CATEMACO, Mexico (RNS) — On the first Friday of March, sorcerers, witches, sahumadores, healers, snake-handlers, herbalists and spiritual guides appeared as they have for almost 50 years in the streets of this small town in the southern Mexican state of Veracruz, heading for “La Punta,” the village’s ceremonial center on a spit of land that juts into the Catemaco Lagoon.
Although the history of witchcraft in Mexico goes back to pre-Hispanic times, the last half-century has seen a boom in the popularity of ancient rites as a practice and a spectacle. According to Catemacoan history, witches performed ceremonies and rituals on the first Friday of the third month of the year to renew their supernatural powers.
Black masses and other rites are held at Catemaco’s La Punta, or tip, on the Catemaco lagoon in Veracruz, Mexico. La Punta was chosen because it was the first human settlement in the town. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Ricardo Macias says he began to have visions of the saints when he was only 7 years old, a gift he believes he inherited from his maternal grandmother. “I receive messages from them,” said Macias, now 52, who adds that people come from across Mexico and the world to consult with him. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Ricardo Macias gives advice on health, financial and love problems. “All magic has the same purpose,” said the visionary, who says the key to helping people is keeping their energy in balance. “Foreigners are looking for help with their money problems, while Mexicans ask for help in love.” Unfortunately, he said, “for love … there is no spell and whoever says there is, is totally false.” RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
Sorcerers, witches, shamans and mystics parade through the streets of Catemaco ahead of “First Friday of March” ceremonies, on March 1, 2019. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- “Why do people say that the sorcerer is bad?” says Ricardo Macias during a black mass ceremony on March 1, 2019, in Catemaco, Mexico. “Because people are the ones who come and ask for bad things.” RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Ricardo Macias, right, reads tarot cards for a man from Jalisco, which is on the western side of Mexico. The man came to Catemaco to receive an energy cleanse on March, 1, 2019, the first Friday in March. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
At La Punta, a black mass is led by a senior sorcerer, who gives thanks for the gift of “Mother Earth, water, fire and air,” according to a local herbalist who goes by the name of the goddess Pachamama. The mass aims to “get rid of all the dark negative energies and cleanse our souls,” she said, adding that it is said that in the hills surrounding Catemaco there are sorcerers who perform “a black mass to reaffirm their pact with the devil.”
Witches perform a black mass on March 2, 2019, in Catemaco, Mexico. They make a pentagram of fire symbolizing the closing of a portal. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Sorcerers and witches use fragrances, candles, amulets and animals in their ceremonies. Here, a doll with its mouth sewn shut serves to prevent people from speaking evil or revealing secrets entrusted to them. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Food offerings for Mother Earth at a black mass at La Punta in Catemaco, Mexico, on March 1, 2019, the first Friday in March. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- A giant stone sculpture is an artifact of the Olmec culture, which inhabited southern Mexico about 1500 B.C. The head guards the entrance to the La Punta site where sorcery ceremonies take place on the shores of the Laguna de Catemaco. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
The Olmec, an ethnic group that inhabited Veracruz 1,500 years before Christ, were astronomers, and the Catemaco rites are held in March to mark the alignment of the planets and to honor the beginning of the spring and the renewal of the harvest.
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- Pachamama, left, fans the fire during a ceremony on March 1, 2019. “I like to take care of nature. Today we are here to thank Mother Earth and her four elements.” RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
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- Pachamama, right, participates in an annual ceremony with fellow herbalists, sorcerers, witches and others on March 1, 2019, in Catemaco, Mexico. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
An herbalist known as Pachamama has participated in Catemaco’s ceremonies for the last 10 years. Pachamama believes she inherited the herbalist tradition from her grandfather. RNS photo by Irving Cabrera Torres
