Mapacho

Mapacho (Nicotiana rustica) is a wild tobacco native to the Amazon, used throughout the Shipibo curanderismo tradition and related Amazonian traditions as a sacred plant of protection, cleansing, and prayer. It is many times more concentrated in nicotine than the commercial tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) found in cigarettes, and ECC's ceremonial use of it bears no resemblance to recreational smoking.

Facilitators use mapacho in ceremony by blowing its smoke as a blessing and a form of spiritual protection over the ceremonial space and its participants, and a facilitator may smoke it in prayer as part of calling in spiritual support. Within the tradition, mapacho is regarded as a plant teacher and ally with its own spiritual personality — approached with the same reverence given to the ayahuasca sacrament itself, never as a recreational habit or nicotine product.