paintings with summary narratives.
http://www.ayahuascavisions.com
To purchase high quality fine art reproductions and Greeting Cards of the paintings click to visit our store
The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley
The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo
Ayari Warmi – The Elegant Garment of a Woman
The picture reveals the eternal mystery of the feminine. When a woman works with the spirit of ayahuasca and other plants, her radiant spiritual purity appears in the vision embellished and garlanded with beautiful flowers. Just as lakes and rivers have luxuriant foliage and blossom adorning their banks, so a woman expresses the splendour of the entire natural world. Women embody heavenly beauty, tenderness and grace, while men should develop wisdom to be of service to beauty in their lives. When a woman learns to sing icaros, they resemble tuneful bird song, flowing water or the sound of wind blowing through the trees.
Ayari Warmi is featured in the book ‘The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo’ published by Inner Traditions 2011.
Authors Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley.
Visit the website of the book for articles, photo galleries and interviews with Pablo Amaringo.
High quality fine art reproductions and greeting cards of this beautiful painting on FineArt America.
The Ayahuasca Visions of Pablo Amaringo by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley
A video of some of my newer Ayahuasca inspired art on youtube. Soundtrack; Icaros chanted by Shipibo elder shaman (banco) Benjamin Ochavano with Rolando. Icaros recorded in the Amazon Peru (c) Peter Cloudsley and Howard G Charing 2002.
Shamanism & Visionary Art 