Kajuyali Tsamani

As a young child Kajuyali Tsamani would listen to his grandfather telling stories of life in the jungle. "He spoke of jaguars, anacondas, alligators, spirits and shamans. Fascinated, I listened to his stories and he promised me that when I was old enough, I would go to these places and learn about the Indians too." In 1978, while studying anthropology at the National University of Colombia, the opportunity finally opened for him to assist a land redevelopment project that ultimately took him into the jungle of the Amazon. It was there that he would receive his first shamanic teaching, through Coca leaf (Erythroxylon coca) Ambil (Tobacco honey). This would begin his shamanic path that would ultimately take him to what he refers as his "Seven Grandfathers" (elder shaman teachers). From 1980-1981, he lived with the Kogi indians in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta in northern Colombia. A pre-Columbian tribe, the Kogi are one of the last untouched societies left on this planet. They are a spiritually peaceful and metaphysically adept society, referring to themselves as the "Elder Brother of the world". It was here that Kajuyali received his first initiation. For the next ten years he would return to the jungles of the Amazon to continue his study of Coca and Tobacco. But the day came that his teacher sent him to find Ayahuasca in the Valley of Sibundoy. During the following eight years, throughout the 1990's, he received the shamanic teachings of Ayahuasca with his teacher Taita Martin Agreda, who consecrated him as a "Yagesero shaman". Since 2001 he has started a new apprenticeship of the Native American Lakota. He has received the traditions of the Cannunpa Wakan (The sacred pipe), the Inipi (The sweat lodge) and Hanblecheypai (The Search for Vision) from Ta Cante Wakan, a descendant of the Crazy Horse lineage. With a Ph.D in anthropology, Kajuyali is currently Director of the Foundation of Shamanic Investigations (Department of Narino, Colombia). He has written the book entitled "Ayahuasca, Vine of Seeing, String of the Universe". He currently hosts his own shamanic experiences in Colombia from his Maloca (House-Cosmos) and home Nabi Nunhue, meaning House of the Jaguar. (maya-ethnobotanicals)