Nagualism: A Study in Native American Folk-lore and History
Tekst26. The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the symbols used had clearly defined meanings, which enable us to analyze the religious ideas underlying this mysterious cult.
The most important symbol was Fire. It was regarded as the primal element and the immediate source of life. Father Nicolas de Leon has the following suggestive passage in this connection:
“If any of their old superstitions has remained more deeply rooted than another in the hearts of these Indians, both men and women, it is this about fire and its worship, and about making new fire and preserving it for a year in secret places. We should be on the watch for this, and when in their confessions they speak of what the Fire said and how the Fire wept, expressions which we are apt to pass by as unintelligible, we must lay our hands on them for reprehension. We should also be on the watch for their baptism by Fire, a ceremony called the yiahuiltoca,103 shortly after the birth of a child when they bestow on it the surnames; nor must the lying-in women and their assistants be permitted to speak of Fire as the father and mother of all things and the author of nature; because it is a common saying with them that Fire is present at the birth and death of every creature.”
This curious ceremony derived its name from the yiahuitli, a plant not unlike the absinthe, the powdered leaves of which, according to Father Sahagun, the natives were accustomed to throw into the flames as an offering to the fire.104 Long after the conquest, and probably to this day, the same custom prevails in Mexico, the fumes and odor of the burning leaves being considered very salubrious and purifying to the air of the sick room105
The word yiahuiltoca means “the throwing of the yiauhtli” (from toca, to throw upon with the hands). Another name for the ceremony, according to Father Vetancurt, who wrote a century later than Leon, was apehualco, which has substantially the same meaning, “a throwing upon” or “a throwing away.”106 He adds the interesting particulars that it was celebrated on the fourth day after the birth of the child, during which time it was deemed essential to keep the fire burning in the house, but not to permit any of it to be carried out, as that would bring bad luck to the child.
Jacinto de la Serna also describes this ceremony, to which he gives the name tlecuixtliliztli, “which means that they pass the infant over the fire;” and elsewhere he adds: “The worship of fire is the greatest stumbling-block to these wretched idolaters.”107
27. Other ceremonies connected with fire worship took place in connection with the manufacture of the pulque, or octli, the fermented liquor obtained from the sap of the maguey plant. The writer just quoted, de Vetancurt, states that the natives in his day, when they had brewed the new pulque and it was ready to be drunk, first built a fire, walked in procession around it and threw some of the new liquor into the flames, chanting the while an invocation to the god of inebriation, Tezcatzoncatl, to descend and be present with them.
This was distinctly a survival of an ancient doctrine which connected the God of Fire with the Gods of Drunkenness, as we may gather from the following quotation from the history composed by Father Diego Duran:
“The octli was a favorite offering to the gods, and especially to the God of Fire. Sometimes it was placed before a fire in vases, sometimes it was scattered upon the flames with a brush, at other times it was poured out around the fireplace.”108
28. The high importance of the fire ceremonies in the secret rituals of the modern Mayas is plainly evident from the native Calendars, although their signification has eluded the researches of students, even of the laborious Pio Perez, who was so intimately acquainted with their language and customs. In these Calendars the fire-priest is constantly referred to as ah-toc, literally “the fire-master.” The rites he celebrates recur at regular intervals of twenty days (the length of one native month) apart. They are four in number. On the first he takes the fire; on the second he kindles the fire; on the third he gives it free play, and on the fourth he extinguishes it. A period of five days is then allowed to elapse, when these ceremonies are recommenced in the same order. Whatever their meaning, they are so important that in the Buk Xoc, or General Computation of the Calendar, preserved in the mystic “Books of Chilan Balam,” there are special directions for these fire-masters to reckon the proper periods for the exercise of their strange functions.109
29. What, now, was the sentiment which underlay this worship of fire? I think that the facts quoted, and especially the words of Father de Leon, leave no doubt about it. Fire was worshiped as the life-giver, the active generator, of animate existence. This idea was by no means peculiar to them. It repeatedly recurs in Sanskrit, in Greek and in Teutonic mythology, as has been ably pointed out by Dr. Hermann Cohen.110 The fire-god Agni (ignis) is in the Vedas the Maker of men; Prometheus steals the fire from heaven that he may with it animate the human forms he has moulded of clay; even the connection of the pulque with the fire is paralleled in Greek mythos, where Dionysos is called Pyrigenes, the “fire-born.”
Among the ancient Aztecs the god of fire was called the oldest of gods, Huehueteotl, and also “Our Father,” Tota, as it was believed from him all things were derived.111 Both among them and the Mayas, as I have pointed out in a previous work, he was supposed to govern the generative proclivities and the sexual relations.112 Another of his names was Xiuhtecutli, which can be translated “God of the Green Leaf,” that is, of vegetable fecundity and productiveness.113
To transform themselves into a globe or ball of fire was, as we have seen (antè, p. 21), a power claimed by expert nagualists, and to handle it with impunity, or to blow it from the mouth, was one of their commonest exhibitions. Nothing so much proved their superiority as thus to master this potent element.
30. The same name above referred to, “the Heart of the Town,” or “of the Hills,” was that which at a comparatively late date was applied to an idol of green stone preserved with religious care in a cavern in the Cerro de Monopostiac, not far from San Francisco del Mar. The spot is still believed by the natives to be enchanted ground and protected by superhuman powers.114
These green stones, called chalchiuitl, of jadeite, nephrite, green quartz, or the like, were accounted of peculiar religious significance throughout southern Mexico, and probably to this day many are preserved among the indigenous population as amulets and charms. They were often carved into images, either in human form or representing a frog, the latter apparently the symbol of the waters and of fertility. Bartholomè de Alva refers to them in a passage of his Confessionary. The priest asks the penitent:
“Dost thou possess at this very time little idols of green stone, or frogs made of it (in chalchiuh coconeme, chalchiuh tamazoltin)?
“Dost thou put them out in the sun to be warmed? Dost thou keep them wrapped in cotton coverings, with great respect and veneration?
“Dost thou believe, and hold for very truth, that these green stones give thee food and drink, even as thy ancestors believed, who died in their idolatry? Dost thou believe that they give thee success and prosperity and good things, and all that them hast or wishest? Because we know very well that many of you so believe at this very time.”115
Down to quite a recent date, and perhaps still, these green stones are employed in certain ceremonies in vogue among the Indians of Oaxaca in order to ensure a plenteous maize harvest. The largest ear of corn in the field is selected and wrapped up in a cloth with some of these chalchiuite. At the next corn-planting it is taken to the field and buried in the soil. This is believed to be a relic of the worship of the ancient Zapotec divinity, Quiegolani, who presided over cultivated fields.116
They are still in use among the natives as lucky stones or amulets. In the Zotzil insurrection of 1869, already referred to, one was found suspended to the neck of one of the slain Indians. It came into the possession of M. Maler, who has described and figured it.117 It represents a human head with a curious expression and a singular headdress.
From specimens of these amulets preserved in museums it is seen that any greenish stone was selected, preferably those yielding a high, vitreous polish, as jadeite, turquoise, emerald, chlormelanite or precious serpentine. The color gave the sacred character, and this, it seems to me, was distinctly meant to be symbolic of water and its effects, the green of growing plants, and hence of fertility, abundance and prosperity.
31. There is another symbol, still venerated among the present indigenous population, which belongs to Nagualism, and is a survival from the ancient cult; this is the Tree. The species held in especial respect is the ceiba, the silk-cotton tree, the ytzamatl (knife-leaved paper tree) of the Nahuas, the yax che (green, or first tree) of the Mayas, the Bombax ceiba of the botanists. It is of great size and rapid growth. In Southern Mexico and Central America one is to be seen near many of the native villages, and is regarded as in some way the protecting genius of the town.
Sacred trees were familiar to the old Mexican cult, and, what is curious, the same name was applied to such as to the fire, Tota, Our Father. They are said to have represented the gods of woods and waters.118 In the ancient mythology we often hear of the “tree of life,” represented to have four branches, each sacred to one of the four cardinal points and the divinities associated therewith.
The conventionalized form of this tree in the Mexican figurative paintings strongly resembles a cross. Examples of it are numerous and unmistakable, as, for instance, the cruciform tree of life rising from a head with a protruding tongue, in the Vienna Codex.119
32. Thus, the sign of the cross, either the form with equal arms known as the cross of St. Andrew, which is the oldest Christian form, or the Latin cross, with its arms of unequal length, came to be the ideogram for “life” in the Mexican hieroglyphic writing; and as such, with more or less variants, was employed to signify the tonalli or nagual, the sign of nativity, the natal day, the personal spirit.120 The ancient document called the Mappe Quinatzin offers examples, and its meaning is explained by various early writers. The peculiar character of the Mexican ritual calendar, by which nativities were calculated, favored a plan of representing them in the shape of a cross; as we see in the singular Codex Cruciformis of the Boturini-Goupil collection.
33. But the doctrines of Nagualism had a phase even more detestable to the missionaries than any of these, an esoteric phase, which brought it into relation to the libidinous cults of Babylon and the orgies of the “Witches’ Sabbaths” of the Dark Ages. Of these occult practices we of course have no detailed descriptions, but there are hints and half-glances which leave us in no doubt.
When the mysterious metamorphosis of the individual into his or her nagual was about to take place, the person must strip to absolute nudity;121 and the lascivious fury of bands of naked Nagualists, meeting in remote glades by starlight or in the dark recesses of caves, dancing before the statues of the ancient gods, were scenes that stirred the fanaticism of the Spanish missionaries to its highest pitch. Bishop Landa informs us that in Yucatan the dance there known as the naual was one of the few in which both men and women took part, and that it “was not very decent.” It was afterwards prohibited by the priests. We have excellent authority that such wild rites continued well into the present century, close to the leading cities of the State,122 and it is highly likely that they are not unknown to-day.
34. Moreover, it is certain that among the Nagualists, one of their most revered symbols was the serpent; in Chiapas, one of their highest orders of the initiated was that of the chanes, or serpents. Not only is this in Christian symbolism the form and sign of the Prince of Evil and the enemy of God, but the missionaries were aware that in the astrological symbols of ancient Mexico the serpent represented the phallus; that it was regarded as the most potent of all the signs;123 and modern research has shown, contrary to the opinion long held, that there was among these nations an extraordinary and extensive worship of the reciprocal principle of nature, associated with numerous phallic emblems.124
Huge phalli of stone have been discovered, one, for instance, on the Cerro de las Navajas, not far from the city of Mexico, and another in the State of Hidalgo.125 Probably they were used in some such ceremonies as Oviedo describes among the Nahuas of Nicaragua, where the same symbol was represented by conical mounds of earth, around which at certain seasons the women danced with libidinous actions. Although as a general rule the pottery of ancient Mexico avoids obscenity, Brasseur stated that he had seen many specimens of a contrary character from certain regions,126 and Dr. Berendt has copied several striking examples, showing curious yoni symbols, which are now in my possession.
We may explain these as in some way connected with the worship of Pantecatl, the male divinity who presided over profligate love, and of Tlazolteotl, the Venus Impudica of the Aztec pantheon; and it is not without significance that the cave-temple of Votan, whose contents were destroyed by the Bishop of Chiapas, in 1691 (see above, p. 39), was located at Tlazoaloyan, both names being derived from a root signifying sexual action.127 The other name of the divinity, called “the Heart of the Hills,” is in Quiche, Alom, “he who begets,” and the Zapotec Cozaana, another analogue of the same deity, is translated by Seler, “the Begetter.” Such facts indicate how intimately the esoteric doctrines of Nagualism were related to the worship of the reproductive powers of nature.
35. It will readily be understood from what has been said that Nagualism was neither a pure descendant of the ancient cults, nor yet a derivative from Christian doctrines and European superstitions. It was a strange commingling of both, often in grotesque and absurd forms. In fact, the pretended Christianity of the native population of Mexico to-day is little more than a figment, according to the testimony of the most competent observers.128
The rituals and prayers of the nagualists bear witness to this. It is very visible in those I have quoted from Nuñez de la Vega, and I can add an interesting example of it which has not heretofore been published. I take it from the MSS. of Father Vicente Hernandez Spina, cura of Ixtlavacan, in Guatemala, a remote village of the Quiches. He wrote it down in the native tongue about forty years ago, as recited by an ah-kih, “reader of days,” a native master of the genethliac art, who had composed it in favor of a client who had asked his intercession.
Prayer of an Ah-Kih
“O Jesus Christ my God: thou God the Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, art my only God. Today, on this day, at this hour, on this day Tihax, I call upon the holy souls which accompany the sun-rising and the sun-setting of the day: with these holy souls I call upon thee, O chief of the genii, thou who dwellest in this mountain of Siba Raxquin; come, ye holy spirits of Juan Vachiac, of Don Domingo Vachiac, of Juan Ixquiaptap, the holy souls of Francisco Excoquieh, of Diego Soom, of Juan Fay, of Alonzo Tzep; I call the holy souls of Diego Tziquin and of Don Pedro Noh: you, O priests, to whom all things are revealed, and thou, chief of the genii, you, lords of the mountains, lords of the plains, thou, Don Purupeto Martin, come, accept this incense, accept to-day this candle.129
“Come also, my mother Holy Mary, the Lord of Esquipulas, the Lord of Capetagua, the beloved Mary of Chiantla, with her who dwells at San Lorenzo, and also Mary of Sorrows, Mary Saint Anna, Mary Tibureia, Mary of Carmen, with Saint Michael the Archangel, the captain St. James, St. Christoval, St. Sebastian, St. Nicolas, St. Bonaventura, St. Bernardin, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, and thou my beloved mother St. Catherine, thou beloved Mary of the Conception, Mary of the Rosary, thou lord and king Pascual, be here present.
“And thou, Frost, and thou, excellent Wind, thou, God of the plain, thou, God of Quiac-Basulup, thou, God of Retal-Uleu, thou, lord of San Gregorio, thou, lord of Chii-Masa. [These are mountains and localities, and in the original there follow the names of more than a hundred others. The prayer concludes as follows:]
“… I who appoint myself godfather and godmother, I who ask, I the witness and brother of this man who asks, of this man who makes himself, your son, O holy souls, I ask, do not let any evil happen unto him, nor let him be unhappy for any cause.
“I the priest, I who speak, I who burn this incense, I who light this candle, I who pray for him, I who take him under my protection, I ask you that he may obtain his subsistence with facility. Thou, God, canst provide him with money; let him not fall ill of fever; I ask that he shall not become paralytic; that he may not choke with severe coughing; that he be not bitten by a serpent; that he become neither bloated nor asthmatic; that he do not go mad; that he be not bitten by a dog; that he be not struck by lightning; that he be not choked with brandy; that he be not killed with iron, nor by a stick, and that he be not carried off by an eagle; guard him, O clouds; aid him, O lightning; aid him, O thunder; aid him, St. Peter; aid him, St. Paul; aid him, eternal Father.
“And I who up to this time have spoken for him to you, I ask you that sickness may visit his enemies. So order it, that when his enemies go forth from their houses, they may meet sickness; order it, that wherever they go, they may meet troubles; do your offices of injury to them, wheresoever they are met; do this that I pray, O holy souls. God be with you; God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit: Amen, Jesus.”
Most of such invocations are expressed in terms far more recondite and symbolic than the above. We have many such preserved in the work of Jacinto de la Serna, which supply ample material to acquaint us with the peculiarities of the sacred and secret language of the nagualists. I shall quote but one, that employed in the curious ceremony of “calling back the tonal,” referred to on a previous page. I append an explanation of its obscure metaphors.
Invocation for the Restitution of the Tonal
“Ho there! Come to my aid, mother mine of the skirt of precious stones!130 What keeps thee away, gray ghost, white ghost?131 Is the obstacle white, or is it yellow? See, I place here the yellow enchantment and the white enchantment.132
“I, the Master of the Masters of enchantments, have come, I, who formed thee and gave thee life.133 Thou, mother mine of the starry skirt, thou, goddess of the stars, who givest life, why hast thou turned against this one?134
“Adverse spirit and darkened star, I shall sink thee in the breadth and depth of the waters.135 I, master of spells, speak to thee Ho there! Mother mine, whose skirt is made of gems, come, seek with me the shining spirit who dwells in the house of light,136 that we may know what god or mighty power thus destroys and crushes to earth this unfortunate one. Green and black spirit of sickness, leave him and seek thy prey elsewhere.
“Green and yellow ghost, who art wandering, as if lost, over mountains and plains, I seek thee, I desire thee; return to him whom thou hast abandoned. Thou, the nine times beaten, the nine times smitten, see that thou fail me not.137 Come hither, mother mine, whose robe is of precious gems; one water, two waters; one rabbit, two rabbits; one deer, two deers; one alligator, two alligators.138
“Lo! I myself am here; I am most furious; I make the loudest noise of all; I respect no one; even sticks and stones tremble before me. What god or mighty power dare face me, me, a child of gods and goddesses?139 I have come to seek and call back the tonal of this sick one, wherever it is, whithersoever it has wandered, be it nine times wandered, even unto the nine junctures and the nine unions.140 Wherever it is, I summon it to return, I order it to return, and to heal and clean this heart and this head.”
Explanations
1. The appeal is to Water, regarded as the universal Mother. The “skirt of precious stones” refers to the green of the precious green stones, a color sacred to water.
2. The question is addressed to the tonal.
3. The yellow enchantment is tobacco; the white, a cup of water.
4. That is, assigned the form of the nagual belonging to the sick man.
5. This appeal is directed to the Milky Way.
6. The threat is addressed to the tonal, to frighten it into returning.
7. The “shining spirit” is the Fire-god.
8. The yellow tobacco, prepared ceremonially in the manner indicated.
9. These are names of days in the native calendar which are invoked.
10. The priest speaks in the person of his god.
11. Referring to the Nahuatl belief that there are nine upper and nine under worlds.
From the same work of de la Serna I collect the following list of symbolic expressions. It might easily be extended, but these will be sufficient to show the figurative obscurities which they threw around their formulas of conjuration, but which were by no means devoid of coherence and instruction to those who could understand them.
Symbolic Expressions of the Nagualists
Blood.– “The red woman with snakes on her gown” (referring to the veins).
Copal Gum.– “The white woman” (from the whitish color of the fresh gum).
Cords (for carrying burdens). – “The snake that does woman’s work” (because women sit still to knit, and the cord works while itself is carried).
Drunkenness.– “My resting time,” or “when I am getting my breath.”
The Earth.– “The mirror that smokes” (because of the mists that rise from it); “the rabbit with its mouth upward” (the rabbit, in opposition to the one they see in the moon; with its mouth upward, because of the mists which rise from it like the breath exhaled from the mouth); “the flower which contains everything” (as all fruit proceeds from flowers, so does all vegetable life proceed from the earth, which is therefore spoken of as a flower); “the flower which bites the mouths” (a flower, for the reason given; it eats the mouths, because all things necessarily return to it, and are swallowed by it).
Fingers.– “The five fates,” or “the five works,” or “the five fields” (because by the use of his fingers man works out his own destiny. Hence also the worship of the Hand among the Nahuas as the god Maitl, and among the Mayas as the god Kab, both which words mean “hand”).
Fire.– “Our Father of the Four Reeds” (because the ceremony of making the new fire was held on the day Four Reeds, 4 Acatl); “the shining rose;” “the yellow flyer;” “the red-haired one;” “the yellow spirit.”
A Knife of Copper.– “The yellow Chichimec” (because the Chichimecs were alleged to tear out the bowels of their enemies).
The Maguey Plant.– “My sister, the eight in a row” (because it was planted in this manner).
A Road.– “That which is divided in two, and yet has neither beginning, middle nor end” (because it always lies in two directions from a person, and yet all roads lead into others and thus never end).
Sickness.– “The red woman;” “the breath of the flame;” “our mother the comet” (all referring to the fever); “the Chichimec” (because it aims to destroy life, like these savage warriors); “the spider” (because of its venomous nature).
Smoke.– “The old wife” (i. e., of the fire).
The Sun.– “Our holy and pockified Uncle” (referring to the myth of Nanahuatl, who was syphilitic, and leaping into the flames of a fire rose as the sun).
Tobacco.– “The nine (or seven) times beaten” (because for sacred purposes it was rubbed up this number of times); “the enchanted gray one” (from its color and use in conjuring).
Water.– “The Green Woman” (from the greenness which follows moisture); “our Mother, whose robe is of precious stones” (from the green or vegetable life resembling the turquoise, emerald, jade, etc.).
36. It might be asked how the dark arts and secret ceremonies of the Nagualists escaped the prying eyes of the officers of the Holy Inquisition, which was established in Mexico in 1571. The answer is, that the inquisitors were instructed by Cardinal Diego de Espinosa, who at that time was Inquisitor General and President of the Council of the Indies, “to abstain from proceedings against Indians, because of their stupidity and incapacity, as well as scant instruction in the Holy Catholic faith, for the crimes of heresy, apostasy, heretical blasphemy, sorcery, incantations, superstitions,” etc.
Energetic inquisitors, however, conceded very grudgingly this exemption. In the imposing auto de fé celebrated in the city of Mexico, in 1659, a half-breed, Bernardo del Carpio by name, son of a full-blood Indian mother, accused of blasphemy, etc., endeavored to escape the Holy Office by pleading his Indian blood; but his appeal was disallowed, and the precedent established that any admixture whatever of European blood brought the accused within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition.141 Even this seems to have been a concession, for we find the record of an auto de fé held in 1609, in the province of Tehuantepec, in which eight full-blood natives were punished for worshiping the goddess Pinopiaa.142 Mr. David Ferguson, however, who has studied extensively the records of the inquisition in Mexico, informs me that in none of the trials read by him has he observed any charges of Nagualism, although many white persons were accused, and some tried, for consulting Indian sorcerers.
37. It will be seen from what I have said, that the rites of Nagualism extended as widely as did the term over Mexico and Central America. It becomes, therefore, of importance to discover from what linguistic stock this term and its associated words are derived. From that source it is reasonable to suppose the rites of this superstition also had their origin.
The opinions on this subject have been diverse and positive. Most writers have assumed that it is a Nahuatl, or pure Mexican, word; while an eminent authority, Dr. Stoll, is not less certain that it is from a radical belonging to the neighboring great stock of the Mayan dialects, and especially the Quiche, of Guatemala.143 Perhaps both these positions are erroneous, and we must look elsewhere for the true etymology of these expressions. Unquestionably they had become domesticated in both Maya and Nahuatl; but there is some reason to think they were loan-words, belonging to another, and perhaps more venerable, civilization than either of these nations could claim.
To illustrate this I shall subjoin several series of words derived from the same radical which is at the basis of the word nagual, the series, three in number, being taken from the three radically diverse, though geographically contiguous, linguistic stocks, the Maya, the Zapotec and the Nahuatl.