Three Halves of Ino Moxo : Teachings of the Wizard of the Upper Amazon

"Beautiful! This is a classic and a must read for anyone involved in working with ayahuasca. "
~ Written on 2008-08-16

"I started this novel a bit hesitantly, as I'm not the type to trust translations; "poetry is what is lost in the translation," to para-quote Rilke. Fortunately, my initial apprehension about this work proved worthless, as it was a stunning read, start to finish. While it does perhaps romaniticize the life of ayahuasqueros and their students, it very well might also be that I'm just not able to completely buy into such a hyper-magical/mystical view of quotidian life. Still, the book definitely conjures a spell over the reader, as Symington - who was of great help at the recent ayahuasca conference in SF - is seemingly a virtuostic translator; I only wish I could read Spanish at the level this novel must have been written at. Those interested in ayahuasca, the legendary "vine of the soul," will NOT be disappointed. I'd say this book is just as valuable as non-fiction works like Luna and Amaringo's *Ayahuasca Visions* or other works by Luna, and certiainly one heck of a lot more informative (though not from a practical perspective) than Ralph Metzner's recent ayahuasca-centered publication. A key moment for me occurs somewhere in the first quarter of the book, in which an ayahuasquero is conversing with the book's narrator, and what unfolds is a mystical challenge of knowledge. Can the adept come to *KnOw* (as in the Gnostic "know") and live the path ayahuasca offers? This section - you'll know it when you come to it - is among the most poetic, stunning passages in the book. Overall, this is a fine read, and much more intelligent than a lot of other like-minded fictional or semi-fictional works (check out Paul Tullio's *Mushroom Man* for some better than average psychedelic fiction). Books about ayahuasca are quite hit and miss, so it's especially pleasing to have such a mature work generally available in English (a great deal gets written in Spanish and Portuguese, and without those languages, ayahuasca adepts are a bit lost, IMHO). If you're up for highly evocative prose worthy of a master fiction writier, then by all means purchase this book. It's definitely a lot less annoying than reading Jonathan Ott for fun..."
~ Written on 2000-05-28