The magical world of shamans

A long time ago, in an indigenous community in Mexico, shortly after the revolution, a terrible war of sorcerer shamans began in which many lost their lives. It is said that the conflict may never have ended. But was magic really present among so much violence?

That was what the anthropologist Timothy J. Knab tried to find out in his research on Aztec mythology and culture, narrated in the book A War of Witches. But nothing is ever simple when it comes to beliefs, rituals, esotericism and ancient gods.

universal magic

Several recent investigations have discovered various forms of the practice of shamanism in numerous peoples of the world. Shamans have existed since prehistoric times, appearing as mediators between the world of human beings and the “other” –invisible– world of forces and spirits. They contact the spirits to cure human suffering and also to cause it.

In various Greek sanctuaries, from the seventh century BC, sleep rites were practiced. After fasting and the ingestion or fumigation of certain substances, perhaps narcotics, the faithful fell asleep. The dream provided them with clues as to the cause of a curse, a disease, or a prescription for purification or healing.

These rites were associated with “trips” of the soul to Hell, to the world of the dead or of the gods. Thus flourished an “ideology” of the soul, with a previous life, separated from the body and its survival.

There is much research on the practice of shamanism in the Old and New World. In the United States, the Washo Indians believed that their shamans, or “medicine men,” could cause disease as well as cure it. In Siberia, shamans refer to spiritual journeys of the soul and magical dreams, induced by the consumption of hallucinogenic substances, in which they rescue the soul of a patient in order to heal it.

The similarities between Nahua shamanism –a group of native peoples of Mesoamerica–, Siberian, Greek and American Washo shamanism are striking. Both in the Old World and in the New there is talk of dormitions, separation of the soul from the body, journeys of the soul to other worlds, magical dreams, illnesses, soul rescues, healings and survival of the soul.

Shamanism among the Nahuas of Mexico

According to ancient Nahua beliefs, each human being has three soul centers and three soul entities (souls). The centers where the soul entities dwell are: the head, the heart and the liver.

The tonal lives in the head. The tonal is the first animal that leaves its tracks in the vicinity of the place where the umbilical cord of the newborn is deposited, in the ashes of the hearth or outside the house. The tonal has a double that lives in a corral from another world (the Tlalocan), where the animal twins of all humans live.

Shamans possess various strong and ferocious animals like tonals. The same shaman can perform good actions in favor of a person’s tonal (if he is a shaman-healer) or evil actions against him (if he is a shaman-witch). Witchcraft consists of the kidnapping, in dreams, of the tonal of its victims.

During a dream journey, the sorcerer’s tonal leads his victim’s tonal to the pen of otherworldly companion animals. There it feeds on his spiritual substance, which weakens the patient until he dies. Some shamans, before their spiritual journeys, consume hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Fight of a shaman to rescue the tonal of a sick person

Although many of the beliefs about shamans have their roots in Mesoamerica, they vary from one place to another or from one family to another. The spiritual struggle between a shaman-healer and a shaman-witch here exemplifies a variant of the function of shamans.

In an indigenous community in Mexico, an elderly shaman prayed several Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and creeds before going to sleep. Once her eyes were closed, she was going to embark on a dream trip to rescue the tonal of a sick person, who was in the power of a sorcerer. The fact that he appealed to the Christian God reveals the syncretism between the ancient religions and the Catholicism imposed after the Spanish conquest.

Meeting the sorcerer in a dream, the shaman tried to negotiate the release of the tonal. After numerous and long discussions, they did not reach any agreement. So they prepared for a deadly fight. This was long and violent, because neither of them managed to beat their rival.

Finally, in a moment of fatigue for the sorcerer, the shaman took the opportunity to attack him with energy and won. So, the old woman picked up the tonal from her client and brought it to her house.

Later, the patient would affirm that he had dreamed that he found a piece of clothing that he had lost and had put it on, this being a clear sign that he had recovered his tonal and had healed.

This is just one example of the stories of shamans that populate Mexican mythology and that are explained in the aforementioned A War of Witches.

In it, Knab argues that there is an ongoing confrontation between witch shamans and healers over spiritual health and disease, and explains how he himself was initiated as a shaman. But in the end he uncovers the reality that is hidden under the beliefs, the shamanism and the deaths. What was really happening was a lethal war originated by large coffee growers to enrich themselves at the expense of the indigenous lands where the natives grew corn for a subsistence.

Alfonso Reynoso Rábago, Research Professor in Anthropology, University of Guadalajara

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.