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Nahual

You are entering the deer's sanctuary. At the center of a great carved stone disc, a stag stands still in the dry grass, maize around him. This is the hearth, the centre the four directions run from: the gold of dawn to the east, the turquoise of noon to the south, the red of dusk to the west, the violet of night to the north. The deer is your nahual: the essence revealed in animal form.

Nahual · creative studio

Among the Nahua, a Mesoamerican people, the deer (Mazātl) is the seventh day of the sacred calendar: a messenger between worlds, associated with grace, vigilance, and the ability to hide its true nature from others. The nahual is the same idea: a human essence revealed in its true animal form, embodied here by this deer.

  1. I · The approach · He grazes in the half-light, indifferent to the path leading toward him.
  2. II · The gaze · The stag has noticed you. He doesn't flee · he waits.
  3. III · Face to face · A silence. Three entities: your body, his body, what passes between them.
  4. IV · The paths · Four directions around you, a fifth at the center. Yours to choose.
  5. V · The Ollin · You move. The world trembles. The journey begins.
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A song for this direction

Ninoyolnonotza,
campa nicuiz yectli auiacaxochitl?
ac nictlatlaniz?
manoço yehuatl nictlatlani in quetzalhuitzitziltzin,
in chalchiuhhuitzitzicatzin

I speak with my heart:
where shall I gather the fine, fragrant flowers?
Whom shall I ask?
Perhaps the precious hummingbird,
the hummingbird the colour of jade?

Cantares mexicanos, song I, stanza 1, folio 1r. Palaeography and Spanish translation: Miguel León-Portilla edition, UNAM, 2011. English translation by the site, from the Spanish of the edition. The UNAM open edition (new window)