Coca

There are four master plants of Peru: Ayauascha, Tobacco, Huachuma, and Coca. “Master plant” is translated from the Spanish “plantas maestras”, which actually means “plant teachers”

These four plants have much in common with one another, but namely their commonality lies in their ability to teach. What, how, when, who they teach varies greatly. But, these four plants, these four spirits, they came here to teach. They are healers, messengers, lovers, fighters and each with their own unique imprint, spirit, and method. I will walk and work and weave my way through each one of these very important master plants. But today, I start with the coca leaf.

In the Sacred Valley of Peru, the place I currently call home, they have a saying for coca, “Chew coca when you want to know the truth.” You might not need to know more than that about this plant to be perfectly honest. That truth is the essence and the way of coca.  

Obviously, the elephant in the room with coca, as well as tobacco, is the extreme polarity of their existence and operation in this world. Coca and tobacco are formidable, healing plant spirits. Held in great reverence for thousands of years by indigenous communities. But, we live on a polarity planet. And we all know the poison, violence, and illness that this modern world has made of these two plants. To be clear, it takes roughly 2,000 pounds of coca leaves to make 2.2 pounds of cocaine paste. And yet, the coca leaf itself is classified as an illicit drug in most countries outside of South America. If nothing else, this is evidence of how far away from the truth of this plant that we have ventured. And coca wants truth.

My first few weeks in Pisac were trying. After a life spent at sea level, the highest mountains I knew were sand dunes and skyscrapers. I was ill equipped to tolerate the altitude and didn’t understand how sick it would make me. And sick I was, until well, enter coca.

The coca plant is a beautiful, alkaloid rich bush that grows abundantly in the high altitudes of the Andes and one of the primary uses of coca here is to treat altitude sickness. Which makes the coca plant a great example of how the doctrine of signature works; plants communicate their medicine through their environment. Coca thrives in high altitude and in turn helps us do the same.  

If you visit a local store in the Sacred Valley, you will likely find big green bags of raw coca leaves. Mate de coca is a soothing tea, that helps with energy levels and altitude maladies, and is found on most menus here. It’s also extremely common to see locals and visitors alike chewing and sucking on the leaves as a way to relieve hunger, fatigue and even stay warm.

But beyond the (obviously helpful) clinical and medicinal uses of this plant, the consciousness offered by coca is what has been celebrated most through the centuries. In strong indigenous cultures like the Quechua culture of the Andes, the relationship between men and plants are so deeply intertwined that you cannot explain one without the other. This is true for coca and the ancestry of the Quechuan and Incan peoples from a traditional medicine perspective as well as part of their cultural, religious, social, and economic life. Here, coca is a symbol.

So, let’s start with some basics.

The Andean cosmovision is a sacred unit comprised of three worlds. In Quechua, (or the spoken language of the Incas, which is still commonly spoken today) the worlds consist of “Uku Pacha” (the world of the dead) “Kay Pacha” (the world of the present) and “Hanan Pacha” (the world of the Gods). The Incans used the coca leaf to connect with these three worlds, which are a cornerstone of Incan spiritual philosophy. They connected through a coca leaf offering called a Kintu.

Kintu means “offering to the Gods” in Quechua. The Kintu consists of three carefully chosen coca leaves, symbolizing each of the three worlds. The leaves are arranged in the shape of a flower and then offered to the spirits of the mountains or Apus. The Quechua people often preform a Kintu as an offering and to ask for blessing, protection, and a good harvest.  

I have only been in the Andes for six months, but I have participated in a Kintu, many in fact, and I felt the power of releasing this ancient offering to the Apus. I felt the strength of the Apus enter my body from the soles of my feet. I felt the sacred element of wind whip around me and through me the very moment I placed my Kintu on the sacred Incan alter. I felt the presence of coca and the potency of this sacred offering. The Apus demand respect and it is through coca that the truth of their demands are revealed. A Kintu is a language, a form of communication in and of itself, to speak truth to the mountains is one of coca’s many teachings.

So, now, I always have a bag of coca ready to go. I love her mate, I love to chew her over the course of the afternoon, I love her smell. I never keep her too far away. But, nothing compares to coca in ceremony. Recently, I had the luck of being introduced to a woman who works with coca divination. And she graciously invited me into her home for what is known as a “coca chew” or the ceremonial use of coca.  

To properly chew coca, it is about taking a small portion of coca leaves placing them in the back of the mouth and chewing until they secrete their nutrients and alkaloids. You keep the chew going steadily and in this specific container, you chew for upwards of 5 hours.

The intention of the chew, as you have probably come to imagine, is truth. To connect with the spirit of coca through a coca chew is to ultimately connect with yourself uninhibited. And if you are lucky enough to sit with a maestra who has developed their own strong relationship with the plant, coca often comes through them as well. So, in sitting across from one another in a two-person coca ceremony you both become channels of this helpful and honest plant spirit.

It is a ceremony based in conversation. What is it that you have come to coca to know? You can chew on a question, a challenge, a person, a goal. Whatever it is, you can give it to coca, because as my maestra says “Coca loves to help.” After about an hour of chewing, you notice a calmed focus, the volume slightly raised on your intuition, you lessen the number of times you question yourself in seeking these answers. Because while your answers never cease to come from you, they are now coming from you through coca.

Another hour passes and you may notice yourself in a spiritual or ceremonial trance. You are present, but there is another consciousness walking along with your presence. A truth-seeking friend, who has come to guide. Coca is truth, is pragmatic clarity, coca cuts through the esoteric and allows for you to enter and clean up your own energetic space — with no big to-do about it. Your field opens, your communication deepens, you start to understand. It’s clear, it’s concise and you can’t help but get the feeling that this is actually always available to you. So, if you’ve come to know the truth. If you’ve come for coca’s teaching. That’s it.

The teaching of coca is that the truth is already inside you.