About Hapé Plant Medicine
Sacred Tobacco
For many indigenous cultures of the Americas, tobacco is a sacred plant known to cleanse both individuals and ceremonial spaces.
Known as hapé (pronounced “ha-peh”), the tobacco is a powerful, cleansing snuff used by Amazonian shamans in Brazil, Peru and Colombia as part of important medicinal rituals.
Beneficial
Helps focus and sharpen the mind.
Clears a person or space of distracting, negative energies in preparation for intention setting.
Detoxifies body and mind and clears your energetic field.
Clears sinuses of mucus and bacteria, thereby helping to combat colds and respiratory ailments.
Provides a long lasting, calming, grounding effect on the emotions
Ingredients
Hapé is often made of several Amazonian plants. The core of most hapé snuffs is the tobacco species Nicotiana rustica. This Amazonian tobacco, also known as mapacho, is used extensively in tribal rituals and is much stronger than N. tabacum, the type of tobacco found in cigarettes.
In addition to the tobacco, hapé usually includes the alkaline ashes of other plants such as cinnamon, tonka bean, clover, banana peel, or mint.
Many shamans keep the exact ingredients of their particular rapé a secret.
Experience
The tobacco and other ingredients are ground into a fine powder, which is then blown high into each of the nostril cavities through a ceremonial pipe made of bone or bamboo. A two-person pipe is used for the hapé, administered by experienced shaman or practitioner.
Rapé is a cleansing medicine, so after taking it, you may experience side effects such as vomiting, sweating, and diarrhea. This is the purging of deep-seated toxins
You come out the other side of the experience feeling calmer, more focused, and more in line with your true self.