Nagualism Part 4

For this reason I take it, we find the number _three_ so generally a sacred number in the symbolism of the nagualists. We have already learned in the extract from Nunez de la Vega that the neophytes were instructed in cla.s.ses of three. To this day in Soteapan the fasts and festivals appointed by the native ministrants are three days in duration.[41-] The semi-Christianized inhabitants of the Sierra of Nayerit, the Nahuatl-speaking Chotas, continued in the last century to venerate three divinities, the Dawn, the Stone and the Serpent;[41-]

a.n.a.logous to a similar "trinity" noted by Father Duran among the ancient Aztecs.[41--]

The number _nine_, that is, 3 x 3, recurs so frequently in the conjuration formulas of the Mexican sorcerers that de la Serna exclaims: "It was the Devil himself who inculcated into them this superst.i.tion about the number nine."[41-?]

The other number sacred to the nagualists was _seven_. I have, in a former essay, given various reasons for believing that this was not derived from the seven days of the Christian week, but directly from the native calendar.[42-*] Nunez de la Vega tells us that the patron of the seventh day was _Cuculcan_, "the Feathered Serpent," and that many nagualists chose him as their special protector. As already seen, in Guatemala the child finally accepted its _naual_ when seven years old; and among some of the Nahuatl tribes of Mexico the _tonal_ and the calendar name was formally a.s.signed on the seventh day after birth.[42-] From similar impressions the Cakchiquels of Guatemala maintained that when the lightning strikes the earth the "thunder stone"

sinks into the soil, but rises to the surface after seven years.[42-]

The three and the seven were the ruling numbers in the genealogical trees of the Pipiles of San Salvador. The "tree" was painted with _seven_ branches representing degrees of relationship within which marriage was forbidden unless a man had performed some distinguished exploit in war, when he could marry beyond the nearest _three_ degrees of relationship.[42--] Another combination of 3 and 7, by multiplication, explains the customs among the Mixes of deserting for 21 days a house in which a death has occurred.[42-?]

The indications are that the nagualists derived these numbers from the third and seventh days of the calendar "month" of twenty days.

Tepeololtec, the Cave G.o.d, was patron of the third day and also "Lord of Animals," the transformation into which was the test of nagualistic power.[42---] Tlaloc, G.o.d of the mountains and the rains, to whom the seventh day was hallowed, was represented by the nagualistic symbol of a snake doubled and twisted on itself, and was generally portrayed in connection with the "Feathered Serpent" (Quetzalcoatl, Cuculchan, Guk.u.matz, all names meaning this), represented as carrying his medicine bag, _xiquipilli_, and incensory, the apparatus of the native illuminati, his robe marked with the sign of the cross to show that he was Lord of the Four Winds and of Life.[43-*]

=26.= The nagualistic rites were highly symbolic, and the symbols used had clearly defined meanings, which enable us to a.n.a.lyze 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 pa.s.sage in this connection:

"If any of their old superst.i.tions 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 pa.s.s 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_,[43-] shortly after the birth of a child when they bestow on it the surnames; nor must the lying-in women and their a.s.sistants 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.[43-] 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 room[TN-4][43--]

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."[44-*] 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 pa.s.s the infant over the fire;" and elsewhere he adds: "The worship of fire is the greatest stumbling-block to these wretched idolaters."[44-]

=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 G.o.d of inebriation, Tezcatzoncatl, to descend and be present with them.

This was distinctly a survival of an ancient doctrine which connected the G.o.d of Fire with the G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds, and especially to the G.o.d 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."[45-*]

=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.[45-]

=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.[45-] The fire-G.o.d 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 G.o.d of fire was called the oldest of G.o.ds, _Huehueteotl_, and also "Our Father," _Tota_, as it was believed from him all things were derived.[46-*] 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 s.e.xual relations.[46-] Another of his names was _Xiuhtecutli_, which can be translated "G.o.d of the Green Leaf," that is, of vegetable fecundity and productiveness.[46-]

To transform themselves into a globe or ball of fire was, as we have seen (ante, 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.[46--]

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. Bartholome de Alva refers to them in a pa.s.sage 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."[47-*]

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.[47-]

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.[47-] 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 G.o.ds of woods and waters.[48-*] 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 a.s.sociated 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.[48-]

=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.[48-] The ancient doc.u.ment 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;[49-*] 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 G.o.ds, 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,[49-] 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 G.o.d, 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;[49-] 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, a.s.sociated with numerous phallic emblems.[49--]

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.[50-*] 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, Bra.s.seur stated that he had seen many specimens of a contrary character from certain regions,[50-] 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 s.e.xual action.[50-] The other name of the divinity, called "the Heart of the Hills," is in Quiche, Alom, "he who begets," and the Zapotec Cozaana, another a.n.a.logue 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 superst.i.tions. 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.[50--]

The rituals and prayers of the nagualists bear witness to this. It is very visible in those I have quoted from Nunez 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 G.o.d: thou G.o.d the Son, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, art my only G.o.d. 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.[51-*]

"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, G.o.d of the plain, thou, G.o.d of Quiac-Basulup, thou, G.o.d 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 G.o.dfather and G.o.dmother, 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.