On the margins of theology – III

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On magic (black, white, and various shades of gray)

Veracruz is known as the “witch capital” of Mexico. Many of the esoteric movements in underground Mexican Catholicism are believed to have started there. For those who know their history, you will also know that it was near Veracruz that Cortes first landed, beginning the conquest of all of Mexico and its subjugation to the powers of altar and crown. The reasons for the reputation of Veracruz, however, do not have to do solely with survivals of autochthonous tendencies in the religious consciousness of the people. Equally important are the contributions of European and African elements. If anything, some of the more bizarre practices in Mexican “folk Catholicism” have less to do with indigenous belief than with the survival of religious elements that the Spaniards brought with them from the Old World.

On the margins of theology – 2.5

The lodestone cultus in Mexico

The men in Mexico still carry lodestones to give them success and great virility. They regard the stone as a living being, every Friday placing it in water, then in the Sun, and giving it iron filings to “eat”. However, they also believe that this stone has a devil inside and will not enter a church with it. Another belief is that if a lodestone is rubbed on a knife blade, anyone wounded by that blade will die of the poison left there.

-found here

Some may discount the above as coming from a disreputable source, or think that it is the result of some bizarre “New Age” thinking influencing the minds of Mexican men. The only problem with such a supposition is that the cult to the lodestone is an established “tradition” in many parts of Mexico, and I have even translated a prayer to it here.

Isabel Kelly, in her book, Folk Practices in North Mexico, has a significant section on the lodestone cultus. Although she speculates that it is a “recent cult” (keep in mind that the field work for this book was done in 1953), she nevertheless goes into quite a bit of detail regarding how it manifested itself in daily life. The “theology” behind it is stricly oral (of course), and oddly based on dubious Christological origins, as was explained to the anthropologist by an herbalist in Torreon:

The [lodestone] is where Christ is kneeling. Have you not seen the picture? A “light” woman [presumably Mary Magdalene. The Libro de San Cipriano twice mentions "the Samaritan woman" in connection with the lodestone] cut a piece of the stone for luck…

Amar es combatir

amar es combatir, si dos se besan
el mundo cambia, encarnan los deseos,
el pensamiento encarna, brotan alas
en las espaldas del esclavo, el mundo
es real y tangible, el vino es vino,
el pan vuelve a saber, el agua es agua,
amar es combatir, es abrir puertas,
dejar de ser fantasma con un número
a perpetua cadena condenado
por un amo sin rostro;
el mundo cambia
si dos se miran y se reconocen,
amar es desnudarse de los nombres…

to love is to battle, if two kiss
the world changes, desires take flesh,
thoughts take flesh, wings sprout
on the backs of the slave, the world is real
and tangible, wine is wine, bread
regains its savor, water is water,
to love is to battle, to open doors,
to cease to be a ghost with a number
forever in chains, forever condemned
by a faceless master;
the world changes
if two look at each other and see,
to love is to undress our names…

Octavio Paz, Piedra de Sol (Sunstone), 1957. Translated by Eliot Weinberger.

Stolen from AG, here, which is a post that contains many interesting texts from the Jewish Midrash

On the margins of theology – II

The primitive ontology of the Laguna region of Mexico in the 1950’s

In the year 1953, my mother was born on the U.S. – Mexico border, in the town of Sullivan City, Texas. Within three months, she and her parents returned to their native village of Florencia, in the state of Coahuila, just outside the city of Torreon, in what is known as the Laguna region of northern Mexico.

That same year, an American anthropologist, Isabel Kelly, began to do field studies into the healing practices and popular beliefs in that same region of Mexico. She would later compile these into a small book titled, Folk Practices in North Mexico: Birth Customs, Folk Medicine, and Spiritualism in the Laguna Zone. While her book appears more as a series of field notes, almost verbatim accounts of various practices from the area around the city of Torreon, they reveal that the popular vision of the world was shaped by various cross currents, both ancient and modern, that informed the how people from my mother’s homeland dealt with the various travails of their harsh existence.

On Sight

But, that there is some light, though small, in the eyes and brain, many animals which see at night can attest. Their eyes glow in the dark. And also, if anyone has pressed the corner of his eye in some certain way with his finger and twisted it, he seems to see a certain luminous circle inside himself. And it is said that the deified Augustus had eyes so bright and shining that when he stared at someone very hard, he forced him to lower his eyes, as if before the glow of the sun. Tiberius also is said to have had very large eyes which (this would be amazing) saw at night and in the dark, but only for a short time, and when they first opened from sleep; then they grew dim again.

-Marsilio Ficino, Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love

In Mexico, it is said that people who give small children the evil eye (el mal de ojo) have la vista muy fuerte (a strong sense of sight). It is even said that a person can kill someone if his sense of sight is strong enough. This is almost always completely involuntary. Spanish speakers can see the short documentary, El Mal Visto, regarding this phenomenon. One wonders if such beliefs are remnants of the esoteric sciences of the Renaissance and earlier.

Las doce verdades del mundo

Prayer of the Twelve Truths of the World, common in Mexican curandero healing, especially for limpias (lay exorcisms). There are some variations on this prayer as well. The last verse I have only found in one source:

Dios Padre, Dios Hijo, Dios Espíritu Santo por los siglos de los siglos. Amen .

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas una: una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vivas y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas dos: dos son las Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas tres: tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés, una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas cuatro: cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas cinco: cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas seis: seis candeleros, cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas siete: siete palabras, seis candelabros, cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés, una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen .

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas ocho: ocho angustias, siete palabras, seis candelabros, cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas nueve: nueve meses, ocho angustias, siete palabras, seis candelabros, cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas diez: diez mandamientos, nueve meses, ocho angustias, siete palabras, seis candelabros, cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas once: once mil vírgenes, diez mandamientos, nueve meses, ocho angustias, siete palabras, seis candelabros, cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas doce: doce apóstoles, once mil vírgenes, diez mandamientos, nueve meses, ocho angustias, siete palabras, seis candelabros, cinco llagas, cuatro Evangelios, tres Trinidades, dos Tablas de Moisés una es la Casa Santa de Jerusalén donde vives y reinas para siempre. Amen.

(De las doce verdades del mundo hermano bueno quiero que me digas trece: trece rayos del sol conduzcan a las brujas y a las hechiceras a los infiernos y así sea Dios Padre, Dios Hijo, Dios Espíritu Santo por los siglos de los siglos.)

Mexican Folk Medicine in the U.S.

An article in the New York Times from a year ago on Mexican folk healing. Scroll down for an accompanying informative video. Not only does this article show how folk medicine is at times effective, but it also shows that in many places, even in this country, it continues to be necessary. Also, it addresses illness not just from a naturalistic perspective, but brings in the “spiritual” dimension as well.

The Gendering of Catholic Folk Magic

To say that I have always been an odd duck is a bit of an understatement. Perhaps some can attribute it to the fact that growing up, I was a bit of a “mama’s boy”. [Mexican families have a horrible double standard where the boys (sometimes literally) get away with murder, while girls are watched as if any minute they were going off to become street walkers if not properly guarded.] Thus, a boy with a religious disposition was deemed to be a bit of an oddity, though a necessary oddity. Who else was going to fill the ranks of the clergy? Besides, I have a devout grandfather and some devout great-uncles, and men on that side of the family are for the most part church-going. But religion, as in the vast majority of Catholic cultures, was primarily a female affair; the religious secrets of the family were passed down mother to daughter, and mother to son, but the son for the most part preserved them as a vague memory of home and hearth, as a place of safety away from the violence and poverty that often were the burdens of daily life.

San Miguel y Santa Muerte

AG was listening to my CD of Crisotbal Morales’ Requiem (see video above), when it hit me that St. Michael is mentioned in the text of the old Requiem Mass, at the Offeretory:

sed signifer sanctus Michæl
repræsentet eas in lucem sanctam,
quam olim Abrahæ promisisti et semini ejus.

but may the sign-bearer, Saint Michael,
lead them into the holy light
which you promised to Abraham and his seed.

Of course, this image also came to mind:

Notice the ancient scales of Maat, signifying judgment over souls. I suppose that is why some people say that it is St. Michael that comes to retrieve souls at the point of death.

Like many traditions, however, this one seems to not have been passed down, except in the garbled, early morning prayers of a priest at Low Mass. So it is no wonder that in Mexico at least, the Angel of Death morphed into this:

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Tomasito Herrera

Spirit of an unknown child curandero. Image found on this site.