Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. - Animal Medicine: A Curanderismo Guide to Shapeshifting, Journeying, and Connecting with Animal Allies

Animal Medicine

The animal kingdom, in its love and compassion to humans, is always willing to gift us with what we need the most when our souls are in need of teachings, guidance, and medicine. We, however, have lost so much of our connections to the ancient wisdom and the shamanic practices, making it quite difficult to translate the meaning of what is being transmitted. In Animal Medicine, the great curandera Erika Buenaflor has gifted us with her deep understanding of ancient shamanism and how we can rescue our sacred relationship with animals, temples, rituals, and ageless wisdom. This book is filled with teachings and practices from a rich culture, kept sacred by the curanderx of Mesoamerica. Animal Medicine is here to inspire us to discover and develop our own spiritual path, a path leading to the healing of our body, mind, and soul. Muchas gracias, Erika Buenaflor, for your curanderas gifts to us all.

VERA LOPEZ, COAUTHOR OFSHAMANIC MYSTERIES OF PERU

As a bruja, I want to thank Erika Buenaflor from the bottom of my heart for all the research, love, and dedication she put into this book. Animal Medicine is profound, groundbreaking, and perfect for students of all levels! I am fortunate to have experienced Erikas magic in person. She is a loving and strong spirit, a conduit from times past, and her work is here to heal our future generations. I am so elated to give this book five stars for all the valuable secrets Erika shares with us. She is one of the most unique and approachable voices in the shamanic community.

VALERIA RUELAS, THE MEXICAN WITCH AND AUTHOR OF COSMOPOLITAN LOVE POTIONS

Filled with information and experiential exercises to give you a first-person perspective, this book is a delightful deep dive into Mesoamerican shamanic wisdom! Buenaflors work is not only valuable for exploring animal spirits from the curanderx perspective but will also augment the relationships with spirits you have already encountered on your shamanic path.

EVELYN C. RYSDYK, AUTHOR OF SPIRIT WALKING, THE NORSE SHAMAN, AND THE NEPALESE SHAMANIC PATH (WITH BHOLA BANSTOLA)

Erika Buenaflor has added significantly to our understanding of curanderismo with her three previous books dealing with cleansing rituals, soul retrieval, and sacred energy. Her new book, Animal Medicine, adds to an ever-expanding examination of curanderismo and shamanism, which cannot be complete without understanding the role that animal spirits play in the esoteric and mystical world of human experience.

ANTONIO NO ZAVALETA, PH.D., AUTHOR OF CURANDERO: HISPANIC ETHNO-PSYCHOTHERAPY & CURANDERISMO

With Animal Medicine, Erika Buenaflor lays an offering at our feet of how to commune with nature and access our animal guides. This comprehensive text is a must-read for anyone looking to connect with ancient Mesoamerican traditions that help us understand our physical world, dreams, animal meanings, myth, and symbolic discourse.

ANGLICA M. YAEZ, PH.D.,EDITOR OF UNITED STATES HISTORY FROM A CHICANO PERSPECTIVE

Erika Buenaflor has both researched and had in-depth experience to gather an incredible wealth of wisdom teachings on animal medicine to assist journeyers in their deep connection with animal spirits and allies. If you have a desire to understand how to work with animal medicine, this is definitely the book for you! The imagery is provocative and stirring to the psyche, opening the consciousness to the inner journey.

LINDA STAR WOLF, PH.D., CREATOR OF VENUS RISING AND SHAMANIC BREATHWORK JOURNEYS AND AUTHOR OF SHAMANIC BREATHWORK

Animal Medicine is a very heartfelt and authentically researched addition to the kingdoms of animal spirit literature and wisdom. Long live Itzamna!

JAMES ENDREDY, AUTHOR OFADVANCED SHAMANISM AND SHAMANIC ALCHEMY

Introduction to Ancient Mesoamerican and Curanderismo Animal Symbolism

The people of ancient Mesoamerica largely understood the fauna around them to be related to and manifestations of the sacred and the cosmos. Animals were thought to serve as messengers or agents for deities or other supernatural beings, connected people with a particular deity or sacred phenomenon, and provided omens. Lay people, fisherman, hunters, and farmers engaged in ritual animal invocations to ensure success in hunting and fishing, prevent animals from doing damage to their fields, and deter ants from certain areas and actions.

Animals were also prominent in the peoples myths and legends and served as models and metaphors for their social and natural worlds and symbolic discourse. In addition, they could be found in emblem glyphs of dynasties and may have served as designated guides that were transmitted from one ruler to another within the same dynastic line. within their divinatory (260 days) calendar. The innate gifts and powers that animals were understood to embody, represent, and provide access to made them critical actors in the political, religious, and cultural life.

This book will delve into the symbolic discourse and ceremonial rites the ancient Mesoamerican peoples assigned to particular animals and explore the two most common ways we can connect with animals to gain access to their gifts and medicine. The first way is to develop a relationship with them in the physical and spiritual/dream realms and cultivate a symbolic method of communication with them. The second way is through shapeshifting, and this definitely encompasses the physical shapeshifting we see in popular horror movies.

In Mesoamerican curanderismo and shamanic traditions there are many ways to shapeshift into an animal, including etheric, astral, joining, bilocation, and physical shapeshifting. Etheric shapeshifting typically involves shifting into an animal through the subtle bodiesthe etheric, the emotional, and the mentalthat are closest to the physical body. Astral shapeshifting involves shifting through our astral body and is often identified as having an out-of-body experience, or OBE. Joining commonly involves projecting our consciousness into an animal, and bilocation occurs when a persons animating soul energy splits, with one half shifting into an animal form (or some other form) and the other half remaining in the physical body. Physical shapeshifting is when the physical body transforms into an animal.

Despite the rather ubiquitous and diverse traditions of animal shapeshifting in ancient Mesoamerica, popular books on the subject are either unaware of or simply ignore these rich traditions despite the fact that contemporary ethnographies report that they still exist in indigenous towns throughout Mexico and Guatemala. On the academic front, while some of these practices were recorded by early sixteenth and seventeenth ethnographers, the analysis of them is sometimes guided by limited understanding of shapeshifting practices or dichotomizing tendencies that link particular practices with either nonmalicious or malicious practices without exploring their complex multivalent symbolism. Modern analysis also often ignores the possibility that these rites were understood as or operated in quantum fields, where many things can be happening at one time, especially if the practitioner has a high degree of mastery over their animating soul energies.