Hapè Medicine
A number of indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin use hapé in formal rituals of initiation, festivals, social gatherings, and healing ceremonies.
Tribes tend to have particular blends and methods of preparation unique to their own histories and perspectives with the medicine.
Hapé is considered by indigenous peoples to be a sacred shamanic snuff, as well as a medicine with profound healing effects. Particular hapé blends consist of varieties of medicinal plants and tobacco which are blended and use for specific purposes including as a form of energy boost, and even to stimulate visions and healing.
(pronounced “ha-peh”)
What is Amazonian Hapé (Rapé)?
Yo tribe! Have you tried hapè?
If not, don’t feel like you’re missing out. This is definitely one of those medicines that if you’re called, you’re called, and if you’re not, it may not be the wisest choice to just do it for the heck of it.
Bottom line: this is POWERFUL medicine…
This sacred medicine takes days to make and is a very labor intensive process made in a ceremonial way and may contain any number of native Amazonian healing medicinal plants, leaves, trees and seeds.
Even though tobacco is abused by millions across the world, indigenous peoples consider the plant to possess the most sacred qualities. As hapé becomes more well known beyond the traditional realms of the Amazon, education on its proper use is more important. Certainly, it’s not a “party drug” and maintaining a practice of use incorporating prayer, ritual, and reverence seems like the most authentic way to preserve its integrity.
How does Hape make you feel?
Hapé is traditionally blown up the nose with a self-applicator called a kuripe, or administered by a shaman or other trained facilitator by way of a Tepi. The preparations are very diverse within each tribe and among tribes and regions. In my very short connection to medicine, I’ve seen dozens of different blends making the rounds and I’ve tried about a dozen personally.
Because hapé is often used in ceremonial settings as a way to connect to spirits of all types, Pachamama, and your own soul, it is considered to be sacred.
When receiving the medicine, it can be shocking to the system, overwhelming your senses and inhibiting your ability to contain somatic release that may arise. In this way, it incites an energetic as well as medicinal healing response that is known to cleanse the body, ground the mind, and elevate the soul.
In a sense, there is great wisdom that is passed on through this medicine, and for most, it will challenge their ability to sit calmly with it and receive the powerful forces and prayers moving through it.
Using Hapè With Intention
I’ve seen what I interpret as the unintentional use of hapè, however, I’ve since had to check myself on that perspective. Once I started using hapè, I quickly learned how it can get a hold of you, shake you up, and bring you to your knees. I’ve judged others, and now I see that its power can take a being in many directions and it’s not for me to make assumptions about someone else’s relationship with the medicine, so long as it’s consumed with care, reverence, and positive intention.
For me, it affects me in all of those powerful ways I mentioned and it also brings me back to sit at my altar time and time again. A fitting place to envision the future I see for myself, my loved ones, and the collective. These are the intentions I bring to my hapè practice. It’s never done on the fly, without reverence, or without patience and peace guiding the experience. I also don’t make it something that “I have to do to ground” or anything like that. Instead, I give the medicine the space it needs to express itself through me, merge with me, and work with me to journey into the portals we offer each other.
In that way, intention remains pure, at least in my own mind…
Using Hapè In Meditation
I use hapè pretty much exclusively in meditation. If I’m not intending to go into a meditative state, I don’t really see the point. Hapè has an effect on me of “state change” and dropping me into an energetic portal where my mind focuses intensely on holding the frequency of the medicine through the waves of five sensory reactions to the ingestion of the herbs and tobacco in the hapè blend.
This level of focus, in my own experience, is meditation. It pulls me deeply into that state and guides me through a portal of remembering, awareness, gratitude, and at times energetic purges of distortion either flowing through me in the moment or that have broken up in my system and are released in response to the frequency of the medicine.
This is really no different than any other modality that I talk about. They all take me to a similar place, just in a different way and with different perspectives. That’s why I love blending all of these practices to experience the full range of shamanic expressions and possibilities. It’s never-ending and always evolving in such a beautiful way, I’m in awe and grateful for all of it!
My Journey With Hapè
I’ll have to admit, I was never particularly called to hapè at all.
My experiences with hapè began only in about 2020 when I moved to Austin, Texas, and connected to a community called Temple of The Sacred Womb (TOSW). One of the first experiences I had with hapè was at an ayahuasca ceremony hosted by TOSW where the shaman’s leading the ceremony served hapè as an opening prior to the ayahuasca being served.
I knew hapè existed at that point, but I had never felt called to it and knew very little about what it was, it’s effects, history, or purpose. At the ceremony, I was served a very hefty dose of it, and it was a complete shock to my system.
Several months later, I had the opportunity to connect to kambo, again with TOSW and ended up doing three kambo ceremonies in a lunar cycle, which is considered to be a super purge. (See my kambo experiences) In each one of those three ceremonies, they served hapè, kambo, and sananga. The ceremonies would begin with sananga. (See my sananga page) and then move into kambo and then hapè at the end. So my experiences with hapè began in ceremony and always with other medicines and not only with hapè independently. After having those experiences half a dozen times over the course of a year or two, I still felt zero call to explore the medicine any deeper.
Until one day when I did…
And once I felt the call it was powerful! The first thing that called me to it was just being around it and being exposed to the ceremony of it and through those experiences, sensing the potential for healing with it. I began to realize that doing hapè as an independent medicine served to trigger an emotional nervous system response that allowed clearing of stuck energies and distortions and that kind of shadow work clearing and healing is always intriguing to me. With that new perspective, I began to explore more deeply with hapè and bought my own kuripe, received a few hapè blends as a birthday gift from TOSW (gracias!). The blends were very powerful and provided extraordinary meditation and visionary experiences and within a very short period of time I’ve found myself dropping in with hapè almost daily as an opening to my meditation practice. In meditation, I find that hapè connects me very quickly and deeply state change with extraordinary mental and energetic focus in all chakras, with particular attention on the 3rd eye. This level of intense energetic focus and state change is at the core and foundation of my healing and I’m grateful to be exploring how hapè can affect that process now and into the future.
I have known people before who were doing hapè daily to “ground” as they would say and I must admit that I had some judgment about that in the beginning because I didn’t understand it. I would judge them because I thought, well, what do they need that for? It’s just a crutch. It’s just another distraction from the one true Source and dropping in naturally to that level of connection is superior in whatever way. Keep it pure, I would think.
Now I carry that judgment onto myself, always curiously inquiring, “why do I need this? Why am I doing this? Is this just a distraction?”
My answer is simultaneously clear and convoluted because the hapè blends that I’ve been using to are specifically from the Kuntanawa tribe in the Amazon. The truth is that since my first experiences with these blends, I’ve felt a true connection to exploring this medicine and to the Kuntanawa and to Haru, the leader of that tribe and the 12 tribes of that region. In deep meditation with this hapè, it feels like Haru and the Kuntanawa are sending messages through the medicine. Not only Haru and his tribes, the entire Amazon region and the natural world and energy of Pachamama. These messages are powerful. This could be my delusion or my projection, but it’s definitely my authentic expression and an interpretation of what’s happening at any given moment with this medicine.
The blends I’ve been working with are very special and have not been readily available, so I feel fortunate to have access to them. One is called Jiboia and the other is a blend made of ground beehives or the connective material in beehives called Bee Blessing. Like most hapè, these blends consist of a mix with tobacco., ashes and other natural materials.
My current uage revolves around dropping into meditation, clearing energy for 10 or 15 minutes, then doing some Jiboia, which calls in the energy of the Kuntanawa and the Amazon. After processing through that experience after 20-30 minutes, I might follow that up with Bee Blessing, which generally sends me into a state of gratitude and expansive, imaginary ecstasy, and anchors in the feelings that I connect to in the vision of what I desire to see brought forth in my world.
Powerful indeed…
In this way, hapè has become a part of my life suddenly and I also feel deeply called to connect with the medicine, the Amazon, the tribes, and I’m now exploring possibilities and potential for having more direct experiences or trainings with the medicine.
From an entrepreneurial standpoint, what does this mean?
What does this bring me?
Ultimately it delivers me to that deeper level, not only sense of connection to the visions of what I want to see brought forth from an entrepreneurial standpoint, but also to the energy of the Amazon and knowing that I am some small, minuscule part of carrying on a lineage of ceremonial tobacco use that spans millennia. It’s a sense of power to know that in this day and age, in this iteration, and this expression, the ceremonial usage of hapè is not only supporting that thread, that unbroken thread, but also supporting the Kuntanawa people through their manufacture and distribution of this medicine in the spirit of sacred commerce, and their mission of protecting the Amazon, their tribal culture and land, and their traditions. To be honest, it feels in complete alignment to be a part of that as I become more embodied and climb Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, my need for impact increases. Using hapè ceremonially is in fact one small expression of impact that I can make on the world around me to anchor in that connective thread that we all have to our past, to the ancestors, and to the unspoken energies that drive all of us into the futures that we desire to create for ourselves and those around us. Aho…and so it is.
HAPÈ MEDICINE
In recent years, interest in Hapè as a medicine has grown, and some people use it for a variety of purposes, including improving focus and mental clarity, reducing stress and anxiety, and increasing feelings of well-being. However, despite potentially thousands of years of indigenous usage, scientific evidence for the medicinal benefits of Hapè is limited, and more research is needed to determine its safety and efficacy.
Additionally, Hapè contains tobacco, which can be a highly addictive and harmful substance. Regular use of tobacco has been linked to a number of serious health problems, including heart disease, lung cancer, and stroke when smoked.
Hapè can have adverse side effects, such as headaches, dizziness, and nasal irritation, and its long-term effects are not well understood. While Hapè may have some potential health benefits, it is not a standard or recommended medicine. It is most important to educate yourself about its potential risks and benefits and trust your intuition on how it can help you or harm you for any given situation.