Glossary of Terminology
of the Shamanic & Ceremonial Traditions
of the Inca Medicine Lineage

NAVIGATION TIP:

Use the Firefox browser with the CoolPreview add on. CoolPreview will give a magnifying glass icon at every link when you put your cursor on the link. Click on the icon and it will open a separate, smaller window with the definition of the term in it. You can either lock the window by clicking the padlock icon in the top bar of the little window, or move your cursor off the window and it will automatically close. This is almost as good as mouseovers.

jaborandi: (n) Pilocarpus pennatifolius. The leaves are used to make medicine. Despite serious safety concerns, jaborandi is used to treat diarrhea and to cause sweating. Some people also put it in the eye to treat glaucoma. WEBMD Its ingestion produces marked sweating and salivation and thereby it was thought to provoke the elimination of toxins. DYE

Jaborandi. WIKI  

jacar, shucar (unk dial.): (v) To magically produce harm which is effected by places that are charmed. GOL  

jaco, shuco (unk dial.): A magical attack directed against those who neglect to give offerings to the spirit entities (encantos) of plants and/or huacas. GOL    

jaguar: (n) (Tupi, jaguara) (1) Described as a “leopard on steroids,” the jaguar is the largest of the cats of the New World. PGO (2) This regal feline became a symbol of authority and one's prowess in hunting and battle, as well as an integral part of mythology and a powerful spirit companion for shamans, who often associate the jaguar as a nagual, which will protect the shaman from evil spirits and when they move between the earth and the spirit realm. In order for the shaman to combat whatever evil forces may be maligning him, or those who rely on the shaman for protection, it is necessary for the shaman to transform himself and crossover to the spirit realm. The jaguar is often chosen as a nagual because of its strength, for it is necessary that the shaman dominate the spirits, in the same way as a predator dominates its prey. The jaguar is said to possess the transient ability of moving between worlds because of its comfort in the trees and the water, their ability to hunt as well in the nighttime as in the daytime, and their habit of sleeping in caves, places often associated with the deceased ancestors. (See, mallquis.) The concept of the transformation of the shaman is well documented in Mesoamerica and South America, and is demonstrated through the prominence of the runauturuncu, and other sculpture illustrating jaguar transformation. EWO Throughout South America the feline is believed to be the alter ego of the shaman. WOFW  See, nagual, therianthropy, shapeshifting. (3) Some teachers of Inca shamanism use the jaguar as the archetype of the kaypacha. Others place it on an Inca medicine wheel. PGO (See, puma.)

jaladores (Span.): (n) Literally, pullers; they pull anima into a crystal in dreamtime.  JLH

jallalla: See, hayllalla

jampi: (n) See, hampi.

jampiri: See, hampiri.

jampiy: See, hampichiy.

jani: (n) Soul loss. The Quechua term for the Spanish susto, meaning fright. DYE

jap'eqay: (v) Keep in mind; to keep (something); to learn; to seize the heart; to make sick; to understand; to be sick due to Pachamama. RS

japu: See, hapu.

jatun: See, hatun.

jengibre (Span): (n) Ginger, which is used for stomach aches, colds and dysentery. AAI

jenin-yushinbaon carcel (Amaz, sp): (n) A prison (carcel in Spanish) of aquatic souls entered through the mouth of a huge anaconda and found in its abdomen. Shamans willling to rescue the souls of patients stolen by aquatic spirits have to enter this place through the mouth of the anaconda. Entering the body of an anaconda through its mouth is a common theme in Shipibo mythology (sp). AYV

jergón (Amaz): (n) A poisonous snake of the Amazon basin. AYV

jergón-sacha: (n) (Dracontium peruvianum, [also found references to it as D. longpipes, and D. loretensi - Patt] ) has long been used by indigenous tribes to treat snakebites in the Amazon region, especially bites from the genus Bothrops. The mottled appearance of the plant looks similar to these types of snakes. To treat these bites, a cold-brewed tea is made from chopped up roots and is consumed. As well, chopped root is placed against the bite and changed periodically. A similar treatment is used by some tribes to treat spider bites, stingray wounds, and wounds from poison arrows infused with poisons taken from animals like frogs. In Peruvian herbal medicine, it is used as a natural remedy for gastrointestinal problems, hand tremors, HIV / AIDS, cancer, and to enhance general immune strength. WELF

josho oni (Panoan): (n) White ayahuasca, one of three kinds of ayahuasca distinguished by the Shipibo according to color. (See, oni.)

journey (Eng): (n) The ecstatic flight of the shaman; the taking of one's consciousness and luminous body into non-ordinary reality, into the unknown, the nagual.  This is often done to acquire information, to effect distance healing, or for pleasure. PGO The journey may include spiritual shapeshifting. Becoming an animal is common. The spirit separates itself from the body to make flights of vision and materializes in other beings, in a saint, a mountain, an ancient shrine, and so on. In a series of manifestations in agreement with the charm or spell or place of the task or the symbology of which one is thinking: a lion, tiger, horse, bird, mountain, lagoon, stream, saint, herb, possibly even a demon. This highly subjective inner experience does not blot out objective conscious perception; all of the five physical senses and a “vision”  separated, more remote in the sense that one can look at things that go far beyond the ordinary or that have happened in the past or can happen in the future. Visionary, ecstatic magical flight is the mark of the true shaman of all times and places. WOFW  The shamanic journey is in three phases. The shaman sets forth from the realm of the mundane; he then journeys to the supernatural and returns. Always the passage involves these three destinations or locations . . . The shaman travels to the edge of the social order each time he undertakes these journeys. He enters non-form, the underlying chaos of the unconceptualized domain which has not yet been made a part of the cosmos by the cultural activity of naming and defining. With each crossing over, he gains power, as do all persons who travel to the edges of order, for . . . such contacts with the boundaries of conceptualization are sources of power as well as danger. Shamans are liminal people, at the thresholds of form, forever betwixt and between. SSCC

Shamanic magical flight is the ability of certain individuals to leave their bodies at will, and to travel “in the spirit” through the three cosmic regions [the Three Worlds]. . . By his ecstasy the shaman renders himself equal to the gods, to the dead and to the spirits; the ability to “die” and come to life again -- that is, voluntarily to leave and to reenter the body -- denotes that he has surpassed the human condition. MDM

jucha: See, hucha.

jugada (Span): (adj) Played, manipulated. (n) An act of sorcery. GOL