Icaros or Sacred Chants
Icaros or Sacred Chants-Indigenous people that want to become a shaman need to follow a strict diet of
food and social interactions and remain alone in the jungle for months to master the power of the plants. During this time of isolation from social interactions, they receive the Icaros they will sing in the ceremonies, each plant has its own Icaro and each shaman/curandero has its own repertoire of Icaros.
Icaros are the songs a shaman, curandero, sings during a plant medicine ceremony. They are intended to regulate the intensity of the experience. If a person is struggling in a session, the shaman uses the Icaros to help the person in their journey.
A Good Shaman
According to indigenous belief, we can be afflicted by negative energies or entities that can get attached to our energetic body similar to a parasite. During an ayahuasca ceremony, the shaman can see the energetic body of the person. Understand what is going on and provide balance to the energetic body by extracting the negative energies. There are therefore two main healing sources in well-delivered ayahuasca ceremonies. The inner journey the person transit after drinking the brew and the shamanic healing delivered by the shaman who is evaluating what is happening in our bodies. This is crucial to boost the person’s healing journey.
A good shaman will drink ayahuasca in the ceremony with his patients. Showing that what he is sharing with you has good quality. He would also drink the brew, to guide the ceremony and immerse himself into the same experience the person is having. The shaman would be able to read the energetic or spiritual body of the person to understand how to help them go through for instance traumatic events or painful memories.