A rapé ceremony is a sacred experience in which rapé (also known as hapé), a traditional shamanic snuff made from powdered medicinal plants, including tobacco and other herbs or plants, is administered through a tepi pipe by a shaman or medicine woman. The ceremonial purposes are often deeply spiritual and healing.
While the effects on individuals may vary, the underlying experiences and emotions one tends to feel after participating in a rapé ceremony are those of connectedness, grounding, and cleansing.
In most indigenous cultures, the belief is that those who administer rapé to others are blowing their life force energy into you. It is a sacred act built on trust, surrendering, and respect not only towards the plant medicine but also to the person issuing the medicine. It is for these reasons that intention plays an enormous role in a rapé ceremony.
What to expect from a rapé ceremony?
Intention setting
When working with plant medicines, intention setting is an extremely powerful enhancer and anchor for the overall experience.
Intention setting is the conscious act of deciding what you want to focus on, achieve, or gain from an experience. In a rapé ceremony, having a clear intention can be supportive in directing mental and emotional energy and enabling one to find clarity in what they are seeking, ultimately helping one to feel more easeful.
Before receiving hapé or rapé medicine, a shaman or healer will support you in discovering what your intention is. They will guide you through mirroring deep questions to identify what it is you are seeking, wanting to release, understand, feel, or gain clarity on. The purpose of intention setting is to phrase it into the now and focus on a positive outcome versus something you don’t want.
For example, something like “I release what no longer serves me” instead of “I don’t want to carry stress anymore”.
If you are reading this, then you can start understanding the power of intention by taking some quiet time to feel and think about what you want to focus on and asking yourself reflective questions like:
- What am I seeking clarity on?
- What do I need to release?
- What emotional or spiritual healing do I need?
- What kind of energy do I want to cultivate?
Having an intention prior to taking rapé tobacco can create an even stronger bonder between you and the sacred medicine.
Meditation and stillness
In addition to intention setting, often, there is an invitation for quiet stillness in the form of meditation. The purpose of this is to allow quiet in the mind, for the parasympathetic nervous system to switch on, and for you to anchor into the present moment. Meditating also supports aligning your intention. When the body and mind are both in places of calm and deep relaxation, the answers we tend to seek come through more clearly.
Receiving the rapé medicine
A shaman or medicine woman administers the rapé tobacco through a special blowpipe called a tepi or a kuripe. The administrator sits opposite the receiver and pours the shamanic snuff powder into the palm of their hands. The size of this depends on the experience the individual would like, if they have received hapé before, and what they hope to gain from the ceremony. Usually, the dose size is no greater than that of a pea.
After issuing the hapé powder onto the palm of the hand, the administrator gently and slowly pushes the powder into one end of the tepi. The pipe is then placed on the receiver’s heart and third eye. The reason for this is to connect the individual with their heart’s desires and their intuition.
The pipe is then inserted first into the left nostril. When the receiver is ready to receive the medicine by taking a long breath, the shaman or person administering the rapé medicine blows the medicine through the pipe into their nose. Once blown into the left nostril, the same process happens again to blow the remainder of the rapé tobacco into the right nostril. It is a quick, forceful push of application that is to aid, cleanse, and clear physical, mental, and emotional blocks.
Using your breath before receiving the shamanic snuff is an important part of the rapé ceremony. The most common way it is consumed is to take a deep inhalation followed by a long, slow blow that increases in strength towards the end of the breath. With this increase at the end of the breath, rapé gets pushed further up and achieves the best cleansing. The giver needs to inhale deeply, enabling a deep, powerful blow from the stomach that is carried outwards with the exhaled breath and into the pipe.
Upon receiving the rapé snuff, one might begin to feel a number of sensations, outlined below –all of which are safe.
Physical sensations
Rapé snuff, when taken, can cause a number of physical effects. Most people report an immediate burning sensation in the face or nose and possible dizziness and pressure in the head. Sometimes, one might feel the need to cough, sneeze, or spit. This is simply the body’s response and desire to detox.
Emotional sensations
Whilst the physical sensations can be immediate, emotional sensations can take some time to be felt and experienced. Each experience of rapé is different for everyone; some report feeling instantly grounded and calm, whilst others who receive rapé or hapé often say they feel a deeper connection with nature and spirit. As with any sacred medicine, a person can have their own subjective experience, and the medicine will give them exactly what their bodies need. With the setting of an intention, many people share that they do find the emotional clarity they have been seeking.
Spiritual effects
Like other plant medicines, rapé can also help individuals feel more connected with their spirits and have a sense of oneness. When taken regularly, individuals can develop a beautiful bond with the plant and a more profound sense of internal peace and ease.
As with many other plant medicines, the overall effects can be purgative. The invitation is to do whatever the body wishes. For example, you might find that your eyes involuntarily begin to water, and you feel the burning need to cough, spit, or sneeze. You should know that it is all welcome. In many traditions, the process of spitting out phlegm or blowing the nose deeply is often an affirmation of the expelled negativity that physically and visually leaves the body and is given back to Mother Earth.
As a slight nod towards aftercare, if you continue to feel dizzy and unwell after using rapé tobacco and or feel the need to purge, it is recommended to drink some water, non-caffeine tea, or fruit juice and stay with your eyes closed either lying or sitting. The water will hydrate your body and help remove all toxins that are still being excreted, and the natural sugars will support grounding.
Integrating rapé medicine
After receiving the rapé snuff, there is the invitation to sit in silence and meditate. This peaceful action again allows you to fully receive all of the medicine’s benefits. We would recommend staying seated for up to ten minutes after receiving the rapé medicine. Often, there can be a closing prayer shared by the shaman to support the closing of the sacred space and to indicate that the ceremony is closed. Integrating the experience as with any other plant medicine is important. Whilst rapé does not necessarily create a psychedelic experience, unlike plants such as San Pedro and Ayahuasca, the somatic experience will need some time to be felt and understood. For part of the integration process, often those who have received the rapé medicine sit in a quiet, meditative state before taking on fluids such as water or, in some cases, fruit or nuts to support and ground the experience.
Usually, rapé is used in conjunction with Ayahuasca. Rapé snuff is a beautiful calming plant medicine that helps clear blockages, grounds you into the present moment, and creates peace in the mind and body before consuming Ayahuasca.
Interested in experiencing the magic of hapé?
If what you have read interests you, we’d love to invite you to join Avalon’s Ayahuasca retreats in Europe and become part of our family. Here, you can experience the wonders of this enriching and deeply sacred plant medicine that we know can contribute to overall well-being and growth. Our ultimate goal with our retreats is to support you in deepening your relationship with yourself, overcoming limiting beliefs, connecting more deeply with nature, and supporting you in having a truly transformative experience.
