Cleansing Rites of Curanderismo: Limpias Espirituales of Ancient Mesoamerican Shamans - Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. 2018

Sweeping: The Way to Purification and Revitalization
Commonly Practiced Limpias from Ancient and Modern Perspectives

In curanderismo, sweeping purifies and prepares an individual for a renewal, removing dense energies in order to open up pathways and invite supernatural beings to intervene on one’s behalf. Sweeping rites also serve as offerings to the divine and to the soul essences of the spaces where the limpias are being performed. As my mentors taught me, feed your space by keeping it clean and orderly, and it will feed you by rejuvenating you while you sleep and provide a peaceful living space.

This understanding of sweeping can be traced back to the ancient Mexica and Yucatec Maya. Physically, sweeping was a way to remove filth and dirt, which were associated with vice, wrongdoings, and disgrace. Spiritually, it was necessary for paving the way for the coming of deities, newborns, and auspicious seasonal transitions. Sweeping prepared spaces for ceremonies; it also helped to procure a favorable shift to different calendrical periods and ages. As an offering, sweeping could help ensure the success of husbands and fathers on the battlefield, as well as staving off unwanted interludes with particular deities. This ritual act cleansed, fed, and sustained the soul essence of ritual spaces, whether they were temples, houses, or roads.

THE SWEEPING LIMPIA RITES OF THE MEXICA

It required the daily efforts of a thousand people to keep Tenochtitlan clean. According to Torquemada and Benevente o Motolinía, the Mexica swept and washed the public thoroughfares with such diligence that one could walk about without any fear for one’s feet.¹ The importance of sweeping, however, involved more than a desire to be clean and orderly. Sweeping purified, rejuvenated, and secured the balance between chaos and order.

Although sweeping was probably performed principally by the macehualtin (commoners), women, and shamans of all classes, the ethnohistorical records suggest that sweeping was revered by all. All men and women were required to aid in securing the delicate balance between order and disorder by engaging in ritual sweeping. When being installed as supreme ruler, the huey tlatoani, pledged to maintain the balance between tlazolli (filth in the physical and moral sense) and cleanliness within Tenochtitlan.² Ritually sweeping the way, or purifying the person, path, and building were also necessary to procure the aid of regenerative forces.

The broom was a weapon against dirt and disorder as well as an object of power—although an ambivalent one, because it purified but was also a carrier of filth. Sweeping represented the power to be an anchor of balance, an arbiter, between the two opposite poles of order and disorder.³ Too much tlazolli threatened the balance, order, centered-ness, and very existence of individuals, homes, temples, and communities. The Fifth Sun, the era that the Mexica lived in, required ongoing and diligent cleansing and purification.^*21

Brooms were a principal weapon against the destructive forces of tlazolli. The act of sweeping maintained a balance against tlazolli and could transform it into something creative, regenerative, and life-giving.⁴ Sweeping, for example, was also associated with the power of female fertility. Certain deities had been conceived during the act of sweeping tlazolli, transforming it into a life-giving force from the maternal earth.⁵ Huitzilopochtli, the Mexica tutelary deity, was conceived when Coatlique, an aspect of Mother Earth, tucked a bit of tlazolli into her skirt while sweeping.⁶ Chimalman, wife of Mixcoatl, god of hunting, found a piece of jade while sweeping and swallowed it. As a result, Quetzalcoatl, the god of wind, was conceived.⁷

Many deities, such as Tlazolteotl, Toci, and Quetzalcoatl, were depicted with a broom in their hands and were associated with sweeping and with its purifying and regenerative force. Tlazolteotl, the Great Spinner and Weaver, or Filth Deity, also known as Tlaelquani—she who eats filth and gives absolution—was associated with platicas, sweeping rites, the sweat bath, fertility and childbirth, the moon, menses, purification, weaving, sexuality, witchcraft, and healing.⁸ She served as an energetic function that buttressed all healing and regeneration, from plant to human life.⁹

Toci, also known as known as Teteo innan,^*22 was often portrayed with a broom in her hand and a shield in the other—the ideal Mexica warrior.¹⁰ Durán’s Book of the Gods, plate 24, depicts Toci sweeping the road for the coming of the gods.¹¹ Toci was associated with spinning, weaving, sweeping, healing, midwifery, divination, and acting as a protector and warrior.¹²

Quetzalcoatl, also known as Ehecatl or Ehacatl-Quetzalcoatl, god of wind, was known to sweep the roads in preparation for the rain gods.¹³ As a master of the wind, Ehacatl-Quetzalcoatl cleansed and purified the earth’s surface of tlazolli, preparing the path for rain to come, and energizing and sustaining the earth’s vegetative regeneration. Although Ehacatl-Quetzalcoatl is depicted with a broom in his hand (see plate 10), it was said that he swept the way for the rain with his breath.¹⁴

Noble fathers advised their sons to sweep as an offering to their gods, but also because this rite was performed by respected members of the community. The Huehuetlatolli (Testimonies of the ancient word) record fathers advising their noble sons to rise promptly, seize the broom, and sweep at the break of dawn. The tecutlato, one holding rank and attributes of a judge, and the tlacatecutli, an assisting dignitary to the supreme ruler, whose duties were related to military affairs, swept at the rise of dawn, and, the text said, their sons should strive to be like these respected members of the community.¹⁵

The Florentine Codex also notes that noble fathers told their sons to sweep, clean, and offer incense to their gods as the first thing they did when they woke up. The sons that were vigilant about sweeping, offering incense, and keeping things orderly were the ones who proved to be worthy and devout and gave themselves wholeheartedly to their gods; they were ideal men.¹⁶

Pregnant women were told to “be diligent in the sweeping, the cleaning, the arranging of things, the cutting [of wood], the fanning [of the fire], and the offering of incense.”¹⁷ By doing so, they secured the aid of the deities for a favorable birth and ensured that their child would be born into a world of order and cleanliness, in both a physical and a moral sense.

At birth, midwives swept the way for the coming of a life. When an expecting mother was in labor, the midwife washed her and swept the house in which she was to give birth.¹⁸ Sweeping ensured that the baby came into a space of balance and order.

At home sweeping was a magical shamanic tool. Women always kept their tlazoltectli (brooms) outside of their homes to repel discord. Women also forbade their children to play with the broom, because it carried the energy signature of its owner. It was said that if a man wished to seduce a woman, he would gather twenty straws from her broom. Then he could turn the broom’s power against its owner and force her to comply with his wishes.¹⁹ Durán describes a war against the Huaxtecs, whose success was partly attributed to the wives’ ritual sweeping at noon, sunset, and midnight to honor the four corners of the sun’s path. Sweeping as an offering to the sun was believed to give their warrior husbands an advantage on the battlefield.²⁰

For Mexica shamans, male and female, sweeping was an essential service of ritual purification.²¹Ichpana (sweeping) was an offering that was performed by the shamans of all the temples at the crack of dawn.²² The Codex Mendoza notes that the shamans of high order were responsible for sweeping, or for seeing that others performed the task.²³

The cihuaquacuitlin (an older, higher-status female shaman) watched over the younger female shamans at Atenchicalcan, the temple of Toci, and taught them how to do sweeping limpias as offerings to the goddess, purifiying her temple and thereby welcoming her presence.²⁴ The cihuaquacuitlin also taught the younger shamans the directions in which sweeping should be performed.

The catalog of eighteen offerings to the gods in Sahagún’s Primeros Memoriales (First Memoranda) depicts women performing the following rites: the laying of offerings (tlamanaliztli), the offering of incense in an incense burner (tlenamaliztli), the casting of copal incense into a brazier (copal-temaliztli), the ritual eating of earth (tlalqualiztli), bloodletting from the earlobes (necoliztli), and of course, sweeping.²⁵

Sweeping the way was also often used as a metaphor for clearing and preparing spaces for a favorable transition. The Florentine Codex uses this metaphor for describing the settlement of Tenochtitlan by the Mexicas’ ancestors:

According to tradition, the name of the priest who led the Mexica was Meçitli. . . . And since he led his subjects, therefore they were given the name Mexica. These Mexica, according to the account, came from the land of the chichimeca, from the desert lands. . . . In the distant past, which no one came here to disperse [their descendants] the grandfathers, the grandmothers, those who arrived [first], the ones who came [first], those who came sweeping the way, . . . those who came to rule this land.²⁶

There were also calendrical rites that involved sweeping rituals. The Ochpaniztli (sweeping of the way) rite played a critical role in ensuring the purification of the Mexicas’ world, favorable outcomes on the battlefield, an abundant growth of corn for the next harvest, and a favorable seasonal transition from summer to fall. Ochpaniztli took place on the eleventh month of the xiuhpohualli calendar.^*23 According to Durán, the major rite or feast of Ochpaniztli was celebrated on the first day of the month, which corresponded to September 17 in the Western calendar.²⁷ That would place this celebration sometime on or around the autumn equinox, the transitional period from summer to fall.

On the first day of Ochpaniztli, all of the streets of the town were swept before dawn. Everybody also cleaned and swept their possessions and every corner of their house. The temāzcaltin were also swept and washed.²⁸ There was fervent sweeping of all buildings and roads by both men and women, which helped to procure the purification of the towns and remove all evils.²⁹

That day, a woman about forty or forty-five years of age was purified and washed. After her purification, she was dressed like Toci and was understood as becoming the actual embodiment of the deity.³⁰ Seven days before the feast, she was taken to midwives. The old midwives entertained her with stories and mock battles with brooms and kept her from weeping, because if the Toci impersonator wept, this would be a bad omen. At a certain hour, the midwives took Toci to the front of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan and had her weave a woman’s skirt and blouse. On the eve of the feast, Toci was led to the marketplace, so that she might sell the items she had spun and woven; she would also scatter cornmeal to ensure fertility. At midnight, the midwives took her to the huey tlatoani to engage in sexual intercourse with the ruler as the embodiment of the deity. She was then killed and decapitated, and her skin was flayed.³¹

Next, a teccizquacuilli (very strong man), donning the flayed skin, of Toci’s feminine aspect, made an appearance at the top of the Temple of Tenochtitlan, the heart of the city’s religious precinct. He also wore the shirt and skirt that the Toci impersonator had spun, as well as Toci’s ritual accoutrements: a cotton garland, with her spindle whorls and carded cotton as a headdress, and a shield in the left hand and a broom in the right hand. The strong man, then believed to embody Toci, made his grand appearance at the top of the Great Temple. He proceeded swiftly down the temple’s magnificent steps before a crowd of thousands of onlookers, who trembled with fear. When Toci reached the foot of the temple, “she” began to sweep, ensuring the transformation and purification of the Mexicas’ world.³² During this ritual, the broom and the act of sweeping were particularly significant because of their associations with purification, transformation, and acting as weapons against invading dirt and disorder.³³ Sweeping purified, and maintained equilibrium during a seasonal transition.

In the New Fire Ceremony, Xiuhmolpilli, “binding of the years,” the time for world renewal, sweeping played a critical role. All homes and temples were diligently swept, and people would dispose of rubbish, old idols, and household items.³⁴ Sweeping away the tlazolli, and disposing of items that no longer belonged in the new epoch, ensured the success of the New Fire and the continuation of the world.³⁵

THE SWEEPING LIMPIA RITES OF THE YUCATEC MAYA

For the Yucatec Maya, ritual sweeping of the dirt or trash also purified, maintained equilibrium, and facilitated the coming of a new age. It opened pathways for new occupational and life ventures, seasonal transitions, and the coming of the gods or their elements (see plate 11).

De Landa’s description of the annual Maya Pop’ New Year describes how ritual sweeping played a fundamental role in these rites. The New Year sweeping and cleansing ritual began on the first day of the wayeb’ period of the 365-day ha’b calendar. The wayeb’ was a period of five nameless unlucky days at the end of the year that were added to the eighteen periods of twenty days to make a total of 365. These five days were believed to be a liminal time, when the veils between worlds were thin. During these five nameless days, ill-intentioned deities had greater access to the earthly planes and could cause many disasters.³⁶

According to de Landa, cleaning and sweeping ensured the ceremonial rebirth of the world at the end of the wayeb’ period. Houses, buildings, and roads, particularly the roads leading into the city, were assiduously swept. The people also swept all four corners of their house. They got rid of and renewed many worn and used items, such as plates, vases, benches, mats, old garments, and the mantles around their deities. The frequent use of these items marked them with the energy signature of a year that was passing away. The people threw these items out, and swept up dirt outside the city on a heap of trash that no one dared touch, regardless of their need.³⁷

Sweeping was also essential for clearing the way for the adolescent coming-of-age rites of the caput-sihil. At the beginning of the ceremony, the children were cleansed on a clean patio that had been scattered with fresh sihom leaves.^*24 The boys were then placed in a line by an aged man, and the girls were placed in a line by an aged woman. Although it is not clear from de Landa’s description whether these aged men and women performed a barrida, sweeping the children with sihom leaves, as is done in many modern limpia sweeps, these leaves were clearly intended to complement the cleanliness of the patio. After this, the adolescents went inside a house to continue their cosmic rebirthing. They offered maize and incense to the center, the bridge between the profane and the cosmic realms. This performance purified them, according to de Landa.³⁸

To make way for the next performance, the patio was swept and the sihom leaves removed. The patio was then blessed with copó leaves, and the leaves were scattered everywhere, while the ah-kin changed for the next performance.³⁹ From de Landa’s description, it is not clear who swept, but it is clear that sweeping in the middle of the ceremony was crucial for paving the way for the subsequent rebirthing rites.

The importance of sweeping is also noted in the precontact Madrid Codex, whose final pages, 111a and 112b, show pictures of gods with brooms in their hands. The accompanying text, next to the gods, begins with the mi sign, which can be identified as the Madrid version of the syllable si. In Yucatec Mayan, the mi and si signs together spell the word mis, which means broom, trash, and the verb to clean.⁴⁰

These images probably relate to apiculture, especially beehive cleaning, signifying the importance of maintaining the natural world in balance, with sweeping as a purifying force. Beehive cleaning likely correlates to present-day rituals in the Yucatán called santiguar. Santiguars are the most commonly performed healing ceremonies in the Yucatán and are used to heal a multitude of ailments, including stomachaches, headaches, sore throats, and earaches. In the santiguar, the ajmeen (shaman or curandero) cleanses people of dangerous and harmful winds while praying over them and sweeping them with sacred anointed leaves. Another kind of santiguar is performed in order to protect the bees from dangerous epidemics and the attack of xulab ants. In these ceremonies the hmén (shaman or curandero) use brooms made of anointed leaves. As the hmén cleans the beehives, he recites prayers in which the verb mis describes the ritual performed.⁴¹

The K’iché’ Popol Vuh also describes the importance of sweeping and of keeping spaces and homes clean and pure. The Popol Vuh speaks of two ferocious demons, known as the sweeping and stabbing demons from Xilbalbá, who abhor trash and stab people to death if they fail to sweep their homes or if they leave trash around. Hence the best way to ward off the demons of Xilbalbá was to keep one’s house swept clean and not allow trash to accumulate.⁴²

The books of Chilam Balam and contemporary Tzotzil creation narratives often use sweeping the path as a metaphor for ritual purification. It is understood as opening fortunate pathways for ventures, such as a marriage or a new occupation or living space.⁴³

In a small contemporary community called Canquixaja, near Momostenango, Guatemala, at the close of the 260-day ritual calendar, each household ritually smashes its principal cooking vessel for boiling maize. The family carries the larger fragments of the pot to an ancestral shrine in the mountains and places them on top of a great mound of other shards that have accumulated over the years. An ajq’ij (shaman or curandero) blesses each member of the family and cleanses them from any corruption that might have accumulated during the previous year. He calls upon various deities, saints, and the family’s own sacred ancestors to give them a healthy and abundant new year. Family members then thoroughly wash themselves in a river to remove any taint from the bad influences of the final days of the year. Immediately thereafter, they sweep, clean their home, and prepare a new cooking vessel to confirm the birth of a New Year.⁴⁴

Part of a modern Chamula poem, “The Sweeper of the Path,” translated in English from Itza, an almost extinct Yucatec Mayan language, also indicates the symbolic supernatural role of sweeping.

“I am the sweeper of the path. I sweep Our Lord’s path so that when Our Lord passes by he finds the path already swept. . . .

I am the sweeper of the house. I walk when it grows light. When night falls, I sweep beneath the world. When dawn comes, I appear and sweep again, because that is my work. That’s why I am a star. Venus appears early in the dawn, say the people, but it’s me. I sweep Our Lord’s path. It isn’t just anyone’s path.” ⁴⁵

This poem tells of the cosmic significance of sweeping the path of the sun. By sweeping, the Chamulan girl cleanses the path, thereby facilitating the rebirth of a new day.

In the Ch’ol language, misuntel is described as part of a limpia ceremony. When a person goes to be cured by a curandero, the first thing the healer does is to lay hands on them to know the reason for the disease. This tells the curandero if the sick person has fallen in the road, which means that their spirit has been left there. The curandero goes to the site where the person fell in order to call to their spirit. The curandero goes by the road, sweeping with branches to bring back the spirit of the person that fell.⁴⁶

INTEGRATING MESOAMERICAN WISDOM

When my mentors taught me how to conduct sweeping limpias, they focused principally on the methods and on how to read the tools that were used. We discussed how the sweeps removed unwanted energies, but never how the sweeps paved the way for something else, including new beginnings and restored balance.

Learning the multifaceted aspects of ancient Mesoamerican sweeping rites brought more dimensions to my practice and made it more effective. Inspired by the ancient shamans, I always perform limpia sweepings at a transitory point in the session; that is, when the client has declared that they are ready to let go of the stories and issues that brought them to me, and to make way for a new story.

Before I perform a sweep, I make sure the client is ready for balance and for moving toward a more favorable path. We have a platica and begin the releasing process. After we discuss their stories and issues, I ask them if they are ready for positive change. They usually affirm that they are. Once they do, I perform the sweep.

If I am working with the client remotely, I perform the sweep with breathwork, like Ehacatl-Quetzalcoatl, who was said to sweep with his breath (see plate 10).⁴⁷ I scan the person’s body, blow away dense energies, and also have the person engage in breathwork with me to complement the release on a physical level. (In chapter 4, see here, I recommend some breathwork exercises that can be done to facilitate limpias.) The sweeping limpia further purifies the person to clear and make way for a positive renewal, transformation, and rebirth.

In the following section, I discuss how to perform ritual sweeping limpias with bundles of herbs, feathers, flowers, and eggs. Some curanderas/os perform sweeping rites with actual brooms. My mentors, however, did not do so, so I will review the tools I was taught to use when performing these rites.

Sweeping Limpias with Herbs

When my mentors did limpias with herbs, they often called them barridas, from a verb that means to sweep or wash away. There are many kinds of plants to do barridas with. I principally work with those in my garden because these are the ones I know intimately and have a close relationship with. I mainly use rue, mint, rosemary, lavender, parsley, oregano, and basil.

Going into depth about all of the medicinal, cleansing, and magical properties of these herbs is outside the scope of this book. I will simply highlight a few predominant gifts of each of these herbs and make some recommendations about using them for barridas.

Before deciding on the plant, be sure to stop to listen to it. When students say they are not sure how to listen to plants, I encourage them to begin by working intuitively. Go to the plant that calls out to them, let the plant know of their intention, and ask if it would like to work on this intention with them. If they get a yes, that is the plant they should choose. After the plant and person have chosen each other, the student should do some research on the plant’s uses and gifts. Knowledge gained in this manner seems to have a lot more resonance with the person, particularly because they usually find out that they were guided to the ideal plant for the situation.

If possible, grow the herbs that are going to be used for the barridas. The love, respect, and attention given to them will be repaid in their healing, cleansing, and magic. Pinterest has many innovative ideas for growing an herb garden on the walls of small kitchens.

All of these herbs are excellent at clearing dense energies, and here are a few of their additional gifts:

· Rue: fortifies energy fields and repels negativity.^*25

· Mint: lifts the spirits and improves clarity and focus.

· Rosemary: fortifies energy fields and grounds.

· Lavender: induces a sense of peace and relaxation.

· Parsley: fortifies energy fields and repels negativity.

· Oregano: changes misfortunes to great fortune.

· Basil: clears away anguish and sadness, and opens up pathways.

When picking an herb for a barrida, make a conscious effort to connect with its soul essence. If possible, consider leaving a gift for the herb, such as maize, tobacco, a crystal, a shiny object, Epsom salts, or even a kiss, and always project love and gratitude to it. Cut a good-size bundle for the barrida. Thank the herb for cleansing the person and for any other specific intentions.

What will be needed for a barrida with herbs:

· Water that has been charged or blessed. (An explanation of how to charge water is provided in chapter 6, see here.)

· A bundle of herbs (either of the same or different types).

· An oil that has been blessed by the practitioner (or continue using the charged or blessed water instead).

Dip or spray the herbs with the water. Share an invocation or prayer with the herbs and the client, and say it throughout the barrida. (As discussed in chapter 5, see here, an invocation or prayer is part of the cleanse and is an offering to the guides, angels, and masters working with the person.) Use your dominant hand to sweep the person with the herbs. Begin at the head and proceed down the entire body, front and back. End the barrida by anointing the person with the oil or the water, placing it on their forehead, throat, and heart chakra. The anointing fortifies the bodies—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual—and seals their revitalization.

After the barrida, thank the herbs, and have the person burn them, or place them back into the earth—somewhere away from the client’s house and from where the barrida took place.

Barridas with Flowers

Limpias with flowers are ideal for opening pathways, changing a streak of recurring misfortunes to great fortune, and positively influencing new ventures. Many flowers have phenomenal healing and magical qualities related to happiness, balance, peace, love, and abundance. I particularly like to work with flowers in the springtime for a renewal, and in the fall to sow seeds of manifestation for clients.

The ancient Yucatec Maya and Mexica adored flowers. Karl Taube has brought attention to what has been termed the Flower World, a Mesoamerican art style that conveyed complex, overlapping spiritual concepts, such as those of an Edenic solar realm and afterlife, flower-related portals into this realm, and flowers as the sweet and pleasant aromas that both invoke and make up the beings in this realm. Flower World was closely linked to the east, the place of the dawning sun. It was also associated with fertility, ancestors, warriors, the rebirth of maize, the feathered serpent, birds, butterflies, music, and the human soul. It was a mythical place of emergence for gods, and a paradisal solar afterlife that housed those that had been brave, virtuous, and ethical.⁴⁸

To do sweeps with flowers, follow the instructions above for herbs. These are some of the flowers that are in my garden and that I love to work with. Along with cleansing and purification properties, here are some of their additional gifts:

· Chamomile: changes misfortunes to great fortune and enhances our energy fields.

· Calendula (marigold): clears energetic toxins from thoughts and feelings.

· Lantana: dissolves harmful patterns that may be stored in our consciousness, energy field, home, or workspace.

· Lavender: helps to clear monkey-mind chatter, stress, confusion, and disharmony and promotes peace and love.

· Rose: a very powerful source of purification. Enhances our energy fields and self-love.

Barridas with Feathers

Like herbs and flowers, birds’ feathers have their own particular gifts to offer a barrida. Throughout the years, I have been given different kinds of feathers, particularly after making connections with certain birds. After I have been given a feather and before I use it to conduct a barrida, I connect with the bird who wore it, or sometimes I use the feather as a gateway to another bird by simply thanking the bird who donned the feather and setting the intention of working with another bird. After making the connection, I lovingly and gently blow on the feather with my breath. This is a powerful way to activate its healing energy.

This kind of barrida can be done with one very special feather, more than two feathers that are the same, or an assortment of different kinds of feathers. I have made beautiful fans with different kinds of feathers that have been given to me by birds and my human friends.

Doing a feather barrida can be particularly helpful when a person needs bird medicine and gifts. I also invoke the help of my bird animal coessence by using my feather fan, particularly if I am preparing the person for a shamanic journey or a soul retrieval.^*26 Birds are phenomenal guides to other realms.

My mentor Don Fernando told me that the ancient Yucatec Maya believed that one who listened to birds could divine the future. The Yucatec Mayan word mut means both bird and augury. Don Fernando believed that birds were bridges between heaven and earth and were ideal allies for vision quests and shamanic journeying.

To do a barrida with a feather, the following will be needed:

· Water that has been charged or blessed.

· An activated feather (activation is done by connecting with a bird and breathing on the feather).

· An oil that has been blessed by the practitioner, or charged or blessed water.

I follow pretty much the same process as when doing a barrida with herbs, except that I place the feathers on an altar I have for my feather fans. I keep them on my altar to cleanse them after use and to charge them. I always have them ready for a barrida.

Sweeps with Eggs

Don Fernando explained to me that some limpias, particularly those dealing with supernatural illnesses, demand that a sacrificial object be used. An egg, as an animal cell, qualifies as a sacrificial object. While “supernatural” illnesses have as much power as we give them, sometimes we unintentionally allow these unwanted energies to creep in, particularly in situations when we give our power away. When we have allowed these energies to creep in, it is important to cleanse and clear them. Because everyone has a right to their own reality, we all have the choice to permanently seal any of these gaps.

Egg limpias have the power to absorb negative influences or harm. Egg limpias strengthen the body’s energetic fields and absorb energies that do not belong to us. They are also an excellent way to read people and determine what else may be needed. It is in a sense a reading and a cleansing in one. Typically, when I do an egg limpia, I also like to follow it with a barrida with herbs. The egg limpia absorbs unwanted energies; the herbs further clear away residues and provide additional gifts for my client’s healing and new path.

Don Fernando, who had access to fresh hen’s eggs, recommended using these when possible. But for an urban curandera, fresh eggs are not that accessible. Instead I place the egg in charged or blessed water before using it. The length of time I keep it there depends on the intention that was set for the water.

To do an egg limpia, the following is needed:

· Two glasses of water. One glass will have charged or blessed water, and the other will have purified water. The glasses should be big enough so that you can easily place your hand in them to get the egg. (Again, please do not use these glasses to drink from after this or any other limpia.)

· An egg.

· A bundle of herbs.

· Anointing oil, or water that has been charged or blessed.

Start by placing the egg in the glass with charged or blessed water. Then take the egg from the glass, place it inside both hands, and breathe a prayer into it. Then continue to repeat the prayer out loud while you perform the limpia. Use your dominant hand to rub the egg over the client’s body. Begin at the head, and proceed down the entire body, with a particular focus on eyes, ears, lips, hands, belly button, and the bottom of the feet. Trace a perimeter around the person with the egg, as if you were drawing a pattern. If you intuitively feel that it is needed, rub the egg along the person’s spine, the back of the legs and sides. Then create a cross with the egg, starting with the head, go to the shoulders (right and then left), and finally the heart. Have the client blow three times on the egg. Crack the egg, and pour the contents into the glass of purified water. Thereafter follow the same pattern given for the barrida with herbs, and end with anointing the person with oil or charged or blessed water.

When the limpia is completed, the egg can be read or simply flushed down the toilet. Sometimes I will instruct the person to place the egg under their bed overnight directly below the head to further absorb the energies of any habitual negative thought patterns.

Reading the Egg: Common Scenarios

Let the egg sit in the water for five to ten minutes before trying to read it. Here are some common scenarios of egg limpias and their associated meanings:

· Murky water: unwanted energies have been released.

· An oval over the yolk: a shadow of depression or confusion has been looming and is beginning to be released. Positive mantras identifying favorable characteristics about the person should be uttered repeatedly, along with repeated cycles of limpias, done at the same time of the day, day after day, until the person feels good. When the person feels good, limpias can be done less frequently.

· Specks of red or black in the yolk: jealousy, which may have been directed at the person and stifling them, has been released.

· Specks of white around the yolk: the person has not been honoring themselves.

· Something attached to the yolk that has a dark appearance: Sometimes when you crack a raw egg there are strands of egg white attached to the yolk. This is normal. But when there is a dark appearance on the strands, parasitic astral activity has been released.

· Shape of the yolk: the platica makes it possible to understand more about the shape. One common example is when the yolk has taken the shape of a fetus. Typically, this occurs when we have just begun to do soul retrieval work from a time when the client was a baby or in the womb. This is common for people whose birth was unexpected and were told or treated as if they were not wanted.

Clearing the Dense Energy of Three Friends

Robert, one of my clients, periodically comes in to see me for cleansing from the work he does as a santero. During one of our platicas, I was strongly guided to do an egg limpia for him. Afterward the water was murky and showed three outlines of bodies with bubble heads that were detaching themselves from the yolk. I had a sense that I should ask about three people in his life with whom he was currently having issues. A story came out about two friends, whom he had known since his adolescence and who were still involved in shady activities. He was currently considering whether he should part ways with them. He had already parted ways with one of them but was planning to see the other gentleman later that week. There was also another lady, who, according to him, kept sending him mixed messages about their relationship.

He was confused about these three people. He indicated that ultimately he felt a relationship with them was no longer beneficial for him, but he still cared greatly for them.

I guided the platica toward a further release, and for him to have a path of clarity and focus about what honored him in regard to his relationship with these people.

He decided to stop associating with these people. He felt his relationship with them no longer honored his current path.

Perla’s Fibromyalgia Is Resolved

Perla had been suffering from fibromyalgia for almost two years. The symptoms were cyclical and seemed to be exacerbated by stress. She would feel pains and weakness throughout her body, coupled with intense lethargy, which was adversely affecting her work and personal life.

The first time she came to see me, Perla broke down and cried as she shared her frustration with this inexplicable illness that did not seem to be getting better. After our platica, I did an egg sweep, followed by an herbal barrida. After our journeying to clear residual energies of this illness, I read the egg. It looked as if it had something dark attached to it, and the water was incredibly murky. I sensed that what had been draining Perla was something astral and parasitic in nature.

Perla came to see me two weeks later. Her fibromyalgia symptoms had not surfaced in the meantime. But she admitted that she was still incredibly frightened that they would return. I knew we had to begin to do soul retrieval work regarding the trauma she experienced from her diagnosis and from having her life disrupted by something Western medicine could not treat. It took a few months to discover, heal, and release allowances that permitted the thing that had been released from the egg limpia from coming back. It has been fourteen months since she first came to me, and her symptoms have not returned.

CAN YOU DO LIMPIAS ON YOURSELF?

Sometimes I am asked whether you can do a barrida or an egg limpia on yourself. I don’t recommend it. Rather I recommend fire limpias, such as sahumerios or white fire limpias with spoken prayers, velaciónes, or baños.

But if a barrida or an egg limpia strongly resonates with you and you really want to do one on yourself, place a red yarn over the hand chakra (in the center of the palm) of your dominant hand, and follow the steps above. The red yarn stops energy from coming back into you.