Huni Kuin Rapé – Floresta

Huni Kuin Rapé – Floresta

This particular powerful Huni Kuin Floresta rapé was made with caneleiro ashes, sabia tobacco, some moi and a variety of herbs from the forest. It contains a mixture of leaves and vines that give it its unique character. It contains clove vine, lourinho, pixuri and others. According to the maker this medicine is ideal for headaches and dizziness, bringing great relief and relaxation to the body.

The Huni Kuin are the most extensive tribe of the Brazilian state Acre and they also are present in Peru. They are more commonly known as the Kaxinawa but call themselves “Huni Kuin” what means in their own language “True People.”

Some tribes like the Yawanawá have one particular simple recipe in their case made with tobacco and Tsunu ashes. The Huni Kuin use many different herbs and ashes creating a large variety of medicines for different specific uses. They even have rapé without tobacco. Maybe them being spread out over such a vast area might have contributed to the great variety of medicines they use.

More About Sacred Snuff

Rapé is a shamanic snuff, usually made with tobacco, found throughout the Amazon. It is used in traditional Amazonian medicine and shamanism as a medicinal herb, and as a tool for shamanic journeying.

Although rapé usually contains tobacco, it can contain a number of different herbs and plants to alter the experience. In addition, the strength of the tobacco used can change depending on the blend!

Rapé is usually administered by a shaman, through a pipe called a tepi. Small quantities of rapé are blown up the nostrils, one after the other. The effect can be powerful and immediate!

You can also take rapé yourself, using a special pipe called a kuripe. You will lose out on the experience and knowledge of the shaman, who can impart energetic healing and guidance too.

Depending on the cultural group, rapé is used in different ways. It is often used recreationally as a stimulant, but is also used to enhance the power of other plant medicines, or on its own for its transformative power. It has a number of purported medicinal properties – its capacity to provoke purging means it has a reputation as a cleanser of toxins from the body, and a booster of natural immunity.

Use with respect and care; it is a tobacco product and can be habit forming!

About The Huni Kuin

“The shaman gives and takes life. To become a shaman, you go alone into the forest and wrap your entire body in embira. You lie down at a path intersection with your arms and legs outstretched. First come the night butterflies, the husu, who completely cover your body. Next comes the yuxin who eats the husu until reaching your head. Then you grab him tightly. He transforms into a murmuru palm, which is covered in spines. If you’re strong enough and don’t let go, the murmuru transforms into a snake, which wraps around your body. If you keep hold, he transforms into a jaguar. You continue holding him. And this continues until finally you’re left holding nothing. You’ve won the ordeal and you can speak: you explain that you want to receive muka and he gives it to you”. [Siã Osair Sales]

The People

The Huni Kuin are one of the indigenous peoples who live in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon, speaking the Pano language and with a long cultural history of ayahuasca and sacred snuff usage.

Huni Kuin means “true people” or “people with traditions” in the Pano language. The Huni Kuin are also sometimes known by the name Kaxinawá – although this name is rejected by the Huni Kuin themselves, and seems to have originated as an insult. Kaxi means bat, or cannibal, but may also mean people who walk about at night.

Shamans

The Huni Kuin claim that the true shamans, the mukaya, those containing within themselves the bitter shamanic substance called muka, have died out – though this has not prevented them from practicing other forms of shamanism, deemed less powerful but equally effective. Other capacities, such as knowing how to communicate with the yuxin (the spiritual realms), are possessed by many adults, especially older people.

Consequently, we could say that no shamans exist and – equally – that many exist. A salient feature of Huni Kuin shamanism is the importance of discretion in relation to a person’s potential to cure or cause illnesses. The invisibility and ambiguity of this power is linked to its transitory nature. Shamanism is more an event than a crystallized role or institution. This fact also derives from the strict abstinence from meat and women imposed on the mukaya shaman.

Ayahuasca consumption, considered the preserve of the shaman in many Amazonian groups, is a collective practice among the Huni Kuin, practiced by all adult men and adolescent boys who want to see ‘the world of the vine.’ The mukaya is one who does not need any substance, nor any outside help to communicate with the invisible side of reality. But all adult men are a little bit shaman to the extent that they learn to control their visions and their interactions with the world of the yuxin.

Learn more about the Huni Kuin here

https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Huni_Kuin_(Kaxinaw%C3%A1)