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Jonathon Miller Weisberger
Jonathon Miller Weisberger Microcosms, a glimpse into the confounding reality of worlds within worlds within worlds. As the universe extends itself inwards to realms of unknowingness, and simultaneously outwards, beyond the realms of reason. We struggle to reach for an understanding of just where is the unity between the quantum and relative realities? We begin…
Tabernaemontana spp.
Tabernaemontana spp. Carmen X. Luzuriaga-Quichimbo and her team of researchers from Ecuador and Spain are at the forefront of new studies on Tabernaemontana sananho, also known by its Kichwa name Sikta. They document medicinal and ritual uses of this small tree that thrives in lowland evergreen rainforests throughout northern South America by the Aguaruna of…
Yagé Varieties and Their Names By Jonathon Miller
Yagé Varieties and Their Names By Jonathon Miller Weisberger In this essay, I will share some key insights into the notable varieties of Amazonia’s enigmatic visionary vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, specifically related to the Indigenous science of yagé, as known and practiced by the Western Tukanoan speaking Siekopai people of the northern Ecuadorian Amazon. The information…
The Yagé Complex by Neil Logan
The Yagé Complex By Neil Logan Dedicated to Miguel Payaguaje and his extended family (including his father Delfín and his grandfather Fernando), as well as all the vine gardeners responsible for stewarding these sacred plants through time. Introduction This essay will present the origins, evolution, and human co-history of the Malpighiaceae family of ethnomedically significant…
Prosopis spp.
Prosopis spp. Using a term that is part of his Rarámuri (Tarahumara) heritage, Enrique Salmón explains the importance of iwígara in the introduction to Iwígara, the Kinship of Plants and People: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science: “In a worldview based on iwígara, humans are no more important to the natural world than any other form…
Desfontainia spinosa
Desfontainia spinosa Richard Evans Schultes, in his pioneering article from 1977 “Desfontainia: A New Andean Hallucinogen,” describes collecting Desfontainia spinosa twice in Colombia’s Sibundoy Valley, first in 1942 and then in 1953. The Kamsá and Ingano shamans that Schultes consulted called the plant borrachero de páramo and told him that they would drink a tea…
