Observations placeholder
Sahagun - Aztecs and Mexica - Of sorcerors and death prayers
Identifier
011478
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Sahagun - fromThe Daily Life of the Aztecs – Jacques Soustelle
… At the opposite pole of the religious world to the priests, there were the magicians and the sorcerers, the formidable experts in spells, who were believed to have such wide and multifarious powers.
They could change themselves into animals; they knew magic words 'that bewitch women and turn affections wherever they choose'; and their spells could kill from a great way off. There were men magicians and women magicians; and they kept their dark practices hidden.
But for all that they were known well enough for people to come by night to buy their aid.
It was said their power came from their having been born under a malignant sign -'one - rain', or 'one - wind'- and that for their purposes they always waited for a day that came under a -sign favourable to them. The figure nine, which was the figure of the night-gods and of hell and of death, was particularly auspicious for them.