One of the most powerful ways of extracting intrusions from the body of the patient is to suck them out. A shaman or healer can do it directly with the mouth or with the help of a straw or a hollow bone.
Although this technique is by far the most commonly used by tribal shamans, it is infrequent in neo-shamanism. Perhaps because it is very physical (I repeat that neo-schamanism, influenced by the New Age, tends towards evanescent and dematerialised procedures) and somewhat distasteful to refined Western culture. Or even because it requires a lot of skill and can be very risky for the shaman. And neo-shamanism entrusts its teachings to weekend seminars, with no control over what the students will do once they return home.
But, as is often the case, a more difficult and dangerous technique is also far more powerful. Obviously, taking poisonous energy in the mouth is very risky. The shaman can only do this if he has strong protection in his mouth. The power animal is not enough.
The only valid protection I know of is to have the power animal itself as one’s ally.
The shaman has allied spirits, usually more elemental than a power animal, but which, unlike a power animal, remain permanently with him, in his stomach or under his skin or in a medicine bag. Many of these spirits are plant spirits, but they also communicate with the shaman in another form, which can be an insect, a spider, a fish, a reptile, but also a stone or something else. These allies are called tzentzak by the Amazonian shamans. I will describe in another article how they are acquired.
If the intruder is e.g. a wasp, and the shaman has the Wasp as tzentzak, before sucking it out he will call his allies Wasps (he usually always has a couple) inside his mouth. If he holds his allies in his stomach the shaman regurgitates some gastric juice into his mouth until he feels the two wasps settle, one near his lips, the other at the mouth of his throat.
If, on the other hand, the wasp allies are under the skin he will call them with a song of power until he feels them rise under the skin until they reach the inside of his mouth, or he will see them leave his body and move around him, until attracted by the song they will enter his mouth. Similarly if they are kept outside the body, free either in a medicine bag or in simulacra. If the spirits are contained in small simulacra the shaman can also put them directly into his mouth. Some shamans place two pieces of leaf of the ally’s vegetable appearance in their mouths.
It is best if the allies are in pairs, one at the mouth entrance and one further down: their task is to block the intrusion that is sucked in so that the shaman does not swallow it: if it escapes the first ally the second will stop it. The shaman can only suck a wasp or crab-looking intrusion if he has the wasp or crab as an ally. Otherwise he will have to use his hands.
When the shaman sucks he does not need to touch the patient’s body, he only needs to hold himself a few centimetres away. He can use his lips directly or even a special power tool. He usually feels waves of disgusting taste as he sucks and spits the intrusion into a basin of water. He often has gag reflexes.
Before sucking a second time he must call the allies back into his mouth, an oversight can cost him dearly. It happened to me once when I was sucking out dozens of butterflies from a woman who was suffering from severe menstrual pains.
I hardly noticed. But the next day, while the woman was completely cured, I had a strange fever: high and with no other symptoms. As there was no shaman in the vicinity, I asked my beast of power to examine me. He showed me two or three butterflies at the back of my throat. It was then that I remembered when I had forgotten to recall the allied butterflies in my mouth. My animal pulled them out. After an hour the fever disappeared.
The shaman stops pulling when he no longer feels disgust at sucking. Then to be on the safe side he checks the area again with his hand.
Extracting with the aid of power tools
If he cannot suck out the intrusion and it is too tenacious or small or elusive to remove by hand, sometimes the shaman uses an instrument of power to pull it out: such as an arrow or an animal tooth, a stick or sharp bone, the horny tip of a pen or a sacred knife.
Even in these cases it is generally not necessary to injure the patient. Tribal shamans often do this and in some cases it would be necessary, but it is not possible in our civilisation.
However, the tool is always an object of power of the shaman to whom it has been explained by a spirit helper or the spirit of the object itself what it can be used for and what intrusions it can possibly extract.
Sometimes the suggestion comes during the healing itself, from the power animal or a spirit-guide.
A good shaman always follows these sudden inspirations even if they seem strange, because he allows himself to be led without resistance into the flow of life.
Closing the ritual
Once the extraction is complete, the shaman invites the client to sit up. He must immediately close the holes left by the extraction: although invisible, they are like the wounds of a surgical operation. To do this, some shamans splash some pure water on the client’s face, so that the mild shock closes the openings. Or they give him a glass of water to drink after consecrating it by passing it over the candle flame: they invite the client to drink it slowly and feel the water fill the holes left by the intrusions. One can also do both. Finally the shaman shakes the rattle four times around the client’s body, sealing the rite. This is the extraction as I usually practice it. There are many other techniques, but the basic principles are similar.
