In the Peruvian rainforest, the song or melody used by healers during their ritual work is called an “icaro.” Lacking any literal translation in Spanish, Quechua, or other indigenous languages of the region, its operational meaning is far deeper and more profound: the shamanic chant is a healing weapon, an embodiment of wisdom, the vehicle of the healer’s personal energy, and the symbol of their power.
By Rosa Giove
The act of “icarar” means charging an object or potion with the shaman’s power, conferring a specific property to be transmitted to the recipient—whether cleansing, protection, healing, harm, or influencing their will. This is done by singing the icaro directly over the transmitting object or substance. The object is then given to the patient, the liquid is ingested in the case of medicinal brews, or tobacco smoke is blown over them if icarado tobacco is used.
The icaro is a cornerstone of traditional Amazonian healing. It encapsulates the shaman’s knowledge, forming their healing heritage, their primary working tool, and the legacy passed down to an apprentice. As a vehicle for personal energy, its effectiveness depends largely on the healer’s preparation through diets, cleansing purges, disciplined lifestyle, and the integration of ancestral wisdom. A master does not transmit mere “techniques” or formal instructions to an apprentice; instead, they accompany and guide them so that the student absorbs the knowledge destined for them. As part of this teaching, the master gradually passes down “their” icaros.
Each shaman owns their icaros just as they own their experience and wisdom, having received them in turn from their master or directly from nature. Healers often explain that everything they know—including their icaros—was learned in dreams, in visions, or given directly by the plants. They recount that in these states of consciousness induced by master plant brews, they received melodies effortlessly, without will or conscious reasoning, feeling the song impose itself, often in an unknown language. During healing ceremonies, it generally emerges in the exact same way.
Neither the lyrics nor an intellectual understanding of the icaro’s words are essential; what matters is the melody and that the healer feels and shares its spirit. If healers attune deeply to the icaro, they will know when, how, and with whom to use it. The icaros used by shamans have very simple lyrics, referencing specific plants, animals, and elements of the local landscape endowed with power or symbolism. Today, Christian syncretism and biblical references appear in many icaros. Most are sung in Spanish, Quechua, and other regional dialects depending on the lineage of older masters, though some are simply repetitive, monotone chants.
How do icaros work? Much like mantras or mandalas in Eastern traditions, we might say they act upon specific energy centers through sound vibration, thereby modulating organic function, guided by a subconscious understanding that leads the shaman to choose the right icaro for each situation.
We could also say that the icaro serves as a vehicle for the shaman to channel energy. Or that it is the message carried within the icaro that heals. There is no single answer; it may be one of these reasons, or all of them at once. Any rational explanation attempts to fit a transcendent phenomenon into the framework of rationalism, and therefore remains valid only on an experiential, testimonial level, open to ongoing exploration.
Engaged in a journey of personal exploration that has led me to experience these shamanic practices firsthand, I wish to share my testimony on the value of the icaro, experienced despite my background as a medical doctor and surgeon.
Working in this region of Peru without taking ancestral medicine into account is impossible; every case and every patient offers meaningful insights. However, it requires setting aside our cultural assumptions and learning to view the relationship between humanity and nature differently. We must acknowledge that even without a conventional rational explanation, an innate healing capacity exists within every person. In some, it emerges spontaneously, and it can be developed or unlocked by working with the body: the healer fundamentally uses their own body and energy to heal.
First encounters with the icaro
My first contact with the icaro was watching traditional practitioners and grandmothers blow smoke from mapacho tobacco or icarado cologne over the energy centers of anxious or frightened children, as well as those suffering from colic, with immediate positive results. Later, I learned—and experienced myself—that it works just as effectively on adults, who report a sense of relaxation and a reduction in vagal symptoms.
I also witnessed mothers of two infants suffering from myiasis (fly larvae lodged in the lacrimal gland and the nostril tissue, respectively) whisper a monotonous tune mimicking the sound of the adult insect to coax the larva out toward the opening. In both cases, it worked.
In the town of Chazuta, renowned for its healers, curandero Reninger Guerra Flores is famous for treating venomous snakebites: he soothes the excruciating pain using icaros.
During healing ceremonies with plant brews, healers direct the healing process, modulate individual and collective energy, and protect the group’s harmony. Perceived in an altered state of consciousness, the icaro helps metabolize visions, clears psychological material across various levels, guides inner exploration, and simultaneously anchors participants to grounded reality. While there is no rigid sequence for these songs, the shaman senses which one is needed. A healer’s strength is reflected in the tangible efficacy of their icaros, which can be felt physically by everyone present.
A personal account: receiving the icaros
It was during an ayahuasca ceremony—a healing ritual involving a psychoactive brew made from Psychotria viridis, Banisteriopsis caapi, and Brugmansia sp.—that, under the effects of the brew, I began to understand the inner meaning of the icaro. I should note that although the brew has psychoactive effects that expand perception and visions, one does not lose contact with reality or memory function.
The sequence of visions is essential to understanding each icaro I received. Their content and imagery reflect my personal and cultural background because they manifested and acted through me, clearing energetic blockages and driving an evolutionary personal process that engaged me entirely. It was not a linear path; it took time, requiring me to move through thematic cycles corresponding to the stimulation of each energy center. Ayahuasca was not the only influence; cleansing plants, dietary restrictions, fasts, plant baths, purges, and vivid dreams all played a part.
The first vision—which recurred several times before I realized it was an icaro—was of a small green plant-woman emerging from the bottle holding the brew, guiding me along the path of self-discovery through song and dance. The melody she sang was an invocation of the plant’s spirit: “Mother Ayahuasca.” This plant “mother,” as healers call it, corresponds to the soul or spirit in a human being.
It took me a long time to dare to sing these icaros: I did not recognize them as mine, nor did I feel qualified to use them. I wrestled through an intense struggle between my rational resistance and the acceptance of my deeper self. The more I resisted, the more the icaros asserted themselves through recurring dreams, physical discomfort, and inner tension. Eventually, I surrendered and accepted these icaros that the plants and life were offering me.
After several sessions filled with the visualization and activation of energy centers—experienced physically as tingling or heat in different parts of the body—a recurring vision appeared: geometric shapes of distinct colors at each center, corresponding to natural forms, symbolic meanings, and vocal vowel sounds. Yet these were not the five standard vowels of our alphabet, but seven, with the addition of the sounds “S” and “M.” I understood that each center had a corresponding key-icaro that would be revealed to me.
Over the course of two years, I received six icaros at different intervals, without planning their content or order—always unexpectedly and spontaneously, through visions, dreams, and hypnagogic states fostered by traditional diets and ritual work with master plants.
The second icaro corresponds to the root center (the base chakra in the Hindu tradition), associated with sexuality. It is the letter “S” and appears as a small red serpent of fire that begins its ascent (the awakening of Kundalini?) crawling slowly toward the abdomen and sacrum, moving three-dimensionally as if the body were translucent. It relates to vital energy and the body’s innate healing power—the rising force of the earth reaching upward toward the sun. As I listen to the “S” icaro sung by the small plant-woman in a soft, sibilant voice, dragging out the “S” sounds to mirror the slithering snake, I see the other participants in the ceremony glowing with a reddish light at the base of their spines. Even though the voice emerges from within me, I do not recognize it as my own.
Moving upward, the second center, below the navel, corresponds to the letter “M,” which I visualize as solid, grounded, concrete, and material. I feel the sound must emerge from the womb—the cradle of instinct, fear, life, and death.
The sounds of these two letters activate the first two centers linked to our most primal instincts. Higher up, the luminous column that appeared orange in the second center turns greenish, becoming a tree that spreads generously across the chest. I become deeply aware of my breathing, filled with a pleasant sense of wholeness. This is the letter “A,” an open mouth that projects us outward, allowing us to inhale, expand, open the respiratory tree, and broaden consciousness, memory, and the soul.
The circulating energy between these two points (below and above the navel) forms an arc of light that rotates horizontally into a yellow sun-sunflower corresponding to the solar plexus. This activates the center with its protective mechanisms and its capacity for deep self-knowledge—connecting grief and joy, emotion, healing, and wordless communication of profound truths, as deep as the sound of the letter “U.”
Passing beyond this point brings us to the letter “O,” a line without beginning or end, the representation of the eternal cycle, the Ouroboros, the heart center. Here lies the highest healing power—Love, symbolized as a violet sun—where intuition resides. The letter “O” is a circle carrying all the symbolism inherent in that form.
The letter “E” corresponds to the third-eye or brow chakra. It grants us the ability to “Listen”—not merely to register sounds clearly, but to understand the message our body and nature communicate, and to receive it fully.
Finally, we reach the crown chakra, connected to the letter “I”—Infinity, Immensity, Inwardness, Illumination. Its icaro helps us see the inner essence of forms with greater clarity and light, and above all to discern, recognize significance, and integrate each image into the whole from a universal perspective. It is seeing in another dimension, with different eyes, with greater transcendence, living every moment to the fullest.
I have not yet finished receiving all the icaros; I do not know if I will receive the entire series, when they will come, or what will follow. Nor do I fully understand the subconscious mechanisms that brought this about, or whether it works in any measurable clinical sense. Stepping outside my rational training is difficult, and I must admit there are many fascinating questions here that defy simple explanation. A profound understanding of life lies hidden deep within each of us, obscured from our awareness by sensory overload and the misuse of our bodies. When we create the right conditions, this wisdom can surface unexpectedly, illuminating paths we never knew existed.
Bring me into your body,
from there I will speak to you.
Bring me into your mind,
from there I will illuminate you.
Bring me into your heart,
from there I will give you warmth…
You will hear my serpent voice
slip softly into your ear.
You will see my light without using your senses…
and my warmth will follow you
far beyond the freezing cold,
and I will become part of you,
earth cast out toward infinity…
My voice will whisper to you
things you think you do not know.
Deep inside you will discover
the answer to your being.
Eight (8), fertile double circle,
two serpents intertwined,
speaking without a sound…
telling you without a word…
NOTHING.
I am the energy sleeping within you,
awaken me now.
I want to rise, slither upward at last,
cross through zero (0),
close that sacred circle,
where the flower sleeps upon the cross…
When blue washes over your face
and the moon crowns your head,
I will rise to meet it,
a red serpent from the root,
merging into the sun…
and my voice will guide you across the water
in the color of love…
