Erika Buenaflor - 28 May

Curanderismo
SOUL RETRIEVAL

Erika Buenaflor writes about a topic that is near and dear to me and my students of traditional medicine at the University of New Mexico. She has researched and clarified soul retrieval practices that we refer to as energetic/spiritual cleansings or limpias that are still used in traditional medicine practices around the world, especially Mexico. Her writings have linked limpias to the four cardinal directions connecting us to Mother Earth. Erika has offered an appreciation of Mesoamerican culture and wisdom in regard to holistic healing of body, mind, and spirit.

ELISEO CHEO TORRES, ADMINISTRATOR AND PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO AND AUTHOR OF CURANDERISMO: THE ART OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE WITHOUT BORDERS

Once again Erika Buenaflor has written a very useful and insightful text based on Mesoamerican healing practicesthis time specifically on soul retrieval, or the reclaiming of our sacred energy force. Her sensitive and informed treatment of this much-needed practice in our current times relies on ancient indigenous knowledge that helps us return to our authentic selves in relationship to the sacred cosmic forces. The authors reclaiming of this knowledge while being aware of adaptations for modern living is most relevant to those interested in the spiritual and healing powers of the original cultures of this continent.

LARA MEDINA, PH.D., PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CHICANA AND CHICANO STUDIES AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Erika Buenaflors book demystifies one of curanderismos most frequently treated health conditionssusto, or soul loss. The frequently undiagnosed and misunderstood condition of soul loss requires the treatment of soul retrieval, which may only be addressed by a curanderx. Buenaflors understanding of soul retrieval renders susto and its treatment understandable for all.

TONY ZAVALETA, PH.D., COAUTHOR OF CURANDERO CONVERSATIONS AND AUTHOR OF EL NIO FIDENCIO AND THE FIDENCISTAS

This book is the transformational work of a skillful and knowledgeable guide. Buenaflor has gathered many difficult-to-access historical sources from the indigenous peoples of Mexico and studied them with deep respect and attention. To help us retrieve the broken pieces of ourselves, Buenaflor has done a remarkable work of retrieval and translation, coaxing ancient texts and images to speak to us today from centuries and ages past. Readers will feel themselves transported into the religious and spiritual realms of the historical Mexican sacred and then guided back into the present to consider how they might be used by healers today.

JENNIFER SCHEPER HUGHES, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE

This book provides an excellent inroad to understanding shamanic healing as it was practiced in ancient times by the Maya and Mexica, especially when it comes to soul retrieval. This is not a topic that is easy to research, but Erika Buenaflor has done a profound study of a wealth of anthropological and ancient sources to provide a comprehensive view. Modern people are not always aware that the four cosmic directions are real (and actually quantized) powers to which they are always connected. Yet, from this book we can learn about how to make use of them for healing.

CARL JOHAN CALLEMAN, PH.D., AUTHOR OF THE MAYAN CALENDAR AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

In our day and age where we are experiencing an epidemic of soul loss in our world, our planet needs the medicine found within Erika Buenaflors work Curanderismo Soul Retrieval. Bringing back the heart and shamanic medicine found within Mesoamerica, Buenaflor takes readers on a shamanic journey where she details the soul retrieval practices and ceremonies found within the ancient world of the Mexica and Maya shamans. Whether youre an advanced shamanic practitioner seeking to enrich your shamanic tool box or youre seeking ways to heal and transform your life, this book will have shamanic magic and medicine for you.

LINDA STAR WOLF, PH.D., AUTHOR OF SHAMANIC BREATHWORK, FOUNDER OF VENUS RISING ASSOCIATION FOR TRANSFORMATION, AND CREATOR OF THE SHAMANIC BREATHWORK PROCESS

Introduction

When I Realized I was Disassociated from My Indigenous Spirit, I Realized I had been in a Numb Liminal Middle Space, Nepantla, Not Here or There

I Realized A Critical Part of Me was Missing

Through this Realization, Nepantla, then Became a Liminal Space of Conflict, Confusion, and Purgatory

A Space Where I Began My Metamorphoses into Various Warriors of Light, Reclaiming Myself, and Becoming Unshakeable Faith

As I Embraced Faith, I Embraced Myself, and Saw Through The Illusions of Separateness, Conflict, and Confusion

Then, I began to Embrace and Surf the Waves of Nepantla

Nepantla as a Liminal Middle Space Became an Unfixed Metaphorical Space, An Axis Mundi, A World Tree that acts as a Bridge to All Worlds, Realities, and Dimensions

I remembered my Infinite Essence, I Am That I Am

The Xicana, Bruja, Curandera, Feminist Scholar, That I Adore, began to Love, Flow, and Transfigure with Nepantla

And it was at this Point That My Indigenous Spirit Came Back Home Into My Sacred Heart

BY ERIKA BUENAFLOR

T his book delves into a shamanic healing tradition that is grounded in ancient Mesoamerican principles. It shows how to facilitate soul retrieval using an eclectic Latin American shamanic healing practice called curanderismo. It treats soul retrieval (known as susto in Spanish) as a dynamic process and, most importantly, fosters a lasting retrieval of lost soul pieces. Rather than simply assuming that the first trance journey or session will result in a lasting soul retrieval, or that someone is truly ready for the integration (as numerous soul retrieval modalities do), it provides a more fluid approach that can encompass various scenarios and types and degrees of traumas. It honors the deep healing processes that soul retrieval typically entails.

This soul retrieval practice is premised on the ancient Mesoamerican belief that our soul is contained by our physical body but also extends beyond it to connect to the infinite intelligence of the personal and collective consciousness and existence. It is also based on the understanding that the soul is sacred essence energy that animates and sustains the health and well-being of the physical body, internal energy centers, and the subtle energetic bodiesmental, emotional, etheric, astral, celestial, and causal. (Throughout this book I will use the terms soul and sacred essence energy interchangeably.) The soul can leave the body as a way of coping with a challenging situation or a cluster of them.

Soul loss can happen in varying degrees, depending on the type of trauma, how it is experienced, temporal and spatial occurrences, and many other complex and intertwined circumstances. Unfortunately, the loss of a part or parts of our soul typically manifests in negative ways, including recurrent difficult patterns, physical ailments, depression, insomnia, and other misfortunes. These symptoms will continue to occur and play out in different ways until we begin to address and retrieve the loss of our soul piece(s). Soul pieces that have not returned, or have left once again, have done so typically because the person is engaging in or allowing some kind of analogous circumstances that caused the soul loss in the first place.