Icaros and Vegetalismo
Some vegetalistas define the icaro as an "air or force charged with positive energy" -- i.e. with healing power - "that all curanderos [those who cure] store inside their body", and are used to pull out the negative energy from the body of a patient. The icaros are magical songs or melodies -- either whistled or sung -- that the spirit of the teacher plants with which the shaman has dieted, have taught him. The longer the diet, the more icaros (specific to the plants dieted) may be learned.
They have the power to heal. There are, for instance, specific icaros that cure snake-bite; direct, structure, protect and clarify the vision during ayahuasca ceremonies; to communicate with the spirit-world; or win the love of a woman. The huarmi icaros belong to this latter category and are learned by dieting with perfume.
When a vegetalista performs a healing he first calls upon the spirit of the plants of the medicina by singing their related icaros, or he charges his yachay with medicina, and then begins the cure.
Icaros may be received by dieting with many teacher plants and trees. Thus we have the icaro del tabaco, the icaro del ajo sacha, the icaro del chiric sanango, et al.
To another category belong the icaros de la piedra learned through the dieting of the encantos. The spirit of each encanto can also teach its own specific icaro, which is mainly used for spiritual protection. There are also icaros related to the spirits of the elements, such as the icaro del viento, sung to call upon the spirits of the wind. The icaros of the ayaruna are sung to summon the spirit of dead vegetalistas, believed to reside in the underwater world, for help during a cure.
The most powerful icaros are believed to be those sung in an Indian tongue (especially Quechua), while those sung in Spanish are sometimes regarded as less effective, though it is very common to find icaros in both the native and the Spanish tongue. Those learned directly from the plant spirits are also considered more effective than those learned from a teacher.
The gift of the icaros is not necessarily linked to the condition of being a shaman or vegetalista. There are people who, despite having received icaros from the plant spirits, are not shamans, nor do they make any claim as such. All vegetalistas possess icaros, but not everyone who possess an icaro is a vegetalista.
The power and knowledge of a vegetalista is measured by the number of icaros he possesses, since each and every single one of them has been acquired during the diet with the plants.
Used in a variety of ritual contests, icaros are used especially during healing sessions and during ayahuasca ceremonies to establish contact with the spirit world. The singing of the icaros, learned by the initiate from the spirits of the plants, animals, stones, or other elemental entities, is of paramount importance in the healing process (for the diagnosis and cure of an illness). Icaros are essential in communicating with the spirits of the plant teachers (hence their importance in the preparation of the ayahuasca brew and during ayahuasca rituals), and reinforce the effects of shamanic prescribed remedies, either for healing or for bringing good luck in love and work.
Icaros may be also used for a variety of other shamanic tasks: protection, the performing of pusanga, soul loss recovery, to name a few. The icaros may be intertwined with other magical aspects of shamanism in the Peruvian Amazon: the yachay, the hark'ana, the virotes (active and passive), and the genio.
The above used with permission of El Mundo Magico. To hear samples of icaros from a CD, click here.