The Mazatec Shamans are known for their ritual use of

psilocybin mushroom Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of mushroom, fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include ''Psilocyb ...

s, psychoactive

morning glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics are in flux. Morning glory species belong to many genera, some of ...

seeds, and ''

Salvia divinorum ''Salvia divinorum'' (Latin: "sage of the diviners"; also called ska maría pastora, seer's sage, yerba de la pastora, magic mint or simply salvia) is a plant species with transient psychoactive properties when its leaves are consumed by che ...

''.

María Sabina María Sabina Magdalena García (22 July 1894 – 22 November 1985) was a Mazatec ''curandera'', shaman and poet who lived in Huautla de Jiménez, a town in the Sierra Mazateca area of the Mexican state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico."Sabina Rothen ...

was one of the best known of the

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 ...

Shamans. Her healing psilocybin mushroom ceremonies, called '' veladas'', contributed to the popularization of indigenous Mexican ritual use of

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 ...

ic 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.

. In their rituals, Mazatec shamans use fresh ''Salvia divinorum'' leaves. Ritual use traditionally involves being in a quiet place after ingestion of the leaf—the Maztec shamans say that "La Maria (''S. divinorum'') speaks with a quiet voice." Reisfield 1993, The Barrier to Fertility. There is little information concerning the Mazatec people generally before the arrival of the Spanish and less concerning their spiritual practices. Several researchers have commented on the difficulty in obtaining information, as the Mazatec shamans tend to be secretive and protective of their practices.

References

External links

Ethnopharmacology of Ska María Pastora

* ttp://sagewisdom.org/earlysdhistory.html Early History of Salvia Divinorum Shamanism of the Americas Entheogens {{NorthAm-native-stub