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Modern Shamas and The Huicholes / Adrian Herrero

The Huichol or Wirrárica people are one of the few people that have remained pure since the Spanish conquest. They are not only a pure nation down to their roots but also in their spirituality and their cosmogony. The Huicholes like to make decorations, offerings, shields and arrows in order to narrate the story of the world and creation of the world and the universe. They also use them to stop the wind, to call the rain or the sun and to conduct sorcery related rituals. The purest Huichol ritual can be found only in Mitotes, religious ceremonies in which magical dances and movements take place to activate the vital energy that shakes the life known as Kipuri.

Some anthropologists have stubbornly called all the natural elements mentioned "Gods" utilizing their own interpretation of the divine world. However; Huicholes and ancient Mexicans have a more precise connotation of God: It is something that is a part of the cosmos and not just its creator. The Huicholes are reverent towards the forces that govern life. They don't call these forces "Gods" but brothers: Grand father Fire Tatevari, Water Mother Tatiei Matinieri and Great Grandfather Deer Tail Tamatz Kayaumari. These are incarnations of nature’s forces, the energy that flows in the universe, and their relation to this magical world.

The Huicholes are ruled by a shaman caste, mysterious sorcerers and warriors that fight epic battles in the supernatural field, in order to resolve worldly or divine problems; or simply to takeover the governor's place. The governor is known as Marakame, "the one who knows". This caste prepares new shamans or Matewame, "The one who will know", in order to maintain the lineage and its knowledge. Powerful Huichol shamans have interwoven uncountable tales of power, where they successfully fight formidable battles within the field of perception.This is the the place where they rescue and resolve matters that are at the level of mundane life. In this way they confirm their leadership of their knowledge, their government and their spirituality.

Perhaps modern life invades the Huichol world and erases, little by little, the imprints of that magical and mysterious world. Nonetheless; the few chosen ones that take on the hard shamanistic path, are guided by the Marakames and by the protective hug of Híkuri; the divine face, sacred plant of the desert and teacher of the correct way of living for the sorcerers that are lost in time.

Some authors, such as Carl Lumholtz, Fernando Benítez and Víctor Blanco Labra have visited the Huichol world and have opened it's doors to the modern West. Their work, just like Carlos Castaneda’s books, is a bridge between two distant and clashing universes that, nonetheless, remain partners in history. However, the real Huichol knowledge is the syntax to the perception of an archetypal world. This world is the silent vision of nature; the primitive fundamental principle of life to which we must return, in order to encounter the Totality of Ourselves.

There is no doubt that, eventhough the Huicholes  might not perceive energy as it flows in the universe, their human form is indeed freer from the materialistic and skeptical convictions that have kept man far apart from his origins. They are beings more alive and more essential in their poor and apparently marginalized world; they are closer to total consciousness than Western man.

By Adrian Herrero, Published in Fraktalum No. 4

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