Flying Witches of Veracruz

The Flying Witches of Veracruz: A Shaman's True Story of Indigenous Witchcraft, Devil's Weed, and Trance Healing in Aztec Brujeria by James Endredy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Deep in the Taxulta Mountains there is witches festival that goes down attracting all the witches in Mexico and then some. Magic is a alive and well in Mexico. In the cities it is blended with Catholicism, Voodoo and Native American Magic. Up in the hills many tribes still hold on to their ancient ways unadulterated. For the practitioner of magic this sounds like, just be careful who you upset or you might get witched.

The book starts off with the author waking up in a cave almost blind and scared out of his wits. The people who talk him through it are Don Vicente and Marisol. A firs they thought him demon possessed but he proved them wrong. This was the start of a great adventure that I read through in literally two days.

James Endredy no stranger to the shamanistic way of Mexico and the Native Americans, ends up attending this festival ,meeting several witches, curanderos (healers), and Brujos (Sorcerers) . Meeting with a bright witch named Marisol he is introduced to Don Julian who is a curandero, brujo and medical doctor. He is a master witch. His son Rafael is no good. He poisons James with stramonium so he ends up in a cave. After his resuce he is taken to an initiation of sorts. In a graveyard he confronts a monkey kils it and uses the gall bladder for protection. An ancestor gives him a knife of obsidian. Later on he must confront Rafael in front of the witches council where in Rafael is killed for murdering a young virgin and eating half her heart.

Florinda introduces James to a high sea cave, garden of strmonium plants and the art of dreaming. James learns o fly in his ondor body and make cut outs of his guardians. So he can cal on them in an hour of need. His teachers give him many tests to imprve his magical combat skills.

Further on in the book James goes on adventure with his friends. He does everything form rescue a governors daughter, fight a blood sucking witch, cure a man of being possessed by a shell of his former life

This is one book you will enjoy reading. Remember do not use any of these substances at home or alone as they arte dangerous. These chemicals can make you literally go crazy or kill you. But I do enjoin you to rad the book and try to use some of the mediation techniques that can be gleaned from the pages.


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