The devil of witchcraft in the Amazon.

The devil of witchcraft in the Amazon.

Unlike many other similar posts that you may have read on the internet before, if you already know my work as a writer and blogger, you know that I do not summarize what others write, there are others writing about it, I prefer to focus on writing about what I know, and that implies (most of the time) that many other authors and writers are going to completely disagree with me, but that's what my blog has always been about, writing from my perspective and experience, even when this It sounds a bit arrogant on my part, but I think the diversity of views is important in these issues.

Already after rambling a bit to introduce you to the topic (something silly but necessary), now to return here to the topic we came to, several months ago I posted a very silly phrase on my twitter account due to an entirely personal situation, the tweet read the following:

“In my culture, we do not venerate the devil and in my family, we never discuss if it exists or not, but if he goes around I think he owes me a couple of favors 🤔 where are my devil?”.

And as expected, he receives more questions and doubts than he expected, and it is understandable, in this modern hodgepodge of witchcraft / Wicca / paganism, where everything seems to enter but nothing can come out, and everything ends up transforming into something much in there. more ethnic and weird, and that really doesn't bother me at all, this only seems to piss off some 'pseudo-keyboard activists' who fight “at heart” against something they call cultural appropriation.

The topic to be discussed here is about the devil's belief in witchcraft, although I recognize that I am not the most qualified to talk about the subject, I am sure that this will help as support material for others in the future, at least as a reference, Maybe because of my origin and ethnicity.

The devil, this charismatic, eccentric, witty and vivacious Christian folklore character who seems to earnestly gain more followers than his apparent creator and father, is today (and perhaps always has been, I don't know that) one of the most common characters in folklore linked to witchcraft and magic.

Something that I understand, admire and respect greatly, is that many modern wizards and pagans come from the Catholic religion, and many of them for that reason tend to include the belief in this 'malevolent' character as part of their practice, which although not It seems to correspond to them, in a way it has been linked to the witches since the time of the persecution, if my mother said "it is totally absurd to persecute someone for venerating something they do not believe", I also understand that persecutors of witches accused them of venerating the devil for being what they identified with evil, especially because certain verses of the Old Testament promote the taking of immoral actions against witches, which he repeatedly calls " Demon lovers. ”

Perhaps for practitioners of black magic and other forms of dark arts, I am referring here to true practitioners who perform rituals and invocations, not those who read hundreds of books and do not practice anything (usually they know much less than they believe ), these in their practice venerate the figure of evil in the form of the devil, and the few that I have known in my personal life, assure me that they believe in the devil and venerate him in different ways, not publicly (or attending any church), and they claim to receive huge favors, benefits, and powers from this character.

Now, in my case and from my point of view, the first time I remember hearing that word "devil", I remember that I was 10 years old, I was waiting for my mother outside of school, she arrived entirely dressed in white, because she was at that time living her stage of 'iyaworaje' as a follower of Santería, and I clearly remember that Professor Lucía Ramírez, commented to another of the representatives “oh yes, that is the lady who is diabolic”, I I kept quiet and when I got in the car, I asked my Mom, she only replied “oh, the devil is the one to blame for everything”, she has always been very crude to answer about these types of issues, not telling me nothing else, I waited until I got home and asked the same question to my sisters, one of them 'Neyiber' replied that the devil was a kind of dark god that “certain people” revere and others are afraid of, and every time someone does something wrong, or something bad happens and the reasons are not understood, they simply blame him.

I continued with the doubt for some time, perhaps because I have never been very sociable, especially in school so I did not ask anyone, on the contrary, I waited until I got some books and a dictionary to inform me about the subject, and although with the passing of I have continued to have many doubts about this, at least I have informed myself much more and a broader view on the subject.

"There are no devils in witchcraft and magic" ...

So says an old saying that many preach and I believe in him, but I understand that this is a matter of perspective that plays with the beliefs of the origin of each individual, some believe that the devil is the one who gives his powers to the witches, others think that he works directly with the witches who seek to do evil, and not with other witches, the Wiccans see it as something alien to their practice, pagan wizards mostly refuse to believe in it, I personally see it as one of many myth-surviving gods, as a kind of dark god, a trickster like Loki, and from what I have read I understand that he was a beautiful and wise angel of light who was in a way, punished for believing himself as great as his creator, I see him as a representation of rebellion and freedom, an archetype of the rebellious and tempting god that you can find in all myths, and obviously an ingenious master of sorcery.

My experience in the Amazon.

If you have the opportunity to visit the Amazon, and if you can visit the Wayuu and Caribbean tribes, you will understand that the devil is a belief entirely alien to them, they do not understand it for different reasons, mostly because the beliefs of origin teach them that gods are unequivocally flat, the gods of light only give children of light and the gods and dark spirits only bring darkness, but it is difficult for them to understand that a god of light has a perfect child and it is revealed.

Most of the Amazonian folklore is recorded in old books that are contained in the national public library of Venezuela, and which, unfortunately, on issues of Economy and Government, have not had the opportunity to be digitized, so what many of us know, We know really very little, in the vicinity of the Orinoco River some healers of the old school call it “awujii” (the one that was brought), referring to the Amazonian legend that tells the arrival of some clouds over the blue sea, and in whose clouds full of iron men came a spirit of redemption and light, and a dark spirit that would bring misfortunes, temptations and death to the tribes.

For them clearly the devil is something completely alien to their faith, but if you visit those aboriginal peoples that survive in the vicinity of the border with Colombia, where the Catholic faith has mixed and diversified with the native pagan faith, where the Cults of the different gods, the devil is known as "the pinzao" a horrendous demon with burned skin, four eyes without pupils on the face and bat wings, the size of a dog that moves among the trees and deceives the who get lost at night, take the form of the deceased and give sweet gifts to children and treasures to adult men and women in exchange for serving them for life, these men, women, and children who fall under their influence become sorcerers who fly at night and transform into all kinds of animals, and this character "the pinzao" can possess their bodies to walk in the human world and have sex.

Now, the indigenous indigenous groups of the Yaracuy state, the caquetíos, gayones and jiraxaras, see the devil as an annoying "pixie" that grants all kinds of wishes in exchange for granting him three favors, one at dawn, one at sunset and one at midnight, that pixie seems to have many names for them, but they all clearly describe him always with the same characteristics, a dwarf man with very dark purple skin, pointed ears, always naked and with six fingers on each hand.

In the Amazonian folklore there is also the figure of “Aworie”, described with all the characteristics of a faun, a bearded man of short stature with animal legs and horns on his head, this character “Aworie” has an iron crown around of his horns which he decorates with precious stones, he is the king of the women who leave the tribe to not marry and he, grants them powers and gifts, these women then do not age and do not know the disease, can see at night and speak The tongue of all animals, these women give birth to the children of Aworie every eight moons and these children, who look like men with horns, have powers to cause disease and call thunderstorms.

Now, although I usually mention having worked with the magic books of the old school "the grimoire of Solomon", "the book of St. Cyprian" and similar ones where they always mention the character, I have never worked with him and never I have had the need to do it, clearly that is not my way, but I invite you to answer below if you have any personal experience or anecdote about it.

Hugs and lots of light...