Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Allspice Pimienta Gorda Pimenta dioica
The berries and leaves of this common tropical tree are used as a household tea to correct indigestion
and childhood colic and to warm the body during cold weather. Women make a sitz bath of the leaves
boiled in water to relieve menstrual cramps. The berry is a popular spice added to many local Belize
dishes. The crushed berry is part of the ancient Maya embalming formula.
The Maya Spirits use dreams, Don Elijio told me, to communicate with
people they have chosen as H’mens.
As a warning, so I wouldn’t be frightened by their arrival, he described
the sensations I would experience—a sort of tugging and pulling just before
the dream begins. “Sometimes it even feels like little gremlins are crawling
all over you with furry bodies and bony hands. But don’t panic, whatever
you do, because then the Spirits will leave.”
“What? Gremlins! Furry bodies! Bony fingers! In my sleep? Don Elijio,
do they do that to you?” I could hear hysteria creeping into my voice.
“Yes, child, almost every night. I’m used to them now. Sometimes I tell
them to go away and let an old man sleep. They come to look for
companionship and to let me know that a dream is about to begin.”
He instructed me to say an Our Father if I felt afraid. It would protect
me from the evil spirits, who also try to slip into dreams. “Now, they are
frightening and evil, but that won’t happen if you do as I say.”
“What if I faint or scream out?”
“You won’t. Just have faith. Have faith. I’ll teach you a new prayer to
empower your sastun. You will gaze into the crystal and say this prayer nine
times every Friday ever after. While you pray, make the sign of the cross on
both sides of the sastun, dipping your finger into a bit of rum.
“Sastun, sastun,” he chanted. “With your great power I ask that you tell
me all I want to know. Teach me to understand the signs and visit me in all
my dreams to give me the answers I seek. I have faith with all my heart that
this sastun will answer my prayers. God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit.”