Re: CONCULTURE: Xinkùtlan souls and metaphysics

While we're discussing souls....


The Saalangal believe that everyone has two souls. The right hand soul
is the soul which  remains in the village and the family home to watch
over its family. The left hand soul is the one which moves on into the
afterlife. It is that which is either rewarded, or punished (it is not
so cut and dried though). A Saalangal tries his best to avoid doing
things which puts the left hand soul in jeopardy in the afterlife,
although there's no eternal fire and brimstone type punishment. The
soul simply gets delayed from enjoying the pleasures of the afterlife.

If a person dies in an accident, or is murdered, or simply doesn't
want to move on after death, it is said that the left hand soul has
remained behind. It can go two ways - either become a malefic ghost,
or remain in the body and become an Inugok, which is a sort of Ghoul
(although most would call it a Zombie, that term is inaccurate,
though). It is believed that the left hand soul HAS to move onto the
spirit world, or else it becomes disoriented, angry, resentful, and
spiteful (but is never considered evil, so these aren't like demons or
"evil ghosts".)


It is said that even within the body, the right hand soul doesn't know
what the left hand soul does and vice versa, so there's no chance of
the right hand soul making sure after death that the left hand soul
leaves the body and moves on, or doesn't come back as a malefic ghost.
BUT... the right hand soul CAN be appealed to and asked to help
protect the family, but that is what their job is considered as being
anyway -- the ancestor spirits protect the family and home from _all_
sorts of malefic beings, not just a wayward left hand soul.

A haunting of a family home is considered to be the result when the
ancestor spirits have either been angered, improperly honored, or have
left for whatever reason (there is also the belief that the right hand
souls will visit places that the person frequented in life, so
sometimes they just go away and leave the family for a time). So,
charms will usually be written and placed in the home to "keep" the
ancestor spirits there or at least nearby for protection.

The right hand souls usually take up residence in a sort of attic
space full of carved statues, or personal objects of the ancestor
that "house" the spirits, but sometimes they take up residence in a
particular odd tree, weird grove, or rock formation near the family
home and these are turned into shrines.

Interestingly it is thought that Identical twins contain one soul
each, one has the left hand soul, and the other the right. These twins
would usually be referred to as one person and given the same name.
Old customs dictated that when one twin died, the other took their own
life, or would be put to death if they refused, were children, or
babies, for fear of the remaining twin becoming an inugok.

No one could tell which twin had the left hand soul and who had the
right (this was considered beyond the scope of a priest or preistess
to know, oddly enough). These days however, a special ceremony is done
to bring the soul of the deceased twin into the body of the living
twin, rather than having them commit ritual suicide, or being killed
by their fellow villagers.


Note: While there is a duality in souls in Saalangal belief, the
Saalangal are not the type to extend this duality into extremes of
black and white. They don't believe that things have a "this or that
one, but not both" answer.


--
You can turn away from me
but there's nothing that'll keep me here you know
And you'll never be the city guy
Any more than I'll be hosting The Scooby Show

Scooby Show - Belle and Sebastian

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