María Sabina
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María Sabina Magdalena García (22 July 1894 – 22 November 1985) was a
Mazatec The Mazatec are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca and some communities in the adjacent states of Puebla and Veracruz. Language family The Mazatecan languages are part of the Popolocan family wh ...
''
curandera A ''curandero'' (, healer; f. , also spelled , , f. ) is a traditional native healer or shaman found primarily in Latin America and also in the United States. A curandero is a specialist in traditional medicine whose practice can either contra ...
'',
shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
and poet who lived in
Huautla de Jiménez Huautla de Jimenez is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Teotitlán District in the north of the Cañada Region. The name Huautla comes from the Náhuatl. The town is called "Tejao" (also Eagle's Nest) in ...
, a town in the
Sierra Mazateca The Sierra Mazateca is a mountainous area, part of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca mountain range, located in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico. It is named after the Mazatec people, who are indigenous to the area. Geography ...
area of the
Mexican state The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...
of
Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
in southern Mexico."Sabina Rothenberg 2003, p. x Her healing sacred mushroom ceremonies, called ''veladas'', were based on the use of
psilocybin mushrooms Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include ''Psilocybe'', ''Pan ...
, particularly ''
Psilocybe caerulescens ''Psilocybe caerulescens'', also known as landslide mushroom ("derrumbe" in Spanish), is a psilocybin mushroom having psilocybin and psilocin as main active compounds. Along with '' Psilocybe mexicana'' and '' Psilocybe aztecorum'', it is one ...
'', a sacred mushroom important to the Mazatecs. María Sabina's veladas contributed to the popularization of indigenous Mexican ritual use of
entheogenic Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood (psychology), mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwiseRätsch, Christian, ''The Encyclop ...
mushrooms among
westerners The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
, though this was not her intent.


Life and death

María Sabina was born outside of Huautla de Jiménez in the Sierra Mazateca toward the end of the 19th century. Though Sabina herself was not sure, she believed her birth year was 1894. Her parents were both '' campesinos''; her mother was María Concepción, while her father, Crisanto Feliciano, died from an illness when she was three years old. She had a younger sister, María Ana. Her grandfather and great-grandfather on her father's side were shamans as well, skilled in using the mushrooms to communicate with God, according to their beliefs. After the death of her father, her mother moved the family into town, and Sabina grew up in the house of her maternal grandparents. She died in poverty, suffering from malnutrition later in life.


Interaction with the Western world

María Sabina's interactions with the Western world, starting with R. Gordon Wasson, have been described, from an indigenous perspective, as "a story of extraction, cultural appropriation, bioprospecting, and colonization." María Sabina was the first contemporary Mexican ''
curandera A ''curandero'' (, healer; f. , also spelled , , f. ) is a traditional native healer or shaman found primarily in Latin America and also in the United States. A curandero is a specialist in traditional medicine whose practice can either contra ...
'' (also known as ''sabia'' i.e. "one who knows"), to allow Westerners to participate in the healing ritual known as the ''
velada Velada is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 2,436 inhabitants. Name ''Velada'' comes from "'" ('to stay awake at night'/'to be ...
''. All participants in the ritual ingested psilocybin mushroom as a sacrament to open the gates of the mind. The ''velada'' is seen as a purification and a communion with the sacred. In 1955, American
ethnomycologist Ethnomycology is the study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi and can be considered a subfield of ethnobotany or ethnobiology. Although in theory the term includes fungi used for such purposes as tinder, medicine (medicinal m ...
and banker R. Gordon Wasson, and his wife Valentina, a Russian pediatrician and scientist, as well as a passionate mycology enthusiast, visited María Sabina's hometown, where Gordon Wasson participated in a ''velada'' with her. Wasson was the first outsider to take part in the ''velada'', and to gain access to the ceremony (which was used to locate missing people and important items), Wasson lied and told her that he was worried about his son back home and wanted information about his whereabouts and well-being, later admitting that this was a deception. The Wassons collected spores of the fungus, which they identified as ''Psilocybe mexicana'', and took them to Paris. The fungus was cultivated in Europe and its primary
psychoactive A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. Th ...
ingredient, psilocybin, was isolated in the laboratory by Swiss chemist
Albert Hofmann Albert Hofmann (11 January 1906 – 29 April 2008) was a Swiss chemist known for being the first to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann's team also isolated, named and synthesiz ...
in 1958. Wasson wrote a book about his experience of the ritual in a 1957 ''
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine article,
Seeking the Magic Mushroom "Seeking the Magic Mushroom" is a 1957 photo essay by amateur mycologist Robert Gordon Wasson describing his experience taking psilocybin mushrooms in 1955 during a Mazatec ritual in Oaxaca, Mexico. Wasson was one of the first Westerners to parti ...
; María Sabina's name and location were not revealed. However, as author Michael Pollan notes, "Wasson was halfhearted in his desire to protect María Sabina's identity" – Wasson later published 512 copies of his two-volume book called ''Russia, Mushrooms and History'', the second volume of which revealed her identity and location, an action which has been described as violating her consent and abusing her hospitality. The information was contained in an account of his and his wife's first ''velada'' with Aurelio Carreras, María Sabina's son-in-law, on 15 August 1953, two years before they consumed the mushrooms themselves. Young people from the United States began seeking out María Sabina and the "magic" mushrooms as early as 1962, with numerous
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
s, scientists, and other people visiting the remote isolated village of Huautla de Jimenez. Many 1960s celebrities, including
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
, and
Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...
, were rumored to have visited María Sabina, but these claims cannot be substantiated as no photographic evidence or written reports of the visits by the rock stars themselves have ever been reported. Their lack of respect for the sacred and traditional purposes caused María Sabina to remark:
Before Wasson, nobody took ''the children'' simply to find God. They were always taken to cure the sick.
As the community was besieged by Westerners wanting to experience the mushroom-induced hallucinations, Sabina attracted attention from the Mexican police who believed her to be a drug dealer. The unwanted attention completely altered the social dynamics of the Mazatec community and threatened to terminate the Mazatec custom. The community blamed Sabina; consequently she was ostracized, her house was burned down, her son was murdered, and she was briefly jailed. Sabina later regretted having introduced Wasson to the practice, but Wasson contended that his only intention was to contribute to the sum of human knowledge, despite being funded by the CIA's mind control project
MKUltra Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra) was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weak ...
.Estrada, Álvaro, (1976) ''Vida de María Sabina: la sabia de los hongos'' () The way that he is credited in modern history with "discovering" the power of the sacred mushrooms, has been described as a narrative which "mimic in many ways, the colonialist language of "discovery"." From 1967 to 1977 life returned to normal conditions for Huautla de Jimenez and the Mazatec after the
Mexican Army The Mexican Army ( es, Ejército Mexicano) is the combined land and air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National De ...
blocked American, European and Mexican hippies or other unwanted visitors from entering on the only roads into the town. A few
Federales ''Federales'' (singular ''Federale'' or, rarely but aligning with Spanish, ''Federal'') is a Spanglish word used in an informal context to denote security forces operating under a federal political system. The term gained widespread usage by En ...
also patrolled the town to evict undesirable foreign visitors. Álvaro Estrada wrote a biography of María Sabina that was translated into English by Henry Munn. Sabina spoke only Mazatec and many of her supposed quotes in English are not verified. Munn, who had lived in Huautla de Jimenez and knew the Mazatec language, wrote two reports on sacred mushroom ''veladas'' and ''curanderos'': ''The Mushrooms of Language'' was about the traditional ceremonies of the typical curanderos in Huautla; the second was called ''The Uniqueness of María Sabina''. Another book on her song-poem chants was ''María Sabina: Selections'' by Jerome Rothenberg. ''The Sacred Mushroom of Mexico'', by Brian Akers, has excerpts from five Mexican authors translated from Spanish to English. ''Los Hongos Alucinantes'' (in Spanish) by Fernando Benitez dispels many rumors about her life. The book ''Sacred Mushroom Rituals: The Search for the Blood of Quetzalcoatl'', by Tom Lane, has several chapters by the author on the experiences he, his wife, and a friend had at her home in a ''velada'' with María Sabina and her daughter Appolonia. The book reports on María's musical tonal songs, poetic expressions, ventriloquy, incantations and chanting during the ''velada''. The rituals before the ceremony and prayers for the participants are similar to those recorded by Wasson in his visits during the mid-1950s. After publishing his book on
ethnomycology Ethnomycology is the study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi and can be considered a subfield of ethnobotany or ethnobiology. Although in theory the term includes fungi used for such purposes as tinder, medicine ( medicinal ...
, ''Russia, Mushrooms and History'', Wasson wrote ''María Sabina and her Mazatec Mushroom Velada'' with George and Florence Cowan and Willard Rhodes, which included four cassette recordings and the musical score of Sabina's ''veladas'', with lyrics translated from Mazatec to Spanish to English. Henry Munn later translated these songs into English in Álvaro Estrada's book. The entheogenic use of the sacred mushrooms ''(hongos sagrados)'' practiced by María Sabina had roots in
Pre-Columbian Mexico The pre-Columbian (or prehispanic) history of the territory now making up the country of Mexico is known through the work of archaeologists and epigraphers, and through the accounts of Spanish conquistadores, settlers and clergymen as well as ...
. By her meeting R. Gordon Wasson and her ''veladas'' being recorded in the mid-1950s, these ancient Mazatec ceremonies and rituals entered Western knowledge systems, although they existed within Mazatec culture, intentionally hidden, for centuries. Similar ceremonies were recorded in the late Post-Classic Mesoamerican
Mixtec The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture wa ...
codex ''Yuta Tnoho'' or ''Vindobonensis Mexicanus I'' (Latin), written in the 16th century, and in the Three
Stelae A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
of
Xochimilco Xochimilco (; nci, Xōchimīlco, ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') of Mexico City. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the ...
, but until Wasson met María Sabina in the early 1950s there was almost no proof that the sacred mushroom healing and divination ceremonies and rituals actually existed. Academics note that before Wasson's account, there was "little to no evidence" of the medicinal properties of the psilocybin mushrooms in western scientific literature, thus confirming the pivotal role that Sabina and the Mazatec community had in all Western uses of the mushrooms.


Use of synthetic entheogens

In 1958, the French mycologist
Roger Heim Roger Heim (February 12, 1900 – September 17, 1979) was a French botanist specialising in mycology and tropical phytopathology. He was known for his studies describing the anatomy of the mushroom hymenium, the systematics and phylogeny of high ...
brought psilocybin tablets to María Sabina and the first ''velada'' using the active principle of the mushrooms rather than the raw mushrooms themselves took place. In 1962, R. Gordon Wasson and Albert Hofmann went to Mexico to visit her. They also brought a bottle of psilocybin pills.
Sandoz Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...
was marketing them under the brand name Indocybin—"indo" for both Indian and
indole Indole is an aromatic heterocyclic organic compound with the formula C8 H7 N. It has a bicyclic structure, consisting of a six-membered benzene ring fused to a five-membered pyrrole ring. Indole is widely distributed in the natural environmen ...
(the nucleus of their chemical structures) and "cybin" for the main molecular constituent, psilocybin. Hofmann gave his synthesized
entheogen Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood (psychology), mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwiseRätsch, Christian, ''The Encyclop ...
to the ''curandera''. "Of course, Wasson recalled, Albert Hofmann is so conservative he always gives too little a dose, and it didn't have any effect." Hofmann had a different interpretation: "activation of the pills, which must dissolve in the stomach, takes place after 30 to 45 minutes. In contrast, the mushrooms when chewed, work faster as the drug is absorbed immediately". To settle her doubts about the pills, more were distributed. María, her daughter, and the shaman, Don Aurelio, ingested up to 30 mg each, a moderately high dose by current standards but not perhaps by the more experienced practitioners. At dawn, their Mazatec interpreter reported that María Sabina felt there was little difference between the pills and the mushrooms. She thanked Hofmann for the bottle of pills, saying that she would now be able to serve people even when no mushrooms were available. Chemical compounds derived from the Psilocybe mushrooms Sabina introduced to Wasson now form part of pharmaceutical products which are patented and now worth billions of dollars. However, Mazatec indigenous communities who are responsible for discovering and stewarding the medicinal properties of psilocybin mushrooms do not hold any of these patents, and as such do not benefit financially at all from their contribution. Ethical concerns have been raised about the way that the Mazatec's indigenous knowledge was commodified and profited from, without any acknowledgement, recognition or involvement of the indigenous roots of this knowledge, which came via Sabina.


Chants and poetry

Álvaro Estrada, a fellow Mazatec, recorded her life and work and translated her
chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes ...
s. Estrada's American brother-in-law, Henry Munn, translated many of the chants from Spanish to English, and wrote about the significance of her language. Munn wrote that María Sabina brilliantly used themes common to Mazatec and Mesoamerican spiritual traditions, but at the same time was "a unique talent, a masterful oral poet, and craftsperson with a profound literary and personal charisma". Mexican poet Homero Aridjis described her as "the greatest visionary poet in twentieth-century Latin America." It is sung in a shamanic trance in which, as she recounted, the "saint children" speak through her:


Cultural impact

Sabina is regarded as a sacred figure in Huautla. At the same time, her image is used to market various local commercial ventures, from restaurants to taxi companies. The Mexican counterculture has an affinity for Sabina. The
Mexican rock Mexican rock music, often referred to in Mexico as ''rock nacional'' ("national rock"), originated in the 1950s. Standards by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Nancy Sinatra, and Chuck Berry were soon covered by bands such as Los Ap ...
group
Santa Sabina The Basilica of Saint Sabina ( la, Basilica Sanctae Sabinae, it, Basilica di Santa Sabina all'Aventino) is a historic church on the Aventine Hill in Rome, Italy. It is a titular minor basilica and mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Pre ...
is named after her, and El Tri, one of the first and most successful rock groups in Mexico, dedicated the song "María Sabina" to her, proclaiming her "''un símbolo de la sabiduría y el amor''" ("a symbol of wisdom and love"). Mexican musician, Jorge Reyes, included prerecorded chants of María Sabina in the track "The Goddess of the Eagles", in his album ''Comala''. Reyes also used more of the recording in his collaboration with
Deep Forest Deep Forest is a French musical group originally consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet. They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance ...
on the track "Tres Marías", from the Album
Comparsa A comparsa is a group of singers, musicians and dancers that take part in carnivals and other festivities in Spain and Latin America. Its precise meaning depends on the specific regional celebration. The most famous comparsas are those that parti ...
. Italian Photographer, Gusmano Cesaretti, published a book, ''Maria Sabina: en busca del Cristo Negro'', about his experience meeting Maria Sabina in 1982. Bolivian singer
Luzmila Carpio Luzmila Carpio is a Bolivian singer, who has performed in Spanish and Quechua, and former Bolivian ambassador to France from 2006 to 2010. Early life Luzmila Carpio was born in 1949 in Qala Qala, in the Department of Oruro. As a small child, ...
has recorded a song in honor of María Sabina. Mexican poet and novelist
Homero Aridjis Homero Aridjis (born April 6, 1940) is a Mexican poet, novelist, environmental activist, journalist and diplomat known for his rich imagination, poetry of lyrical beauty, and ethical independence. Family and early life Aridjis was born in Contepe ...
has written a novel, ''Carne de Dios'', about María Sabina, her life in Huautla and her experience with Westerners who flocked to her home to experience the hallucinogenic effects of the mushrooms. Aridjis brought María Sabina to Mexico City for medical treatment towards the end of her life. Huautla de Jimenez was without electricity and few signs of the 20th century until after María Sabina died in 1985. The Mazatec sacred mushroom ''veladas'' have survived into the 21st century and are now accepted by the Catholic Church there.


Notes


References

* * Allen, John W., and Jochen Gartz, 2002. ''Teonanácatl: A Bibliography of Entheogenic Mushrooms'' () * Estrada, Álvaro, (1976) ''Vida de María Sabina: la sabia de los hongos'' () * Estrada, Álvaro, (1981). ''María Sabina: her Life and Chants'' () * * Feinberg, Benjamin, (2003). ''The Devil's Book of Culture: History, Mushrooms, and Caves in Southern Mexico'' () * Gonzáles, Enrique, (1992). ''Conversaciones con María Sabina y Otros Curanderos'' () * Guerrero, Rita, (n.d.) ''"¿Qué nombre le ponemos?"''
Chapter 3
of th

* Harner, Michael J., ed. "Hallucinogens and Shamanism" () * * * * Rothenberg, Jerome, ed. (2003). ''María Sabina: Selections'' () * Verroust, Vincent. 2019. "De la découverte des champignons à psilocybine à la renaissance psychédélique". Ethnopharmacologia, no. 61 (juin): 8‑17. * Zolov, Eric, (1999). ''Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture'' ()


External links

*
R. Gordon Wasson's recording of a 1956 velada at Smithsonian Folkways


* https://brooklynrail.org/2019/02/fiction/Excerpt-of-Carne-de-Dios {{DEFAULTSORT:Sabina, Maria 1888 births 1985 deaths Indigenous Mexicans Mazatec Mexican animists People from Oaxaca Shamanism of the Americas Indigenous Mexican women