Amazonian Brujos: The Sorcerers Serving You Ayahuasca

"Magic and sorcery are very real to the people of the Amazon" — Rebekah Senanayake.

"Shadow is part of the shamanic world," says Marev, an Israeli tabaquera (tobacco shaman) working in the Sacred Valley of Peru. Sitting in a small cafe in Urubamba, she recounts her early days seeking ayahuasca in the Amazon.

In Iquitos, the jungle’s capital that only rivers and planes reach, Marev drank ayahuasca in the basements of shops and narrowly missed disaster several times in search of trustworthy teachers. She recalls, in those early days, a friend headed for a nervous breakdown who had made an enemy of local shamans. 

“He is constantly with his eyebrows like this," as she raises her own eyebrows underneath thick and wavy dark bangs. "He couldn't sleep, he said… things happened to him. He constantly said he was being attacked at night."

Marev’s friend narrowly survived a series of car accidents only to end up in the hospital after suffering a heart attack.

"It took him a long time to find somebody that could protect him," says Marev and the friend only survived by enlisting the help of two other shamans, who then needed to manage more attacks on themselves. 

“As a Westerner coming to the jungle, it's a different culture. I was very naive. I was thinking how can people that work with such light do stuff like this,” — says Marev.

The stories of shaman feuds and the drama surrounding them are endless when one spends enough time talking to practitioners in South America. Magic darts, enchanting songs, devious spirits, and powerful plants are the tools of the trade, for those that know how to use them.

Events warranting attacks include anger over outsiders revealing shamanic secrets in documentaries, neighbors stealing wives, shamans poaching clients, and guilds of shamans falling into disarray. 

The consequences of shamanic combat include death, insanity, bad luck, financial ruin, and harassment by entities. Wars and grudges between individuals and tribes can last generations, and many continue to this day.

Shamanic Warfare in the Amazon

"The belief in sorcery is real. The fear of sorcery is real" — says Robin Rodd, an anthropologist who apprenticed with the Piaroa shaman in modern-day Venezuela for many months.