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can’t tell you all the names of the Spirits because you have no sastun and it<br />
would weaken their powers.<br />
“People rarely honor the Spirits anymore,” continued Panti sadly as he<br />
stuffed the leaves in his sack. “They have no respect for the Lord of the<br />
cornfield. If you ask them to honor the Lord they will only laugh at you and<br />
say, ‘What Lord of the cornfield? I’m the only lord here. I don’t believe in<br />
your old Spirits, old man. We don’t need them anymore.’ But now look at<br />
the ugly corn they harvest and the droughts. They need the Spirits more<br />
than they know.<br />
“And our Spirits need the Primicias. It is through the Primicia that they<br />
are invited into the world of mortals. It is through the Primicias that our<br />
prayers are answered and the Spirits have life.”<br />
I had long been curious about his <strong>Maya</strong> Spirits, which he also referred<br />
to as Segundo Dios, second to God or the Right Hand of God, and I asked<br />
what they looked like.<br />
“We don’t see them as people <strong>with</strong> faces and bodies, but only see and<br />
feel their presence in the Winds. They are in and of the Winds and come to<br />
the earth in these same Winds,” he sang out. “The lightning is their<br />
machete. Their backs are visible in the flashes of lightning that tear across<br />
the skies during storms. The thunder is the sound of their voices.”<br />
With his machete in his right hand, standing tall, he mimicked the sound<br />
and fury of thunder and lightning.<br />
“Boooooom, kaboooom, boooooom, kaboooom,” he shouted <strong>with</strong> great<br />
stage presence, whirling his machete over his head.<br />
“They sound frightening,” I said.<br />
“No, no, noooh, they are very good friends,” he exclaimed excitedly. In<br />
the <strong>Maya</strong> religion, God and Spirits intermingle <strong>with</strong> mortals in every phase<br />
of life, he said. The Spirits are almost always friendly except when they see<br />
radio, television, and incest. “They get lonely and long to help us <strong>with</strong><br />
everything,” he said. “Whatever we need they are there. If we only ask.”<br />
I thought of them as the Oversoul of the Latin peoples, similar to our<br />
concept of guardian angels or, perhaps more accurately, the archangels like<br />
Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel—the big honchos of the spiritual realm.<br />
Don Elijio said that other lesser Spirits look after every plant and<br />
animal. He called these duenos or Lords, and like the Celtic elves and<br />
fairies, they were elusive and mischievous.