Healing with the Spirit of Rapay

In the plant medicine world, it is believed that all of the plants have a spirit or consciousness. Some have male spirits and others have female spirits. Basically, it depends on the lineage and tradition you check in with as to the consensus of gender allocation for each plant spirit. They have both in essence, as do we humans, but they also tend to present with a dominant expression of energy, either masculine or feminine.

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I resisted using Rapay for a long time. I spell it phonetically, but it is also spelled "Rapé" and pronounced "HAP-aay"

It comes from a different tradition of working with Ayahuasca than what I am used to, and when I saw it being used for the first time by participants at one of the retreats I was present for, it felt like it was not being used in a sacred way. Rather, it looked far more like people were just using it as another tool to get more of a psychoactive"rush", some administered it for the attention, some as a substitute for their addictive patterns of behaviour, as a distraction for themselves from themselves. For some, all of the above.

The stuff itself is basically Mapacho (or sacred nicotina rustica/ jungle tobacco). The Mapacho itself facilitates sacred ceremony in the Amazon by cleansing a person's energetic field and for protection from negative energy (when used with intention). Mapacho itself is a formidable ally within the plant spirit kingdom and He usually brings messages to me about the hidden areas of required healing within people who attend ceremony.

The Mapacho ash that is finely ground into powder (or snuff) and often mixed with other healing or cleansing herbs is what is known as Rapay. A pea size bullet of powder is blown like a dart into each nostril and can be used as a healing ceremony on its own (that for some yields many strong visuals and for most an altered state), or as an accompaniment to drinking Ayahuasca.