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

Goals of This Book
Introduction

The aims of this book are twofold. The first is to introduce a curanderismo soul retrieval practice that draws from ancient Mesoamerican wisdom and enables soul retrieval to accommodate diverse types of soul loss and related traumas.

The ancient Mexica and contemporary Xicanx cosmovision of nepantla breathes life into this soul retrieval practice. Diego Durán, sixteenth-century missionary and ethnographer, first recorded the use of nepantla when he questioned and reprimanded an indigenous man about working so hard for his money to then spend everything on a wedding that he invited the entire town to. The indigenous man explained that they were still in nepantla, in a middle space, “they neither answered to one faith or the other or, better said, that they believed in God and at the same time keep their ancient customs and . . . rites.”¹⁴ Gloria Anzaldúa, Xicana theoretician and artist, refers to nepantla as a dark cave of creativity that can foster a new state of understanding.¹⁵ Lara Medina, Xicana theoretician, states, “Nepantla is the liminal space that can confuse its occupants but also has the ability to transform them.”¹⁶

In this soul retrieval practice, nepantla as a liminal middle space, is a sacred center, an axis mundi, a portal, a World Tree to all realms. Nepantla recognizes that ritual practices, including ones that involve healing, releasing, integrating, and new beginnings, take place in a liminal space of constant transition, wherein ongoing change is the norm. The understanding of nepantla liminality, however, is different from how ritual theoretician Victor Turner conceived liminality. Turner asserts that within rituals there are periods of liminality, which are the spaces that facilitate transitions. When the participant moves out of this liminality, they shift back into the normative state, to a new status or realization. By this view, being and stasis are the norm.¹⁷ Liminality, however, is not simply a phase; it is the norm.¹⁸ We are constantly changing, realizing, and becoming.

When we learn to become more mindful, grateful, and aware, everyday moments can become ceremonial and sacred, liminal spaces of constant transition, infinite possibilities for spiritual growth. Surrendering to what can become a graceful flow of nepantla requires us to let go of attempts to concretely define who we are, recognizing instead that we are in a continual process of understanding ourselves and the many roles and identities we love to play, and that we ultimately have the power to define these roles. This space of constant transition treats healing, self-awareness, and spiritual growth as an ongoing process. It encourages us to purge ourselves of expectations of how long healing, awareness, and growth should take. Ironically, I have seen that when people completely surrender to the soul retrieval process, they make remarkable shifts in a significantly shorter period than they might have and begin to have fun with surfing the tides of change, ambiguity, and the unknown. They reclaim their power to change and be.

In exploring the ancient Mexica and Maya symbolism, I use the term polysemic to describe the often multilayered, ambiguous, and idiosyncratic nature of their religious symbols. As ritual theoretician Clifford Geertz asserts, such symbols give meaning to existence by providing a model both of the world as it is and of how it ought to be.¹⁹ The individual participant, nonetheless, still appropriates and negotiates the symbols in their lived world or established dispositions, and as they imagine them.

The polysemic nature of the ancient symbolism associated with the cardinal spaces can facilitate positive transitions in soul retrieval. Just as the cardinal spaces are not merely located within a fixed space, soul retrieval participants can both draw from these traditions and create and define their own experience with these symbols. Although we may start the process with a clockwise succession of the cardinal spaces, more often than not we tend to repeat lessons, so we experience the cardinal spaces in our own unique unfixed way. Often it is necessary to revisit spaces many times in order to more deeply integrate the wisdoms and medicine, let go of what is needed, learn how to honor and love ourselves, make peace and forgive, and much more.

Soul retrieval can take anywhere from a few hours to months or even years before we create a loving and nurturing home for our separated soul pieces to return. Soul retrieval should not be a race. The length of time is irrelevant, when we fully appreciate that we are working within sacred space and engaging in sacred rites that correspond to our own healing, development, and growth.

If, for example, we are still engaging in the destructive habits that contributed to soul loss, its premature return can result in another loss, creating more disruptive patterns in our lives. The practice I am describing here encourages us to understand that the process itself is sacred, and there is no need to rush it. We work in sacred space, and we create a safe and loving space within ourselves by integrating the wisdoms and gifts of each cardinal space. We thus set the stage for a permanent and full return of our soul pieces.

We may make use of the indigenous symbolism of the cardinal spaces in ways that make sense to us. At the same time, this practice requires us to recognize that the very act of working with the wisdom of these cardinal spaces opens up normally unseen, unfelt realms, in which we begin to remember that life and all its sacred elements—animate and inanimate—have consciousness, are being shaped by us, and are shaping us. When we are no longer disassociated from ourselves and our surroundings, we create ideal spaces for the return of our lost soul pieces. Life is ritual, and we define the rituals.

The second aim of this book is to reformulate indigenous spiritual worldviews in ways that invigorate life back into our heart, spirit, and soul. Recovering and exploring these traditions enable us to heal and honor wounded Earth-based identities and traditions, wherever we are in the spectrum of cultures, ethnicities, genders, and so forth. It also enables us to heal ourselves and understand our connection to each other and to our beloved Earth.