Latina Leadership Lessons from La Bruja: A Different View of the Supernatural/ Spiritual Connection

From guest blogger Sandra del Castillo, mythologist, writer, and performance artist – a comment on Maria Sabina.

It begins w/an excerpt of her chants during the velada ceremony and concludes with a very brief overview of her work, from a mythopoetic viewpoint

María Sabina: March 17, 1894- November 22, 1985,
Huatla, Oaxaca, Mexico

“Holy Mary, says
She is the Morning Star woman, says
She is the Cross Star woman, says
She is the Constellation of the Sandal woman, says
She is the Hook Constellation woman, says
I am the little woman of the great expanse of the waters, says
I am the little woman of the expanse of the divine sea, says
Holy Father, says
She is a saint woman, says
She is a hummingbird woman, says
She is a humming bird woman, says
She is a woman with vibrant wings, says
She is a woman of good words, says
Of good words, good breath, good saliva, says
…I am woman who looks into the insides of things and investigates, says
I am a woman of sap, says
I am a woman of the dew, says
I am a green woman, says
I am a woman of clarity, says
There is nobody who frightens us, says
There is nobody hovering around, says
I am a woman who cleans, says”

-María Sabina during a velada

The mythopoetic chants of the beloved Mazatec wise woman María Sabina are timeless, their healing power, transformative and palpable. Deemed transmissions from what Henry Munn referred to as the mushrooms of language, the shamaness explained, “Language belongs to the saint children. They speak and I have the power to translate.”

Jerome Rothenberg further elucidates this phenomenon in his preface to the remarkable book, Maria Sabina Her Life and Chants, by Alvaro Estrada, translated by Henry Munn; with a retrospective essay by R. Gordon Wasson, “Her qualification of each line with the word tzo - “says” is testimony to that: that it isn’t María Sabina but the unspoken he/she/it whose words these are.” He goes on to say of her chants, “here is language as medicine, its ancient function: for, as she chants, “with words we live and grow,”… and “I cured them with the language of the children.”

María Sabina called the Psilocybe mushrooms the saint children, as well as many other terms of affection. “I take Little-One-Who-Springs-Forth,” she said, “and I see God.” The mushrooms were ingested during the velada ceremony, an ancient Mesoamerican healing ceremony. Practiced at night and in secret for over 500 years after the arrival of the Spaniards to the Americas, the velada ceremony was brought to the attention of the non-indigenous western world in the 1960’s. The Beatles and Bob Dylan were among the many diverse seekers that sought out this great wise woman for her remarkable and profound healing gifts.

Sandra del Castillo is a language teacher, soon –to-be grandmother, writer, and passionate student of Mexican and Yoruba mythology. She formed and directed her own informal theatre company during her 14 year stay in Mexico called Teatro Azul, Dreams, Myth, and Legends - where she had the privilege and honor of working with professional actors, dancers, musicians, archaeologists, and shaman. She is currently compiling Mexican legends to publish and bring to life through theatre and film.