I find that few people realize exactly how much plant material is required for even one ounce of sacrament. I really didn’t know either— not fully. Not until I starting cooking myself.
It’s shocking.
It’s shocking how much energy from so many different sources goes into just one drop. Having my hands on the process itself was the only way to understand this.
Of course one can have an intellectual understanding— but I’m just gonna be blunt here: that is pretty much worthless.
A literal boat load of wood…
1000 sticks to cook 24/7 for 6 days.
And not just any wood.
We don’t just go to the market and ask around for firewood. That doesn’t work here.
Not just any wood will do, you see,
for we are in the jungle …
where the trees are people.
And not just to the shamans, but to everyone and anyone who hasn’t lost these ways of knowing to Walmart and social media.
And here in the jungle, one doesn’t hire Bobinsana to do Palo Fierro’s job and vice versa.
That would be ridiculous.
Imagine something akin to hiring a Mermaid Queen to be the Secretary of Defense… or installing Genghis Khan as Queen of the Mermaids. Clearly I am oversimplifying here, but you see what I’m saying…
So, for an interior oil that burns long and hot, and keeps a consistent temperature we use a very particular wood.
The spirit of the tree which sacrifices its heart-wood and its flesh for this sacred fire also provides a powerful spiritual protection to those who know how to ask for it.
Spiritual protection for you.
And spiritual protection for the sacrament you intend to brew.
This wood can’t be found in the low jungle; you have to go elsewhere to get it.
People have to chop it down. It must be sent down river by boat.
This requires multiple people getting up very early and working all day. This requires gas for the boats to get the wood down river.
Once it arrives, we have to pick it up with a “fogon”— a motorcycle/truck hybrid— to haul it back into the jungle, where we unload it and pile it up, so that we can then unpile it and carry it one armload at a time down the jungle path to the small covered area where we plan to cook.
I get dizzy just thinking about all the sunlight and rain it took to grow those trees, and all the vital force and will to live it took those trees to grow roots down into the Earth and branches reaching for the sun.
And then to think about the humans that woke up at 3am to fell those glorious beings and chop them up into sticks of “firewood”.
And the humans that also got up early to cook them breakfast and prepare a lunch for them to take along to work.
The physical prowess and resilience it takes to go into the jungle and chop down trees…
I could go on.
A literal room full of Leaf.
Obviously, not just any leaves.
I could go on…
500 Gallons of Water
Obviously, not just any water…
200 pounds of Vine
Obviously, not just any vine.
All of the above makes about 20 liters of sacrament.
Can you imagine the sunlight required to produce just one ounce?
For me, this thought is blinding in it’s brilliance,
Humbling in its vastness.
Madre, how could I ever repay this?
