Curanderismo Soul Retrieval: Ancient Shamanic Wisdom to Restore the Sacred Energy of the Soul - Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. 2019
The Mexica Nonordinary Realms
Locating Lost Soul Pieces: Navigating the Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld
The cardinal spaces provide wisdom, medicine, and sacred essence energy for the soul retrieval process. The nonordinary realms—the Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld—are where lost soul pieces can be found. They coexist and intersect with the cardinal spaces. By journeying into the wisdom of these cardinal spaces, we can find our soul pieces within the nonordinary realms. As I will explain in greater detail in the second section, it is quite possible that we will find soul pieces in different realms.
The understanding that the Earth was ordered horizontally in a quadripartite form and vertically in a tripartite division was a common belief among the ancient Mesoamericans.1 As we have seen, the horizontal order was set by the four cardinal spaces of the Middleworld, which spread out from the axis mundi. The vertical order was divided into the Upperworld, Middleworld, and Underworld.2 The central axis could be a physical location, such as a cenote or a mountain that was believed to be sacred, but it was not necessarily a fixed space; it could also be a metaphorical space (such as someone embodying the World Tree and acting as a portal). At this center the nonordinary realms could be accessed.
The Upperworld of the ancient Maya was divided into 13 distinct realms.3 The ancient Mexica Upperworld was also typically divided into 13 realms, although a few sources indicate a division of 9 or 12.4 The Middleworld was composed of the cardinal spaces.5 The World Trees held up the sky at the 4 quarters and the center, providing a portal for supernatural beings from the different realms, the deceased, and shamans to journey in and out.6 The Underworld was generally believed to have 9 levels below the Earth.7 Shamans had special skills that could traverse and move beyond the boundaries that separated the nonordinary realms.8 It was the shamans who could navigate in and out of these three realms to diagnose soul illnesses, retrieve lost soul pieces, and come back with messages and medicine.9
The Mexica Nonordinary Realms
The Mexica’s vertical realms consisted of the Middleworld (Tlaticpac), the Upperworld (Ilhuicoatl), and the Underworld (Mictlan). The naualli were shamans who were able to pass into and out of the nonordinary realms.10 They could travel to different times and parallel realities while simultaneously seeing their tonalli on the earth planes. Shamans traveled to these other worlds to diagnosis and cure ailments, to access supernatural wisdom and medicine, and to retrieve soul pieces.11
While shamans could intentionally travel into and out of these realms, ordinary people were also known to travel into these worlds when they were dreaming, and their tonalli was believed to leave their physical bodies. When people died, they also usually went into another realm. But the level at which the person ended up did not solely depend on earthly behavior; it was largely determined by the manner of death.12 While the person was living, each of the vertical realms was also associated with a particular body region that had concentrated soul energy.
Upperworld
While a person was living, the tonalli was connected to the upper heavens.13 The levels of the Upperworld were separated from one another by crossbars, which functioned as passages between the heavens.14 Each level reflected a different aspect of sacred essence energy.15 Vatican Codex A provides a description of the various levels of the Upperworld. The lowest one was the one that was visible to all. It was the realm where the moon and clouds traveled.16 The second level was Citlalco, the place of the stars.17 The third level was the one in which Tonatiuh, the sun deity, resided.18 The fourth was Ihuicatl Huitztlan, where Venus (Citlalpol) could be seen.19 The fifth was the level of the comets, the smoking stars or meteors (citlalin popoca), an immediate source of tonalli. The sixth and seventh were the levels of night and day, where only the colors green and blue could be seen, or alternatively black and blue. The eighth level was the place of storms. The ninth, tenth, and eleventh were the dwelling place of the gods. The twelfth and thirteenth comprised Omeyocan, the place of duality, the source of generation and life, the primordial dwelling place of the principal creator deity, Ometeotl.*9 20
Middleworld
The Middleworld was composed of the cardinal spaces. It also contained natural landscapes that were believed to be sacred and acted as portals to the Upperworld and Underworld. These spaces included mountains, caves, and certain bodies of water. These natural landscapes were spaces where the veils of reality were thin and other realms could be accessed. As Mesoamerican scholars Louise Burkhart and Karl Taube note, for the Mexica, mountains were places where the paradisal Flower Mountain could be found, as well the dwelling place of the solar deity, Tonatiuh.21 Chalchuihtlicue, goddess of lakes, streams, and agricultural fertility, was invoked at the bathing rites of newborns to cleanse them of their parents’ vices and iniquities, purify their hearts, and welcome in a good and peaceful life.22 Chalchuihtlicue traveled into the Middleworld through the water.
The Mexica constructed buildings and architectural layouts to imitate these sacred natural landscapes and act as portals to the Upperworld and Underworld. The capital of Tenochtitlan mirrored the spatial configuration of the Middleworld, with its four large quadrants symbolizing the four corner cardinal spaces and a ceremonial center.23 The Great Temple or Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan consisted of four step-like platforms on top of one another, again relating to the cardinal quadrants. According to the Lyenda de los soles (Myth of the Suns), the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan faces west because the first god to see the sun was Quetzalcoatl, whose temple faces east following the path of the sun.24 The three lower platforms consisted of 12 sections; the 13th section was the small top platform where the dual temples of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc were located; these 13 sections mirrored and acted as a gateway to the 13 levels of the Upperworld.25 The courtyard of Templo Mayor also had four doors or entrances, at the east, west, north, and south, each of which was named after the deity of its direction.26 The city and temple themselves actively participated in and contributed to the success of the rituals taking placing within them by emulating the spatial organization of the universe.27
The Middleworld also consisted of parallel earth realms, both temporal and spatial. Shaman soothsayers accessed these parallel realms by seeing into a past or present event. They could also go into the crevices of a crossroad or into an anthill to recover someone’s lost tonalli.28 Research on dreams and dream interpretation by the sixteenth-century ethnographer Friar Bernardino de Sahagún in his work Primeros memoriales (First memorials) also suggests that traveling to other realms included parallel earth realities of the Middleworld at different times and places. As we have already seen, it was during dreams when one’s tonalli usually traveled.29 Sahagún’s material on dream interpretation includes dreams of people at some future time or in some parallel reality, where they are seeing their homes burn down, singing in their homes, or building new homes, all reflecting parallel Middleworld realms.30
Underworld
The Underworld, known as Mictlan, was composed of 9 levels, 8 of them below the Earth.31 They consisted of (1) the uninhabitable Earth, (2) the passage of waters, (3) the entrance to mountains, (4) the hill of obsidian knives, (5) the place of frozen winds, (6) the place where the flags tremble, (7) the place where people are flayed, (8) the place where the hearts of people are devoured, and (9) Mictlan Opochcalcan, the place where the souls of the dead resided for eternity.32
Most people who died of natural causes, diseases, accidents, or other circumstances not specified by the gods inhabited Mictlan.33 Deceased souls had to overcome a number of obstacles or tests on the road inward through the levels into Mictlan. They were believed to be accompanied by a little dog that was cremated with the deceased. The tests were believed to continue for four years; thereafter, the obstacles ended and the person went into Mictlan Opochcalcan, and there was complete disappearance.34