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

Clockwise Versus Counterclockwise
Introduction

In many of the ceremonies in the Yucatán that I engaged in, we typically honored the cardinal spaces beginning with the East and moved counterclockwise to the North, West, South, and then the Center. We closed by moving clockwise but always ended with the Center. Moving counterclockwise, as was explained to me, enabled us to move with a natural flow along the path of the sun’s emergence from the East to its descent into the southern Underworld.

Nevertheless, the mentor who taught me this particular soul retrieval process encouraged me to begin with the South, the space of discovery and understanding, and then move clockwise: West, North, and East. She explained to me that the natural flow is to have our soul pieces naturally return to us, even when there has been a trauma. If our soul pieces, however, have not returned to us, then we need to work “backward” to find and recover these soul pieces.

After we have done our work with these cardinal spaces, we may begin to move counterclockwise, in the natural progression of the sun’s emergence in the East, the space of new beginnings. At the same time, we should remember that these directions are not simply fixed locations; they are spaces where processes of healing, awareness, and resacralization take place. They are also spaces where we honor and ask for aid from the spirits of each direction in retrieving our scattered soul pieces. This is not a linear process by any means.