Hapé - The Sacred Tobacco
Tobacco like Romé Potó (also known as Rapéh or Ha-pe) is a sacred tool that our ancestors of the forest received from the tobacco grandfather, and they held and walked from the beginning of time. This form of medicine is prepared by successive grindings and sieving of tobacco, medicinal plants, barks and ashes of the sacred fire in a subtle alchemy. While snuff can be prepared with various plants, the presence of the tobacco grandfather helps order and balance the other medicines, to address them with a specific purpose. At the same time, the tabaquito is the door connecting the spirit and the universe, helping us to awaken the essential purity of one and the same, and of each medicine.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The hapé is blown with a rod in each nostril, balancing the two hemispheres of the brain, our feminine, and masculine side, yin, and yang. To receive medicine we must be receptive, quiet and holding our breath. Closing the glottis prevents rapéh from going down to the throat and bronchi. Blowing also helps us heal individualism, and reminds us that we need the other, that certain medicines are taken by oneself and others are received from the hands of a brother or sister. The Western practice of aspirating rapéh is a distortion of the original design of this medicine, which renders it ineffective for its essential purpose of cleansing the mind. When inhaled, the hapé does not reach the cavities or frontal sinuses and does penetrate the lower respiratory tract causing irritation.
RAPÉH IS THE MEDICINE OF THE AIR
BENEFITS
In a blow we receive the blessing of the Spirit through tobacco, cleansing our perception, clearing the mind and opening the higher energetic channels, to connect with the highest of our being. When receiving an explosion of hapé, the medicine goes up cleaning, ordering and aligning our energy field, especially the center of the chakras of the third eye and crown, and from there up and down the spine, to "The Tree of Life". It is also medicine for the body, helping to expel mucus and parasites from the frontal and paranasal sinuses. Eliminates headaches, dullness and stunning, since it decompresses the pressure of the skull. It is also an excellent wound and antibiotic applied to wounds, especially those containing sage and lavender. Hapé is also a medicine to open up the vision. Some native peoples prepare it with certain plants of power, with specific purposes, such as yopo, cebil or emburana.
