Excerpts

From Volume 4: Guarani Shamans of the Forest

Ava Tape Miri

Some Paraguayan men would occasionally come into the wilderness. Two of them were very bad. They were professional killers who killed for money. A woman, who owned a liquor store, told me about them and warned me to take care of myself because they were dangerous. At the time I owned a machete and an ax, but I began thinking about how to get a shotgun and a knife. I figured out a way and got hold of these weapons.

One day many people sat together in her liquor store that was also a bar. One of the bad men walked up to me and said, "I need to talk to you. Come with me." I was very afraid because I knew that anything might happen. I followed him and then I noticed that the other bad man was following us. I walked with my hand on the gun and said to them, "What do you want?" I pretended to be brave.

The first bad man said, "Take it easy. We've been watching you and we like the kind of man you are." After telling me that they liked me, they told me that they were killers. They said that they rob places and kill people as a way of making lots of money. They then asked me, to my great surprise, to join them as outlaws. All I could think was that I knew nothing. I was simply a child of nature. But I liked the feeling that came over me when they told me these things. It made me feel strong like a grown man, and at that time, macho men ruled. I accepted their offer and I went off with them because being around them, I felt like a strong man and I liked that feeling. They told me to watch a certain person so they could figure out how to kill him. I did it. If they had wanted me to kill, I was ready.

This was how things were and on one Saturday afternoon, we went to the hangout where alcohol was sold. Looking around, I saw a guitar and a violin on the counter. Musicians with their instruments gathered because the people wanted to dance. The three of us walked in and sat in separate places. We were watching over the entire place and keeping a protective eye on each other.

During the dance, one of our men got up to dance with a beautiful woman. Within minutes her boyfriend noticed and he jumped up and took her away from the dance. A big problem was beginning. After the next song, the man returned to the same woman, even though her boyfriend was standing next to her. The boyfriend refused to let him dance with her. At that point everyone could feel that something was about to happen there.

On the third song, the same thing started to happen again. The boyfriend did not back down. He refused to let the outlaw dance with his girlfriend. The outlaw took out his gun and shot him dead. The bullet went right through his heart. As I watched, I prepared myself for a big fight.

Four men who were friends of the murdered man came over and asked who the killer was. We said nothing. And then it began. Bullets flew all over the place. It seemed that everyone in the bar was shooting. I don't know whether I killed anyone or not that day, but many people died.

My partners and I knew that we had to disappear. There were only two choices for me — flee across the Paraguayan border and live in exile in Brazil or go back to my village. I went back home to my village. I returned home when I was eighteen years old. I stayed ever since and I've never left.

My father told me many things in my dreams, even how my family was worrying about him. After this I knew that I was a changed man. I was taught not to eat particular oils and meats. These dreams also brought me sadness by reminding me of the original commitment I had made to my father and to my culture. I felt completely alone. I cried all night long during this period of intense dreaming. It was the beginning of my new life. I was now a young man and after I returned to the village I began dancing and singing all the time. I was filled with the spirits and a new life.

Weeks passed, and again, my father came to me in another dream. He said, "Your entire family must support you, so you can do the shamanic work." I wasn't sure what to do next, but I felt a strong inner sense that said I should go on a journey to a certain village far away. There I met the four shamans of that community. I did not know them until I arrived. Of the four men, the most powerful shaman was Ascurra, whose Guarani name means, "he who comes from God."

There were many people in that community, and every afternoon, they went to the temple to pray. These shamans helped me a lot by talking to me for long periods of time. When a shaman is talking to you, he or she is giving you soul. Their words are soul, and this is what the Guarani Indians call "word souls." The four shamans also had me drink the juice of the cedro tree and chicha, the sacred drink we use in our ceremonies. They also wet my chest with these juices, because it is one of the ways of getting closer to our souls. These shamans prepared me for my new life of living by the guidance of the spirits. After I began praying and dancing a lot, I had a dream that four dead shamans came to me from the West, where the sun goes down. When I say that they came from the West, I mean that their spirits came from that sacred direction. Each spirit gave me a song. I didn't know these shamans when they were human beings on earth. They only came to me in my dream.

These shamans spoke to me: "We come from where the real father lives. He is the one who sent us to you." Among the Guarani gods, one God is the principal God. He is like the president of all the smaller gods. He is the one who sent the shamans in my dream. They went on to say, "We have come from the Big God. We are here to carry you with us." Then they took me to another space. I felt as though I had died and I was seeing things from another world. I was taken to a large field not of this earth. It is in another place in space. There were many birds that ate special fruits. The shaman spirits said, "Now that you know this place, you should listen to this song." They then sang a sacred song as I watched the sunset. Editor's Note: Without exception, a Guarani cannot be a shaman without receiving a song from a sacred vision. A very bright light came to me, and then spirits who had human-like bodies arrived. These spirits were the word souls of our culture. They took me to the chief shaman who showed me how to baptize people. He gave me the power to be a strong shaman. Finally he said, "We will now send you back to earth where you will stay awhile to help others." Then the four shaman spirits brought me back home.

After this vision I started baptizing people into the Guarani spiritual life. I baptized all children as it is necessary. To a shaman, anyone who he loves is his child. We shamans want to baptize everyone we love to protect them and bring them into the spirit. Editor's Note: The Guarani baptism is a ceremony, sometimes lasting most of an evening, in which a person is given a soul-name or Guarani forest name. This name enables you to be recognized by the Guarani spirit world. The ceremony varies from shaman to shaman, but typically it includes being sprinkled by holy water and holding a burning candle while the community dances, sings, and prays. My big dream taught me how to baptize others and made me ready and wanting to do this for my people.

Tupa Nevangayu

The sacred songs come from different places — East, West, North, South, and above. You need to know where the song comes from to understand it better. For example, if you want to know something about water, you will need a song from the North.

There is a medicine made from the fruit of the pindo tree (coconut), sugar cane juice, corn, and sweet potato. When you mix them together and prepare it as a drink, it is like chicha. This is a very strong medicine, and it affects you in a special way. It can make you dream and when you wake up, it's possible that you will hear the spirits sing sacred songs. Both shamans and others can take this medicine, which cleanses and protects you. A shaman can also take some honey combs and mix it with corn that has been prepared like it is done for chicha. When they are mixed together, it, too, is powerful. It does a good job of cleansing you.

When I dance and shake my rattle, I am able to see things. Even the act of holding a rattle helps me to see. When I hold my rattle, I am holding a piece of the great holy rattle of the sky. When I pray I hear what is going to happen to another person. Chicha is also very important, because it gives a deep holy goodness to our body, helping us to achieve mbiroy.

When I put myself into a prayerful attitude, I speak with great humility, acknowledging that I am nothing as a person. I confess that I am simple flesh made of dirt. This attitude helps to make me a cradle for the soul. For the Guarani, the word souls are the main thing. I am only a medium for the spirits who carry the word souls. We bring forth word souls for the good of the world.

The problem today is that there are no shamans who can help other shamans stay strong. We've lost this kind of person. They would help us by the dance and word souls. Again, the life of a shaman is the life of prayer. This is most essential. If a shaman prays hard enough, the gods will come to give what is needed.

When we do wrong, God sometimes shakes us up. All we can do is return to God. The first temptation is to be angry with someone. In the beginning, even God got angry, but He kept quiet and let it pass.

God, our Grandfather, has all the spiritual ornaments — particularly the rattle, wrist band, and the corona. He has everything. Let me tell you how this came about. In the beginning, there was a wife of the Great Grandfather who became pregnant. She was wrong, because she was not supposed to have a baby in her belly. She was supposed to have her baby in a bag next to her body, like how Indians still carry them today. God came to her from His farm. He had been working and His woman was sitting. He touched her belly and said, "My son soon will be born." The woman slapped His hand. She said, "It's not your son. It is the son of another holy father who knows everything." God didn't get angry with her even though He knew it was not His son.

Here God teaches us that this kind of thing happens. Since then, however, women had to carry their unborn babies in their stomach. And because of this incident, women now suffer in childbirth.

When the woman told God that the child was from another father, God walked around in a circle. He then walked one hundred meters and stuck a feather in the ground. He sang a song and marked all the directions on the ground — North, South, East, and West. This gave birth to our holy dance.

God kept walking and placed feathers in the ground. He did this to leave marks for his wife to follow Him to His celestial home. She started following Him, but at the third feather she stopped, looked at her belly, and asked her son, "Where is your father?" The son replied, "I want the flower over there." She went to pick the flower, but when she touched it, a big black wasp stung her hand. She became angry and hit her son by hitting her belly.

That's the temptation of anger. A temptation is anything that distracts you from the main road. After that, the mother gently touched her belly, but her son did not speak anymore. Since he was quiet, she just kept following the road. She eventually found the fourth feather. When she saw it, she remembered that she had left her sacred musical instrument back at home. She immediately went back to get it. As she passed each feather, she correctly danced around them.

The Great Father ascended straight into heaven at the fourth feather. When His wife finally returned to the fourth feather again, the son told her to stop and go in another direction. He suggested that she go to the place where the wild cats live. She followed his advice and found the place where all the animals originate. There were all kinds of animals, good and bad. There the spirit protector of the jaguars came, and seeing that she was pregnant told her that she would protect her. She put her in a big basket.

A young jaguar came up and smelled her. The protector did not say a word other than, "There's nothing under that basket." Then the animals, one by one, replied, "Are you going to eat it?" She then would say, "Why there's nothing under that basket." All the forest animals came to see and smell the basket. The last animal that came was a fierce jaguar, the largest cat in the forest. He simply slapped away the basket and with the protector, they ate the woman.

The protector grabbed the child who was just about to be born and took it away. To her surprise, she discovered that the pregnant woman had been carrying twins. She protected them both. After a long time, the protector became tired of watching the twins and decided to eat them for dinner. She put them into a pot of boiling water, but as soon as the water touched them, it became cold. She said, "If I can't boil them, I'll cook them over a fire." But when the children neared a fire, the fire went out. Then she made a stick to skewer them. Strangely, she couldn't aim the stick the right way.

Since the protector could not harm them, she concluded that they must be from the Tupas, the Gods. "Since I can't kill them, I'll raise them as my pets," she decided. So she put them under a cage of wire mesh to keep them from running away. This was the first time pets were kept in the world. After this, people all over the world started keeping pets.

By now the bigger of the brothers was walking. The other brother was still crawling. Before long they were both walking, then running, and soon they began wanting a bow and arrow to go hunting. They started hunting butterflies and other insects. Then they hunted birds. They used dull arrows, which made the hunts more challenging. They went deeper into the wilderness. The protector warned that they should not go near a certain lake. It was a forbidden place to visit. It was a place where sacred talking parrots lived, and when they spoke, they always told the truth. The protector did not want the young twins anywhere near the truth-telling parrots.

Of course they immediately set out to find the lake. When they found the lake, they told the parrots that the protector did not want them there. One brother began shooting at the parrots, but the arrows always missed. The parrots just laughed at him. Then some parrots flew up to them and started telling them the truth about their lives. "You two are feeding the one who killed your mother," one parrot announced. They, in fact, hunted for the protector. The brother who couldn't hit the parrots with his arrows passed the bow to his brother, who was a better shooter. But the older brother said, "No, I won't shoot them, because if I kill them then we will not find out anything else." The younger brother then started shooting again, but continued to miss, and the parrots laughed even harder. The parrot repeated what he had said about their protector. Then the brothers began to cry as they found out what had really happened.

Guarani Shamanic Practices

Our shamans have different ways of expressing their practices. Ava Tape Miri, for example, is a warrior, and he acts in a very dynamic way. He can fight. Tupa Nevangayu, on the other hand, is wise like a king. Every shaman has his own specialty, like white doctors have specialized practices. This is determined by the songs they receive. Ava Tape Miri primarily cures, while Tupa Nevangayu predominantly expresses the word souls. Some of us like to say that Ava Tape Miri heals, while Tupa Nevangayu guides. They are a great team. The Guarani spiritual experience has both a communal and individual form of expression. The prayer-dance, jiroky-nembo'e, brings the people together. Here the small chicha, kagui miri, is drunk. When spiritual life is celebrated in community, the gods come down to earth. When an individual travels to God's home, it is through a sacred dream. This sometimes is celebrated with the big chicha, kagui vusuygary na'e. A Guarani shaman is nicknamed nande ru, meaning "our father," or we may be called tamoi, meaning "our grandfather." These names refer to the "father of origins," Nande Ru Pave the father of each of us). Our wives are called Nasnde sy, which means "our mother."

We believe that there are evil beings who bring us pain. They live on the earth's skin, yvy pire. We call these evil beings anag. They look like reptiles, beetles, and jaguars among earthly creatures. When we sing our sacred songs, pora'i, the anang emerge from the earth. They twist their bodies in gruesome ways and stare at us. Their look is very powerful. That is why we shamans don't open our eyes when we sing. We are afraid that we might be poisoned by the looks of the anang.

When we rest, we sit in our hammocks, kya, to avoid contact with the earth's skin, where the evil beings reside. We also keep our feet on a small stool called py'enda. We are warriors who must fight the anang to protect our people.

Kurusu (guarani cross) and Yvyra pape (altar)

From the beginning of Guarani culture, feathers have been used. This comes from our understanding of the creation story. There we learned that the Great God placed feathers in the ground to mark the sacred path. The Guarani cross holds earth and all of Creation. It is the intersection of all the sacred directions. This is where the migratory birds, guyra marangutu, settle in the spiritual world.

The center piece of our altar is usually a cross or kurusu. The altar itself is typically made of three vertical sticks. The center stick is the largest, and some shamans regard it as a representation of the body of Nande Ru Pave (the father of each one of us). Its lower end is called the foot, py; its middle is called the chest, potia, from which hangs the guembe (great corn). The upper end is called the head, aka, over which the cross, kurusu, is hung. Sometimes the cross is framed in bamboo, takuati, that is tied to a ygary (cedro) stick with strings of guembe (great corn).

The other variation of this arrangement consists of the cross laid out in the center of a board, the yvyra pe. The board is generally hexagonal with four flowery sticks, yvyra'i poty, each representing one of the four cardinal points. It can even take the shape of the tape, a bird.

The other elements of the altar are two ygary lateral sticks, one on each side of the karusu. On these sticks, called the tatarendy'y, rests the tataendy, candle flames, which represents the visual manifestation of Nande Ru Pave. And on one stick a plant of corn is attached, and from the other stick, a sugar cane plant is tied. Other plants and fruits also hang from the sticks. The altar also holds small bells on a rope, which is a place for the word-souls. In addition, there may be a miniature bow and arrow for the shaman to fight evil with and some carved wooden fish forms. And finally, there is a bowl to hold the chicha, the sacred drink.

Sacred Songs

Sacred songs are usually from the minor gods and the ancestors. They are given to them by the Great God. The Tupas also come to earth to listen to our prayers and take the messages to the Great God. They do this every moment of each day and night. They are always aware, even though we don't always see them.

The shaman's song, pora'i, is the main weapon we use against the anang. The pora'i is the revelation of the divine beings or the revelation of the souls of dead ancestors or shamans. These revelations usually take place in our dreams. The power of our shamans comes directly from the songs, which come from dreams. Some of our songs are called the gua'u (a true original song), guahu, aguauaha papa, and the koty'u. The latter song is sometimes sung between the men and women.