A PEYOTE PILGRIMAGE TO WIRIKUTA

Sierra Madre Occidental and San Luis Potosí, Mexico. 2021.

The Wixárika people live in the remote Sierra Occidental Mountains, along the border region between Nayarit, Jalisco, Durango, and Zacatecas states of central Mexico. This small minority group largely exists in isolation from Mexican society, choosing to carry on their pre-Columbian traditions.

Their beliefs and practices center around the spiritual use of peyote, a psychedelic cactus found in northern Mexico’s deserts. Every year, members of the community travel around 800 km on a pilgrimage to a holy place they call Wirikuta, in the deserts of north San Luis Potosí. They will forage for peyote here, to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps and reconnect with their ancestral homelands. 

Previous
Previous

AFGHANISTAN: KANDAHAR THE PASHTUN HEARTLAND

Next
Next

FRENCH POLYNESIA: SOUTHERN HUMPBACK MIGRATION