This article describes the author’s personal experiences of encounters with South American shamans and describes some of the local beliefs associated with their practices.

My first encounter with an Ecuadorian shaman or curandero was when leading a group of UK travellers on a tour of Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. We visited his premises to watch him carrying out a ceremony of healing and purification. His first client sat before him stripped to the waist while the curandero lit a cigarette and systematically puffed the smoke over each part of his body. Next he lit a candle, took a mouthful of the locally distilled spirit and spat a fine spray of alcohol through the candle flame, producing an impressive burst of flame that stopped just short of the client. The next client was not so lucky however, as the curandero misjudged the distance between himself and his client and singed off most of the client’s chest hair.

It was with some apprehension, therefore, when a few years later I arranged a visit to a similar practitioner for my next group in Ecuador. This was on a trek to the Inca ruins at Ingapirca, when I was informed that the purification ceremony was to be carried out on us. Volunteers were not immediately forthcoming, so pour encourager les autres I stepped forward. A few brave souls followed my example, and so, as instructed, I stripped down to my shorts and was surprised to see a female shaman or curandera appear. Once again the ceremony began with the puffing of tobacco smoke over each part of my body. Next came a smooth sacred rock that was systematically rubbed over my body. Any feeling of relaxation that this procedure might have induced was quickly dispelled when I saw the bottle of spirit appear, but to my relief no candle joined it. The curandera produced a bunch of carnations, bit off several flowers and took a mouthful of alcohol, chewed the concoction for a while and then proceeded to spit small portions of it over each part of my body. The spirit quickly evaporated, leaving fragments of carnation petals adhering to my skin. I was then told to dress and not to take a shower for three weeks in order for the cleansing process to complete. I regret that I remain uncleansed, as I did not adhere to this latter advice.

Several years later still I took a group on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, following which we crossed Lake Titicaca into Bolivia. I was working with a local guide who suggested a visit to a local practitioner. There are several types of shaman-like practitioners in Bolivia, one of which is the amauta, or wise man, who can read coca leaves. We sat in a dimly lit room before an elderly man with a wise-looking wrinkled face wearing an Andean woolen cap with ear flaps and tassels, who sat cross legged on a low platform behind a small altar; he had an assortment of apparently sacred knick-knacks and a small pile of coca leaves. Yet again the request for volunteers for a reading drew no response, so again I stepped forward. Direct communication with the amauta was not possible as he spoke only Aymara, but he understood some Spanish. I spoke only English and a little Spanish, but the local guide was fluent in all three languages, so he acted as interpreter. I was told that the amauta would read the coca leaves and give me guidance. At that time I was undergoing a very difficult period in my personal life about which the interpreter knew nothing and which I had not discussed with any member of my group. The amauta began a lengthy incantation, most of which was unintelligible to me, though I did recognize calls to the Apus, the spirits dwelling on the summits of mountains that he named, and to my surprise he concluded by calling on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in Spanish. This is not perhaps quite so surprising, as following the Spanish occupation of much of South America, elements of Roman Catholicism became fused with elements of indigenous beliefs, a process known as syncretism. He then took a handful of coca leaves, tossed them about in his two cupped hands and then spread them out on the altar. After considering them for a while he looked me straight in the eye and said something in Aymara, which the guide interpreted as “you have a great pain in your life but you have the strength to overcome it”. Feeling as if someone had just punched me in the pit of my stomach I returned to my seat pondering how on earth that had just happened. 

Since then I have tried to understand the methods and beliefs of shamans and similar practitioners in a variety of different cultures. I understand that the amauta does not claim to “read” a pattern in the coca leaves in the same way the generations of grandmothers and aunts claimed to read the pattern in the tea leaves in the bottom of the cup before we all started to use teabags. Local beliefs state that all living beings, including plants, have spirits and the amauta believes that his incantations enable him to communicate with the spirit of the coca plant which guides him to his conclusions.

How did the amauta reach his conclusion about me? Three possibilities spring to mind. He did in fact communicate with a plant spirit that guided him; he made a random guess that just happened to fit; or he was a wise and experienced reader of people who was able to recognise something in my behaviour or appearance that betrayed my state of mind. I leave the reader to be the judge.

There are other practices in South America that I have not been able to witness personally but have had described to me. One is the so-called “Andean Xray”. This involves passing a guinea pig over the affected part of the patient’s body. The belief is that the spirit of the animal will communicate with the spirit of the patient or with the malign influence that is causing the disease. The animal is then killed and the pattern formed when its entrails are displayed conveys the nature and cause of the disease. To date, my encounters with guinea pigs in South America have been limited to having one served to me in a restaurant with teeth and claws still intact, looking at me in a vaguely threatening manner.