Curanderismo Soul Retrieval: Ancient Shamanic Wisdom to Restore the Sacred Energy of the Soul - Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. 2019

Ancient Mexica Animal Companions and Tonalismo
Soul Retrieval Work: Animal Coessences and Animal Guardians

Working with our animal coessences and guardians during the soul retrieval process can be very beneficial in many ways. Animal coessences and guardians help us track soul pieces and retrieve them in situations where their special skills and powers are needed. They can also impart illuminating wisdom, medicine, and guidance during the process. As I explain in greater detail in the second section, animal coessences are our soul companions since birth; we share the same soul energy signature with them and tend to have similar primal traits and inclinations. Depending on the person’s lifestyle, beliefs, and practices, these animal coessences may not necessarily be known to the person until a later point in their life, or possibly never.

Just as our physical and energetic framework gets stronger when we integrate more pieces of our soul, our physical and energetic framework also gets stronger when we develop our connection with our animal coessences. While we may not share sacred essence energy with animal guardians, as I will explain later, they are equally important and helpful in the soul retrieval process. Most people tend to have one animal coessence and can have many animal guardians.

For the ancient Mexica and Maya, the reasons for working with animals, and the types of relationships they had with them, were multi-faceted, diverse, and complex. Mesoamerican scholar Gary Gossen writes, “The iconography of ancient Mesoamerica is pervasive with images of human-animal relationships: transformations, masks, anthropomorphic animals, zoomorphic deities linked with human dynastic leaders, ritual paraphernalia and outfits, calendar glyphs as stylized animals, and the list goes on.”¹

While the iconography of these human-animal relationships is still being deciphered, current knowledge suggests the following about ancient Mesoamerican beliefs: People could have animal coessences or animal guardians. People, likely shamans, could invoke these animal spirits to do their bidding. When animal spirits are invoked, one or more animals may appear, along with insects or natural elements. These animal guides were often invoked during trance. It was also believed that certain shamans could physically become animals, and that one’s animal coessence could be captured to garner its energy. If something bad happened to a person’s animal coessence, it could result in the person’s illness or death.²

Ancient Mexica Animal Companions and Tonalismo

The relationships that the ancient Mexica had with animals, and the type of animals they worked with, varied based on numerous factors, including the person’s social status; tonalli birth day signs; and the kind of nahualli^*10 (a shape-shifting shaman) they were—ethical, unethical, skilled, disciplined, and so forth.³ The term nahualli was also used generally to describe the relationship between an individual and an animal with shared tonalli, which is called tonalismo. Nahualli, however, could assume many different forms without the need for an animal companion, and their powers and skills were not limited to transformation.⁴

A person shared sacred essence energy, tonalli, with an animal if they shared a birth date. Being born on the same day, the human and animal acquired the same tonalli, which was blown into them at the moment of conception.⁵ All beings, animate and inanimate, that were born on the same day shared the characteristics of their calendar sign (also called tonalli), and had particular affinities with one another.⁶

Sahagún notes that there were some shamans or nahualtin (plural of nahualli) that had the ability to shape-shift into animals and other people; while dead, they could also take possession of living people and animals and assume the form of natural forces such as fire, mist, vapor, water, rainbow, comets, lightning, and air.⁷ These shape-shifting skills were also believed to be held by many of their deities. Tezcatlipoca, for example, as patron of the nahualtin, had the power to transform into a jaguar and into various other forms, including mist, ghostly beings, and various animals.⁸ Quetzalcoatl could take the form of a feathered serpent, as well as many others. Xólotl was able to transform into maize and maguey. Huitzilopochtli was known for appearing as a celestial fire snake and a hummingbird.⁹

Durán tells of rulers and dignitary shamans that had the ability to take the form of animals and had taken on the names of their deities, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. Durán came across this information when interviewing an indigenous elder from Coatepec who gave him access to private codices that told of the life of the mythical Toltec ruler Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl and the reason for his departure from his land. Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca had rival sects of dignitary shamans. Apparently priests from the sect of Tezcatlipoca had placed a harlot in Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl’s room to disgrace him before his wedding. The elder also told Durán that these dignitary shamans were skilled sorcerers, wizards who could change form as they wished.¹⁰ The sixteenth-century ethnographer Juan de Torquemada indicates that there were other rulers who were nahualtin, including Tzutzumatzin, and one of the last rulers of the Aztec empire, Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin.¹¹

People born on particular day signs were believed to have inherited the power to take the form of animals and other natural forces. Those born on One Ce Ehécatl (One Wind) could shape-shift into animals, such as a fierce beast or a coyote. If the person was a noble, they could also be a shape-shifting shaman or a tonalpouhque, a specialist in the tonalpohualli calendar who would construct auguries for individual days.¹²

Commoners born on One Ce Ehécatl do not appear to have been able to become tonalpouhque. But they would still be able to manipulate their form and take possession of other people, which typically happened through the saliva or inhaling an affected substance, which accumulated in the ihiyotl energy in the liver and/or stomach.¹³ In addition, the commoners born with this day sign were also believed to be able to recover things for people, open or sweep pathways, and influence outcomes in the battlefield.¹⁴ Nobles were thought to become wild beasts, while commoners turned into turkeys, weasels, or dogs.¹⁵

From the ethnohistorical records, it does not appear that highly skilled nahualtin had to have a relationship with a specific animal before taking its form. Nonetheless, it is likely that the skills, characteristics, class, and tonalli of the nahualtin all contributed to the types of animals they could become. This is supported by the fact that their deities typically had a stronger connection with particular types of animals. Common forms for Tlaloc, the principal deity of rain and lightning, included herons and water-dwelling creatures.¹⁶ Mictlantecuhtli, one of the main death gods, was associated with animals of the night, including spiders, owls, and bats.¹⁷