María Sabina's Prayer

Abstract

María Sabina became well known around the world for her great shamanic power and because people were intrigued by her and her relationship with hallucinogenic mushrooms, or niños santos (saint children), as she called them. The present chapter analyzes María Sabina’s prayers/chants – nijmi – in her mother tongue, Mazatec. Their anaphoric structure, commonly used by poets of this tradition, was primarily employed by ritual practitioners as a means of expressing emotions, sacred knowledge, and magical language infused with ritual elements, as well as exploring the intricate relationships between human beings and the sacred. Shamanic practices vary among different tribes and cultural groups, each with its own distinct rituals and traditions. In Mazatec culture, a shaman is called a chota chjine (or chjinie), which in Spanish translates to sabio/a (Wise One). María Sabina’s shamanic power was unique in that it was deeply rooted in her devotion to God and the Virgin Mary, setting her apart from other shamans who drew upon the presence of gods or spirits during their healing rituals. To explore the significance of her nijmi, I will draw upon the work of two prominent Mazatec figures: Álvaro Estrada, a writer and translator who collaborated closely with María Sabina to document her life and chants from an Indigenous perspective, and Juan Gregorio Regino, a poet and scholar whose engagement with Mazatec oral and poetic traditions helps contextualize the cultural and spiritual legacy of Sabina’s nijmi. Sabina’s religious beliefs blended Catholicism with the cultural traditions of Huautla de Jiménez in a syncretic fusion. She believed that since creating the world, God had chosen women for special roles in society, including saintly figures and even the Virgin Mary. Sabina expressed that God had selected her, as he also did with other female predecessors. Her communication with God was special. She affirmed that she had not only seen God but that she also talked to him. In her prayers, Sabina would assert that she was a woman with a power given by God. According to Mircea Eliade, it is very common for shamans across different cultures to engage in conversations with spirits, deities, or supernatural beings during states of ecstasy. In addition to Eliade, Émile Durkheim’s ideas are also relevant to this analysis, as he argued that all sacred manifestations or religious forms must involve a combination of rituals, dogmas, and myths. This interplay of elements will be examined in both Sabina’s prayers and her lived experience. María Sabina’s prayers provide insight into her connection with the sacred world, while key Mazatec concepts – such as chjun, chjine (or chjinie), and nijmi, among others – offer a deeper understanding of her spiritual lineage and her relationship with both her ancestral past and God.