In Mesoamerican beliefs, a nahual (also called nagual or nawal (from Nahuatl: nahualli 'hidden, concealed, disguise') is a kind of sorcerer or supernatural being who has the ability to take animal form. The term refers both to the person who has this ability and to the animal itself that serves as his alter ego or animal guardian.
The concept is expressed in different native languages, with different meanings and contexts. Most commonly, nahualismo is the practice or ability of some people to become animals, elements of nature or to perform acts of witchcraft.
In Maya, the concept is expressed under the word chulel, which is understood precisely as "spirit"; the word derives from the root chul, which means "divine".
According to some traditions, it is said that each person, at the moment of birth, already has the spirit of an animal, which is in charge of protecting and guiding him or her. These spirits usually manifest themselves only as an image that advises in dreams or with a certain affinity to the animal that took the person as its protégé. A woman whose nahual was a mockingbird will have a privileged voice for singing, but not all have such a light contact: it is believed that the sorcerers and shamans of central Mesoamerica can create a very close bond with their nahuals, which gives them a series of advantages that they know how to take advantage of, the vision of the sparrow hawk, the wolf's wolfhound or the ocelot's ear affirm.
Beliefs
Naguals use their powers for good or evil according to their personality. The general concept of nagualism is pan-Mesoamerican. Nagualism is linked with pre-Columbian shamanistic practices through Pre-classic Olmec and Toltec depictions that are interpreted as human beings transforming themselves into animals. The system is linked with the Mesoamerican calendrical system, used for divination rituals. Birth dates often determine if a person can become a nagual. Mesoamerican belief in tonalism, wherein every person has an animal counterpart to which their life force is linked, is drawn upon by nagualism
The Western study of nagualism was initiated by archaeologist, linguist, and ethnologist Daniel Garrison Brinton who published Nagualism: A Study in Native-American Folklore and History, which chronicled historical interpretations of the word and those who practiced nagualism in Mexico in 1894. He identified various beliefs associated with nagualism in modern Mexican communities such as the Mixe, the Nahua, the Zapotec and the Mixtec.
Description
In Mexico, the name nahuales has been given to sorcerers who can change their shape. However, it is believed that contact with their nahuales is also common among shamans who seek to benefit their community, although they do not use the ability to transform; for them, the nahual is a form of introspection that allows those who practice it to have close contact with the spiritual world, thanks to which they easily find solutions to many of the problems that afflict those who seek their advice.
Since pre-Hispanic times, the gods of the Mayan, Toltec and Mexica cultures, among others, have been attributed the power to take the form of an animal (nahual) to interact with humans. Each deity used to take one or two forms; for example, Tezcatlipoca's nahual was the jaguar, although he indistinctly used the form of a coyote, and Huitzilopochtli's was a hummingbird. According to Michoacán traditions, the nahuales sometimes transform into elements of nature, and are sometimes confused with the graniceros, although there are similar references in various cultures that lend themselves to confusion, and it is likely an amalgam of other cultures where the change of form is to elements of nature and not to animals.
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I was talking to a lib friend today who brought up Castro (they're friends with a chud who mockingly called the lib a Castro supporter, which isn't true). Now I make no claims of being educated on the Cuban revolution. I've watched some of Castro's interviews, I listened to that one season of Blowback, that's about the limit of my knowledge on Cuba. Which, in fairness to me, is still probably better than people who've only ever watched corporate news. Anyway, the lib said something like "It's a shame that Castro did the revolution and then became a dictator and did all that to his people." I say that Castro freed them from slavers and the gangster warlord Batista. They insist that Castro was a dictator, while claiming that the ruler before him was only just as bad as Castro. I say that the impoverishment of the Cuban people can be entirely blamed on the US blockade.
Without drawing this out more, I realized the lib's position was that Castro was a dictator because he didn't create a western-style democracy and he didn't surrender to the US. I think it's impossible to convince someone so thoroughly propagandized that if the US succeeded in turning Cuba back into a client state then the Cuban people would be, at the very least, just as bad off as they are now. Of course, it'd be even worse because I know Cuba has excellent healthcare (if not necessarily access to all the best medicines and equipment, because of the blockade) and I think I read once that homelessness is a non-issue, neither of which would be the case if the US had its way. I was going to suggest looking at the poverty and destitution of the people of the Philippines, but you don't even need to go that far afield. Just look at Puerto Rico, a US territory.
It's been a trip realizing that much of latent anti-communism is just western chauvinism at its core. These people are only comfortable praising governments/movements that racially and culturally resemble their own.
They seriously grade everything based on their own western conception of civil rights. Unless a country has the same speech, press, and representation laws as the USA, it's a tankie dictatorship. They can't conceive of context or situations outside of their own.
It's insane to me how everyday people I know in the US don't seem to realize how unfree they really are.
What's even the point of a state if normal people don't have to right to shelter, healthcare, food, just basic human decency? And it's not like you have to sit at the head of a global empire or be a petro-state to provide these things, it's all there for the taking. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but it does just floor me.
Just the other week I overheard a coworker say "I'm glad the troops are there to defend our freedoms" and went on to criticize how much money the military gets. Which yeah, sure, but what freedoms? What are you talking about? How did the military defend them?
How's that quote go? "In America you only have the freedom to starve"?
And you don't have the right to the basic rights guaranteed in the constitution!
Free speech? Only in designated free speech zones, and only if it doesn't violate the terms of service since there are no public forums, and if you piss off the government they'll silence you one way or another
Freedom of assembly? lol no. No permit no protest. You're distantly acquainted with someone we decided was in a gang so we're going to throw you in a cage. The park closes at 9pm. Loitering is illegal. There's no public space anywhere, anyway, and if there is it's a crime to be there if the cops decide it's a crime to be there.
Secure from unreasonable search and seizures? Well akshually all searches and seizures are reasonable, sweaty.
Keep and bear arms? Totally meaningless word salad that has never been consistently applied.
Quartering soldiers? The only time it's been tested, in an entirely clear cut violation, the courts said "nope, fuck your rights".
Right to a trial? Freedom from self incrimination? Hope you can afford a lawyer. Not that it matters, because if you don't take the plea deal we'll send you up for twenty years. Right to a speedy trial? Lol no, you'll rot in Rikers for years.
Freedom from excessive bail and fines and cruel and unusual punishments? Lol fucking get real. Just come on. No one can seriously with a straight face say that's a right in the United States.
9th amendment? Sweaty you don't even have the first eight, you sure as hell don't have any rights not specifically, clearly laid out.
10th? The feds do whatever the fuck they want.
"Rights". What a fucking joke.
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And god forbid they consider that the US is relentlessly hostile and murderous, and many of the restrictions on rights exist specifically to protect people from the depredations of the US, at least in intent.
Westerners are so high off of their own supply. They claim to be "free thinkers" yet lap up all of the propaganda feed to them by their governments. Try and defend a socialist project and they'll say that YOU are the brainwashed one and that you have fallen for that government's propaganda.
It's so silly. Like yeah, bruh. I have definitely been seduced by *checks notes* a endless deluge of extremely hostile propaganda condemning the designated enemy in ludicrous and unsubstantiated ways.