Current curanderism (chamanism) call it the "mesa" (the table). Its i clear that this kind of todays ritual comes from ancient cultures, mainly from Chavin where there are clear as seen in their stone art and archeological evidences.
The "table" is really a mantle or poncho folded where special elements are put : (in which each widget space occupies a particular place) is diversified in several levels of abstraction and praxis: Snuff, Pom, Insurance, Key and according to the kind of session to make and the persons involve.
Current Chamanism is directly made for persons' wishes : to bring good luck, to heal some physical or piscological problem, love and also to guess the future or belongings stolen.
However, must be clear that purposes of current chamanism are not the same as it has in ancient cultures. Ancient cultures has to survive from natural forces : rain, flood, etc so they needed to connect with all those Gods who had that kind of power. So, hallucinogens were used to communicate with the power of Gods.
The "table" is really a mantle or poncho folded where special elements are put : (in which each widget space occupies a particular place) is diversified in several levels of abstraction and praxis: Snuff, Pom, Insurance, Key and according to the kind of session to make and the persons involve.
Current Chamanism is directly made for persons' wishes : to bring good luck, to heal some physical or piscological problem, love and also to guess the future or belongings stolen.
However, must be clear that purposes of current chamanism are not the same as it has in ancient cultures. Ancient cultures has to survive from natural forces : rain, flood, etc so they needed to connect with all those Gods who had that kind of power. So, hallucinogens were used to communicate with the power of Gods.
The Andean investigators, to a large extent, reject the category “hallucinogenic” to classify to these plants, because the pharmacological action of the majority of them is not translated in a “alteration of the senses” as “the hallucinogenic” term suggests.
Sicotrópicos” (Cabieses, 1993) or “sicoactives” described best the San Pedro cactus (Camino and Anderson, 1994).
A more suitable concept for the anthropology and Andean Archaeological view, those plants may be called "power plants" because it express the way in which they are considered by the Andean man from pre-Hispanic times. In the ideology of the andes, these plants contain a power (synonymous of “enchantment”, “spirit” or “virtue”).
The healer (chaman) is the specialist in dominating and applying this “power curatively”; for this reason, who harvests the plant is, necessarily, the healer or some of its aids or apprentices. “San Pedro" is never choosen by anyone because it is soothes of a spirit with whom is needed to restore a correct ritual relation [...]” (Polia, 1996:308). This harvesting is in itself a ritual act, in whic specific aspects must be follow.
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