Icaros – Shipibo Healing Songs

One of the most amazing aspects of Shipibo shamanism are icaros – sacred melodies through which shamans interact with plant spirits and heal patients. The word ícaro comes from Quechua ikarai – 'to blow, to send by blowing' – referring to the practice of blowing tobacco smoke for healing.

Energetic Patterns

For Shipibo, icaro is a multidimensional code, a 'sound pattern' that the shaman weaves into a person's energetic field during ceremony. Shipibo maestros say that icaro is not just a song, but a living vibration, a conductor of the healing spirit. When the healer sings icaro, he 'builds an energetic blueprint or pattern in the patient's etheric body', and along this sound pattern plant spirits come to the person and do their work.

Receiving Icaros

Shipibo believe that each plant teacher has its own icaro – a set of vibrations and melodies that the plant gives to the shaman during dieta. Traditionally, the shaman receives icaros precisely in the process of strict plant dietas. In ayahuasca trance, the plant spirit may appear as a melody or words in an unknown language.

Shipibo have a special 'shamanic language' for icaros – a combination of words in their native language, archaic words and sounds given to them by plants. This language is not used in everyday speech; it describes energetic processes understandable only in altered states of consciousness (called mareación). Therefore, icaros are often born spontaneously during ceremony – the shaman improvises words and melody in real time, following what he sees and feels in the patient's field.

Connection with Kené Patterns

The kené patterns themselves that Shipibo depict in their embroidery and drawings are essentially a visual record of icaros. Shipibo say that each geometric ornament is a 'song on fabric'. 'Artistic prayer' – as these ornaments are called – can be sung: each pattern serves as a kind of musical notation for icaro.