Five Healing Products to Support Your Plant Medicine Journey
Healing and growth with the support of plant medicines like ayahuasca is no simple process. While we often enjoy feelings of wellbeing and gratitude during or immediately after ceremonies with the medicines so many people consider sacred, this feeling can quickly fade as time – and daily life – wear on.
Luckily, there are some plant tools and allies that can support you even outside of sacred ceremonies with plant medicine. By building these medicines into your daily or weekly routine, you can reconnect with the lessons of previous ceremonies. When used with intention, reverence and respect, they will help you remember the many healing gifts and messages that the plants have for us on this path.
1. Hapé: Amazonian Snuff – For Relaxation and Focus
Hapé (pronounced ha-peh and also known as hapeh, rapé, or rapeh), is a sacred snuff made out of tobacco (also called mapacho) and other medicinal plants, originating from the Amazon rainforest. Primarily made by Brazilian and Peruvian tribes, hapé is a powerful tool to use during your plant medicine journey. Many tribes believe hapé clears negative energies, evokes a sense of groundedness and presence, and promotes healing in the body. The medicine is administered through the nostrils, either by someone else using a tepi applicator or to yourself using a kuripe self-applicator.
Emmy Morris, a medicine woman who was initiated into the hapé tradition by the Brazilian Huni Kuin tribe, explains that, “Hapé helps relax us. But at the same time it helps us focus and be fully present. Another thing it does energetically is clears our auric field, so it can be used to clear negativity if you’ve had a rough day.”
Morris explains that hapé also works on the physical level to improve respiratory problems and in some cases provoke cleansing through vomiting. What’s more, hapé is also incredibly powerful in connecting us to our hearts, she says. “When you sit down and meditate with hapé, you can feel your heart expanding. It’s the most incredible feeling to be fully connected to your heart and what it’s going through in that moment.”
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Use Hapé Intentionally During Your Plant Medicine Journey
The type of hapé that’s best for you to use will depend on your experience level and intention. If you’re new to plant medicine, Morris recommends using Apurina hapé. Which contains only a small amount of tobacco and carries a feminine spirit, allowing it to work in a more delicate way. Those who have more experience with hapé may want to try stronger blends such as Tsunu or Yawanawa.
Crucially, hapé should not be used mindlessly or habitually, and only when you have a clear reason or intention. Morris advises no more often than every other day.
Where to Find Hapé
Chakra Openings has a great selection of hapé including Apurina and Yawanawa. We also really like Tribu Spirit due to their impact-focused mission and eco-friendly packaging.
2. Sacred Smoke – For Energetic Clearing
Just like in ceremony, sacred smoke can be cleansing and grounding while used ritualistically in our day-to-day lives.
Sage is a powerful tool to expel negative energies and provide protection while using plant medicine. While palo santo is great for bringing peacefulness and positivity to a space. Copal is a tree resin used to purify and cleanse when poured over hot coals and is used in rituals from Mexico to the Amazon. The smoke of sacred Amazonian tobacco, mapacho, is also extremely powerful in providing energetic protection.
Where to Buy Smudge Sticks
If you’re looking to explore the power of sacred smoke, Shaman’s Market has great smudging kits.
3. Mambe and Ambil – For Conscious Conversation
Mambe is a fine powder made out of coca leaves and the ashes of the yarumo tree. Ambil is a thick paste made out of tobacco and natural jungle salts. These sacred medicines originate from the Huitoto (Murui Muina) tribe of the Colombian Amazon. The tribe is known as the “children of tobacco, coca, and sweet yuca” due to the close relationships they have with these plants.
It is often said in plant medicine communities that while tobacco sweetens the thoughts, coca sweetens the word, allowing those who mambear (use mambe and ambil) to express themselves authentically and listen attentively. José del Carmen Capojó, a Huitoto elder, explained that “coca is a sacred, spiritual plant, which wasn’t found but given to the [Huitoto] tribe from the beginning of creation.”
Tools For Sharing Wisdom About Your Plant Medicine Journey
Mambe and ambil are used in indigenous communities during mambeos – gatherings where people tell stories of their journey, share wisdom, and discuss different themes that are pertinent to the community. While coca leaf is illegal in many countries outside of South America, it’s possible to source ambil online in the US, on platforms such as Four Visions Market.
If you’re able to get your hands on mambe and ambil, these are beautiful tools when used intentionally and to facilitate sharing and conscious conversation with others who are also on the medicine path.
4. Sananga Eye Drops – For Physical Health
Sananga is another excellent tool to have in your plant medicine power toolkit. Studies show this Amazonian plant medicine has antimicrobial, antifungal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties.
Indigenous tribes say that when administered into the eyes, sananga improves vision and helps to prevent eye-related diseases. As well as clear bad luck and negative energies.
Where to Buy Sananga
Check out Queen of the Forest to order your own.
5. Flower Essences – To Open Up Your Senses
Last on our list of plant products to support your sacred medicine journey are flower essences. These aromatic and revitalizing sprays can be used whenever you feel like you need to ground, relax into a state of calmness, and open up your senses.
Agua de florida, for example, is an alcohol mix of different flowers and spices, including orange flower blossom, rose, and cinnamon. It’s used in shamanic settings to harmonize and clear energies and calm someone down who may be going through a challenging moment with the medicine. In yagé (ayahuasca) ceremonies in Colombia, the healer, called a Taita, will often take a swig of agua de florida and spray it over ceremony participants during a healing ritual as a way to cleanse them of negative energies.
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Ground Into the Present Moment Using Plant Medicine
Flower and plant essences are most commonly used by putting a few drops or a couple of sprays into your palms, rubbing them together to allow the alcohol to evaporate, and then inhaling and/or patting it on your head and neck. The powerful aroma of the essence helps you to ground and come into the present moment, whether inside or outside of a ceremony.
Depending on the plants used, different essences can be used to ward off negative spirits, attract positive energies, or open up your airways when inhaled (especially if it contains eucalyptus). You can also use flower essences to bless items on your home altar. Or add a few drops to your bath to clear your energetic field.
Where to Buy Plant Essences
Check out Shaman’s Market’s collection of sacred sprays, to help you call in everything from protection to abundance.
Responsible and Respectful Use
The key to gaining access to the multitude of benefits that these powerful plant products offer us is respectful and responsible use. Especially with medicines like hapé, mambe, and ambil, it can become easy to use them mindlessly without intention. Make sure that you’re clear on your why whenever you pick up these sacred tools. And give them the space and time they need to support you on your path.
Have you tried any of these medicines? Leave a comment in the section below – we’d love to hear how they’ve helped you.
