433 Chapter Seven Cosmos For the Matsigenka of Shimaa, kameti ...

world, there is an equivalent, co-existing world where a real, gigantic wasp has shot a real
arrow into my real tangible spirit. Being only of this world, I can see nothing of that. I only
know that something feels wrong, and I know without doubt that this other world exists and that
I will die if the attack on my soul is not treated.
This explains the urgency and dependency with which I seek the seripigari’s help. The
seripigari, like me, occupies both worlds, but unlike me he does so with full awareness and with
power to act in both. He (his spirit counterpart) sees the arrow embedded in the body of my
spirit and sucks it out. The real wound to my spirit has been treated and I am on the mend.
His work done, the shaman’s spirit counterpart flies back to the land of the unseen ones
(nopigarora, “from where I return”) and the shaman returns to his mortal body. Although the
two in many ways act like aspects of each other, they are conceptually distinct. In fact, it is
most important for a shaman who has travelled to the land of the unseen ones to return to his
own body before dawn or he will become so attached there that he will stay and his mortal
body here will die. The Matsigenka conceive this land to lie at a great distance, not like a
parallel universe that is right here in some other dimension all the time.
The shaman’s spirit can fly to the land of the unseen ones because ayahuasca enables
him to take a form such as kimaro, a game bird (kanari). To be successful, he needs the help of
spirit guides (iserepito) who reside in sorcerer’s stones (yogevuroki) that were given to him by
unseen ones. He must sing (imarentaka) to call the guides, whose owner (shintaririra) he is:
they help him find his way, keep him from falling in flight, and protect him from the traps Kashiri
sets to catch human souls. Only years of drinking ayahuasca and practicing to sing enable the
seripigari to obtain spirit guides and to make use of them.
494