Eric van den Hove

ARCHETYPE: Jovial druid. Wise elder who shares knowledge by telling stories. Mentor and spiritual guide.

PERSONAL JOURNEY: My path in yagé (Ayahuasca) began in 2009. At that time I was running a software company and at the same time I was serving as the designated Belgian consul in the departments of Valle, Cauca and Nariño (2006-2019). I was beginning to relate to the indigenous people of the Cofán tradition of Putumayo when a friend asked me for my house so that some indigenous friends could perform a ceremony.

Shortly afterward, the indigenous people of the Cofán community noticed that I had particular qualities and a great desire to learn about their culture, so they began to instruct me in their tradition. Nine months after starting my preparation I was authorized to give yagé (Ayahuasca). After four years of learning with the Cofán community, it was the Muisca Mamo Grandfather Comba Nymy Quene who invited me to receive training from the Muiscas, he is still my master today. For me it was a great honor and a great opportunity, meeting the Muiscas changed my life and renewed my soul.

As a graduate in political science and law from the Santiago de Cali University (2006), I am at the service of indigenous communities to defend their rights and recover their traditions, centuries of knowledge that our society has not yet valued. I have received approval by different masters from the indigenous tribes Cofán, Siona and Muisca to share yagé (Ayahuasca).⁠ I consider myself someone that brings the ancient tradition of Muisca to the Western world acting as a bridge between the Western civilization and the indigenous tribes.⁠

I cultivate and I prepare my own medicine that is known to be sweet like honey, contrary to the bitter taste with which this ancestral drink is known. My ceremonies normally start with a circle of word, where I share ancestral knowledge like the Muisca cosmogony as well as personal stories. I speak Spanish, French and English fluently. And on a more personal note, they consider me an inspiring story-teller that features a wonderful sense of humor.

About Muisca (Muyska Chibcha) indigenous people:

Muisca means “people”. They are people of the Andean highlands, grandsons and granddaughters of the tobacco plant (wesika hoska), coca (fuhuza) and corn (aba). The Muiscas or Chibchas are an indigenous people who inhabited the Cundiboyacense plateau in Colombia since the 6th century BC.

The Muisca civilization was one of the most advanced in South America. Chibcha society was based on an economy characterized by intensive agriculture, a variety of crafts, and considerable trade. The Muisca were skilled cotton weavers and excellent gold and emerald goldsmiths. They founded the current cities of Santiago de Tunja -the mythical city of Hunza, the main city of all the Chibchas and the main political, administrative, economic and spiritual center- and Bogotá in Colombia.

Guardians of oral tradition, weaving and spiritual gold. Ancient peoples, tribes of sacred offerings to Mother Earth (hicha waià). The Muiscas consider sacred many natural places such as mountains, hills, rocks, lagoons, forests, rivers, trees and water sources, among many others, which they venerate, not only because they consider that some divinity lives there, but also because they believe that there are strategic places for the balance of nature.

For the Muisca indigenous society, plants are animated beings that interact with man. All plants possess various degrees and kinds of energy that give them their power to heal and transform. Coca leaves, yopo seeds, yagé (Ayahuasca) and tobacco (hopa hosca or rapé) are plants of knowledge. The priests, shamans and other adult men of certain groups used them in their religious life, for communication with the supernatural planes, the Gods or the Spirits of the ancestors. They are fundamental plants in the rites of divination, healing of diseases and source of knowledge to make the best decisions for communities and their ecosystems.

The Muisca community settled in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in Colombia is far from being that pre-Hispanic culture already extinct and synonymous with a pre-colonial past. Although the capital and most populated city of the Republic of Colombia, Bogotá, was raised in a considerable part of its territory, the Muisca never disappeared. At present they are organized around the figure of indigenous councils, most of them recognized by the Colombian state, which since the Constitution of 1991 ceased to be a monocultural state to recognize itself as a multiethnic and multicultural one.

The Muiscas define themselves as a nation in reconstruction and lead processes of territorial and cultural recovery supported by the knowledge of the elders of their community (abuelos) and the orientation of other indigenous peoples such as the Kogi of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Obando Rodríguez, 2018 via Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines).

ROLE: Medicine man. Guardian and musician of sacred ceremony space.