What is Hapé?

Hapé (pronounced ha-PAY) is a sacred shamanic snuff medicine made from a finely ground blend of Amazonian tobacco (Mapacho) and other medicinal plants. This medicine is not recreational, it is a prayer. A portal. A sacred breath of the forest spirit offered to human hands by the wisdom keepers of the Amazon.
For thousands of years, Hapé has been used ceremonially by indigenous tribes such as the Yawanawá, Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá), Katukina, and Nukini peoples of Brazil and Peru. Each tribe carries its own unique preparation style, prayer lineage, and purpose for the blends; some used for spiritual protection, others for clarity, grounding, or visionary insight. In their traditions, the medicine is administered with respect, reverence, and intention, often by a pajé (shaman) or practitioner trained in its use.
Hapé is most often administered through the nose using a Tepi (when shared by a facilitator) or a Kuripe (when self-applied). The sacred blow is not violent…it is precise, intentional, and filled with the spirit of the forest. The medicine clears stagnant energy, brings the brain into harmony, rebalances the nervous system, opens the sinuses, and brings the user into deep presence with the Earth and Spirit.
Tobacco, in its pure Mapacho form, is considered a Master Plant Teacher in indigenous cosmology. It is used to cleanse, protect, and call in divine guidance. When combined with other healing plants such as Tsunu, Murici, Cacao, or Pau Pereira, the blend becomes a powerful vibrational ally for healing, prayer, and remembrance.
At this offering, you will not be “using” Hapé.
You will be in ceremony with it.
This is a co-regulated offering with the Earth herself.
We honor the indigenous lineages who stewarded this medicine long before it reached the Western world. We do not claim ownership. We sit in gratitude. And we invite you to do the same.
Viva Viva Viva Hapé

Where Our Medicine Comes From

The Hapé we serve in this gathering comes from Jaguar Whisper, a stewarded medicine line founded by Amir Leron and Lucia Maria. Jaguar Whisper exists to bridge traditional Indigenous lineages with the modern world in a way that is ethical, relational, and deeply respectful. Their medicines are crafted within traditional lineage, prayed over and blessed, and sourced through fair trade relationships that honor the people, plants, and spirits behind the work. This is not mass-produced medicine, nor is it transactional. It is living prayer, carried with integrity. We feel deeply blessed to work with Jaguar Whisper and to share this medicine in a way that honors its origins and the hands and hearts that brought it forward.

Jaguar Whisper

Working with Hapé: Building a Reverent Self-Practice

As you begin deepening your relationship with Hapé, I want to remind you that this is not a medicine to be used casually, reactively, or as a means of escape. This is a sacred medicine. It is to be approached with reverence, respect, prayer, and clear intention. Hapé is not here to help you bypass what is present. It is here to help you meet yourself more honestly, regulate more deeply, and integrate what is ready to be seen. This medicine has the capacity to sharpen awareness, clear energetic debris, bring the nervous system into deeper presence, and create a powerful opening for prayer, reflection, emotional release, and inner listening. The way you approach it matters.

At this stage in your practice, I would like to see you sitting with Hapé at least twice per week. You are welcome to sit more often if it feels aligned, but always with intention. Right now, the two blends you have are both are beautiful, but profoundly different medicines. I encourage you to begin getting to know each of them through direct experience. Let them teach you. Notice how each one feels in your body, in your mind, and in your emotional field.

Traditional Serving Cadence

Within the traditional Amazonian way of serving Hapé, the medicine is served first to the left nostril and then immediately to the right nostril. Both sides are important and both sides are meant to be served. This is part of the balance and integrity of the medicine.

When preparing your dose, place the medicine into the palm of your hand and gently pat it down into a small line. From there, scoop approximately half into your Kuripe, serve the left side first, then repeat the process and serve the right side.

A few simple reminders as you continue building your comfort and confidence:

Close your throat before serving so the medicine stays where it is meant to go
Serve both sides every time
Clean your Kuripe after each sit (blow any medicine out of your Kuripe, you can clean it with a soft pipe cleaner)
Give yourself spaciousness afterward rather than rushing immediately back into activity

This is not a medicine to use and then immediately jump back into noise. Let it land. Let it work on you.

Traditional Blessing / Invocation

Before sitting with your medicine, take a moment to become still. Breathe. Ground. Offer your attention. You may say the following invocation silently in your mind or aloud.

To the left shoulder, we call in love

Love for ourself, Love for others, And love for our inner child

To the right shoulder, we call in compassion

Compassion for ourself, Compassion for others, And compassion for our inner child

To the solar plexus, we call in wholeness

Wholeness for ourself, Wholeness for others, And wholeness for our inner child

To the crown, we call in forgiveness

Forgiveness for ourself, Forgiveness for others, And forgiveness for our inner child

This prayer is a beautiful way to orient your field before working with the medicine. Let it become part of your rhythm.

After the Sit: Integration Matters

What happens after the medicine is just as important as the sit itself. After you serve, give yourself time to simply be with what is moving. Sit quietly. Breathe. Notice. Listen. You do not need to force an experience. The medicine often works in subtle but meaningful ways over time, especially when approached consistently and with respect.

One of the most supportive ways to deepen your relationship with Hapé is to track what comes up. I highly encourage you to keep a small record of your sits, whether that is through:

journaling
short written reflections
or voice memo notes on your phone

Notice what blend you used, what you were feeling before, what arose during, and how you felt afterward. Over time, this will help you build a much deeper awareness of how the medicine is working with you and what it may be helping you clear, soften, or understand. This is a practice. It does not need to be perfect. It simply needs to be honest, intentional, and reverent.

Elemental Cord Cutting: The Return of Your Energy

There are connections that do not end when contact ends. They live in the body. They live in the breath. They live in the quiet moments when your system reaches for something that is no longer meant for you. This is not a failure of will. This is how the body bonds. This is how the heart remembers. And this is why we work with the elements. Each element speaks to a different layer of your being. Each one knows how to unwind what the mind cannot.

This is not a ritual to rush.

You will move through these practices over four separate days. One element at a time. One layer at a time. You are invited to sit with Hapé after completing each elemental practice.

You may feel called to begin with one more than the others. Trust that. Your system knows where the cord is strongest.

Return to these as needed.

This is not about perfection.

This is about reclamation.

Opening Invocation: Calling the Wheel

Before you begin your first ritual, create a moment of stillness.

Stand or sit with intention.

Let your body arrive.

This is the threshold. You are stepping into a conscious release. Take a slow breath in and out.

Then speak:

I call upon the wisdom of the elements.

Air, Water, Earth, and Fire, be with me now.

Witness me as I release what is no longer mine to carry.

Support me as I return my energy to myself.

I stand at the center of my own life.

I choose to be whole.

I choose to be sovereign.

I choose myself.

Pause. Feel the shift. This is where the work begins.

Elemental Cord Cutting

Day One: Air: The Softening

Air is the keeper of the lungs and the heart field. It is where grief moves. It is where attachment lingers when it has not yet been given permission to leave.
When a cord remains, the breath becomes shallow.
The body holds. The heart braces.
Air restores movement to what has been held.
The Ritual:
Find a quiet space. Sit or stand with your spine upright.
Place one hand over your heart and one over your belly.
Begin to breathe slowly and intentionally, drawing the breath deep into your body.
As you settle into the rhythm of your breath, allow yourself to see the cord that still connects you to people, places ideas or memories.
Do not judge it.
Do not force it away.
Simply witness it.
With each exhale, begin to soften its hold.
Not cutting yet. Not severing.
Just Loosening.
Let the breath create space where there has been tension.
When you feel ready, speak:
With this breath, I release what is not mine to carry.
With this breath, I call my energy home.
Stay here until you feel even the slightest shift.
Air teaches the body how to let go without force.
Repeat this invocation as many times as feels supportive to your system
Day Two: Water: The Dissolving

Water holds memory.
It holds intimacy, attachment, the imprint of touch, the echo of connection. This is where the cord often runs deepest. Water does not fight. It does not cling. It moves.
You will take this ritual to any body of water. (A bath or a shower is also perfect)
Walk into the water slowly, allowing your body to meet it fully.
Let it rise to your lower belly, your sacral space, the center of your emotional body. Place your hands over your lower abdomen.
Close your eyes.
Feel what is still there.
The pull.
The memory.
The ache, if it exists.
Then speak:
I return all energy that is not mine.
I release all emotional ties that bind me.
I am sovereign in my body and my waters.
Allow the waves to move around you.
See the cord begin to dissolve, not violently, but completely.
Breaking apart, carried away.
Stay until your body softens.
Water does not rip cords away.
It dissolves them.
Day Three: Earth: The Rooting

When a cord is released, there can be a space left behind.
The body may interpret that space as absence.
As loss.
As something missing.
Earth reminds you that nothing has been lost. Only returned.
The Ritual:
Step onto the ground barefoot.
Let your feet meet the earth directly.
Stand still long enough to feel your weight.
You are here.
You belong here.
Close your eyes and imagine roots extending from your body down into the soil beneath you.
Deep. Steady. Anchored.
Place your hands on your thighs or your feet
And speak:
I call all parts of myself back home.
I root into my body, my life, my path.
I am held. I am supported. I am whole.
Feel your energy drop down into your body. Feel yourself stop reaching outward.
Earth does not ask you to let go.
It gives you something stronger to stand in.
Day Four: Fire: The Ending

Fire is the element of closure.
Where air softens, water dissolves, and earth stabilizes, fire completes.
There are words, emotions, and attachments that still live in the unseen.
Fire brings them into form and then transforms them.
The Ritual:
Sit with a piece of paper.
Write everything that still feels tethered.
The words you never said.
The truth you held back.
The anger, the grief, the longing.
Let it all come through your hand.
When you are finished, read it once.
Then speak:
I honor what was.
And I choose myself now.
Light the paper and allow it to burn safely.
Watch it turn to ash.
As it does, see the cord fully severed.
Complete. Clean. Finished.
Fire does not loosen or dissolve.
Fire ends.