Herlinda Flores Badillo

María Sabina's Prayer

September 18, 2025 Herlinda Flores Badillo

María Sabina's Mazatec prayer-chants (nijmi) use anaphoric structure common in local poetic tradition to express emotion, sacred knowledge, and magical language, exploring human-divine relationships. Her shamanic power was uniquely rooted in devotion to God and the Virgin Mary, blending Catholicism with Huautla de Jiménez traditions in a syncretic fusion. The chapter analyzes her nijmi through the work of Mazatec figures Álvaro Estrada and Juan Gregorio Regino, drawing on Mircea Eliade's and Émile Durkheim's theories of shamanic ecstasy and sacred forms. Sabina believed God chose women for special roles and that she communicated directly with God.