Group solidarity is paramount. As one Huichol shaman put it: ‘all must be of one
heart, there must be complete unity among us’ (Myerhoff 1974:135). The journey
to Wirikúta is lengthy—about 200 miles—and the pilgrims consume very little food
(Schultes and Hofmann 1992). Barbara Myerhoff (1974) argues that confession,
fasting and making pilgrimage are all techniques for reducing, concealing or
escaping functions associated with mortality and that this assists the pilgrims to
gradually shed their human identities. On arrival in Wirikúta the travellers ritually
wash and pray The shaman or mara’akáme who leads the expedition begins to sing
as part of a ritual in which the pilgrims, now fully identified with divinities, make
the transition back into the origin-world through a magical portal (ibid.).^4 For
people on their first pilgrimage there is a complex rite of passage, replete with ritual
blindfolding and the reciting of stories associated with Wirikúta and peyote.
Eventually peyote—which is closely associated mythologically with both deer and
maize—is found. The mara’akáme shoots an arrow into the first ‘deer’ (Schaefer
1996). The Huichol present offerings to this first peyote. Later, large baskets of
peyote are gathered, some to be consumed in Wirikúta, others to be stored or
traded. Preparation and ingestion of peyote occur in a strictly ceremonial context.
The Huichol gather on the crest of a hill in Wirikúta:
Everyone sat on the rocks crowning the summit, positioning themselves so as
to face east.... The shaman purified everyone with his feather wand and
sacred water and touched the peyote to their cheeks, throat and wrists. The
white tufts on the peyote were removed and placed as offerings. Then the
peyotéros peeled the tough skin at the base of the cactus and consumed small
amounts of the first peyote of the pilgrimage.
(Schaefer 1996:149)The Huichol pilgrims next return to their encampment:
the sacred fire was kindled and that night the shaman, with the help of his
assistants, sang. Throughout the night all the pilgrims circled the area five times.
Five is the sacred number for the Huichols and all the members consumed
peyote five times during the night. At the first rays of dawn, they painted
designs on the faces of their ritual companions, compañeros in Spanish, with
the ground-up yellow root of a desert shrub known as uxa.... They also
exchanged peyote they had selected especially each giving some to all the
others and receiving some in turn from everyone else.
(Schaefer 1996:149–50)The two most important ceremonial roles in the Huichol peyote pilgrimage are
those of the Saulizika (the primary mara’akáme), who presides over ceremony, and
the Nauxa, or ‘Keeper of the Peyote’ (ibid.). The person acting in the ceremonial
capacity Nauxa is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that other participants
are able to travel along the ‘road’ of the Saulizika’s song. The Nauxa blesses the
ENTHEOGENIC DANCE ECSTASIS 125