Observations placeholder
Mayan - Popol Vuh - 11 The Spirit beings of disease
Identifier
011665
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
To undersand this you need to realise that this is a shamanic journey to the Underworld and in the Underworld all the spirit beings of disease are found. All the lords are functions or systems of disease.
We find exactly the same journey having to be made by just about every initiate into the job of healer from Native American Indians to African tribal peoples. Credo Mutwa had to undergo this meeting of the lords of disease.
The objective is to hep the candidate learn about illness and thereby enable them to be a healer of illness. Unless you meet the enemy, as it were, you cannot communicate with them in trance states in the future, and find out what is wrong with a person.
A description of the experience
Popol Vuh – translated by Dennis Tedlock
AND THESE ARE THE LORDS OVER EVERYTHING, each lord with a commission and a domain assigned by One and Seven Death:
There are the lords named Scab Stripper and Blood Gatherer. And this is their commission: to draw blood from people.
Next are the lordships of Demon of Pus and Demon of Jaundice. And this is their domain: to make people swell up, to make pus come out of their legs, to make their faces yellow, to cause jaundice, as it is called.
Such is the domain of Demon of Pus and Demon of Jaundice.
Next are the lords Bone Scepter and Skull Scepter, the staff bearers of Xibalba; their staffs are just bones. And this is their staff-bearing: to reduce people to bones, right down to the bones and skulls, until they die from emaciation. This is the commission of the ones named Bone Scepter and Skull Scepter.
Next are the lords named Demon of Filth and Demon of Woe. This is their commission: just to give people a sudden fright whenever they have filth or grime in the doorway of the house, the patio of the house. Then they're struck, they're just punctured till they crawl on the ground, then die. And this is the domain of Demon of Filth and Demon of Woe, as they are called.
Next are the lords named Wing and Packstrap. This is their domain:
That people should die in the road, just "sudden death," as it is called.
Blood comes to the mouth, then there is death from vomiting blood. So to each of them his burden, the load on his shoulders: just to strike people on the neck and chest.
The source of the experience
MayanConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Communication with a Spirit helperCommunication with Intelligences
Function
Gnome
Goblin
Spirit being
System
Underworld