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

The Fluidity of The Cardinal Spaces
Introduction

Like the ancient Mesoamericans’ perception of cardinal spaces, journeying to these spaces for soul retrieval is fluid and can be dynamic and multivalent in meaning and approach. The ancient shamans did not necessarily see these cardinal spaces as being fixed in place. Mesoamerican scholar Barbara Tedlock notes that their spatial understanding of east, west, north, and south were not fixed geometrical directions, “compass points frozen in space.”⁸ They were the spaces where and when a specific process took place, including the place where and when the sun sets and enters the Earth’s surface.⁹

As David Stuart, a Mesoamerican scholar, points out, there was likely a variety of forms and ideas concerning the cardinal spaces, whether they were expressed in the shape of a quincunx or in some other form. The cardinal spaces could be fixed—like our notion of four fixed points, which can be determined by a compass—but they could also be seen as diverse movements and categories of spaces in order to suit different purposes and ritual needs. With the quincunx, for example, the movements could encompass the solstitial points, marking the yearly movement of the sun along the Earth’s horizon and the center, but it could also represent the points of sunrise and sunset and zenith and nadir—the processes and locations of the daily movement of the sun around the Earth.¹⁰

The cardinal spaces were also sacred entities in their own right. They each had their own forms of divine wisdom, sacred gifts, patrons, colors, World Trees, deities, day signs, year signs, and mountains, and their symbols, meanings, and purposes often varied among the ancient Mesoamericans. The sacred entities of the cardinal spaces were also responsible for the elements—fire, sun, water, air, and earth—that maintained equilibrium on earth.¹¹

The Calendar Round of the ancient Mesoamericans also expressed the wisdoms and gifts of the cardinal spaces. Their Calendar Round was composed of two calendars: the solar calendar (20 days and 18 periods, with 5 unlucky days at the end of the year, a total of 365 days), and a ritual calendar (20 day signs that reigned over 13 days, a total of 260 days), which would synchronize with one another over a period of 52 years.^*5 These 52 years were divided by 4, resulting in four 13-year periods, which were typically referred to as the 4 Year Bearers. Each of the 4 Year Bearers was oriented to a cardinal space with its own distinct characteristics, divine beings, meanings, and rituals.¹²

Further, each of the 20 days of their ritual calendar came under the influence of one of the four cardinal spaces through an indefinite counterclockwise rotation: the first day name, cipactli (Nahuatl) or imix (Yucatec Mayan), beginning in the East; the second in the North; the third in the West; and fourth in the South in a continuous counterclockwise motion.¹³