Huaringas - Healers of the Soul
Las Huaringas is a complex of 14 lagoons and are located in the province of Huancabamba (Piura). Between 3000 and 5000 meters above sea level, the lagoons receive year-round visits from all parts of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and other countries that wish to know their esoteric and millenary goodness. Huaringa, is Aymara word, God of the Force. The esoteric tradition of this part of Peru is millennial, and it follows from the descriptions of the chroniclers, and travelers who visited this place through time, have been used since pre-Hispanic times for magic and healing purposes.
The most visited lagoons are Shimbe and Negra, the first is called a white lagoon and according to the shamans or healers a bath in these waters serves to charge positive energy, while the Negra Lagoon serves to discharge negative energy, remove the evils or remove the Bad vibe of people.
The temperature of the waters of these lagoons oscillate between 5 to 7 ° C, and from May to November is the highest flow of tourists, registering an average of 2,700 visits per month.
The Black Lagoon
It is considered as the Sacred Lagoon par excellence. It is the favorite of the Healers, although its access is more difficult. To reach the lagoon Negra is by car from the city of Huancabamba (which is 5 hours from Piura on the coast) to the hamlet (small town) El Porvenir, is a trip of two hours and then continue On horseback for an hour, the cost on horseback is 7 dollars.
It is located at 3,957 m.s.n.m., and healers use it to perform their cures, which consists of the "patient" bath, which is a flowering bath. The "table" also consumes the "huachuma" and "shinga" tobacco as part of the cleansing of the body and soul. By "shingar" through the nostrils, alcohol mixed with tobacco crosses the nasal passages causing vomiting, advisable, according to the healers to remove all impurities from the body.
The works of the "master" are alternated by an assistant, who usually cleans the attendants. Except that a "teacher" is contracted in exclusivity, these tables are usually done with ten, twenty or more people which demands more helpers.
Some perform ceremonial rites in their homes and at the end of the act they prefer to receive the first rays of sunlight to lift the table.
Healers and allowances
There are about 96 healers or shamans in Huancabamba who are also called masters. Attendees may refer to the person who develops the allowance as a healer, shaman, or teacher; But they do not like to be called witches, as they indicate that it is used for those who do evil and they do not perform such work.
The ceremonial act has two parts. The counter usually starts at 10:00 p.m. and ends the next day at 06:00 p.m., this begins with a prayer from the shaman asking God to make everything go well or to be fulfilled The wishes of the attendees. The "table" itself consists of a small altar, where religious images are placed either of Christ or the Virgin Mary, some saint, steel and wood swords to protect patients from evil spirits, flowers, cheap perfumes, crosses , Human skulls, photos of deceased relatives, stones to absorb negative energy. What follows is a rite that anthropologists would probably describe as syncretic: the invocation of saints, healers, blessed, and family; The act of entering in trance with the help of the juice of the San Pedro cactus, which helps him to visualize or to hallucinate on the things that surround the visitors in relation to his personal life.
Patients perform the "zingada" of macerated tobacco; The attendants should sing a preparation of tobacco with fiery water that is first absorbed by the left nostril to vote the negative aspect and then through the right nostril to enter the positive, sometimes there are people who can not do the singado and is hired To a representative to do it for them. The cleansing is that the healer spreads your sword on all sides to cleanse you from evil spirits; And then sprinkles you with some cheap cologne to protect you from future evil spirits. Healers charge approximately $ 300 to $ 500 per ceremony for each patient and in some cases depending on the patient's economic ability they can accept less amount or a voluntary payment.
After the allowance the healer and the patients go to the lagoon chosen by him and the second part of the ritual is done, which consists of the bath and flowering in the own waters, for which the master healer proceeds to locate in a part of The shore, its equipment consisting of sacred stones, metallic arts, shells, swords, etc., which serve for the flowering of the sick or visitors. After the bath, an act of cleansing of all the evils of the body and the soul is performed, using a dagger or sword, the visitor proceeding to jump and escape from the evil airs that afflict him, as part of the cleaning of the body and the soul.
Payments to the lagoon
The people who attend the lagoons usually leave there some personal garment or jewel as a form of payment for the blessings received and everyone who lives in the province and knows of these flowering knows that they should not take or take the objects that are there Because this brings bad luck.
Until these gaps have arrived innumerable personalities are reminded that they visit a former president of the Republic, who is now in custody facing various trials.
