Peyote - Call Of The Shaman

For over three thousand years, hikuri has been consumed by Mexico's native tribes.  Most notably the Huichol and the Tarahumara or Rarámuri.  Hikuri is the name of a cacti that is known more by its Nahuatl name peyotl or peyote.  Its scientific name is Lophophora williamsii, and the use of the plant is a pillar in the Tarahumara and Huichol tradition.  

Deep along the Sierra Madre mountains in the Chihuahuan desert, in the sacred land of Copper Canyon or La Barranca del Cobre, the peyote cati grow wild among the scrub, especially where there is limestone.  It flowers pink blossoms from March through May, and sometimes as late as September.  The cati take up to four years before a small "button" can be seen just below the dirt's surface.

Most societies today prohibit the use of this cacti that when ingested, produces a hallucinogenic effect, and the plant contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline.  But the native indians of Mexico have been drinking the very potent wine made from the plant.  As per their belief,  it is the way to enter the spirit world and summon the gods.

The Tarahumara believe in everlasting life after death and in the existence of benevolent and malevolent beings.  Among the benevolent are the sun, the moon, the shaman, the serpents and the rocks that provoke rain and control the animals which they hunt.  Included in the malevolent are the beings which they consider from the underworld that cause all death and natural disasters.  Their communal rituals are an essential part of their culture.  They celebrate victories, animal hunting, and their harvesting and they praise the sun and the moon.  

In the Huichol tradition the peyote is identified as the spirit of the blue deer and they make an annual  pilgrimage on a long and difficult trek in search for the venerated plant.  To return to Wirikuta is to return to paradise.  To obtain the Peyote is to obtain Hikuri, which if translated to Spanish or English it would be "heart of the Deer God".  The Deer God is known as Tatewari and it represents the God of fire, the Grandfather God.  

One such ritual is the ingestion of the peyote.  For the Tarahumara the peyote was the Hikuri, the spiritual being seated to the right of Father Sun.  It was a plant so potent that it had four faces, and it percieved life in seven dimensions, and the plant could never be allowed to rest inside the houses of the living.

According to legend, the elders, met in the Sierra Mountains to discuss the situation in which they were.  Their people were sick, there was no food, no water, no rains came and the land was dry.  They decided to send four of their strongest men in the hunting community into the desert, with a mission to find food.  Each one represented a life element: earth, wind, fire, and water.  

The next morning they began their mission into the desert, each carrying his bow and arrow.  They walked for days until one afternoon a big and fat blue deer jumped from the shrub.  The young men were tired and hungry, but when they saw the deer, they started running behind him without loosing sight.  The deer saw the young men and felt pity for them.  He let them rest for the night and the next day he woke them early to continue with the chase.  

Weeks passed, and the young men were still chasing the young deer, until they reached Wirikuta (desert of San Luis Potosi and the sacred road of the Huichol).  They were right outside on the hillside of the region of Las Narices, where  a spirit of the land dwells.  They followed the deer and noticed the deer run in that direction.  They swore that he had gone there, but when they looked for him he was nowhere to be found.  

Suddenly one shot an arrow that landed in a large deer figure formed in the dirt where peyote plants grew.  The plants glistened in the sun like emeralds all facing the same direction.  The young men were confused by what they had seen and proceeded to cut the plants that formed the figure of the deer (marratutuyari) so that they could take them back to their village.  

After days of walking, they reached the Huichol Sierra where the people were waiting.  They presented the plants to the elders and told them of their experience.  They shared the peyote (hikuri) among the people, especially among the sick.  The villagers noticed that the rains came and calmed their thirst, their hunger was satisfied and they were cured from their ills.  

Since then on, the Huicholes and Tarahumara people venerate the peyote that at the same time is considered deer and corn, their guiding spirit.  Every year the people of these desert mountains make their pilgrimage into the high altitudes following the same route in search of the peyote cacti, maintaining this tradition from the Huichola Sierra all the way to Wirikuta.  Their mission is spiritual in commune with the gods. 

Carl Lumholtz, a Norwegian ethnologist studied the Indian tribes of Chihuahua and discovered that a symbol employed in the Tarahumara Indian peyote ceremony appeared in ancient ritualistic carvings preserved in Mesoamerican lava rocks dated over 3,000 years ago.   

In his writings Unknown México: Explorations in the Sierra Madre and Other Regions, 1890-1898 he recorded one account:  

"According to legend, they could find the plant as they heard its song thru the desert.  The hikuri never stops singing, even after being collected.  A native of the region told a story, as it happened one day, while returning to the desert he tried to use the sack of the hikuri he had collected, as a pillow to rest on for the night, but the singing of the hikuri was so loud that he could not sleep."

"Once the hikuri was collected, they were dried on jute, and then ground on a metate (a flat stone used for grinding corn and seeds) into a thick liquid the color of ochre.  A large fire was lit, with the firewood pointing to the east and the west.  Seated to the west of the fire, a shaman would trace a circle on the dirt and inside the circle he would draw the symbol of the world.  He would place on the cross a peyote button  and then it would be covered with an inverted squash which would amplify the song of the peyote that pleased the spirit of the plant.  The shaman would wear an adornment on his head made of plumes, which would reveal the wisdom of the birds to him and prevent the malevolent winds to enter into the circle of fire."

"Afterwards, the peyote was shared from hand to hand between men and women that were dressed in white cloths and bare footed.  After ingesting the peyote a ritualistic dance was performed that lasted until morning.  At the first sign of sunlight, the shaman and his people would stand up facing east and they bid farewell to the spirit with the arms of the hikuri, the spirit that had descended carried on wings of a green dove."


Para Español

Nothing In The Dark - The Twilight Zone

A still photograph from the episode of The Twilight Zone
Nothing In The Dark 1962

There was an old woman who lived in a room, and like all of us, was frightened of the dark, but who discovered in a minute last fragment of her life that there was nothing in the dark that wasn't there when the lights were on.  Object lesson for the more frightened amongst us, in or out of The Twilight Zone - Rod Serling

Wanda Dunn, the elderly woman (played by Gladys Cooper), lives in an old abandoned building that has been ordered to be demolished.  She has victimized herself by the fear of "Mr. Death" and has not left the room in many years.  She is tormented by the fear of dying and daily lives a vivid nightmare, that "Mr. Death" is waiting for her outside.

One day, she hears loud gunshot sounds right outside of her door. She is frightened by the sound and opens the door just a crack and peeks out fearfully. There is a young man (played by Robert Redford), laying wounded on the ground, and claims that he is a police officer by the name of Harold Beldon.  He begs her to help him as he is bleeding, and is in need of a doctor.

She explains to him that she cannot open the door as she has a firm belief that "death" is out there and ready to take her if she leaves the comfort of her room and steps outside. The door is what separates her to her doom. She somehow knows the officer is there to claim her as everyone outside is suspect.

After much convincing by the wounded officer, she opens the door and brings him inside. She spends several days nursing him to better health while she expresses to him her fears of "Mr. Death".

She believes "Mr. Death" is out there and everywhere and he shows up knocking at her door. One week he knocked and claimed he was from the gas company, after that he knocked on her door again, claiming he was a contractor hired by the city.  But she knows it's "him", so she refuses to open the door.

Her fear began many years ago, while she was riding on a bus. Sitting in front of her was an old woman knitting. Then a young man got on, and even though there were empty seats, he sat down beside her. The man did not speak at all, but his presence upset the old woman. She noticed that the young man touched the old woman's hand after picking up the yarn that had fallen on the floor. The young man got off, but when the bus reached the end of the line she was dead.

Now she believes to see the young man everywhere. Every time someone she knows dies, he seems to always be there. He shows up disguised like an ordinary person.  A person you would not notice unless you were "watching".

The old woman tells the officer, "I would rather live in the dark, than to not live at all".

One last time there is a knock on the door. She refuses to open, but the wounded officer convinces her that there is nothing to fear. When she finally goes to the door, a contractor, with an evicting order, forces himself inside, knocking her down.

She begs Harold for help, but the contractor does not see Harold at all. Wanda looks in the mirror, but sees the bed empty where Harold is lying, but not Harold himself.  She realizes that Harold, is in fact "Death", and has come to take her with him.

After the contractor leaves, Death explains to her that he set her up that way so that she would stop fearing and go with him peacefully.  She thinks he has tricked and betrayed her trust.  He convinces her that he is gentle and that her life will end, but at the same time begin.

He says, "Mother, give me your hand." She is finally convinced to touch him.  "You see. No shock.  No engulfment.  No tearing asunder.  What you feared would come like an explosion is like a whisper.  What you thought was the end is the beginning."

She is standing beside her body laying on the bed and the old woman and Death walk together through the doorway, out of the darkness and into the sunlight.

Stunningly filmed to express the light and the dark, interpreting life and death, this is one of my favorite episodes of the collection of The Twilight Zone, by the mastermind Rod Serling. Directed by Lamont Johnson, it is a testament and a reminder of death and a world beyond our control.

The episode also reminds us that death is not worth being preoccupied with as it only results in a life not worth living.  

Rod Serling - Creator of The Twilight Zone