Brujería

Brujería is the Spanish word for witchcraft. Both men and women can be witches, brujos and brujas respectively. Brujos is the plural term that can mean either a group of male witches or both male and female witches. 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.

Brujería has its roots in the Pre-Columbian faiths of the Aztecs and their predecessors, which have been syncrtized with Catholic beliefs, just as in Haitian Voudon and Santería. The central figure of all brujos and from whom they ultimately derive their power is Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is reputed to have appeared on Tepeyec Hill in Central Mexico in the year 1531. This hill was once the location of the central shrine to the Aztec mother goddess, Tonantzín. Tonantzín was called by many names, including Tlazolteotl ("Eater of Filth") and Coatlcue ("Serpent Skirt"), but she was best known as the Mother of the Gods. Another being often consulted is El Negro, sometimes said to be Satan and sometimes the albino saint Martine de Porres.

Traditions from European witchcraft and even voodoo have also crept into brujería over the years. Brujería today is mostly practiced by women in the privacy of their homes. They sometimes congregate in groups know as cofradías, roughly equivalent to a witch coven. Most brujos are experienced in the use of spells (hechizos), charms, amulets, divination, and use of plants (usually herbs). Other practices might include shapeshifting, glamoury and the use of entheogens. Brujos who primarily practice healing and herb work are known as curanderos. There are also diableras ("bad witches") who have made pacts with nefarious beings and are known to hex anyone for a price. Sometimes the curandero is able to contact the diablera through supernatural means and demand that the curse or spell be removed. In more severe cases, the curandero may have to direct a spell toward the diablera and defeat her on the spiritual level in order to force her to remove the evil directed toward the victim.