San Pedro Cactus: The Mesa Nortena

The use of San Pedro Cactus and healing altars in the Shamanic Tradition of Northern Peru

Howard G. Charing & Peter Cloudsley talk with Maestro Juan Navarro

Shamans from different cultures and traditions have been using psychoactive plants since the dawn of human emergence. These plants have been used traditionally for guidance divination, healing, maintaining a balance with the spirit or consciousness of the living world.

The hallucinogenic san pedro cactus has been used since ancient times, and in Peru the tradition has been unbroken for over 3,000 years. The earliest depiction of the cactus is a carving showing a mythological being holding a san pedro, and dates from about 1300 BC. It comes from the Chavin culture (c.1400-400 BCE) and was found in a temple at Chavin de Huantar, in the northern highlands of Peru. Later, the Mochica culture (c.500 CE)used the cactus in their iconography. Even in present day mythology, it is told that God hid the keys to heaven in a secret place and san pedroused the magical powers of a cactus to discover this place; later the cactus was named after him.

LA MESA NORTE - Juan Navarro was born in the highland village of Somate, department of Piura. He is a descendant of a long lineage of healers and shamans working with the magical powers of the sacred lakes known as Las Huaringas which stand at 4,000 metres and have been revered since earliest Peruvian civilization. At the age of eight Juan made his first pilgrimage to Las Huaringas, and took san pedrofor the first time. Every month or two it is necessary to return here to accumulate energy and protection to heal his people. As well as locals and Limeños (people from Lima), pilgrims also come from many parts of South America.

During the sessions Juan works untiringly, assisted by his two sons - as is common in this tradition - in an intricate sequence of processes, including invocation, diagnosis, divination, and healing with natural objects, or artes. The artes are initially placed on the maestro's altar or mesa, and picked up when required during the ceremony.

These artes are an astonishing and beautiful array of shells, swords, magnets, quartzes, objects resembling sexual organs, rocks which spark when struck together, and stones from animals' stomachs which they have swallowed to aid digestion!

The artes are collected from pre-Colombian tombs, and sacred energetic places, particularly Las Huaringas. They bring magical qualities to the ceremony where, under the visionary influence of san pedro, their invisible powers may be experienced.

The maestro's mesa - a weaving placed on the ground on which all the artes are placed, (mesa also means 'table' in Spanish) - is a representation of the forces of nature and the cosmos. Through the mesa the shaman is able to work with and influence these forces to diagnose and heal disease.

The traditional mesa norte has three areas: on the left is the campo ganaderoor 'field of the dark'; on the right is the campo justicieroor the 'field of the light' (justiciero means justice); and in the centre is the campo medioor 'neutral field', which is the place of balance between the forces of light and dark. It is important for us not to look at these forces as positive or negative - it is what we human beings do with these forces which is important.

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