Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

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