Words of the Shaman

By Francesco de Giorgio and Mayu Tuntíak

In this revealing journey, Shaman Francesco "Tsunki" de Giorgio, responding to the questions of one of his students, Mayu Tuntíak, explores the enigmatic world of shamanism, a realm that defies the rigid boundaries of Western thought. Through a tapestry of rich imagery, evocative expressions, and ancient myths, the Shaman offers a unique perspective on the hidden nature of reality. 
Shamanism is not a subject that lends itself to conventional explanations. Like light refracting through a crystal into a spectrum of dazzling colors, multiple meanings radiate from the shaman's words, each one challenging our understanding of reality. The Spirits, the Power, the Great Dream, and the Other Reality – these are not mere concepts but gateways to a deeper understanding, explored through the Shaman's compelling, thought-provoking narration. 
This book invites readers to liberate their minds from the entrenched barriers of conventional perception and open themselves to the profound wisdom of shamanism. Discover a world where each expression and myth carries ancestral spiritual knowledge, guiding you to embrace a deeper meaning of existence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francesco De Giorgio, Mayu Tuntíak
• Release date: Jan 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9791222490182

Book preview

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First published in Italian in 2017

Copyright © 2015 by Francesco de Giorgio and Mayu Tuntiak

Website: www.wordsoftheshaman.com

Email: [e-mail]

Illustrations by Giuliano Rigotti, Copyright © 2015

Translation by K. Laubriet

ISBN: 979-12-22490-18-2 (ebook in English)

ISBN: 978-88-26029-29-0 (ebook in Italian)

ISBN: 978-88-92632-14-1 (paperback in Italian)

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the authors.

Contents

Dedication

Preface to the English Edition

Prologue

Invocation

Epigraph

1.Tsunki, the Uwishín

2.Power

3.The Other Reality

4.The Shuar People

5.The Powers of a Uwishín

6.Pásuk

7.Soul Retrieval

8.The Purpose of Shamanic Healing

9.The Role of a Shaman

10.Sacrifice

11.A Path in the Forest

12.Ancestry

13.Love

14.The Great Dream

15.Rain and Fortune

16.Shamanism and Science

17.Feminine Power

18.Becoming a Shaman

19.Spiritual Tourism

20.Family Ties

21.The Laws of Money

22.Power and Talent

23.Compensation

24.Depossession

25.Choices

26.The Drum Circle

27.A Path to Loneliness

28.Good and Evil

29.Kuná

30.Tsunki's Wife

Shamanic Glossary

Acknowledgements

About the Authors

Translator's Note

Further Reading

Dedication

To Vicente Jua, El Abuelo

and the Spirits of the Jungle.

And to my 麒冰

fire and ice

always by my side

against all odds.

Preface to the English Edition

Courage is what gets you through the fears that separate you from what’s really valuable.

– Mayu

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Almost fifteen years have passed since I began writing this book, the first edition of which was published in Italian. I am now delighted to release this English version, reaching a broader audience.

You might find some of the passages within this book to be controversial. Keep in mind that the shaman’s words are authentic and therefore not always politically correct as he shares his direct experience of the Other Reality – where everything originates from. What is learned there can be very different from what our society wants us to believe, which is neither absolute nor fixed over time. I myself have often been pushed to set aside what my upbringing, my education, and the modern world taught me. My beliefs have been and continue to be challenged by what I have learned throughout this journey. I encourage you, then, to read this book as you would a story, setting your analytical mind aside and letting the words sink in. Shamans tell many stories, for stories can bypass the mind and touch the soul.

Shamanism is a path for the courageous, for those who dare to venture beyond their beliefs and discover a more profound reality. It’s an endless pursuit of knowledge that can bring wisdom and deep healing to the humble seeker.

I was once asked why I wrote this book, why I embarked on such an onerous journey. My answer was simple: For love. For the love of shamanism. In these pages, you will find my heart and my soul. Let me guide you through them as if we were exploring the jungle together. I will clear the path with my machete and reveal to you the wonders of our wild and powerful Mother Nature, where Shuar shamanism originates from.

When I mentioned to Tsunki, the shaman, that I had decided to publish the English edition after many years, despite being on the verge of giving up numerous times, he responded with a depth of emotion that took me by surprise: I am almost moved. However, if one cares about doing something, it’s good to complete it, even if it requires excessive effort. I have always regretted what I haven’t finished. There is something inside us that wants us to complete things at any cost.

Stay with me.

Mayu Tuntíak

Amsterdam, December 2023

Prologue

Well, you can ask questions. I won’t answer you… But there might be some that I will answer.

– Tsunki

These pages recount conversations with a shaman of the Shuar lineage who lives in Europe.

My journey began quite by chance. One day, while listening to one of his lectures, I asked him why he hadn’t written a book. He replied that he couldn’t find the time. Even if he could, he believed it likely wouldn’t be worth the effort, given that so few books are successful. I suggested the format of an interview, which would be lighter work for him and would maintain the authenticity of his words. I volunteered as the interviewer. To my great surprise, he accepted. Thus, I embarked on a long and exciting journey. The challenges, though, were many. The biggest was comparing myself to him – a sophisticated writer with a life story straight out of a movie, a keeper of profound secrets of the Universe – while I was just an IT engineer. At times, it seemed to me that I was a thief, so great was the Power coming from his words. He never gave me any direction or feedback, nor did he read any of the numerous drafts I sent him. Still, he finally agreed to the publication. I don’t know if I managed to live up to the enormity of the task, but the resulting work has been intense.

I steered the conversation to remain understandable to those unfamiliar with shamanism. At the same time, I endeavored to maintain the conversational nature of the interview, without the restriction of always being clear and exhaustive. Shamans don’t describe concepts, viewing them as illusory and limited products of the mind. Instead, they prefer to tell stories, referring to concrete facts and experiences, even if it means sometimes contradicting themselves. I committed to adhering as faithfully as possible to his way of speaking, his cadence, and his expressions, striving to preserve these in the English translation.

Some chapters are written from my point of view to give the reader a first-person perspective and see the shaman at work during healings.

Unfortunately, the written word alone cannot fully capture the essence of such profound teachings. Shamanism goes beyond what we commonly believe of reality and cannot be understood without direct experience. Nevertheless, I am convinced that his words can inspire both seekers in the Spirit World and those who have yet to question their own certainties, including those who rely exclusively on science.

Kakáram Ajastá ¹

Mayu Tuntiak

Lugano, Switzerland, September 2011

1. Become a person of Power in the Shuar language.

Invocation

Wind of the South

Hear me

Speak to me of rebirth

Speak to me of new life

Speak to me of my Dream

Put the past behind me

And give me freedom from fear.

Wind of the West

Hear me

Speak to me of purification

Speak to me of renewal

Speak to me of Thunder

Put the past behind me

And give me freedom from weariness.

Wind of the North

Hear me

Speak to me of fertility

Speak to me of health

Speak to me of discipline and self-control

Enable me to create good things for all beings walking under the Sky.

Wind of the East

Hear me

Speak to me of thanksgiving

Speak to me of Fire

Speak to me of understanding

I thank you for the past, the present, and the future.

Grandfather Sky

Watching over us from above

You who assign and change our Dreams

Give us Power!

Grandmother Earth

Where our bones shall rest one day

You who support all animals and plants

Nurture us! ¹

1. Invocation of the four directions containing traditional expressions of the Lakota (Oglala Sioux) American Indians

Epigraph

Yo soy chamán. No contesto a preguntas teoréticas, no tienen ningún sentido! ¹

Every so often, I say words or phrases in Spanish because my Spirit Helpers – who are called Pásuk and are the lords of the tséntsak – almost all come from the Amazon rainforest. Some of them have learned our language. Others haven’t, and they only speak the Shuar language or Spanish because Spanish has been spoken there for such a long time. So if I want them to hear something or just want them to stay alert, I say something in Spanish. I learned it from the Conibo and the Shuar, so I speak it badly.

– Tsunki

1. I'm a shaman. I don’t answer theoretical questions. They're meaningless!

Tsunki, the Uwishín

The first time I met him was in a dream. I had never seen him before.

He said: I will show you secrets that go far beyond what you believe. All your certainties will be swept away. Are you really sure you want to follow me?

I answered yes.

A few months later I met him in person. He was gruff, treated me poorly, and mocked me. A distant person. I asked him for help, he said there wasn’t much he could do. So far he has been the only one who has truly helped me.

“Untitled”, 2011, ink on paperboard.

Untitled, 2011, ink on paperboard.

The sun had already set. Lie down, he said to me in a firm tone. He was no longer wearing his hat and had replaced it with a small band around his head which, together with his silvery hair and piercing blue eyes, gave him a solemn and sometimes disturbing appearance. Sitting cross-legged on a small cushion, under which lay a jaguar pelt, he had gathered around him various items of Power that few others had permission to touch: a large drum, a rattle made from a buffalo’s scrotum, a black stone the size of a fist, a clear bottle with an Amazonian herb immersed in a green liquid, and a glass of tobacco water. He wore a fringed jacket, and around his neck hung a necklace with a jaguar tooth. He was about to begin a curanderia – a healing – following the Amazonian tradition of the Shuar.

In the semi-darkness, about fifteen people I’d never seen before observed me in silence with the attentive interest that students of medicine have for a patient going under the knife in an operating room. The surgery in this case could not be seen with ordinary vision.

The shaman smoked a cigarillo, a hand-rolled cigarette, and sang a song in a strange language. Take off your shirt, he said. As I lay facedown on the floor, I couldn’t understand what was happening around me. I heard him making guttural sounds as if he were regurgitating something up from his stomach into his mouth. For a moment, I thought I heard the growl of a jaguar, then silence. I felt his gaze penetrating my back. "Nanki, what do you see? he asked an apprentice at one point. Two black water serpents. One is really big." The shaman nodded. Then something happened that I would never have expected: bringing his mouth and nose close to the surface of my lumbar area, like an animal searching for the scent of its prey, he began to sniff and to let out small whistles over a place where I began to feel an increasingly intense pain. Suddenly, he started to suck forcefully, as if to draw out something invisible hidden under the skin, and then spat it into a bowl – sometimes retching as though vomiting. Judging by his disgust, it must have tasted awful. He did this repeatedly. Time seemed to have stopped; frozen in the present moment, the whole world was focused solely on the healing.

Look, he called Nanki, who stood nearby. It’s here underneath, see? The two men were like hunters discussing how best to capture their prey. I can’t remove it entirely today; it’s hiding. We have to leave it there for the time being, he concluded.

"El alma de los riñones es debil, he said suddenly in Spanish, in a deep and decidedly different voice. My Spirit Helpers say that the soul of the kidneys is weak. We probably need to replace it, he clarified. Why has it been weakened? I asked. They didn’t say why, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Today we stop here, but more treatments are needed." Then he sprayed a little bit of the infusion from the clear bottle onto the area he’d treated with his mouth and, using the black stone, he spread the liquid as if to heal an invisible wound. Finally, he had me sit down, blew forcefully on the top of my head, and shook the rattle around it. Tsunki looked me in the eye. "Avoid direct sunlight for three days, for as long as the Power of my Tséntsak remains in your body. Otherwise, you might have relapses," he said.

It wasn’t easy to get in touch with him, let alone receive a healing. But the determination to solve a chronic health problem I’d suffered from for years was immense. Consultations with doctors, psychotherapists, homeopaths, acupuncturists, and all sorts of naturopaths hadn’t been remotely helpful and had pushed me to consider what was, at the time, my last hope: a true shaman. However, to make this a reality, I had to overcome the obstacles of distance, uncertainty, and his silence – an art in which he was particularly well-versed.

Other treatments followed, although a lot of time passed between them. He remained unpredictable, surrounded by an aura of mystery and secrecy. I never knew what to expect from him. On one occasion when we had agreed on a meeting, I arrived at his home after a long and tiring trip only to discover that he had just left for a remote area of Australia in search of Power for his community! He still performed a healing – remotely – during which I shook with intense cold, despite the summer weather. On a few occasions, I had to throw away expensive travel tickets because of his sudden changes of plan. Time after time, treatment after treatment, my condition began to improve, though I was never promised a complete recovery. Only powerful Spirits can decide whether to heal an illness completely or not. In some cases, they decide not to because, in their wisdom, they know that’s the right thing to do.

The stereotypical mythical image of a loving, holy healer did not suit him. Rather, he had a certain talent to test the determination and trust of those who sought him out, to gauge the extent of their desire to heal or to get that which they had contacted him for. Proud and ruthless, cruel as a sharp knife, and devoid of any affectionate relationships, he forced me to stop expecting any confirmation from him.

I had initially contacted him for healing, but with time, that became secondary. Something much more precious than health was calling me despite the troubling doubts, the costs, the continuous challenges, his silence, and his sarcasm. I continued to go to him, wanting to receive more of the vast, secret wisdom that he was guarding. Meeting after meeting, ceremony after ceremony, his teachings started to permeate my being. From his words – which were always against the grain, biting, pragmatic, but full of meaning – I learned what I had never learned anywhere else. The experiences that followed showed me that what he’d said all along was true. Reality began to acquire another, deeper, sometimes shocking meaning. Spirits – that before were only vague and romantic ideas – became increasingly real. However, what I experienced was not always pleasant or free from danger. After some time, and almost without realizing it, I discovered I had become his student.

Mayu

Power

Power is not difficult to obtain.

It is difficult to keep,

It is difficult to handle.

Power is like the anaconda:

It attracts you,

It fascinates you.

When it envelops you,

It caresses you

And seduces you.

You can feel its immense strength,

You can touch its powerful muscles.

You can let it surround you entirely.

But if you cannot dominate it

And you lose control,

In an instant

it crushes you.

But if you keep it distant

Or flee because you’re afraid,

You will never know its Power. ¹

“Tsunki, Lord of the Underwater World”, 2010, pencil and felt-tip pen on paper, 21 x 30 cm.

Tsunki, Lord of the Underwater World, 2010, pencil and felt-tip pen on paper, 21 x 30 cm.

What is a Spirit?

Oh, a Spirit is something conscious. Therefore, you have a Spirit because you are conscious, or, at least, you should. I have a Spirit because I am conscious, just as a stone has a Spirit because it is conscious, and a cat has a Spirit because it is conscious.

How can a stone be conscious?

And how can a cat or a bacterium be conscious for that matter? Western men once thought that cats were not alive because they were not conscious. Descartes thought that way. Only man thinks, therefore only man is alive. A cat does not think, and so according to Descartes, a cat was akin to a machine. In that way, the cry of a tortured cat was just the squeaking of a wheel. No one believes this anymore, sure. But the reason why cats are not considered conscious is that we don’t communicate as well with cats as we do with people. We tend to think that only people we can communicate with are conscious and alive. Deep down, we always love that which is similar to us.

But, in fact, shamans know that a stone is conscious. It’s just that it doesn’t normally communicate with us. It communicates with the wind, the mountain, with other stones, but not with us. We think that it’s not able to communicate, and so that therefore it is inanimate. But in reality, a stone lives for such a long time that its way of communicating is different from ours because it existed long before us. For example, if I knew how to communicate with a stone, and I asked it a question, I would perhaps have to wait for one hundred years before getting an answer! This is only a few seconds for a rock, since it’s already a thousand or even a million years old. This isn’t strange. Let’s say a microbe, which lives for a few seconds, wants to communicate with you and tries to ask you a question somehow. Minutes could pass before your response, and in the meantime it would probably have died because its lifespan is maybe a few seconds. For the duration of its life, it sees you as motionless, the same way as we see the stone, and so through this lens it would conclude that human beings are inanimate. Humans are the mountains to dwell on, rocks. It’s a matter of a different time and of different languages.

To understand this, the shaman has to leave this reality. Here, time exists. Or rather, what exists is the fact that time passes. And the way it passes, rigid and linear, makes it impossible for us to interfere with it. We