What is Brujeria and Curanderismo?

Brujería and Curanderismo represent a thriving and often underground. Meso- American, Mexican, and Hispanic magical system existing mostly in the southwestern United States.Brujería and Curanderismo focus on basic needs, with an emphasis on concepts such as healing, prosperity, love, fertility, retribution, and “a good death".

Brujería, and Curanderismo are quite secreted into the folds of Hispanic and Latin communities. Almost everyone within those social constructs knows where to find the local Bruja or Curandero, but an outsider new to the environment would rarely see a sign advertising their services.

Curanderismo is a vocation specific to healing on multiple levels and is culturally accepted and appreciated.

Brujería, on the other hand, is magic, and is never represented as anything else, even though healing is involved in that process as well.

Curanderos work on three different levels and may specialize in one level or use any combination of the three.

These levels are the material level (nivel material),

the mental level (nivel mental), and the spiritual level (nivel espiritual).

The material level, nivel material, addresses the outward manifestation of symptoms, such as the use of herbs in poultices, tinctures, or teas, as well aswould call what Curanderismo does, “holistic healing.” Brujería is a systemized magical practice that uses rituals, herbs, and magical tools to access the supernatural world in such a way as to create physical, mental, emotional, sexual, social, or spiritual change that manifests in our material world.

Brujería shares the perspective of Curanderismo in that it treats the client as a systematic whole. Brujos simply do so from the other side.

A Curandera sees a patient displaying symptoms in the physical world and considers whether there is also a spiritual or psychological component.

The Bruja sees a client displaying spiritual symptoms and considers whether there also is a physical or psychological component.

Unlike Hoodoo and Granny Magic, Brujería and Curanderismo use gender specific to identify those within their practices. Bruja/Brujo are The feminine and masculine names, a Bruja considered stronger. A Curandero is a male healer and a Curandera is a female healer.

Brujería and Curanderismo are the spiritual practices themselves, representing dark and light sides of the same coin. Both genders fill the same roles in Brujería and Curanderismo.

There are many people who take exception to the idea that Brujería and Curanderismo are similar practices. There are certain distinctions that set them apart, but for the most part, their ambitions are the same and their methods are the same.

Brujería and Curanderismo are not a set of techniques you can learn from a book or the internet. That may well be why there is such a lack of information out there on Mexican magic. Brujería and Curanderismo are not about memorizing the right spells and reciting incantations in the correct way. This path is not about knowing what herbs to use for healing or what acupressure point to use for pain relief.

The Bruja holds a visible, important function: she is sought for remedies for physical illness, and spells and charms to remedy emotional, romantic and social problems. Brujas work in many open-air markets in Mexico, selling herbs, charms and other objects from which customized amulets and charms may be made.

Many of their remedies for physical ailments are based on folk cures handed down through the centuries as well as elements from nature, as well as oils and other elements to condition the health, beauty, family, love relations, fortune, and career of an individual.

Brujería or witchcraft doesn’t have a hierarchical order or a community, like Catholicism, Christianity, or Buddhism. Brujos and Brujas are independent and tend to use spontaneous rituals that speak to them without traditional doctrines. Building sacred altars, the practitioners use white magic to evil black magic to cast spells and use objects to summon ancient demons.

The primary influence in Brujería and Curanderismo is something that cannot be conveyed through text. It is a feeling. The best way to sum it up is to say that one does not become a Curandera or a Bruja, one discovers that one is a Curandera or a Bruja.

The calling to Brujería and Curanderismo is a beacon to come home, not an avocation to adopt.

When Brujas and Curanderas work together, there is an energy flow that binds them together and creates circuits in which the divine power and personal energy, blended with the complimentary energy of the natural products used, can travel. The erection of that power grid is not something a person can be taught.

It is an experiential process that defies description, and it is within that structure that the real magic of Brujería and Curanderismo happens. The word Curanderismo derives from the Spanish word curar, which means “to heal.” Curanderismo is a sophisticated process of healing that goes far beyond the management of physical symptoms, to integrate spiritual and psychological components into the scope of treatment.

Primary to a curandero’s diagnosis, treatment plan, and prognosis of any condition is the evaluation of the whole of a person. In consideration of injury, illness, or misfortune, the Curandero performs a careful and detailed examination to figure psychological, social, environmental, or spiritual factors that contribute to the client’s condition, as well as the obvious physical manifestations of illness.

For the Mexican-Americans who engage a Curandera, what we think of as magic, (meaning the supernatural components of the healing process), is an integral part of the treatment of the “whole” person. The practitioner treating a woman who seeks out a charm to keep her husband from straying does so with the same evaluative and diagnostic approach they would apply to a man showing symptoms suggesting diabetes.

A healer in these traditions views disadvantage and misfortune as part of the multi-leveled network of disease. In curing the person, they consider socio- psychological components into the factors they must address within the treatment process.

Much like Granny Magic, a witch is not seen as a Pagan person who heals with herbs and engages supernatural energies through spellwork to achieve the desired outcome.

That is, in fact, what a Curandero does, almost to the letter. And yet neither a Curandera or her clients would ever dare consider what she does to be Brujería.

A Bruja is mistrusted and often ostracized, but is the last resort for those in crisis who are unable to find solutions elsewhere.

There is a presumption of malice and lack of moral or ethical restriction assigned to the Bruja. This seems to come from the willingness of the Bruja to go to extreme measures if necessary on behalf of their client.The ability and willingness to do so often generate the idea that the motives of the Brujo are always malicious, cold-hearted, or otherwise vicious.

While the Brujo is maligned, despised, and feared, the Curandero is loved, revered, and more importantly, legitimized. Both use roots, herbs, eggs, fruits, stones, crystals, candles, animal and botanical products, and divinatory tools to help their clients. Both pray with and for their clients and use energy movement to create change in their clients’ lives. Both access supernatural forces from “beyond the veil” to intervene with and influence their client’s desires.desires. Although there are still Brujas and Curanderas working throughout the United States, the practice is shrinking as modern health care choices become more available to the average Mexican-American.

History of Brujeria and Curanderismo

Native Americans have lived in what is now California for more than 13,000–15,000 years, with an estimated population of around 300,000 at the time of The Spanish invasion. The Spanish conquest brought an influx of Mexican and Spanish immigrants to what is now California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. The terrain, wildlife, and botanical environment of the western United States resembled that of Mexico, so the level of adaptation was far less extreme than that of the creators of Hoodoo or Granny Magic. The ancient practices transferred and blended almost seamlessly, creating an uninterrupted historical flow.

Those we now call Mexican-Americans were always here and their practice continued uninterrupted for centuries in what would become the United States. Originally, Mexico included parts of modern-day Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and as far east as Louisiana, as well as small parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Most of the southwestern United States was Mexico until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo created the borders that we recognize today.

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[Source|Learnreligions.com]

Source: Crossroads of Conjure By Katrina Nasbold

Source: Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca By: Rosemary Ellen Guiley