Thursday, January 18, 2007

Huichol peyote pilgrimage

Once a year groups of Huichols (an indigenous people with a population of about 20,000) embark on a pilgrimage to collect peyote, a trip taking them approximately 300 miles (~480 km) from their home in the Sierra Madre Occidental in western Mexico to the peyote fields in San Luis Potosí (a sacred area known as Wirikuta). The rituals surrounding the pilgrimage have been described in detail by e.g. Carl Lumholtz and Ted Anderson, but Nicola Frioli’s photos are the best pictorial documentation of the journey I’ve seen yet.

Huichol woman holding large peyote
Huichol woman holding large peyote

Sack full of peyote
Sack full of peyote

The images are courtesy of Nicola “Okin” Frioli (you can find more pictures at his home page by selecting your language, e.g. “english”, then select “Reportages” and “Mexico”, finally click on “In the Sacred Land of the Blue Deer”

It’s interesting to compare the above plants with the peyote harvesting technique recommended by modern research.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks a lot for this post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi,
    The Huichola people are the only people who had divinized a plant as his supreme being. At least is what is told us by the observer Benedict Allen. And peyote are the few medicine they have for healling infections, since their Antibiotic propreties.

    Since they have such a strong relation with peyote, they feel like they were part of Nature. Mostly because all of them are iniciated in Peyote trip's.

    That's why, and like Timothy Learry and Hoffman told us, everyone should give a try on Psycadelics to find is place on Nature.

    Keep the good post. Anyway, i've failed on grafting peyote in Opuntis =( i did with Gymnocalicium but not with Peyote. But i will try again.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  3. when is this pilgrimage?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anderson (Peyote - The Divine Cactus, 2nd edition, p. 15) says: "The Huichols also believe that 'peyote is for learning', that 'those with strong hearts will receive messages from the gods' (quoted in Schaefer 1996, n.p.), and in October they engage in a sacred pilgrimage to Wirikuta, the land where peyote grows. A successful trip will ensure the growth of their maize, their children and all of nature."

    ReplyDelete

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