Cactus of Mystery: The Shamanic Powers of the Peruvian San Pedro Cactus

by Ross Heaven

The history of San Pedro and its uses for healing, creativity, and conscious evolution

• Includes interviews with practicing San Pedro shamans on their rituals, cactus preparations, and teachings on how San Pedro heals the mind and body

• Contains accounts from people who have been healed by San Pedro

• Includes chapters by Eve Bruce, M.D., and David Luke, Ph.D., on San Pedro’s effects on psychic abilities and its similarities to and differences from ayahuasca

San Pedro, the legendary cactus of vision, has been used by the shamans of Peru for at least 3,500 years. Referring to St. Peter, who holds the keys to Heaven, its name is suggestive of the plant’s visionary power to open the gates between the visible and invisible worlds, allowing passage to an ecstatic realm where miraculous physical and spiritual healings occur, love and enthusiasm for life are rekindled, the future divined, and the soul’s purpose revealed.

Exploring the history and shamanic uses of the San Pedro cactus, Ross Heaven interviews practicing San Pedro shamans about ancient and modern rituals, preparation of the visionary brew, experiences with the healing spirit of San Pedro, and their teachings on how the cactus works on the mind, body, and illness. He investigates the conditions treated by San Pedro as well as how it can enhance creativity, providing case studies from those who have been healed by the cactus and accounts from those who have been artistically and musically inspired through its use. Psychedelic researchers Eve Bruce, M.D., David Luke, Ph.D., and journalist Morgan Maher contribute chapters delving into San Pedro’s effects on conscious evolution and psychic abilities as well as its similarities to and differences from ayahuasca. Exploring plant communication and the vital role of music in San Pedro ceremonies, Heaven explains how healing songs are communicated by the sacred plants to the shamans working with them, much in the same way that other gifts of San Pedro--from healing to inspiration to expanded consciousness--are passed to those who commune with this ancient plant teacher.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction

392 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 2012

Reviews

[Sora Tamagawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heaven’s text is notable for synthesising direct interviews with San Pedro shamans alongside narratives from healed participants and contributions by respected psychedelic and consciousness researchers. Through these voices, the work captures the lived realities of contemporary shamanic practice, elucidating the preparation of the San Pedro brew, ceremonial methods, diet, and healing music. The plant’s nickname—referring to St. Peter, symbolic keyholder to the otherworld—highlights its reputation for opening passage between visible and invisible realms, where healing, divination, and revelation of life’s purpose take place.

In addition to historical and cultural context, Heaven devotes significant attention to testimonial accounts—people who have experienced healing, inspiration, and expanded psychic perception under San Pedro’s influence. He positions the cactus as a facilitator of both physical and spiritual healing, but also a source of creative renewal, describing cases where artists and musicians draw insights from their encounters. The book features scientific and experiential inquiry by Eve Bruce, M.D., David Luke, Ph.D., and journalist Morgan Maher, broadening the discussion to San Pedro’s impact on conscious evolution and its distinctive qualities relative to other plant medicines like ayahuasca.

A further distinctive emphasis is placed on the role of music and plant communication in San Pedro ritual. Heaven explores how shamans perceive healing songs as gifts from the plant spirit itself, received and transmitted through ritual for the benefit of those in ceremony. This symbiosis between human and plant is shown to be at the heart of the San Pedro experience, where sacred songs, spiritual instruction, and healing are intimately interconnected. The transmission of these gifts is described as a communal and living process, highlighting a theme of reciprocal exchange between seeker and cactus spirit.

The book’s narrative is cast against a backdrop of near-silence in Western ethnography about San Pedro, aiming to address and remedy this paucity. It compiles not just the author’s extensive fieldwork, but also voices from the broader field, offering a multidimensional resource equally valuable for anthropologists, healers, and seekers. Commentators have acclaimed the volume for making the mysteries of San Pedro accessible without diminishing their complexity, and for providing a definitive English-language study grounded in both scholarship and experience.

Cactus of Mystery stands out as a uniquely rich exploration of the San Pedro cactus within shamanic tradition, weaving together ethnography, testimonial evidence, and theoretical analysis to offer both an introduction and a deep meditation on the meanings and mysteries of this ancient plant teacher.

[Philip Zachariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have previously read Sol On Ice about Ayahuasca so it was nice to read a book about San Pedro, and that too in a very different style. Much of the book shares stories from several San Pedro users and provides their experiences of using both Ayahuasca and San Pedro. The thoughts of the 3 shamans were interesting to read... I've heard of La Gringa before given that she is South African and I have friends in the shamanic community who have interacted with her. Nice to read about someone that I know of... makes the stories more relatable.

In my personal opinion "Spiritual" books aren't always based in hard science, but take need some element of faith to buy into what the authors are trying to explain. I suppose if you have had a life changing spiritual event that it's easier to relate, but many of my analytical friends wouldn't believe some of the stories explained in these books, and would put it down to mere hallucinations. I guess it boils down to whether you believe their is a plant spirit or consciousness that you can tap into and that can guide humanity or not. If you can buy that premise then this book will be interesting... if not, it will just sound like the exploits of a bunch of crazy people on a DMT or mescaline hallucinogenic trip.

Some interesting takeaways:
1. One of the shamans commented that the globalisation of plant medicine from the Amazon and Andes is not something he condones... seekers are better served searching within their own communities for answers to the spiritual journeys. My takeaway from this is that Ayahuasca and San Pedro is not meant for everyone... that said, it's provided insight to countless people... whether it being a plant consciousness or a hallucinogenic trip.

2. The passage on the call to being a shaman was quite interesting... how the call gets deeper if you tend to ignore it. According to the book one of the signs of being an Andean shaman is being struck by lightning... surviving the ordeal seems a prerequisite though ;-)

3. Lastly, virtually all the talk about San Pedro seem to be about positive experiences, difficult perhaps, but positive in the long run. Ayahuasca is contrasted to an extent as showing you both the light and the dark side of one's psyche. The plants seem to complement each other when used in ceremonies. I have had a shaman warn me that Ayahuasca is unpredictable and she won't treat clients who have used it for a long time. Then again I have met other shamans who specialise in Ayahuasca ceremonies and do so courageously.

[C.G. Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book, and one of very few resources concerning wachuma (San Pedro). I find the author's personal style a little arrogant and condescending in this work, but reading past that, there is some decent information in this book.

[Patrick Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book by Ross Heaven. Loved the personal accounts and in depth study of the plants history.