TOBACCO MEDICINE
Jungle tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) is known locally as mapacho. This special variant is prevalent throughout the upper Amazon basin.
Mapacho is widely utilized as a medicine and also forms an integral part of virtually every ayahuasca tradition. At Casa Del Maestro, we work with mapacho in ceremony, in plant dietas, and a small amount of mapacho included in our ayahuasca brew.
MAPACHO
Historically, tobacco is the most common sacred plant found across the world, in widely dispersed cultures and spiritual systems. It is, in effect, the oldest and most well-known of the sacred plants.
In the Amazon, mapacho is almost always smoked in ayahuasca ceremonies in rolled form as well as in pipes. It can help clear and set space, acting as both protector and cleansing agent. Its smoke can be used as a medium to transmit spiritual energies from one location to another—usually accompanied by a forceful “blowing” sound made by the curandero called a sopla. Mapacho also provides a grounding presence and can help stabilize the effects of ayahuasca, as well as raise or lower the intensity of the experience, among other uses.
When dieted, mapacho is a purgative and cleansing medicine that is great for gut health and overall energetic fortitude and well-being. Mapacho is a very potent medicine plant, offering its strength to the physical body as well as the spirit. It often helps people break unwanted, repetitive patterns (habits or addictions) and brings with it an earthen, grounding wisdom.
Most guests will approach the mapacho diet after working with ayahuasca for some time, and after having built a solid foundation with other plant medicine diets that we offer. Mapacho diets are held during our Sanango retreats and are available by request.
