In success of this prophecy, they are saying, members of the church drink ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew from South America. The drug, which has a protracted historical past of non secular use, induces intense visions and hallucinations when ingested.
During the last two years, nevertheless, shipments of the Church of the Eagle and the Condor’s ayahuasca have been seized by the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety — which says the drug is contraband. The small group has been threatened with federal prosecution.
This month, the church started a authorized battle over these seizures, aiming to develop into one of many comparatively few ayahuasca church buildings nationwide which have gained authorized recognition by the U.S. authorities.
On June 9, attorneys for the Church of the Eagle and the Condor filed a lawsuit in federal courtroom towards the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Safety, and its mum or dad company DHS over the confiscations and warnings by federal brokers about doable escalation. These actions amounted to a “substantial burden on [the church’s] train of their non secular beliefs,” attorneys for the church argued. The federal government has but to answer these claims in authorized pleadings.
The Phoenix place of worship is now the most recent of quite a few ayahuasca church buildings in Arizona which have, within the final two years, launched fights for authorized standing. One church in Phoenix filed an analogous lawsuit simply over one yr in the past. It claims that the U.S. authorities, in its efforts to crack down on medication coming into the nation, is bypassing longstanding non secular freedoms.
One, the Vine of Gentle Church, additionally primarily based in Phoenix, was the topic of a Phoenix New Instances story final fall, which delved right into a drug raid of that church by a federal job drive, and the church’s lawsuit towards the DEA that adopted. One other church, in Tucson, remains to be battling for authorized recognition from the U.S. authorities after seizures of its personal ayahuasca.
The Church of the Eagle and the Condor was based, partly, “to assist shield our sacred proper to make use of ayahuasca,” defined doctor and church founder Joe Tafur in a podcast final yr. Tafur, of Phoenix, is Colombian-American and works in naturopathic drugs. He calls himself an “ayahuascero,” having studied conventional makes use of of the brew within the jungles of Peru for seven years.
Tafur declined to remark for this story, saying he’s directing inquiries to his attorneys now that the lawsuit has been filed. However he has been an outspoken advocate of non secular freedom for ayahuasca congregations, quite a few YouTube movies and materials on the church’s web site clarify.
Joe Tafur, founding member of the Church of the Eagle and the Condor, speaks about his expertise with ayahuasca in 2015.
YouTube
Ayahuasca’s authorized standing within the U.S. is complicated. That is as a result of brew is constituted of a number of crops native to the Amazon basin, which, when stewed collectively, activate the hallucinogen N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. Below the Managed Substances Act, DMT is illegitimate. However different U.S.-based congregations — notably, the New Mexico-based União do Vegetal and the Santo Daime church buildings in Oregon — have gained authorized battles arguing that their non secular use of ayahuasca is protected below the Spiritual Freedom Restoration Act.
These profitable courtroom circumstances, nevertheless, haven’t protected different ayahuasca church buildings from seizures or prosecution. As New Instances reported final yr, Clay Villanueva — the late chief of the Vine of Gentle Church — was raided and jailed in 2021 for his possession of ayahuasca (although he confronted different drug prices as effectively, for promoting pot and for possessing psilocybin mushrooms).
The Church of the Eagle and the Condor had its personal ayahuasca seized by CBP in September 2020. The church had ordered a cargo from Peru, and it was confiscated in transit, in Los Angeles. By that time, the church had been working for round two years, holding digital talks, ayahuasca ceremonies, and different gatherings at totally different places within the Phoenix space, together with a group heart in Mesa it rents out. It doesn’t have a single brick-and-mortar location.
The 2020 seizure — and an accompanying warning that fines or prison prices could possibly be on their method — had a “chilling impact on the members of the church participating of their non secular practices,” mentioned Gilbert Carrasco, one of many attorneys working with the Church of the Eagle and the Condor on its case. It amounted to a violation of the RFRA, he mentioned, which prohibits the federal government from burdening a spiritual apply.
Carrasco, together with co-counsel Jack Silver, has labored on high-profile ayahuasca circumstances earlier than, together with the landmark Santo Daime case in Oregon, which started in 2008. In that case, a small Oregon department of the Brazilian Santo Daime church, which ritually makes use of ayahuasca, had a cargo seized. Its non secular chief was arrested. The church sued the federal authorities and gained its case, which was upheld by the ninth circuit of appeals.
“Mr. Silver and I are serving to this church and this congregation in Arizona, now,” Carrasco advised New Instances final week.
Because it seems, the seizure of the Church of the Eagle and the Condor’s ayahuasca in 2020 was a part of a rash of ayahuasca cargo seizures that yr — which included the Vine of Gentle Church in Phoenix and the Arizona Yagé Meeting, a church primarily based in Tucson.
Tafur, in a video from Could 2021, described “many, many studies” of seizures from that point interval. Each of the opposite Arizona church buildings have confirmed in courtroom paperwork that they skilled seizures then. Charles Carreon, the legal professional for Villanueva and the AYA, mentioned he believed the uptick in seizures was as a result of implementation of a brand new technique of drug testing by CBP that occurred nationwide.
Based on the Church of the Eagle and the Condor’s lawsuit, the U.S. authorities has, for 2 years, ignored many of the congregation’s Freedom of Info Act requests in regards to the ayahuasca seizures. Calls from New Instances to the Division of Homeland Safety’s media line went unanswered.
“The CBP,” the church’s criticism alleges, “has engaged in a sample and apply of seizing and destroying numerous different shipments of sacramental ayahuasca which have come into the USA since 2020.”
Along with authorized recognition, the church needs to grasp extra in regards to the course of for seizures, Carrasco mentioned. “When the church had its ayahuasca seized, [CBP] did not inform them they have been going to do this. They did not clarify why. They did not give them any alternative to contest the seizure. And so they destroyed the sacrament in a sacrilegious method,” mentioned Carrasco.
The stakes for the church are excessive. In fall 2021, Maricopa County prosecutors charged Villanueva, chief of the Vine of Gentle Church, for his possession and use of ayahuasca. That, although he was utilizing it for non secular ceremonies and was a sitting board member of the North American Affiliation of Visionary Church buildings, which represents congregations that use ayahuasca in non secular rituals.
Because of this, Villanueva was jailed for a number of weeks in August 2021. His time in jail took a toll on his well being. Months prior, he had been recognized with lymphoma, and was self-treating with holistic drugs. The jail time worsened his situation. As soon as Villanueva was launched, with an ankle monitor and a parole officer, he by no means restarted ceremonies.
“The DEA destroyed that church,” mentioned Scott Stanley, founding father of the Tucson ayahuasca church, the Arizona Yagé Meeting. “It affected his total congregation.” Among the Vine of Gentle congregants had flocked to Stanley’s church or others in Arizona, he mentioned. Others had light away.
Villanueva died from most cancers on April 1, forsaking his spouse and son, and a congregation in mourning. Simply this Saturday, Stanley’s church held a memorial service for the pastor. An ayahuasca ceremony was carried out in his honor.
The county has since dropped all prices towards Villanueva’s spouse Cecilia, who was named as a co-defendant within the case. However each Villanueva and his church are gone now.
Nonetheless, if the Church of the Eagle and the Condor is any proof, non secular use of ayahuasca has not subsided in Phoenix.
“Regardless of the threats … the Church and its members proceed to import, possess, and use their sacrament, and don’t have any plans to cease doing so,” the church’s attorneys wrote within the lawsuit.
A key ingredient of the church’s combat for approval will probably be to show in courtroom that they’re, in actual fact, utilizing ayahuasca as a part of a spiritual apply. In Villanueva’s case, this was extra of a grey space. Whereas Villanueva clearly was conducting non secular ceremonies — and was considered as a non secular chief — there have been indications, primarily based on textual content messages obtained by Maricopa County deputies, that he additionally was promoting ayahuasca to different practitioners.
The Church of the Eagle and the Condor, its attorneys argue, is scrupulous about its use of the drug, and is a religious group. “They maintain a really strict stock of the ayahuasca. Solely the board members have entry to it. And it’s not accessible to non-church members in any respect,” Carrasco mentioned. The church held a “faith-merging perception system,” one through which ayahuasca was the “profound and first voice of Mom Nature and Divinity,” attorneys wrote within the lawsuit.
“They’re very devoted and really religious,” Carrasco mentioned.
For the church, the authorized highway forward is probably going lengthy. The AYA in Tucson, which filed a lawsuit collectively with Villanueva and his church in 2021, has been ready for a decision on the case for greater than a yr. Though Villanueva and the Vine of Gentle are now not a part of the case, it appears the AYA could also be inching nearer to a profitable ending. Simply final week, the DEA agreed to begin talks a few settlement.
“We’re on this for the long term,” Stanley mentioned this week. “We’re hopeful that throughout the subsequent three to 6 months, we’ll have an settlement in place.”
For now — regardless of their authorized woes — Arizona’s ayahuasca church buildings do not appear deterred.
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