The Story of Hape

The Huni Kuin and a Sacred Story of Mapacho

In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the Huni Kuin people have long relied on the natural world for both survival and spiritual guidance. Their deep connection with the forest has given rise to a profound understanding of plant medicines, including tobacco.

According to Huni Kuin tradition, tobacco was gifted to them by the spirits of the forest as a means to connect with the spiritual realm and heal both the body and soul. Their healers, known in Portuguese as pajés, use tobacco, particularly Nicotiana rustica, in several forms, above all as a fine snuff called rapé, also known in the western world as hapé, to open spiritual channels and commune with the divine.

Hapé is mapacho tobacco ground very fine and mixed with the ash of particular trees. It is made by the Huni Kuin (also called Kaxinawá, one people under two names), the Yawanawá, the Katukina, the Nukini, the Kuntanawa, the Puyanawa and other peoples of Acre, in Brazil. Its preparation and serving are sacred acts, often accompanied by prayers and songs, which invoke the spirits and ask for their guidance and protection.

The spiritual use of tobacco is integral to Huni Kuin practice. It is believed to purify spaces, protect from negative energies, and offer a means of connecting deeply with nature and the ancestors. Tobacco ceremonies are conducted with great respect and intention.

In recent years, the Huni Kuin have shared their traditional knowledge with the world, taking part in global spiritual movements and environmental activism. This has brought greater awareness to the cultural and spiritual significance of their practices, including the use of tobacco as a sacred medicine.

Through these practices, the Huni Kuin show the profound interconnectedness of all life, viewing the natural world not merely as a resource but as a living system of which they are a part.

To learn more about tobacco, hapé and the other sacred plants of the forest, see Medicinal Plants of the Amazon.

How hapé is served

Hapé is blown into the nose by another person through a V-shaped pipe called a tepi, or self-applied with an elbow-shaped pipe called a kuripe. We have both tools available to serve yourself or someone else.

Before you use hapé

Hapé is tobacco. It is a strong dose of nicotine, absorbed quickly through the nose, and it can cause dependence. The World Health Organization's cancer agency classes smokeless tobacco, including nasal snuff, as a known cause of cancer.

If you have heart disease or high blood pressure, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have stopped using nicotine, please talk with us before receiving it.
Sit down to receive it. Dizziness, sweating and nausea are common at first and pass.
The yopo, parica, jurema and angico blends below are made from plants that contain DMT and related compounds. Never use them with ayahuasca or in the days around a ceremony, and never if you take an antidepressant or another medicine that acts on serotonin. Yopo can raise the heart rate and blood pressure. See our Medical Guidelines.

Hapé is part of our spiritual practice. It is not offered to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any illness.

The blends we work with

This is a brief introduction to the blends that we are currently working with. We are working on putting more detailed information together, but hopefully this will help you choose when to use the different blends.

Each blend is named for the tree ash, plant or people that makes it, and we name the people where we know them. The guidance on chakras and energy below is our own, from the Temple's practice and experience. It is not the teaching of the peoples who make hapé, who speak of tobacco and its spirits in their own terms.

In our practice, all blends clear your energy and auric field. The variation between them helps when you want to work on a specific area (for example the upper or lower chakras, the mind, your inner child, or the earth's wisdom), and can harmonize with and strengthen your intention.

We have placed a strength indicator on the first line of each blend. You may find that these differ in your own use. They are meant as a general guide.

Some blends are available as offerings for a suggested gift. For any other blend or tool, write to us at contact@templeofhermes.org.

The lower three chakras

Cumaru (Katukina and Yawanawá) - Medium

Works on the lower three chakras to bring balance to your earth being
Brings warmth to a person's sense of belonging and relationships
Helps clear emotional blockages in relation to self and others, and creates space for abundance by bringing light to where we hold patterns of negativity
Made with the ash of the bark of the cumaru tree (Dipteryx odorata), a very large, firm tree of Acre with small flowers that attract bees

Murici (Huni Kuin) - Medium

Works on cleansing the energies of the lower belly
Brings balance and grounding to your earth being
Made with Nicotiana rustica, called moi in Acre, mixed with the ash of the bark of the murici tree (Byrsonima crassifolia). The name comes from Tupi and means "little tree"

Anis - Medium

In our practice, smooths out blockages in the energy of the gut, and helps one release resistance to how you are processing your life's experiences

Sapota - Medium

Works on the third chakra and solar plexus
Ideal for building self-esteem, calling in greater self-love, protection and support for yourself
Brings a sense of meditative calm

Cetico - Medium

Works on clearing and balancing the root and second chakras
Clears and grounds your sexual energies and balances the feminine and masculine aspects
Ideal for calling in financial and creative support
Anchors your spirit and body to your physical life, reconnecting you to the earth's life current
Made with cetico (Cecropia), as it is called in Brazil

Orange de Macau - Strong

Works on the solar plexus, particularly the second and third chakras
Brings uplifting, vibrant, self-supportive, invigorating energy

Pau Pereira (Katukina) - Strong

Consider Pau Pereira when you wish to stabilize, ground and calm your emotions
Strongly clears the root chakra through fiery cleansing energy
Brings clarity to the present moment and clears the emotional body
Made with the ash of the pau pereira tree (Geissospermum laeve). A strong and fiery hapé

The heart

Tsunu (Yawanawá) - Strong

Heart chakra strengthening and opening
Brings warmth and balance to the heart center, much like igniting the heart light within
Balances and blends the earth and spirit ways of being within ourselves
Enhances feelings of compassion for oneself and others

Tsunu Mint (Yawanawá) - Strong

Heart chakra expanding. Deep heart work is done with this blend
Works like Tsunu, with a special ability to clear any debris lingering in the aura of the heart
Lets you recognize where you have shut down your heart, to help you reopen it

Cacao (Yawanomi) - Medium

Gentle, sweet heart chakra opening for deeper, authentic, love-based connection with yourself, others and the world of all life
A powerful companion for inner work and creative guidance
Soothing, peaceful, warming and nurturing. It helps you feel what needs more love and nurturing
Brings balance to masculine and feminine energies
Made with the ash of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao)

Copaiba / Bobinsana (Puyanawa) - Medium

A very light, floral blend that calms. In our practice it removes heart chakra blockages, letting us dive deep and see clearly to the root of past hurts and fears that shape our patterns and personas
Contains bobinsana, a master plant of the Peruvian vegetalista tradition, where it is dieted for the heart and for spiritual protection
Also contains the ash of the copaiba tree (Copaifera)

Macambo - Strong

A strong heart chakra opening blend
Macambo (Theobroma bicolor) is a close relative of cacao, and works as a stronger version of cacao in the heart space
Aligns and retunes each chakra to your heart's vibration

The fifth chakra

Jatoba (Puyanawa) - Medium / Strong

Supports communication and brings clarity to it
Brings greater awareness of your gifts and how to express them
Helps shift you from victim into creator energy
Wonderful for holding space for others
Made with the ash of the jatobá tree (Hymenaea courbaril), also called Brazilian cherry or West Indian locust. The tree is very solid and sturdy, and its fruit pulp is eaten by Indigenous peoples for its starches and proteins

The mind

Pimenta Longa (Puyanawa) - Medium

Works on the mind
Helps you work through the "monkey mind" and the stories we tell ourselves, quieting the mind so you can tune in to the wisdom of the heart
Calms a racing mind, letting overactive mental energy drop into your heart so you can re-center
Made with ground tobacco, murici ash and the seeds of long pepper, which does not burn like ordinary pepper but has a fresh, intense aroma reminiscent of forest leaves

Chili Longa (Puyanawa) - Strong

Works on the energies around the mind
Quiets the mind with a playful energy that sparks your imagination

The upper three chakras

Nukini (Nukini) - Strong

Works on the upper three chakras
Great for meditation and for opening the channels of inspiration to strengthen your spiritual connection
Very grounding in the process

Parica (Shanenawa) - Strong

Works on the upper three chakras
Opens channels of inspiration with directional energy and light from Source
Brings clarity to our self-talk and self-vision
In our practice, connects us with our ancestors, helping us clear ancestral karma and hear the lessons of those who have gone before us
Contains a small amount of the ground seed pods of yopo (Anadenanthera peregrina). Read "Before you use hapé" above

Samauma (Kuntanawa) - Strong

Strengthens the crown chakra while firmly rooting the base chakra to keep you grounded
Balances energies in body, mind and spirit
Connects you to the spirit world, to your roots and to nature
The samaúma (Ceiba pentandra) is one of the largest trees of the Amazon, reaching 60 meters or more, and many Indigenous peoples call it the mother of all trees. This hapé is made by the Kuntanawa, whose name means "coconut people"

Jurema Preta (Fulni-ô) - Strong

Crown chakra and third eye
Helps with clairvoyance and connection to the spiritual realms
Healers in Brazil use it to prepare themselves for rituals and ceremonies, and to invoke the enchanted beings of the forest
Strengthens our communication and harmony with the spirits of nature and Mother Earth
In our practice, a dream companion, ideal for meditation or before sleep
Jurema preta (Mimosa tenuiflora, also called Mimosa hostilis) comes from the dry northeast of Brazil, not the Amazon. Its root bark contains DMT. Read "Before you use hapé" above

Angico (Fulni-ô) - Strong

Throat, crown and third eye chakras. Good for concentration
In our practice, supports the energy field of the body and gives strength to meditate and stay awake through the night of a ceremony
Angico (Anadenanthera colubrina) is a close relative of yopo, with very dense wood, used by the Fulni-ô and Kariri-Xocó of northeastern Brazil to make rapé. Its dark grey ash gives this hapé its darker color

Nunu (pronounced "ne-ne") (Matsés) - Strong

Connection to spirit animals and hunter-gatherer energy
Used to awaken one's inner warrior energy, and in our practice to enhance dreams
The Matsés, whose name means "people" in their own language, live on both sides of the border of Peru and Brazil, where they are also called the Mayoruna, from the Quechua for "river people"

Unactivated Yopo - Strong

Creates a cleansing spiritual connection that confronts the ego and offers the consciousness of unity
In our practice, opens the crown chakra for deep visionary meditation
Made with the seeds of yopo

Activated Yopo / Y2 - Strong (offered for a suggested gift of $60)

Creates a cleansing spiritual connection that confronts the ego and offers the consciousness of unity
In our practice, opens the crown chakra for deep visionary meditation
Made with the seeds of yopo (Anadenanthera peregrina), a tree of the legume family whose seeds have been used as a visionary snuff for thousands of years by peoples of the Orinoco basin in Venezuela and Colombia. Its southern relative, Anadenanthera colubrina, called vilca or cebil, was used the same way in the southern Andes
Yopo is not hapé in the strict sense. Its seeds contain bufotenine and DMT. Read "Before you use hapé" above

Y2 - Medium

A gentler version of the activated yopo blend above, with the same care

Vashawa (Katukina) - Strong

A blend with great power of awakening and liberation
In our practice, helps raise kundalini energy from the root up and out through the crown
Vashawa means "serpent" in the Katukina language

Nutmeg (Katukina) - Strong

Overall chakra cleansing

Eucalyptus (Katukina and Puyanawa) - Gentle

Cleanses and enlivens all of the chakras
Washes over the auric bodies to gently release any energetic blockages
Brings calm thinking and clearing
A good blend for someone receiving hapé for the first time
Made with the ash of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao)

Menta - Strong

Cleanses all of the chakras
Washes over the auric bodies like Eucalyptus, but for blockages that need a little more firmness

Murici Mint (Huni Kuin) - Strong

Strongly cleanses all of the chakras and the auric field, releasing deep-rooted energetic blockages
Increases clarity, alertness and grounding, and clears stuck energy in the head
A very intense cooling sensation that clears the nose and head
Use this blend for deeper, more advanced work

Overall chakra alignment

Package for Overall Chakra Cleansing & Alignment

Canela de Cheiro (Yawanawá) - Strong

Aligns all of the chakras so energy can flow unobstructed from the crown to the root
Re-centers your energy in your core
Fire energy, good for turning inward in meditation

Canela de Velho / Canela Mint (Yawanawá) - Strong

Works like Canela de Cheiro, aligning the chakras to create energetic flow
Rather than centering your energy in your core, it radiates through the auric field to remove blockages

Mulateiro (Yawanawá and Huni Kuin) - Medium / Strong

Works on all of the chakras, particularly the crown and third eye
In our practice, reconnects you with your inner child
Made with mapacho and the ash of the mulateiro tree (Calycophyllum spruceanum), called capirona in Peru, a tall tree that sheds its whole bark about twice a year
The Huni Kuin tell that their women warriors bathed under the full moon in this tree's bark with other herbs to keep their youth and beauty, and drink it as a tea for stamina and strength

Cana de Macau (feminine) - Medium

For the feminine, and for work with the womb