We had only traveled a short distance along the narrow, bumpy road to the most sensitive of a sacred hill in the state of Mexico when Judi asked Javier to feel the car more: we had to ask the volcano in the domain to be allowed to pass. .
“When you enter safe spaces, you have to say hello, especially when it’s a ritual,” he said. “You have to ask permission from nature and whoever the [spirits] owners of the space are. “
Permission will also have to be sought on other occasions, he explained, even if someone heads to a space on the hill. “You have to ask permission to pass,” he says.
We climbed this hill to participate in a request for rain, an ancient ritual to ask for rain from the spirits. Judi placed her order to the volcano and we continued.
The rain rituals, which go back thousands of years, are carried out in many towns of the Valley of Mexico and Puebla during the month of May, many of them are discovered in the mountainous diversity of sierra Nevada and are located near the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.
The shamans who run them are called graniceros and are descendants of the lineage of the priests of Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain.
“They are called graniceros because, in addition to asking for rain, they will perform rituals to hunt hail [hail], which can destroy crops,” said Javier, who has studied and written about them. “Each barn has its own prayers. ” and sacred formulas and some elements you can use to deflect the clouds. These ceremonies and rituals have replaced very little in many years.
Barns touch minds to cure diseases, he said.
After Javier parked the car outdoors in a fenced domain and we were ready to leave, Judi passed a lemon to each of us. “We will go through a cemetery,” he said. Lime will protect us from evil spirits. “
Fourteen more people accumulated at the foot of the small path leading to the cross where the ritual would be performed. Before climbing, we sprayed ourselves with flowery water – flowery water on various grasses. “We put it so that evil spirits do not penetrate. “It’s a protection,” Diego said.
The petition began with the performance of a song of a short song that is sung in Catholic churches: “Hello white dove / Today I come to greet you / I salute your beauty / In your heavenly kingdom. “
“There is an ancient, Catholic arrangement,” said Gerardo, the barn who led the petition.
“For us Christ is the one and the mountain is the Virgin,” added Esmeralda, a granicera. “For me it is the same to sing to the Virgin as to Iztaccíhuatl.
Gerardo then cleaned the cross with incense, and we followed him in turn.
Three small cups were buried on the floor and a guy named Raymundo placed a mirror nearby, surrounding it with cotton, the cuts, which constitute hills or mountains, were filled with water and covered with earth. The mirror – and constituted – the sky, and cotton constituted the clouds.
Esmeralda carried a basket full of confetti and rose petals around the cross, handles of any projection in the air, evoking the symbol of a rainbow, then the organization began to paint cleaning the domain and decorating the cross with flowers.
“The white flowers are the clouds that bring the rain,” Javier said, “and the blue ones constitute the sky. “
The offerings, some of which were very, such as fruits, vegetables, bread, beer and tequila, were then placed around the base of the cross.
“What we dream of, we bring,” Jeimi said. For example, I brought fruit and bread because dreams, that’s what they asked me to do. “
Dreaming Barns are sent across volcanoes. “Everyone in this region is that all of nature has spirits,” Javier said, “mountains, caves, volcanoes. “
Once the offerings were deposited, the barns stood in front of the cross, holding small bowls with water, Gerardo led them in a brief ritual, after which they threw the water into the air imitating the rain, then we had to leave.
“We transmit so that the spirits can eat alone,” Diepass said. “We will eat and then [return] the percentage of food and drinks with them. “
An hour later, after a giant meal under a tree, we returned to the to consume the offerings with the spirits, but not all the offerings.
“There are foods that we don’t take because the volcanoes that gave the impression to other people in dreams told them what they wanted,” Diego said. “And so, for example, they told Judi to bring vegetables, and the other woman was invited. “to bring chocolates and rice and mole and meat, which is exclusive to [spirits]. “
A barn took a giant bottle of hot beer, waved it and sprinkled the remaining offerings and the cross with foam, this also to imitate the falling rain.
After an hour, it was time to leave the ritual area again. Gerard performed a rite to ask the spirits to return to their place. “The doors to the global other are closed,” he said.
We went downstairs to continue eating, drinking tequila and conviviencia.
These rituals are not cultural artifacts, something that is done only for the show. Barns and many other people in this region deeply are of very important importance.
“It’s still going to rain in the global because there are many who do this,” Gerardo said, explaining that it is a commitment he is making. “If we don’t end this, the spirits will punish us Array. . like [us” ] in poor health or not feeling well. »
“This rite is vital for rain and for us not to make the land,” Esmeralda said. “It is said that graniceros rain, but no. They are at the service of the lords of water, and they [the spirits] make a decision whether to give us water or not. We only bring what they ask us.
It is transparent that a ritual like this builds and strengthens the network and connects other people with an afterlife that goes back millennia, and also teaches respect for the planet.
If a user, as I have been told by several participants, that everything – mountains, rivers, volcanoes – has spirit, it is much more complicated to contaminate or destroy it and, graniceros and participants firmly, the ritual brings rain. can you say no?
The weather forecast for the region had forecast a 25% chance of rain that day. While we were drinking tequila and talking under a tree after the ceremony, it rained.
“The lord sends us the rain,” Jeimi said.
• Gerardo and other graniceros and participants were very friendly and open about their beliefs, which allowed me to photograph and interview without restrictions, only asking me to identify the location of the petitions or use full names. Some names have also been changed. — JS
Joseph Sorrentino, writer, photographer and ebook San Gregorio Atlapulco: Cosmvisiones and Stinky Island Tales: Some Stories from an Italian-American Childhood, is a regular contributor to the Mexico News Daily. You will find other examples of his photographs and links to other articles in www. sorrentinophotography. com Lately lives in Chipilo, Puebla.
When Joseph Sorrentino’s posameter failed him on a photographic expedition to the remote domain of Oaxaca, he learned more about a local deity of the town.
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