In Window Rock, the 'capital' of Navajoland, a small town in Arizona on the border with New Mexico, we took part in a peyote ceremony led by the pastor and shaman Archie Chichilly. What an unusual experience!
By day, Archie Chichilly is a bus driver. On certain nights of the full moon, in his Hogan, he becomes a roadman (ritual conductor). How did his vocation as a pastor-chamane of the little orthodox church come about? American Native Church ? By chance, he explains, during a meeting in Chinle. " That was eight years ago. I took the "medicine" and I had a very strong vision that I could help others. The Roadman was guiding me too, without us speaking to each other. I came to see him again to become his pupil..." .
Archie now organises his meetings in his Hogan, a hexagonal wooden hut housing his cult objects: his " bundle " A bunch of eagle feathers and a pile of large rounded stones blackened by fire. But above all, in a glass jar, the precious Peyote flakes, crystallised after decoction of the cactus. "Lophophora williamsii. " "The medicine "Archie explains, as the use of the Mexican name is forbidden. This hallucinogenic fruit comes from a cactus that grows in the desert regions on both sides of the Rio Grande, from north-eastern Mexico to south-western Texas. It is difficult to obtain and its use is highly regulated due to its main alkaloid: mescaline.
" ... Everyone brings me some when they can, but draft legislation on narcotics could prohibit us from using traditional "medicine".... Archie takes part in the protests that are stirring up the tribes, where there is still de facto tolerance of the 'religious' use of peyote...
A highly ritualised ceremony
This evening, in my honour, the ceremony will take place in the " sweat lodge " . It's a complicated affair, but I'm assured it's a convivial one, and above all very hygienic: the " sweat lodge "is a traditional Navajo sauna, a small, blind, wooden-framed hut where the benefits of the body are combined with those of the soul.
Lightly dressed despite the cool evening air, we sit cross-legged around a cavity in the floor that will house the seven "grandfathers", basalt pebbles that have been heated to white beforehand, onto which Archie and his wife thin out aromatic plants and then pour water: once sprayed, it soon transforms the cramped chapel into an almost unbreathable hell...
The Navajos use the hogan or sweat lodge for washing: you sweat profusely and then rub yourself with dried earth or sand. In Monument Valley, Billy Yellow the shaman (medicine man) he confessed to me, at the age of 94, that he had never washed otherwise...
The sounds are muffled under the piled-up blankets that form a soundproof, airtight roof over the wooden frame... There are seven of us sitting side by side, men and women wrapped in towels and darkness. After a short prayer, Archie introduces us to each other and explains: " Ed will prepare the 'grandfathers' according to the ritual he knows so well: on the fire outside, he will heat the seven stones of each 'round' a maximum of four times. Our French friend is sitting in the patient's seat, in the centre. It will be tough, but everyone is free to give up during the session...! "
To the right of the now darkened entrance, Archie throws handfuls of grass onto the stones. They sizzle and ignite in the darkness, giving off the smell of burnt savannah. Edna, his wife, helps him. Opposite him, Archie's brother John, then Marley, 36, a journalist with the " Navajo Times "she took off her glasses. Beside her, Steve, her lifelong fiancé. It was he who persuaded Archie, after much difficulty, to let a Frenchman attend the meeting. A guide and apprentice healer for the last twelve years, he is very downcast: four days ago Marley told him that she was leaving him to go and live with her master, the highly respected healer Yazzie, with whom Steve was learning the tradition.
A sacred drink
Carefully, each person takes the medicine from the glass bottle, using a small spoon. You can barely make out the faces when a blade of grass catches fire on the stones. The water can circulates, sweat flooding the faces. I imitate Steve and swallow two spoonfuls, with difficulty because the bitterness is so violent. Everyone drinks a cup of medicine tea with big gulps of water. Archie pays homage to the earth on which we are sitting directly, then to the sky and nature. His voice is soft and strong. He speaks, or rather whispers, in Navajo and then in English to make himself understood by his host. But he only prays in Navajo to complete the ritual. He announces, like a boxing referee, the end of the first round... Ed opens the trap door that locked us in, and the ruddy faces light up in the last glimmers of sunlight... The next seven grandfathers are bigger, redder and the medicine is horseback... Now I think I understand Archie, even though he sings and whispers in Navajo a sort of psalmody made up of vowels and no consonants, and I find myself nodding, agreeing with what he's saying... And slowly I feel myself rising, a real take-off... A slow levitation begins, which seems perfectly natural and appropriate to the context... I rise irresistibly into the air, while remaining at the heart of this friendly, sweating circle. The hellish heat becomes pleasant and I witness a spectacle: a sort of family parade that wasn't planned: my father, my mother, my children. Then brothers and sisters. And finally the grandparents. The whole family fits comfortably into the tiny shelter. Mother is very ill, bent over her back, deformed by the disease. Her face is smiling despite the pain. Archie talks about her? In the comforting well-being of this Hogan-shaped hut, whose shape might recall a pregnant woman's womb, everyone seems to be returning to a pre-natal status. Perhaps post-mortem, the boundaries of time become blurred... " Born of the earth we return to it " comments Archie. He explains the symbolism, nature, communion...souls, the dead...
It was in the third round, the one during which the Roadman undertook to heal, that Steve began to moan: accustomed to Peyote and Navajo liturgies, here he is trapped in the trance that he knows how to provoke in others, in his capacity as apprentice medicine-man ..... For he is not a happy man, and shows the image of unhappiness; he hiccups and vomits to the point that Ed brings a basin, he whimpers and writhes on the floor more and more.
Change of "patient
For the fourth round, Archie declares that the "grandfathers" have just designated Steve as their patient and I am therefore relieved of the role. Lying on the floor, his head propped up by Marley who is crying even harder, Steve shakes and begins his confession. In his bad journey, taken full force by the revealing peyote, he has no other way of expelling his suffering than to vomit and confess. With the power of medicine, everyone here supports him and suffers with him, to the point where we all find ourselves crying and encouraging him to come out of this painful trance state, except Archie who remains serene and offers his advice: " The grandfathers show me a bear. A menacing bear. This is very worrying. Steve, what have you done? Talk to me! "It refers to a pebble where the cooled parts form shadowy areas. For the Indians, the bear is the mythological animal of danger, strength and resentment. But also of unwashed guilt. With difficulty, Steve manages to confess, his mouth twisted in fright: " I was already scared when I came here on foot, looking everywhere, around me and behind me. Now I'm being chased by a bear. I'm even more scared. Archie, help me! I'm a wretch, a liar, a thief, a good-for-nothing. I drank, I lied and I'm paying the price " . His whole body is shaken by sobs, but the more he confesses, the more he frees himself. He even regained some of his self-confidence. And suddenly he finishes: " I behaved badly to Father. Three years ago, he chased me out of his house and cursed me because I had insulted him severely. I'm sorry about that. I'm going to go and see him tomorrow and beg his forgiveness. " .
Steve then remained prostrate. Archie spoke softly, I resumed my levitation but sharing Steve's pain gave a tragic dimension to this meeting. The air was cool outside under the moonlight and the calm of the forest settled over me. Reassured, I saw Steve, his face suddenly relaxed, dress without a word and leave with Marley. Holding his hand.
Text and Photos : Sylvain Grandadam, unless otherwise stated.
