READING COCA LEAVES

Mantikus said on Thursday April 30th, 2009 04:52:45 PM

Throughout the Andean world, coca is omnipresent in their daily lives: we see it in their worship, in their foods (as in coca flour), in their drinks (as coca tea and coca fermented wines and stills) and, like you have showed us, in asking the divinity about their present and future lot.

I had the chance to learn this wonderful and ancient art. Like in so many mantic arts, there are the charlatans, the profiteers as well as the guardians of the knowledge. When finds a true guardian of the art, the reading of the coca goes beyond predicting the future. It shows how to behave in the present, how to be better individuals, how to deal with difficulties in a most humane and ethical way.

Coca comes originally from an Aymaran word, Quqa (pronounced something like kuka) and it conveys the notion of food or more properly, that which feeds or nurtures. Coca, then, means the nurturer.

Hence, it can give us food for the body as well as food for humane and spirtual growth.

When dealt correctly, it is one of the noblest of all leaves.

Mantikus