María Sabina García (1888 - November 23, 1985) was a Mazatec medicine woman who lived her whole life in a modest dwelling in the Sierra Mazateca of southern Mexico. Her practice was the use of the various species of native psilocybe mushrooms such as Psilocybe mexicana). 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image:Wassonsalviaphoto1. ... An Inuit medicine man exorcizing evil spirits from a sick boy Medicine man is an English term used to describe Native American spiritual figures; such individuals are often viewed by scholars concerned with these matters as being analogous to shamans. ... This article or section is missing citation of sources. ...

Her life

Sabina was the first contemporary native shaman to allow Westerners to participate in the healing vigil known as the velada, where all participants partake of the psilocybe mushroom as a sacrament to open the gates of the mind. The velada is seen as a purification and as a communion with the sacred. Mayas at San Juan Chamula, Chiapas Mexico has defined itself, in the second article of its constitution, as a pluricultural nation, in recognition of the diverse ethnic groups that constitute it. ... The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means... A sacrament is a Christian rite that mediates divine grace—a holy [[Mystery The root meaning of the Latin word sacramentum is making sacred. One example of its use was as the term for the oath of dedication taken by Roman soldiers; but the ecclesiastical use of the word is...

In the 1955, the American banker and ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson visited her hometown of Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca, and experienced a velada with her. He also brought spores of the fungus, which he identified as Psilocybe mexicana, to Paris. The fungus was cultivated in Europe and its active ingredient was duplicated as the chemical psilocybin in the laboratory by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1958. Ethnomycology is the study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi, most specifically psychoactive mushrooms such as Amanita muscaria and those containing psilocybin, and can be considered a branch of both mycology and anthropology. ... R. Gordon Wasson (September 22, 1898 – December 23, 1986) was an author, amateur researcher and banker. ... Catedral de Santo Domingo The Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca or simply Oaxaca   is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located in the southern part of Mexico, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. ... -1... Psilocybin (also known as psilocybine), is a psychedelic alkaloid of the tryptamine family. ... A chemist pours from a Florence flask. ... Dr. Dr. Albert Hofmann (born January 11, 1906) is a prominent Swiss scientist best known as the father of LSD. He was born in Baden, Switzerland, and studied chemistry at the University of Zürich. ...

American youth began seeking out Sabina and the "holy children" as early as 1962, and in the years that followed, thousands of counterculture mushroom seekers, scientists, and others arrived in the Sierra Mazateca, and many saw her. by 1967 more than 70 people from the US, Canada, and Western Europe were renting cabins in neighboring villages. Many of them went there directly after reading a Life Magazine article written by Wasson about his experiences. In sociology, counterculture is a term used to describe a cultural group whose values and norms run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition or swimming against the tide. ... A cover of Life Magazine from 1911 Life has been the name of two notable magazines published in the United States. ...

Sabina cultivated relationships with several of them, including Wasson, who became something of a friend. It is rumored, without validation, that many important 60s celebrities visited Maria Sabina, including rock stars such as Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. ... John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), (born John Winston Lennon, known as John Ono Lennon) was an iconic English 20th century rock and roll songwriter and singer, best known as the founding member of The Beatles. ...

While she was initially hospitable to the truthseekers thronging to her, their lack of respect for the sacred and traditional purposes caused Sabina to remark, "Before Wasson, nobody took los niños simply to find God. They were always taken to cure the sick."

Many of the travelers were penniless, and they contributed little to the local economy, especially when they learned to find the mushrooms on their own.

Late in life, Maria Sabina became bitter about her many misfortunes, and how others had profited from her name. She also felt that the ceremony of the velada had been desecrated and irremediably polluted by the hedonistic use of the mushrooms: "From the moment the foreigners arrived, the 'holy children' lost their purity. They lost their force, they ruined them. Henceforth they will no longer work. There is no remedy for it." Hedonism is a word used to describe any way of thinking that gives pleasure a central role. ...

Chants

Alvaro Estrada, a fellow Mazatec, recorded her life and work and translated her chants. Estrada's American brother-in-law, Henry Munn, translated many of the chants from Spanish to English, and wrote about the significance of her language. According to Munn, Maria Sabina brilliantly used themes common to Mazatec and Mesoamerican spiritual traditions, but at the same time she was a unique talent, a masterful oral poet and craftsperson with a profound literary and personal charisma. Chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, either on a single pitch or with a simple melody involving a limited set of notes and often including a great deal of repetition or statis. ... Henry Munn is a writer and poet who studied the use of hallucinogenic plants by the Conibo Indians of eastern Peru and also the Mazatec Indians of the mountains of Oaxaca. ...

It is sung in a shamanic trance in which, as she recounted, the "little children" speak through her: It has been suggested that Medium (spirituality) be merged into this article or section. ...

Because I can swim in the immense
Because I can swim in all forms
Because I am the launch woman
Because I am the sacred opposum
Because I am the Lord opposum

I am the woman Book that is beneath the water, says
I am the woman of the populous town, says
I am the shepherdess who is beneath the water, says
I am the woman who shepherds the immense, says
I am a shepherdess and I come with my shepherd, says

Because everything has its origin
And I come going from place to place from the origin . . .

(Alvaro Estrada, Maria Sabina: her Life and Chants)

Cultural impact

Sabina is regarded as a sacred figure in Huautla. At the same time, her image is used to market various local commercial ventures, from restaurants to taxi companies. T-shirts bearing her image, smoking a filterless Alas cigarette, are sold in markets throughout Mexico.

The Mexican counterculture has an affinity for Sabina. The Mexican rock group Santa Sabina is named for her, and El Tri, one of the first and most successful rock groups in Mexico, dedicated the song María Sabina to her, proclaiming her "un símbolo de la sabiduría y el amor" ("a symbol of wisdom and love"). To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Santa Sabina is a Mexican rock group originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco. ... Note: El Tri is also the nickname for the Mexico national football team El Tri is a Mexican Blues/Hard Rock band from Mexico City fronted by Alex Lora. ...

References

• Alvaro Estrada, Maria Sabina: her Life and Chants (ISBN 0-915520-33-8)
• Alvaro Estrada, Vida de Maria Sabina: La Sabia de los Hongos (ISBN 968-23-0513-6)
• Benjamin Feinberg, "The Devil's Book of Culture: History, Mushrooms, and Caves in Southern Mexico" (ISBN 0-292-70190-X)
• Enrique Gonzales, Conversaciones con Maria Sabina y Otros Curanderos (ISBN 968-20-0158-7)
• Rita Guerrero, "¿Qué nombre le ponemos?", Chapter 3 of the History of Santa Sabina
• Michael J. Harner, ed. "Hallucinogens and Shamanism" (ISBN 0-19-501649-1)
• Jerome Rothenberg, ed. "Maria Sabina: Selections" (ISBN 0-520-23953-9)
• Eric Zolov, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (ISBN 0-520-21514-1)
• John W. Allen, Maria Sabina: Saint Mother of the Sacred Mushrooms (ISBN 0-9631518-9-4)
• John W. Allen and Jochen Gartz: Teonanácatl: A Bibliography of Entheogenic Mushrooms (ISBN 15821453994)