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A War of Witches: A Journey Into the Underworld of the Contemporary Aztecs
"A War of Witches is an astonishing account of a world of magic and sorcery that echoes the deepest roots of Aztec mysticism. What begins as an innocent ethnographic encounter ends in a revelation as Knab uncovers the ghoulish dimensions of a blood feud that has left dozens of sorcerers dead."
-- Wade Davis
Author of The Serpent and the Rainbow
-- Wade Davis
Author of The Serpent and the Rainbow
"A War of Witches represents a uniquely original and authentic piece of research into one of the most difficult topics to penetrate and evaluate -- the highly sacred rituals concerning the gods and lost souls of the modern Aztecs. It will long stand as a milestone in anthropology."
-- Richard Evan Schultes, Harvand Botanical Museum
Author of Plants of the Gods
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
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332 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
January 16, 2018
Wow! This was totally awesome, but difficult to wrap my head around. An anthropologist gets immersed in local culture in remote Mexico. He begins learning the ways of the curandero (Indian folk healers) and gets caught up in tales of soul stealing and witchcraft! A first person account of fantastic and mystical stories, folk cures, healings, etc. in village life. Simply amazing.
February 5, 2017
Absolutely fascinating book. If you're expecting a repeat of Carlos Castaneda, then don't. It's not like that, even though it starts off that way. Yes, it's an anthropologist finding out about Mexican sorcery and being taught their ways, but that's only half the story. The real story is what he uncovers about Mexican history: a war over land, between rich landowners who wanted more coffee production, and peasants who wanted to grow food to live. The war was fought not just with gunmen, but with witchcraft. Bullets did battle with superstition and poison, resulting in gruesome murders and social upheaval. Fifty years later, the participants have become old men and women, still retaining grudges from half a century earlier, still settling old scores in bizarre ways. They appeal to the Lords of the Underworld for justice in powerful shamanic rituals, and fear the vengeance of those long dead.
The entire story is worthy of a movie, it really is.
For the student of mesoamerican sorcery, this is a goldmine. It's packed with detail about their beliefs, including the geography of the Underworld, and shows how ancient Aztec magic survived into the late 20th century.
The entire story is worthy of a movie, it really is.
For the student of mesoamerican sorcery, this is a goldmine. It's packed with detail about their beliefs, including the geography of the Underworld, and shows how ancient Aztec magic survived into the late 20th century.
November 30, 2023
Had to read this for an anthropology class, and honestly I would say it’s one of the easiest readings I’ve ever had. What really awed me about this book was the way it managed to weave so many interconnecting stories together in such a satisfying yet concise way. It provides a narrative about an anthropologist’s journey of discovery, a fascinating account of the contemporary Aztec cosmology, a historical mystery about a town and its citizens, and a broad commentary about the practices of indigenous Mexicans throughout history. I got way more than I was looking for here, and I’m very glad this was assigned to me.
July 19, 2019
Review – A War of Witches: A Journey into the Underworld of the Contemporary Aztecs by Timothy Knab, San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco, 1993.
I was drawn to A War of Witches at the recommendation of Matt Wood, the author of a number of books on herbal medicine because of the important concept that it teaches us: “When one dreams of one’s animal one gains eyes and ears in the spirit world.” Though it was written 26 years ago, this story through the underworld is timeless and needs to be read now to bring us in touch with those spirits that reside within us which can teach us how to survive in the approaching New World.
Timothy Knab, as an anthropologist, gained the confidence of two shamanic healers of an Aztec community in the mountains of Mexico such that they took him under their wings to teach him of their medicine ways. In this community there was a history of numerous witches who used their ways to kill others in the battle for wealth gained through growing coffee to the exclusion of corn needed for the people’s survival. These murders led to more murders that led to an open war between these two factions of the community, ending with the decimation of the witches. Though Knab’s search to uncover the history of this war was very fascinating such that the book was hard to put down, more important to me was his dreamtime journey through the underworld, Talocan, an underworld that was quite extensively mapped by his two mentors, the blind Inocente and the elderly Rubia. Both curers were very open in teaching him their ways of healing and journeying into the underworld, but they were very evasive in telling him about the War of the Witches.
As with several other anthropologist such as Felicitas Goodman in their search to understand the nature of the ways of a shaman, Knab goes beyond remaining aloof or objective in understanding these ways as is expected of anthropological research. They become very personally involved in the ways of these shamans such that they gain a deeper understanding and the ability to personally experience such powers.
When the elderly Rubia becomes sick, she and Inocente believe that she was bewitched by a sorcerer. Knab in his concern sought how he could help in healing her, which led him on his first journey into the underworld of a cave that was considered one of a number of entrances to the underworld. To enter the blackness of this terrifying cave with it many dangerous spirits he needed to take a number of offerings to appease the spirits, including flowers, beans, and a live chicken to be sacrificed. Innocente and Rubia tell him in detail the ritual he needs to perform to appease the spirits to protect himself and to retrieve Rubia’s bewitched soul. Some of the offerings were purchased from Don Pedro, a local merchant who was the person who eventually opened up to tell Knab about the war of the witches.
Upon his return from the cave Rubia and Innocente begin to question him about his nighttime dreams, looking for his spirit ally. All his past dreams seem quite mundane but he does recall childhood nightmare of a black bull that they think has possibilities for this spirit. But over the course of the book, with their encouragement as they interpreted his dreams, Knab’s dreams become much more intense, involve journeying into the underworld through its various entrances and into its various domains, some dangerous and others healing, with his dreams providing him with his needed spirit guides. One dream character with the name Cruz becomes a pivotal figure in the story in protecting him in these dreamtime journeys. Again Rubia and Innocente become evasive in telling him about Cruz, but Knab eventually learns that he was one of the witches who tried to bring about peace in the war of the witches but ends up as a spirit in the underworld along with the other witches who die in this war.
With my personal love for and valuing of my dreamtime experiences, whether from my nighttime dreams or my hypnotic and ecstatic trance experiences, and in working with these dreamtime experiences, I find A War of Witches especially exciting and valuable reading. These dreamtime experiences are healing and provide considerable spiritual growth in soul recovery from the many major and minor traumas one experiences in life, and Timothy Knab brings alive the healing nature of these dreamtime journeys. I believe that with global climate change and the possibility of the world as we know it coming to an end, there is much we need to do to change how we experience the world by returning to the ways of our hunting-gathering ancestors. A major change is to again learn to commune with the spirits of the Earth and of our ancestors to find the needed ways or maps for our survival, and this communication needs to be through our heart while experiencing these spirits in dreamtime.
This is why I have become a certified instructor of ecstatic trance as taught by Felicitas Goodman and the Cuyamungue Institute in New Mexico, and continue to offer workshops on ecstatic trance, one avenue into this dreamtime world. If interested, I have written a number of books, beginning with the book The Power of Ecstatic Trance, a shamanic form of trance, and continue to write about and value these journeys into the world of the spirits.
I was drawn to A War of Witches at the recommendation of Matt Wood, the author of a number of books on herbal medicine because of the important concept that it teaches us: “When one dreams of one’s animal one gains eyes and ears in the spirit world.” Though it was written 26 years ago, this story through the underworld is timeless and needs to be read now to bring us in touch with those spirits that reside within us which can teach us how to survive in the approaching New World.
Timothy Knab, as an anthropologist, gained the confidence of two shamanic healers of an Aztec community in the mountains of Mexico such that they took him under their wings to teach him of their medicine ways. In this community there was a history of numerous witches who used their ways to kill others in the battle for wealth gained through growing coffee to the exclusion of corn needed for the people’s survival. These murders led to more murders that led to an open war between these two factions of the community, ending with the decimation of the witches. Though Knab’s search to uncover the history of this war was very fascinating such that the book was hard to put down, more important to me was his dreamtime journey through the underworld, Talocan, an underworld that was quite extensively mapped by his two mentors, the blind Inocente and the elderly Rubia. Both curers were very open in teaching him their ways of healing and journeying into the underworld, but they were very evasive in telling him about the War of the Witches.
As with several other anthropologist such as Felicitas Goodman in their search to understand the nature of the ways of a shaman, Knab goes beyond remaining aloof or objective in understanding these ways as is expected of anthropological research. They become very personally involved in the ways of these shamans such that they gain a deeper understanding and the ability to personally experience such powers.
When the elderly Rubia becomes sick, she and Inocente believe that she was bewitched by a sorcerer. Knab in his concern sought how he could help in healing her, which led him on his first journey into the underworld of a cave that was considered one of a number of entrances to the underworld. To enter the blackness of this terrifying cave with it many dangerous spirits he needed to take a number of offerings to appease the spirits, including flowers, beans, and a live chicken to be sacrificed. Innocente and Rubia tell him in detail the ritual he needs to perform to appease the spirits to protect himself and to retrieve Rubia’s bewitched soul. Some of the offerings were purchased from Don Pedro, a local merchant who was the person who eventually opened up to tell Knab about the war of the witches.
Upon his return from the cave Rubia and Innocente begin to question him about his nighttime dreams, looking for his spirit ally. All his past dreams seem quite mundane but he does recall childhood nightmare of a black bull that they think has possibilities for this spirit. But over the course of the book, with their encouragement as they interpreted his dreams, Knab’s dreams become much more intense, involve journeying into the underworld through its various entrances and into its various domains, some dangerous and others healing, with his dreams providing him with his needed spirit guides. One dream character with the name Cruz becomes a pivotal figure in the story in protecting him in these dreamtime journeys. Again Rubia and Innocente become evasive in telling him about Cruz, but Knab eventually learns that he was one of the witches who tried to bring about peace in the war of the witches but ends up as a spirit in the underworld along with the other witches who die in this war.
With my personal love for and valuing of my dreamtime experiences, whether from my nighttime dreams or my hypnotic and ecstatic trance experiences, and in working with these dreamtime experiences, I find A War of Witches especially exciting and valuable reading. These dreamtime experiences are healing and provide considerable spiritual growth in soul recovery from the many major and minor traumas one experiences in life, and Timothy Knab brings alive the healing nature of these dreamtime journeys. I believe that with global climate change and the possibility of the world as we know it coming to an end, there is much we need to do to change how we experience the world by returning to the ways of our hunting-gathering ancestors. A major change is to again learn to commune with the spirits of the Earth and of our ancestors to find the needed ways or maps for our survival, and this communication needs to be through our heart while experiencing these spirits in dreamtime.
This is why I have become a certified instructor of ecstatic trance as taught by Felicitas Goodman and the Cuyamungue Institute in New Mexico, and continue to offer workshops on ecstatic trance, one avenue into this dreamtime world. If interested, I have written a number of books, beginning with the book The Power of Ecstatic Trance, a shamanic form of trance, and continue to write about and value these journeys into the world of the spirits.
March 22, 2010
A book sitting in my library for years... Witches have always interested me, probably prompting me to pick it up years ago. In this story, we follow the author (an anthropologist) in his quest to learn the old Aztec ways from his mentors, Doña Rubia and Don Inocente.
Doña Rubia is ill, and as he learns the old methods of Aztec healing while mixing in modern day treatment. Whether the old healing really works is part of the story, but it certainly is important to Rubia and Inocente.
Rubia and Inocente live in the small town of San Martín, and he slowly learns about the history of the town, including a War of Witches ('but there haven't been any witches here for a looong time'). The witched killed many people with a variety of tactics including using the underworld. Was a witch after Doña Rubia? Would one go after Timoteo (the author) as he learns the old ways and becomes a healer himself?
Set in Mexico, it brought back some memories from the years that I lived there. If you like Mexico, anthropology, or Aztec history/religion, this might be worth your time.
Doña Rubia is ill, and as he learns the old methods of Aztec healing while mixing in modern day treatment. Whether the old healing really works is part of the story, but it certainly is important to Rubia and Inocente.
Rubia and Inocente live in the small town of San Martín, and he slowly learns about the history of the town, including a War of Witches ('but there haven't been any witches here for a looong time'). The witched killed many people with a variety of tactics including using the underworld. Was a witch after Doña Rubia? Would one go after Timoteo (the author) as he learns the old ways and becomes a healer himself?
Set in Mexico, it brought back some memories from the years that I lived there. If you like Mexico, anthropology, or Aztec history/religion, this might be worth your time.
July 26, 2007
So, Carlos Castenada had us all fooled. Timothy Knab treds the same ground, but comes up with a much more believable, if fantastic account. A good read. I'm not sure what to make of it, but then, I've learned to go with the flow.
May 9, 2019
Though I'd rather be a jaguar –I meet my nagual, the possum, at every crossroads in my life since reading this book
sometimes even on top of vehicles or AT MY FRONT DOOR
no bs
read it
sometimes even on top of vehicles or AT MY FRONT DOOR
no bs
read it
August 16, 2015
I re-read every few years. It is an interesting insight into one thread of modern Aztec shamanic practices (or witchcraft, as they call it in the book) and the people who practiced it.
October 14, 2022
Es uno de mis libros favoritos y por mucho, es realmente un viaje magistral de principio a final.
El libro es cómo una montaña rusa de emociones, la manera en la que el Antropólogo cuenta su investigación de más de 20 años es hipnótica. Yo creo que este libro se puede dividir en dos partes; la primera mitad da la suficiente explicación para poder entender bien a los personajes, comprender el contexto histórico y volver nuestro el relato (es aquí donde el misterio y las preguntas principales se plantean). La segunda parte es donde él titulo del libro ya toma más sentido, aquí es donde vemos que la investigación antropológica toma un sentido menos académico, se torna más personal, más místico, es aquí donde la narración nos genera diversas emociones, curiosidad, preocupación, inquietud; es un suspenso constante.
Si la historia o la antropología te llaman la atención creo que este es un muy buen material para comenzar.
Es un libro que no importa cuantas veces lo leas, siempre lo disfrutaras igual ( o tal vez más), 100% recomendado.
El libro es cómo una montaña rusa de emociones, la manera en la que el Antropólogo cuenta su investigación de más de 20 años es hipnótica. Yo creo que este libro se puede dividir en dos partes; la primera mitad da la suficiente explicación para poder entender bien a los personajes, comprender el contexto histórico y volver nuestro el relato (es aquí donde el misterio y las preguntas principales se plantean). La segunda parte es donde él titulo del libro ya toma más sentido, aquí es donde vemos que la investigación antropológica toma un sentido menos académico, se torna más personal, más místico, es aquí donde la narración nos genera diversas emociones, curiosidad, preocupación, inquietud; es un suspenso constante.
Si la historia o la antropología te llaman la atención creo que este es un muy buen material para comenzar.
Es un libro que no importa cuantas veces lo leas, siempre lo disfrutaras igual ( o tal vez más), 100% recomendado.
June 5, 2024
This book had me spooked! I thought it’d be an observation of contemporary Aztec culture related to practices of magic, and it was that, but like the anthropologist, the reader gets swept away. After the first couple chapters I was legitimately having nightmares: these old practitioners and their earnest tales of magic and the menaces of witches had me jumping convinced these witches were a SERIOUS threat and maybe I needed to take the underworld and dark magic more seriously. It was a fascinating local history about his economics and income inequality turned the population ritualistically murderous, and some grudges remained whispered secretly for decades, while some ghosts still sought justice. Like the Salem witch trials, the witch madness that the community gets swept away in is harrowing, but even more so because by the end of the book, you TOTALLY believe in these witches.
September 6, 2020
No es completamente satisfactorio ni como etnografía ni como novela, pero como la mezcla extraña que es es bastante buena. La disfruté mucho, pero creo que el modelo tiene sus límites y pudo funcionar mejor como pura etnografía o pura novela, o hasta dividiéndolo claramente en mitades o secciones. Los últimos tres capítulos fueron los más interesantes, pero Tim lo tuvo que contar todo a través de diálogo, me imagino que casi exactamente igual a como se lo contaron, cuando la historia que cuenta pudo haber sido una novela buenísima en sí misma.
September 30, 2020
I read this book the first time as an assignment for Anthropology 101 in 1999. I found it fascinating and could never bring myself to toss it with all the other random college books. i was in between books during quarantine and picked it up again. Still fascinating and I still recommend it. This is the kind of "magical" book that I like. An interesting depiction of the spirit world told through the eyes of an anthropologist. I hope there are still copies of this book out there in the world.
March 24, 2019
While the topic of the book is interesting - the Aztec belief system, witchcraft and visiting the underworld in your dreams, this book felt like a never-ending dialogue without a plot. I couldn't wait for it to be over. By writing this himself instead of finding assistance in turning his incredible research experience into a story, I feel the book lost out on it's potential.
December 27, 2019
I am intrigued by the time immemorial story of our grand parents. I learn that death is a realm someone will visit during a sleep state of mind. I am pleased to think about Timothy J. Knabs' book and his journey with our relatives, the Tenochca people, into the realm of consciousness, intuition, cognition and imagination.
April 12, 2022
I read this for a cultural anthropology class! It's pretty interesting, but its quite evident it was not written by a novelist, but by a professor. It seemed quite textbook like, but whos to say that's bad. I enjoyed all the Cultural aspects of this is text, and it seemed relatively realistic, regarding the politics surrounding indigenous Mexico.
October 27, 2020
An excellent exploration of the native spirituality of the Nahua people. Professor Knab is able to explore a largely veiled side of natize Mexican life from a first hand point of view. For those interested in curanderos and modern Aztec religion this is a must read.
May 1, 2018
This is in a pretty similar vein to the Carlos Castenda books. That being said, this does lack the directish personal development instruction that I prize in my favorite Castenda books.
June 29, 2018
Interesting read! It took me a bit to get into it but once I did it was fascinating.
December 28, 2020
This was literally my favorite book of 2020.
October 24, 2021
Lahko berljiva antropološka pripoved (moderne azteške) Nahuatske skupnosti, v San Marinu, Mehiki, ki prikaže sliko azteškega verovanja in zdravljenja.
June 1, 2023
This book is wild! Happy to have fallen into this niche and learned.
January 11, 2026
An easy read that sparks imagination. More memoir than ethnography.
December 1, 2020
Excellent book in the overlooked genre of Narrative Anthropology. Wonderful depictions of Mesoamerican traditional practices. The dialog of the characters is snappy and brisk. The result is that you have to track a set of family trees that gains complexity with each sentence. 'The Who' and 'The When' matter but 'The What' matters the most. The last chapter is a must read for anyone curious about Mesoamerican history.
June 23, 2008
This was a very interesting book that provided great insight into the traditional practices of healing and witchcraft that took place pre-Columbian times in Mexico. This book in particularly was a recount of an anthropologist's experience in a small rural part of Mexico in the 1970s as he learned the ways of the healers - and eventually the juicy details of the War of Witches that had occurred many years before.
I think that this was a very insightful book filled with lots of detail and information far beyond what the normal anthropologist could express. However, in an effort to share all of his experiences I think the author lacked the ability to develop a very interesting plot. I think there was so much potential for there to be a fascinating recount that drew the average reader in (that is, those not particularly interested in anthropology).
I think that this was a very insightful book filled with lots of detail and information far beyond what the normal anthropologist could express. However, in an effort to share all of his experiences I think the author lacked the ability to develop a very interesting plot. I think there was so much potential for there to be a fascinating recount that drew the average reader in (that is, those not particularly interested in anthropology).
January 5, 2013
It started out well, but it seemed to drag on toward the end. While I got a good anthropological view of the times and the people, I didn't feel like I came away with much of a deeper understanding of the culture, the world of the witches, or the Aztec people. I found the underworld journeys the author goes on to be the most interesting part of the book, but even those seem disjointed without a true follow up to the original purpose in going there. I might have marked this book lower, but it is told from an anthropologist's POV, and therefore, I excused some of the lack of a deeper analysis and some of the structural and literary problems in the telling of his tale. If you are specifically interested in the world of Aztec witchcraft, it might be worth the read, but otherwise, I'd skip it.
November 20, 2012
This is a memoir of an anthropologist that studied the modern descendants of the ancient Aztecs in Mexico. Mostly it chronicles the dualism of their beliefs in Catholicism as well as the ancient religion of their ancestors. The Aztecs believed in an underworld and practiced witchcraft and some of the people living there today still do. I was a little unnerved that the author participated in some of the ceremonies, even if it was to get a further understanding. It just seemed to me that he ought to have remained an unbiased observer.
December 18, 2012
This book was one of the most exciting page-turners that I read as part of a college course. It starts out as an analytical description of contemporary Mexican beliefs and customs. Before you know, however, it takes you on a spirit journey, of which the researcher gives first person account. Before I was through with it, I was seriously wondering about what to believe as "real" and what to see as "the author's personal experience". In the end I had to admit that the lines are not that clearly drawn when it comes to magic, which is basically what this book teaches so well.
March 20, 2008
Sociology of Religion (soc008) class required reading, winter '08
THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME!!!
It doesn't hurt that my instructor is incredibly well versed on Timothy Knab, but Knab is LEGIT.
2 legit to quit, as it turns out. In his latest book, he refers to himself as a healer, not an anthropologist. he's left the academic world.
incredible.
THIS BOOK WAS AWESOME!!!
It doesn't hurt that my instructor is incredibly well versed on Timothy Knab, but Knab is LEGIT.
2 legit to quit, as it turns out. In his latest book, he refers to himself as a healer, not an anthropologist. he's left the academic world.
incredible.
March 25, 2009
Wow! This book sucks you in fast and keeps you there! I had to stop multiple times to remind myself it was nonfiction. It's a very interesting explanation of shamanism among the remaining Aztecs, and Knab doesn't describe everything in detail. He respects that it is sacred and doesn't profane it in his book.
September 4, 2010
A very engrossing true-life tale of witchcraft (and murder) whose rituals and beliefs date back to Aztec culture and beyond. It brings to light, in a minor way, the role of power and unequal distribution of wealth prevalent in, and around the perimeters, of civilization. We are treated to interesting dreams and even a bit of a history lesson throughout. Well written and accessible to anyone.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews