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Although
Maria Sabina, the Mazatec
healer and shamaness who was a native of Huautla de
Jimenez, in the State of Oaxaca,
Mexico, passed away in 1985 at the age of 91, her spirit
remains to guide us and her teachings continue
to enrich our lives.
It was
she who revealed the secret of the sacred mushroom,
teonancacatl, also called 'little flowers of the gods' or
'that which springs forth' to the mycophiles Gordon
and Valentina Wasson in June of 1955.
'The little
mushroom comes of itself we know not whence, like the wind
that comes we know not whence or why' (Schultes and
Hofmann 1979 144).
In the
indigenous cultures, the teonancacatl, was
traditionally taken both for spiritual revelation
and to heal physical maladies.
Arturo
Macias, in his sculptural rendering of this healer,
has decorated her form with the herbs Maria
Sabina used to heal the body. Above her breast and around
her shoulders are carved the teonancacatl
she used to heal the mind.
Maria
Sabina stated: "The father of my-grandfather
Pedro Feliciano, my grandfather Juan Feliciano, my father
Santo Feliciano - were all shamans - they ate the teonanacatl
, and had great visions of the world where everything is known...
the mushroom was in my family as a parent, protector, a friend."
**
The Maria Sabina sculpture is, as of Feb. 20, 2001, in the
private collection of Renee A. Freeman of Albuquerque New
Mexico.
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