Mazatec Mushroom History 🍄
We Wouldn’t Have Magic Mushrooms Without Indigenous Mexican Women. Period.
There is evidence of ancient humans using magic mushrooms across various cultures. In fact, the Aztec even had a word for the sacred mushroom. They called it teonanácatl, meaning, “flesh of the Gods”.
For thousands of years, the Mazatec people in the mountain ranges of Oaxaca, MĂ©xico have been using mushrooms medicinally in ceremonies.
Maria Sabina
In 1955, a New York banker named Gordon Wasson traveled to the mountain ranges in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, México searching for what he called “the magic mushroom.” Although the Mazatec people would typically only share the medicine within their community, a curandera (mushroom healer) named Maria Sabina took this Westerner into her ceremony.
In 1957, Wasson went back home and published Seeking the Magic Mushroom in Life magazine. This article kickstarted the psychedelic era of the 1960s!
Maria Sabina was ostracized by the people in her village for sharing the medicine of Los Niños Santos with foreigners. However, she wasn’t the only Mazatec mushroom curandera sharing ceremonies with Westerners.
Abuelita Julieta
Abuelita Julieta, while she was alive, was a member of The Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers protecting sacred lands and sacred medicines around the globe.
She continued the tradition of sharing the medicine of Los Niños Santos with foreigners, as she understood this healing was a God given right to everyone on this planet. A gift from Mother Earth to all of Her children.
Today, honoring this tradition, we give back to this lineage by working directly with Abuelita Julieta’s family in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, México.
Maestras
Our lead curandera, Azalea, has been trained under daughters of Abuelita Julieta. Julieta’s daughters started working with los niños santos (psilocybin mushrooms) from a very young age as they sat in their mother’s Mazatec ceremonies.
They have traveled around Mexico sharing the medicine in traditional Mazatec ceremonies, keeping alive the traditions that Maria Sabina made famous in the 1960s.
Nasxkatichili!
We Thank you, in the Native language of the Mazatec people.
