Soul Liana
/ soʊl lɪˈɑːnə /
n. also soul-liana
Etymology:
Quechua aya, spirit, soul, or the dead
+ huasca, vine, rope, or cord;
rendered into English as ayahuasca, the sacred Amazonian brew.
Liana from French liane,
from lier, to bind — a woody, climbing vine
rooted in the earth, reaching toward the canopy.
- (botany) Any long-stemmed, woody climbing plant of the tropical rainforest, rooted in the forest floor and ascending by means of host trees toward the light; specifically, Banisteriopsis caapi, the sacred vine of the Amazon basin, principal constituent of the ceremonial brew known as ayahuasca.
- (spiritual) A living cord between the earthly and the unseen; that which binds the soul to its origin and draws it upward through darkness toward illumination.
- (figurative) A thread of experience — ceremony, vision, or contemplation — by which the interior life is explored, integrated, and understood.
See also: ayahuasca (n.),
vine of the soul, spirit rope,
Banisteriopsis caapi, icaros, ceremony.
— The name SoulLiana is a deliberate linguistic
mirroring of the Quechua etymology: to name the experience
without naming the medicine.