The Tenant

“Can a nicuicanitl huiya Xochitl in noyollo ya
nicmana nocuic a ohuaya ohuaya
o xoxpanxoco o xoxopanxoco
Xoxonapo”

Xoxonapo roughly translated means: “an old person ready for death”…..

The Death Defier was originally a human being from ages ago whom on becoming a shaman-sorcerer, used their powers to attempt to escape death. He managed to change his form; so he would more closely resemble the inorganic beings. However, in the process, he was trapped in the lure of power from those same inorganic beings. He was trapped in the world of dreaming, unable to escape from his captors the inorganic beings – Eons later he managed to escape. Existing on a thin threshold between the not-fully human and the inorganic, he couldn’t eat, yet still needed energy. He needed to constantly search for energy to evade his captors and sustain his form.

In the year 1725 AD the Death Defier, addicted to power, living and needing energy, low on power, in his last dying moments, cornered a then minor shaman from a long line of minor shamans by the name of ‘Sebastian’. In a noticeably weakened state, he was able to extort energy from him – but only through a deal. To stay alive each generation of shaman-sorcerers in Sebastian’s lineage would GIVE the Death Defier some of THEIR energy in exchange for knowledge – knowledge, and secrets gained or learned by the Death Defier over thousands and thousands of years. Thus the Death Defier “earned” the name “tenant” and by doing so, a new lineage was born. The secret is, in making the deal, the crafty Sebastian and those that followed, have given the life-addicted Defier only enough energy to survive.

“In describing his teacher, Don Juan used the word diablero. Later (Castaneda) learned that diablero is a term used ONLY by the Sonoran Indians. It refers to an evil person who practices black sorcery and is capable of transforming himself into an animal – a bird, a dog, a coyote, or any other creature.”

A shapeshifter…

I have met with the tenant and got distinctly the impression that they were Mexican in origin, at least they were wearing Mexican peasant clothes. She came to me in a wood where I was camped in the twilight of the early morning – I awoke in this twilight moment to find something like a translucent person sitting next to me at my head. She was dressed with thick pleated skirts and had a bandana over which she wore a cocked bowler hat. I think she was also wearing some sort of tunic – I have a feeling this was in the style of a civil war “blues” jacket. The feeling was friendly welcoming and warm; a pleasant mood with no threat. I woke as the light came into the wood. in a hypnogogic state – She sat there to my side just near my head – there was a motherly feel to her. I felt she might regard me warmly!

She had leathery skin and a dark complexion – that looked most likely that of a native person. Xoxonapo sat next to me – I was unafraid

The tenant disappeared as quickly as she had arrived in my perception, anyway – but my feeling was she had propably been there all night