added: 29-05-2023

Maria Sabina – Mazatec mushroom healer

Who was Maria Sabina?

Maria Sabina was a Mazatec shaman who became a crucial link between the ancient tradition of psilocybin mushroom use and the modern world of American, and later European, counterculture. Thanks to her, the wider world heard about ritual work with so-called magic mushrooms. Born in 1894, she lived in the small mountain village of Huautla de Jiménez in Mexico and grew up in a family where shamanic knowledge and herbal medicine were passed down from generation to generation.

Maria was known as a healer who revealed the therapeutic potential of natural medicine. She was respected locally and often called the mother of sacred mushrooms. Her main ceremonial work centred around the ritual of veladas – all-night vigils next to a person under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms. She guided participants through song, prayer, rhythmic chanting and the use of herbs. The turning point in her life came in 1955, when she was visited by the ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson. After this meeting her name and practice became known far beyond Mexico.

The price for this visibility was high: the indigenous community of Huautla eventually rejected Maria Sabina, blaming her for “revealing the secret of the mushrooms” to foreigners and accusing her of allowing their sacred tradition to be appropriated. Her story is therefore both a biography of a healer and a lesson about the consequences of cultural contact and the ethics of using indigenous medicines.

The beginning of a magical road

Maria Sabina Magdalena García was born into a family in which shamanic and herbal knowledge were treated as something natural and everyday. From early childhood she was exposed to local ceremonies that were meant to bring people closer to the divine. At the age of eight she tried hallucinogenic mushrooms for the first time, during a walk in the forest with her sister. It was an intuitive tasting – Maria knew that these mushrooms were used by a local curandero, Juan Manuel, to heal the sick.

Before eating, she reportedly said: “If I eat you, you and you, I know you will make me sing beautifully.” From that moment she felt a deep, personal connection with the forces of nature and began to “speak” with the invisible world. This early experience convinced her that her path in life was the path of a healer and spiritual guide.

Ritual velada – a healing ceremony

Velada can be translated as “vigil”. The ceremony, known since pre-colonial times, is a healing vigil held at night at the side of a sick or seeking person. It has some parallels with the Eucharistic agape meal, but is rooted in Mazatec cosmology. The shaman’s method of treatment uses mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe, which contain psilocybin and grow in the local mountain ranges.

The purification ritual takes place at night, in silence and seclusion, most often in a humble hut away from people. Noise and strong light are believed to disturb the “driving” of the session. Velada can be performed for one person or a small group. During the séance the shaman rhythmically speaks, chants and sings verses, sometimes clapping or using simple percussion. The mushrooms are taken on an empty stomach and chewed slowly so that, according to tradition, their spirit can “speak”.

At the peak of the ritual, the patient or participant experiences auditory and visual visions, and a stream of images and words, while – in the traditional view – maintaining their basic identity. The purpose of velada is not entertainment, but diagnosis, healing and reconciliation with one’s life path.

Veladas of Maria Sabina

Maria Sabina’s veladas were described as exceptionally poetic. During the ceremonies she sang verses that, in her words, were given to her by the mushrooms themselves. The chants were meant to “touch the edges of the universe”, using powerful images and floating, repetitive melodies. Maria acted as a guide who accompanied the sick person on a journey into the depths of their own being, and then “brought them back” from the spirit world.

Her long recited songs remind us how sensitivity and imagination are inscribed in our original human nature. Maria Sabina was illiterate and did not speak Spanish; she sang and spoke only in the Mazatec language. She said she was not the author of the words – she merely expressed the voice of the “holy mushrooms”. Thanks to audio recordings, her chants were later translated from Mazatec into Spanish, English and other languages. It is worth remembering that these written versions are interpretations, not texts written by her own hand.

Songs originally performed by Maria Sabina:

Listen to recordings of Maria Sabina on YouTube

Sabina performed her rituals by the light of stars or candles, singing both traditional songs of her ancestors and improvised poetry. In ceremonies she used tobacco, local herbs, ointments made from medicinal plants, mezcal (known in the West mainly through tequila) and psilocybin mushrooms which many Mazatecs call Niños Santos, or Holy Children. According to her worldview, illnesses are sent to people by a god or higher force, and by cleansing the soul and mind it is possible to restore balance in the body.

She described her work with the mushrooms in this way:

“The holy mushroom takes me by the hand and leads me to a world where everything is known. There are holy mushrooms, they speak in a certain way and I understand them. I ask them questions and they answer me. When I come back from the journey, I repeat to people what they told me and what they showed me.”

“My wisdom cannot be learned; no one taught me this language, because it is the language spoken by the Niños Santos when they are in my body.”

I am a woman who looks inward
I am a woman of the daylight
I am a woman of the moon
I am a morning woman
I am a woman-star, a divine star
I am a woman in the huarache constellation
I am a woman in the constellation of reeds
Because we can go to heaven
Because I am a pure woman
I am a good woman,
Because I can go in and out of the realm of death.

I am a woman who cries
I am a woman who spits
I am a woman who no longer gives milk
I am a woman who speaks
I am a woman who screams
I am a woman who gives life
I am a woman who does not stop
I am a woman who floats
I am a woman who flies in the air.

I am a woman who sees in the dark
I am a woman who feels a drop of dew on the grass
I am a woman made of dust and diluted wine.

I am a woman who dreams of being hit by a man
I am a woman who is always harnessed
I am a woman who has no strength to lift a needle
I am a woman doomed to die.

I am a woman of simple inclinations
I am a woman who breeds vipers and sparrows in her cleavage
I am a woman who grows salamanders and underarm ferns
I am a woman who grows moss in her chest and belly
I am a woman that no one has ever kissed with enthusiasm
I am a woman who hides pistols and rifles in the wrinkles of her neck.

I am a woman who makes thunder
I am a woman who makes you dream
I am a spider woman, a woman who sucks
I am an eagle woman, an eagle owner
I am a woman who spins because I am a woman with a whirlpool
I am a woman from the Enchanted, a sacred place
Because I am a meteorite woman.¹

She is considered one of Mexico’s remarkable poets, although she herself remained modest. In her eyes these verses were not “literature”, but a direct transmission from the sacred realm she entered during veladas.

The life of the Holy Priestess of Mushrooms

Maria’s path on Earth was difficult from the very beginning. When she was just three years old, her father died. Her mother had to go to work, leaving little Maria and her sister in the care of their grandparents. The family lived in poverty, and the children helped with farm work, silkworm breeding and household chores. At the age of 14 Maria was given in marriage. Her first husband, Serapio Martínez, fought in the Mexican Revolution and later died; with him she had three children: Catarino, Viviana and Apolonia.

The loss of her husband deeply affected Maria and led to a severe crisis – today it would probably be called a deep depression. She turned again to natural medicine. During a ritual with Niños Santos she received a powerful vision confirming that her destiny was to heal those in need. Over time she conducted more and more ceremonies, and villagers began to recognise her extraordinary sensitivity and accuracy of diagnosis. She gained respect and a reputation for wisdom – and it is no coincidence that the name Sabina is linked in folk etymologies with “the wise one”.

Interestingly, Maria never gave up her Catholic faith; at times she even referred to the mushrooms as “the blood of Christ”, showing how deeply indigenous cosmology and Catholic symbolism had become intertwined in her world.

Later in life she married a second time. Her husband, Marcial Carrera, was said to be involved in black magic and to have been jealous of Maria’s skills and influence. Accounts describe violence in the relationship; six of their children died in childhood. When Marcial’s affair came to light, he was beaten to death – and although some sources claimed this was done by Maria’s sons, other testimonies correct this and point to the lover’s children. After Marcial’s death, Maria once again focused entirely on her vocation as a healer.

At one point her sister María Ana fell seriously ill. Doctors gave her no chance of survival. Maria decided to conduct a velada for her, and according to family accounts the sister recovered. During this séance Maria heard her father’s voice and received a “Holy Book” from beings from another dimension – a symbolic book containing all the knowledge she needed to heal. This vision further confirmed her mission.

Meeting of two worlds – R. Gordon Wasson visits Maria Sabina

The story of the miraculous healer eventually crossed the mountain ridges and reached distant lands. The first Western researcher fascinated by her figure was R. Gordon Wasson, an American banker and ethnobotanist. Together with his wife, Valentina Pavlovna Guercken, he travelled widely in the Mazatec Sierra, documenting ritual use of hallucinogenic plants by indigenous peoples.

In 1955 Wasson, Guercken, photographer Allan Richardson and a translator received Maria Sabina’s permission to attend a velada. Convincing her to open the doors of the ceremony to a “white man” was not easy; it meant going against the unwritten rules of secrecy. Eventually Wasson gained her trust and became the first outsider from Western culture to participate in a ritual with Niños Santos under her guidance. A description of this event can be found here.

Archival material about Wasson’s journey (YouTube)

The “curse of Eva Mendez” – the Life magazine article

After returning to the United States Wasson published his experiences in Life magazine. The article sparked great excitement, both in scientific circles and among the general public. To protect Maria’s privacy, he changed her name in print to “Eva Mendez”. This, however, did not prevent Huautla from becoming a magnet for seekers.

Soon after the publication, more books and texts appeared, and the legend of the famous healer spread through the rising hippie movement. In the US and Europe interest in LSD and psilocybin rapidly increased. Initially the topic remained within the world of researchers and artists, but quickly reached the broader counterculture.

Fascinated by her, many celebrities travelled to Huautla. Among the visitors mentioned are Bob Dylan, Aldous Huxley, Albert Hofmann (the chemist who first synthesised LSD), John Lennon, Jim Morrison and Walt Disney. Maria Sabina, once a local curandera, suddenly became a global icon of “mushroom mysticism”.

Unfortunately, the transmission of mushroom wisdom to the West was accompanied by the loss of part of the indigenous tradition. Waves of hippies seeking spiritual experiences poured into the area of Huautla de Jiménez. Many came not for healing but simply to “get high”, ignoring the history, context and religious meaning of Mazatec ceremonies. Camps grew around the town, there were conflicts and vandalism, and local life was severely disrupted.

Authorities set up police checkpoints at the entrance to Huautla and refused entry to anyone who looked like a “flower child”. There were arrests and even forced haircuts. Maria was accused of drug use, arrested and interrogated; she was defended by international researchers, but in her own community her authority was shaken. Her house was burned down by opponents, and although she once enjoyed modest prosperity from ceremonial donations, she died in poverty in the mountains.

Today people in northern Oaxaca remember the time when hippies besieged the town with mixed feelings. Some recall stories of children who played with John Lennon or slept in the same bed he supposedly used. At the entrance to Huautla there now stands a gate with a mushroom crest and a statue of a mushroom crowned with the figure of Maria Sabina – a sign of both pride and unresolved ambivalence.

Maria Sabina’s legacy

For a time Maria led a life that resembled that of a celebrity – constantly visited, talked about, photographed – although she never became wealthy. Her ceremonies were often based on voluntary donations, and sometimes she accepted nothing in return. She died in 1985 and, according to witnesses, worked until the end to earn money for simple daily needs, tobacco and alcohol. She left behind a profound spiritual and cultural legacy.

On one hand, she shared with the world the possibilities of healing with natural medicine and showed that it is possible to connect the everyday world with the world of the soul. On the other hand, her story also illustrates how easily the modern world can appropriate the traditions of ancestors and turn them into a consumable trend. Practices of Mexico’s indigenous peoples have been adopted globally as a fashion for “shamanic tourism”, often without adequate respect for their origins.

Among indigenous communities the figure of the shaman has a special meaning. The shaman, healer or sorcerer is a person who mediates between the world of gods and humans. Their tasks include healing the soul and body, divination and maintaining balance in the community – roles that are difficult to fully grasp from a purely Western point of view. Maria Sabina was such a bridge between mysticism and her people, and at the same time – unintentionally – became a bridge between Mazatec medicine and global psychedelic culture.

Wasson and other visitors often came to Maria out of curiosity and a desire for experience rather than clear healing intentions. The shaman later admitted that when she began to receive more “curious” foreigners than truly sick people, she felt her power weakening. Although Wasson always claimed he had no bad intentions and treated the tradition with respect, he was aware that his work contributed to the transformation – and partial devastation – of the cult of sacred mushrooms.

Today, when we speak of a “psychedelic renaissance”, it is worth remembering the context of extractivism – the extraction and commercialisation of indigenous knowledge – and the concept of epistemicide, the erasure of local ways of knowing. Research into the therapeutic properties of psilocybin and related substances would not exist without communities such as the Mazatecs. Many authors therefore emphasise the need for respect, reciprocity and ethical cooperation with indigenous people.

Maria Sabina reportedly said more than once that she regretted opening the world of mushrooms to the “white man”, but at the same time she recognised that this was part of her destiny. Her story reminds us that behind every fashionable “psychedelic trend” there are concrete people, lands and traditions that deserve care and sensitivity.

The content on the psychodelicroom.pl website is educational, research-based, and expresses many opinions that should be treated with caution. We advise against using any substances that affect consciousness, as all of these substances can both heal and be very harmful. In particular, we advise against cultivating mushrooms from growkits in countries where it is illegal – including Poland – because it involves criminal liability. We recommend that you dispose of the growkits purchased from us within 72 hours of receiving them.

Footnotes:

¹ Transcription of song taken from: María Sabina, I am a whirling woman

https://www.sirius.nl/pl/blog/magiczne-grzyby/magiczne-grzyby-od-dona-maria-sabina/

https://www.meer.com/es/68046-maria-sabina-la-sabia-de-los-hongos-del-norte-de-oaxaca

https://www.ffungi.org/blog/the-earthly-journeys-of-maria-sabina

https://thecaribbeanhousewife.com/you-are-the-medicine/

https://doorofperception.com/2015/04/r-gordon-wasson-seeking-the-magic-mushroom/

https://www.faena.com/aleph/maria-sabina-a-most-fascinating-mexican-healer

https://waw4free.pl/wydarzenie-21881-narkoturysci-maria-sabina-i-swiete-grzyby

https://shamanica-medicina.org/index.php/pl/teonanacatl

https://chacruna.net/mazatec_mushroom_ceremony_psychedelic_tourism/

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Sabina