What is Rapeh?
Rapeh or Hapé (pronounced “ha-pay” or “rah-pay”) is sacred shamanic snuff medicine. It is legal, usually made of tobacco powder and various Amazonian medicinal plants, trees, leaves, seeds, and other sacred ingredients that are ground into a fine, aromatic powder. Rapeh ( hapé ) is a rare and profoundly healing and cleansing miracle medicine that has been used since ancient times. Rapeh is often made of several Amazonian plants, the core of most rapeh snuffs is known as mapacho & is used extensively in tribal rituals. Rapeh usually includes the alkaline ashes of other plants such as cinnamon, tonka bean, clover, banana peel, or mint, but many shamans keep the exact ingredients of their particular rapeh a secret.
The Experience & Benefits of Using RapéH
The mapacho and other ingredients are ground into a fine powder, which is then blown into each of the nostril cavities through a ceremonial pipe made of bone or bamboo. While it’s ideal to do this using a two-person pipe and have an experienced shaman or practitioner administering the snuff, there are also pipes designed for use by one person.
Rapeh ( hapé ) is a cleansing medicine, so after taking it, you may experience effects such as relaxation, a meditative mind, and a soothing integration. When serving self, the left nostril goes first, representing what we wanted to let go, and then the right nostril, representing what we wanted to let into our lives.
The unique thing about mapacho is that, compared to other plant medicines, mapacho both grounds and stimulates you. This contradictory combination of grounding and uplifting properties is what makes it such a potent medicine. It clears away superfluous energies and is a powerful aid for setting intentions, which is how the indigenous tribes of the Americas have used it for more than three thousand years.
Rapeh (hapé) is an air medicine. In the act of blowing we receive the blessing from the Grandfather Wind, universal source of energy, which cleanses our understanding, clearing the mind and opening the upper energy channels, for connecting with the highest part of our being.
Tobacco and organic medicines help to eliminate entities, energy parasites, contamination along with interference in internal dialogue. After receiving Rapeh’s traspaso, the medicine goes up cleaning, ordering and aligning our power field, especially the centers or chakras of the 3rd eye and crown, and then up and down the spine, the particular Tree of Life & kundalini.
It is also a medicine for the entire body, which helps to expel mucus and parasites from the pre-frontal cortex and paranasal sinuses. It eliminates headaches, mental misunderstandings, confusion, stagnation and dizziness, as it decompresses the pressure of the cranium.
WHAT are THE EFFECTs OF RAPeH?
Rapeh (hapé) is the perfect medicine to use to still your mind. In just one blow it helps you to go out of your head, into your heart and connects you with your soul. Rapeh (hapé) is very much about receiving, and has a positive effect. You can’t have a bad trip.
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Heart opening
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Brings you to the present moment
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Peace to your mind
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Relaxing
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Balance your mind
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Remove blockages in your Chakras
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Cleans your energy field
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Protection for Your Auric Field
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Helps to focus
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Sharpens your mind
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Very beneficial in an Ayahuasca , Kambo or Plant Ceremony
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Helps clear the mind.
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Clears a person or space of distracting, bad energies in preparation for intention setting.
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Detoxes both body, mind and spirit clears your energetic field.
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Clears sinuses of mucus and bacteria, thereby helping to combat colds and respiratory ailments.
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Provides a calming, grounding effect on the emotions that lasts much longer that the initial sensation.
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Can be used in conjunction with other treatments for addiction and mental illness.
Creating a Healthy Environment for Use
The indigenous peoples who have long used rapeh ( hapé ) see the ceremonial use of rapeh as a form of prayer that “calls upon the forces of Nature, the blessing of the animals of the forest, and power of medicinal plants to heal us and give us strength.” It is, therefore, important that you use this substance in a respectful environment focused on healing.
Rapeh (hapé) can be used alone or in conjunction with ayahuasca or kambo, and like most psychedelics, the set and setting of using rapeh is integral to its benefits. It’s ideal to use it with an experienced guide, but you can administer the snuff yourself. If you’re interested in experience the energetically cleansing effects of rapéh, it’s important that you buy from a reputable source and to educate yourself before you do it.
Tribal Sources
Rapeh ( hapé ) is sourced from a number of indigenous tribes in the Amazonian regions of Brazil and Peru, including the Apurina, Huitoto (or Witoto), Kanamari, Katukina, Kaxinawa, Kuntanawa, Matses, Nukini, Shanenawa, and the Yawanawa. Often, a blend’s name will include the name of the tribe and sometimes the name of the shaman who made it. It’s helpful to familiarize yourself with these names, as they are known by some basic distinctions.
The Kaxinawa—also known as the name Huni Kuin, or “true people”—are one of the largest tribes that produce rapeh (hapé), and they make strong blends. The Nukini of the Ampicayu River in Brazil are known for their long-standing tradition of female shamans, which lends a strong feminine aspect to their blends, whereas the Apurina use their rape blends for vision rituals called xingané. The Huito of the Brazil/Peru border use less ash in their blends and so have a stronger tobacco presence. Some tribes freely share the recipes of their sacred rapé blends, whereas others, like the Yawanawa, keep their ingredients secret.
You can also find non-traditional blends mixed by non-indigenous shamans. These are still usually made with rapeh (hapé) tobacco sourced from the Amazon but mixed in new ways or with other ingredients like menthol or cinnamon—you can usually identify these by their English names which is not recommended traditionally from the Indigenous tribes due to the rituals & ceremonial prayers that go along in the making of the sacred snuff.
Our Rapeh ( hapé ) comes from the Katukina tribe.
They are less known that the Yawanawa
Tribe and Huni Kuin as the Katukina
tribe was the last to come into contact
with ‘The Western World’.
Just like the Yawanawa Tribe and
Huni Kuin, the Katukina Nokekoi tribe l
ives in Brazil. Sometimes you can find
them under the name ‘Noke Koi’. This
means ‘Queen of the forest’.
They are a traditional Tribe and claim
to be the first to work with the Kambo.
They received this through Mother Ayahuasca.
Medicinal Ingredients of Tobacco
Harmala Alkaloids
The particularly potent variety of rapeh contains high amounts of beta-carbolines, including the harmala alkaloids harmane and norharmane. These alkaloids are also found in the Amazonian vine Banisteriopsis caapi, one of the principal ingredients in ayahuasca. They are MAO-inhibitors that stimulate the body’s central nervous system by inhibiting hormones like serotonin and norepinephrine. The presence of these harmala alkaloids supports evidence that tobacco has antidepressant properties similar to those of ayahuasca and other psychedelics. These biochemical qualities would help explain the “grounding” feeling experienced by many people.
Interestingly, the harmala alkaloids have been dubbed by studies as having neuroprotective, anti-cancer properties, contradictory to many studies done on tobacco smoking.
Rapeh ( hapé ) can also clean the respiratory system. Many people find that after having performed the ritual associated with Rapeh, they can breathe more freely and have a better scent act of smelling. There are special mixtures of Rapeh ( hapé ) that are used towards flu, although this is mainly the work of other natural herbs that are present in the mixture. In high doses, Rapeh can purify the body by inducing sweating and sometimes even nausea or going to the bathroom. Tobacco alkaloids have an antidepressant plus stimulating effect.
Some argue that Rapeh ( hapé )can repair typically the pineal gland by decalcifying it. The pineal human gland produces melatonin, and thus regulates our sleep rhythm. It is additionally called the third eye and is located in the center of the brain. Typically the pineal gland has an important function in the central nervous system and it is potentially involved in diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Although there is as yet no confirmed scientific proof, there is a theory that tobacco can help control these types of diseases. This issue is currently being investigated and studied.