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Icaros - Magical Songs from Peru

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Icaros - Magical Songs from Peru takes us on a journey deep into the heart of the Amazonian rainforest, travelling with Liz Thompson and Simon Green to meet shamanic healers or 'curanderos' as they generously share their 'icaros' or magical songs.

Icaros have been used for millennia to cure and to curse, to hunt and to heal, to mediate between the world of the spirits and the world of humans.

They are sung to this day for a multitude of purposes, and often in ceremony, to call in protective spirits, cure illness, activate the healing properties of medicinal plants, attract lovers, call spirits of the dead and alter the weather or, on occasion, for the more malicious purpose of brujeria (sorcery). Curandero Don Juan tells of icaros used to heal babies within the field of shamanic pediatrics. 'There are' he says, 'pediatric icaros, surgical icaros, dental icaros .... all icaros have a specific healing function or purpose. In the same way that allopathic medicine is specialised, so too is the science of icaros'.

The songs might be taught by an elder 'shaman', but most often they come to the curandero from the spirit realm. Shamanic cosmology is grounded in a belief that plants have consciousness and particular knowledge they are able to communicate. 'I work with the vibration of the icaro , vibrate the sounds, that's where the energy is , it's in the vibration', says Mestizo curandero Don Lucho, 'When I'm in a trance, when I'm with the plant in trance, then I have this energy, this power, which is an exchange of energies between myself and the plant'.

Whilst many icaros come from the plants, curanderos tell of songs received from mermaids and dolphins, from the rain mother, the animals, the snakes, the rivers and stars, in dreams or the waking state. These remarkable melodies have been woven into a compelling soundscape, an aural journey into the realms inhabited by the practitioners of this ancient art.

Thanks go to Justin Touyz, Carlos Tanner and all the curanderos who shared their songs and knowledge for the creation of this program.

Featuring curanderos Luis Culquiton, Guillermo Arevalo, Juan Tangoa Paima and Doña Otilia.

Readers: Marcelo Ovington, Patricio Rodriguez, Matias James Stevens and Lucia Mastrantone.

Translations by Justin Touyz.

Texts by Stephan Bayer from his blog http://www.singingtotheplants.com/blog/.

Written, narrated and produced by Liz Thompson and Simon Green.

Sound engineer Judy Rapley.

Executive Producer Robyn Ravlich.

this will be on abc radio national saturday,tomorrow,at 5.05pm ....repeated 3.05 friday pm.....listen online later and read transcript.....

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic/stor...009/2627511.htm

also has 2 short videos......

'Otilia' video: Doña Otilia blesses Ayahausca with the smoke of Tobacco prior to ceremony, and explains the nature of the icaro for opening a ceremony.

[Duration: 5'56" 29MB]

'Lucho' video: Don Lucho concentrates deeply to bring forth an icaro to call the spirits of the earth, the plants and the sky.

[Duration: 4'50" 23MB]

radio national does it again!!!

t s t .

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very nice thanks tst

steve is a cool guy too, from that blog link you posted singing to the plants, his blog makes a good read

will try and tune in tomorrow for a listen

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Just caught some of the tail end of the show - that mermaid icaro was really nice, I was getting mad neck and skull tingles.

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ahh missed it ahh well.

i think steve from his blog posted some icaros the other day will see if i can find a link for you all here

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icaros

not sure if these were posted above apologies if so. currently am sick with an awful flu and my head aint workign properly

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yeh ,i thought that was quality media,nice sound quality,very informative content-not the usual media fluff......will try to tape the repeat 3.05pm friday....

thought they were magical darts going off all through it.....a bit unsettling,but the icaros were real....i could feel the conection,esp with closed eyes.....and my sinus/flu problems clear afterwards,felt the best i had in a couple weeks.

t s t .

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http://www.singingtotheplants.com/2008/04/learning-to-sing/

One of the most striking features of Amazonian mestizo shamanism is the icaro, the magic song, whispered, whistled, and sung. The shaman uses icaros to call the spirits for healing, protection, or attack, and for many other purposes as well — to control the visions of another person who has drunk ayahuasca, work love magic, call the spirits of dead shamans, control the weather, ward off snakes, visit distant planets, work sorcery.

It is universally said that each shaman learns his or her own icaros from the spirits themselves; indeed, the poet César Calvo Soriano calls them “untransferable magic songs.” But there are exceptions. First, icaros can be learned from one’s maestro ayahuasquero. My teacher doña María Tuesta told me that I should first learn the icaros of don Roberto Acho, my maestro ayahuasquero; as time passed, she said, and I continued to diet with the plants, I would learn icaros of my own.

And icaros can be learned from other shamans. Indeed, there are many stories of shamans traveling long distances to learns specific icaros. Anthropologist Françoise Barbira-Freedman reports that one of the Lamista Indian shamans with whom she worked traveled from San Martín to the Ucayali to learn the icaro del kapukiri.

Some shamans even visit other shamans incognito in order to steal their icaros. That is why many shamans mumble their songs, or sing in many different languages; the goal is to make their songs hard to learn, to keep them from being stolen. Doña María frequently compared her own open-handedness with the stinginess of other shamans, who do not want to reveal their icaros. “I’m not selfish,” doña María told me. “I sing loud because I’m not afraid to let people know what I know.”

But one’s own icaros most frequently come while dieting with the plants and other substances, in ayahuasca visions, in dreams, in the unheard rhythms of one’s own heart. It is a process that people find hard to describe, especially when the songs are in strange or incomprehensible languages. Musician Alonso del Río, who apprenticed for three years with renowned Shipibo shaman don Beníto Arévalo, talks about this phenomenon. “It doesn’t go through the mind,” he says, “but between one spirit and another.” It has something to do, I think, with solitude. “While you are alone with the sounds of the jungle and its animals,” says Cocama shaman don Juan Curico, “it is a real concert, a choir, that is the silence of the jungle.”

The icaros arrive in various ways. Don Solón Tello Lozano, a mestizo shaman in Iquitos, says, simply, “The plant talks to you, it teaches you to sing.” One may hear the icaro externally, as if sung by someone else, or one may hear it inwardly. Both words and melody may come together, or first one and then the other. One may hear only the words and then complete the melody oneself. Don Agustin Rivas says that he would make a song for each plant he dieted with as its power entered him, with the melodies coming first and the words added later; indeed, the lyrics of some of his icaros were written by Faustino Espinosa, a professor of Quechua. Sometimes, as with don Francisco Montes Shuña, a spirit whistles and sings the melody of the icaro in a dream. Sometimes there is simply an overwhelming urge to sing, and the song and melody come out by themselves.

Three days after Pablo Amaringo had undergone a healing, he was astonished to find himself singing, perfectly, the icaros he had heard there, including the words. “I sang many icaros,” he says, “as if the song were in my ears and on my tongue.”

The third time doña María drank ayahuasca, the spirit of ayahuasca entered into her, and she began to sing loudly. El doctor ayahuasca was in her body, she told me, singing to her, and ayahuasca appeared to her as two genios, spirits, one male and one female, who stood on either side of her — a woman dressed in beautiful clothing, wearing jewelry made of huayruru beads, “everything of the selva, the jungle,” and an ugly man, with bad teeth. Everyone in the room became very quiet, she said, as she sang her new icaro de ayahuasca.

t s t .

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Just had a listen online....that was a pretty cool story with some really nice icaros amongst it all.

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Whilst many icaros come from the plants, curanderos tell of songs received from mermaids and dolphins, from the rain mother, the animals, the snakes, the rivers and stars, in dreams or the waking state.

warmi icaro / painting by Juan Carlos Taminchi /

post-9197-0-13786000-1421949668_thumb.jp

https://tranceplants.net/avactis-images/WarmiIcaro.JPG

.. thanks for the interesting read tst ..

post-9197-0-13786000-1421949668_thumb.jpg

post-9197-0-13786000-1421949668_thumb.jpg

Edited by mysubtleascention

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t st tantra sadly does not appear to grace us any longer. as i recall his presence dwindled after some broken fingers made typing difficult.

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He's recently undergone eye surgery and can't look at monitors. I'm sure he'll be back eventually :)

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