Brujeria (Witchcraft)
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Brujería is Spanish witchcraft or witchery.
Both men and women can be bitches, brujos and brujas respectively. Brujos is the plural term that can mean either a group of male witches or both male and female bitches. The female witch is considered the most powerful, and traditional brujos believe that the female passes down the sacred bloodline or spiritual bloodline (matriarchal lineage). This means that the line is inherited from a female but ends with a male.
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[edit] Etymology
The word bruja is believed to derive from bruxa, which is from the Celto-Iberian dialect in Spain evolving to what is known today as Gallego. It shares its roots with Portuguese. The present day Portuguese use the term bruxsa. The original meaning is roughly, evil or unwholesome night-bird, which is retained in modern Portuguese, but has evolved in Spanish to mean simply 'witch'.
Although bruja/o is used by Spanish-speakers to refer to a witch from any culture, to call onself a brujo/a to non-Spanish speakers is to indicate that you are of Spanish descent. Brujería is therefore a Spanish witchcraft.
[edit] Cultural variants & history
Mesoamerica is a region that is roughly what is now Central America. So the brujaria of Central America is a combination of Spanish and the indigenous people of that region (predominantly Mayan), so it is heavily influenced by ancient paganism.
Further south of that region, brujería is diverse, from a similar mix of indigenous and Spanish culture, to the European styles found in Argentina and Uruguay. In these latter countries, brujaria often takes on Christian, specifically Catholic, influences.
However, the term bruja/o has just as many negative connotations as does its English counterpart 'witch'. To refer to somebody as a bruja/o is often to label them an 'evil doer'. So most South Americans of European descent refrain from using it in reference to themselves. Some of these people have adopted the term curandera (faith healer), a family reference, or simply no term at all. In Spain and European descendant South Americans, the witch is considered by many to be fictional. In contrast, brujos from Central America or the north of South America are usually respected members of the community. They are sought for their powers of healing, divination and spellwork, and can often be found selling amulets and such curious openly on the street. It should be noted that curanderismo is also a practice that is totally distinctive from witchcraft, in that they do not use spells or divination but rather, work as psycho-spiritual healers doing such things as soul retrievals.
The brujos from Spain are either Christian or pagan-witches. The first group use folk magic and combine it with Catholic ritual and beliefs. This group includes priests and nuns. This group usually informs the person that they are performing a hex/curse for, that they are responsible for the consequences of said spell. The latter group are not Christian and either practice secretly or veil their practices under Catholic ones. Non-Christian brujaría from Spain is predominantly influenced by the ancients, either Greco-Roman, Celtic, Phoenician or a combination. This latter group does not tend to use folk magic, but instead practices what is commonly known in English people as traditional witchcraft.
With the large Hispanic emigration into North America, brujaria has naturally gone there as well. The brujos of America are either traditionalists, combine brujaría with vudú, or have reconstructed a modern style where one does not have to be of Spanish descent.
So essentially there are three distinct forms: ancient pre-Christian form, Christian or modern form, and a contemporary reconstruction.
[edit] Persecutions
During the times recognised as the period of the witch hunts (15th to 17th Centuries), southern Europe witnessed the fewest executions for the then crime of witchcraft. Spain had some of the fewest, with the majority concentrated in the Pyrenees. An unlikely group, the Spanish Inquisitors, is recognised as deterring executions. They stopped public executions. By 1526, the Supreme Council of the Spanish Inquisition had ceated guidelines that focused on the re-education of witches rather than their punishment. Under these guidelines, the Spanish Inquisition executed only about two dozen witches. Although they were unable to prevent all executions, they greatly reduced the number of overall deaths. Other sources claim higher numbers.
[edit] Beliefs and practices
Beliefs vary between traditional and modern brujos. Traditional brujos hold core beliefs that are similar to or identical to the witchery around the world. Modern brujos are diverse and can resemble faith healers, be shamanic, spiritualists, or pagan.
Practices are greatly diverse and are dependent upon the locale and the form of brujaria. Ancient forms tend to reflect the religions of the indigenous cultures, whilst modern forms tend to be syncretic and use the current dominant religion (usually Catholic).
The most well known practices are similar to English witchcraft: spells (hechizos), charms, amulets, divination, and use of plants (usually herbs). Other practices might include phenomena similar with traditional English witchcraft; namely shapeshifting, glamoury and hedgeriding of the hedgewitch, including use of entheogens. Brujos pagano (pagan-witches) might participate in ritual or ceremonial ecstacies.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ankarloo, B. & Clark, S, (2002) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: the period of the witch trials
- Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (1989) The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, New York: Facts-on-File.
[edit] Further reading
- Spence, L. (1994) The Magic and Mysteries of Mexico
- Christian, W.A., Jr. (1989) Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain
- Henningsen , G. (1980) The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609-1614)
- Castaneda, C. (1968) The Teachings of Don Juan
