Three Halves of Ino Moxo :  Teachings of the Wizard of the Upper Amazon
Navigating South American humor, floridly poetic prose and extensive sexual metaphor, Symington skillfully translates this Peruvian book, originally published in 1981 as the first part of a trilogy called The Invisible Colors. Folklore, the iconography of the subconscious and cultural history all converge upon the unexplainable in a psychological and physical jungle. Calvo's journeys took place during the 1970s, when he traveled the depths of the Amazon in search of an interview with renowned sorcerer Ino Moxo. The leader is in fact a ``half-breed,'' the son of a rubber collector kidnapped by the chieftain Ximu as a child and raised to become one of the most powerful practitioners in the region. Descendants of the Inkas and other indigenous peoples, the aged Ino Moxo and the four other sorcerers the author encounters continue ancient traditions. Ino Moxo and his contemporary ``green magicians'' combined herbalism with ``icaros,'' a sort of chanted vibrational healing. Ino Moxo's recollections, however, are not all pacific but include stories of fighting rapacious rubber barons, most notably the Fitzcarrald (two brothers, Fermin and Delfin; Werner Herzog's hero seems to be yet another.) As part of a ritual to determine whether he is worthy to receive sacred understanding, Calvo undertakes an initiation into the mysteries with the help of an hallucinogen, ayawaska, the holy drug of sorcerers, which is supposedly responsible for inspiring significant portions of text.Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.