NAGUALISMO. — This is a belief, based on the concept of individual totemism, widespread in Mexico and Central America. The term derives from “nagual,” a word used by the indigenous peoples of Honduras and Guatemala to indicate the protecting spirit. According to Seler, the Mexican “naualli” (= witch, sorcerer) would be related to it; this, in turn, derives from a word meaning “hidden,” “unknown.”
According to this belief, every individual would have an animal as master and protector throughout life. Those who practised the secret cult, moreover, could assume at will the spirit of that animal. The power to transform oneself into the form of the protecting animal’s spirit was said to have been taught to the adepts, in the first instance, by a woman of great power, capable of assuming four forms at will.
In the esoteric cult of n., men and women danced completely naked: this led the missionary fathers to suspect that these ritual celebrations ended in orgies.
Three was a sacred number in n. The adepts used a metaphorical language. Curious examples of it were collected in the 12th century by Fr. Jacinto de la Serna: the rabbit represented air and wind; the earth was invoked as Tonan, our mother, and as “the flower that contains all flowers,” because all things emerge from its prolific womb; the earth was also designated as “the mouth that eats all mouths,” since in death it swallows all those who eat.