In those times, indigenous people used to kneel and pray to the lakes. White people saw them and said: “What an ignorant people, worshiping a lake!” They, however, did not adore the lake, but God who was in the lake, giving messages to them.
Taita Luis Portilla
In those times, many indigenous people worshiped the sun. White people said: “What a brute people, adoring the sun.” It was not, however, the sun whom they worshiped, but God who through the sun gave them messages. Seeing this, God said: “How is it possible that white people has someone to evangelize them, but indigenous people do not?” For that reason, he sent an angel to look for the good-hearted cacique [the chief of a clan].
He said to the angel: “Deliver him this little piece of vine and
these leaves with which they will know good and evil.” When the angel arrived, people knelt down because they knew that something very good was coming to them.
But the angel said: “Do not kneel, I am not the Father, but a messenger. He sends you this beautiful gift with which you will know good and evil and will heal many grave illnesses.” The angel handed
the vine and the leaves to the good-hearted cacique and took him for a walk in the forest. Wherever he looked he saw how the yage vine and the chagropanga vine grew, until the forest around was crowded with many of these sacred plants. Then the cacique was filled with love and joy and started to drink the medicine. The more he drank the more he was able to see and learn.
When he drank and a storm came with winds and thunders, he said: “This one will be called Thunder yage.” Then he planted a piece of
that vine and when it grew it had different leaves, brown on the back and green on the front side.
When he drank and saw everything made of gold, he said: “This one will be called Gold yage.” Another day he drank and saw the heavens: “This will be called Heaven yage.”
When he drank and saw himself all covered with feathers like a parrot, he said: “This one will be Parrot yage.”
These two are used for fishing and hunting. And when he became a tiger, he said: “This is Tiger yage.”
This is why there are many varieties of yage, each one with its own use. The cacique multiplied them little by little. When the time came to give back his body to the earth, his body did not rot like all corpses. Rather it transformed into white chaquiras [the colourful beads used for necklaces and bracelets]. This is why we make chaquiras bracelets. When they are properly consecrated, they protect you against sorceresses and all evil forces.
So pure was that cacique.
He was the founder of indigenous wisdom, which has continued since those days.
