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Here stands Ch’asqa, the Angel of Love.

Ch’asqa in the Inca civilization is the planet that we call Venus, named after the Roman goddess of Love. Venus herself is syncretic with earlier goddesses of love such as Aphrodite in ancient Greece and Ishtar from the Mesopotamian civilization some six thousand years ago. The planet Venus, known as the Morningstar, has long been associated with these ancient deities.

In front of her are two swans, and these graceful birds are enduring symbols of love and lifetime devotion.

Recognized as one of the world’s great visionary artists, Pablo Amaringo was renowned for his intricate, colorful paintings inspired by his shamanic visions. A master communicator of the ayahuasca experience--where snakes, jaguars, subterranean beings, celestial palaces, aliens, and spacecraft all converge--Amaringo’s art presents a doorway to the transcendent worlds of ayahuasca intended for contemplation, meditation, and inspiration. Pablo Amaringo (1938-2009) trained as a curandero in the Amazon, healing himself and others from the age of ten, but retired in 1977 to become a full-time painter and art teacher at his Usko Ayar school in Pucullpa, Peru. The author of Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman...