Also called Limpia para el susto, Calling back the spirit, Levantar la sombra
In Mexican and Mexican American curanderismo, susto is soul fright, a sickness of spirit after a shock. The healer sweeps the person with fresh herbs and calls their spirit back. This is a cultural healing practice, not a substitute for medical or mental health care.
TraditionMexican and Mexican American curanderismo
RegionMexico and the US Southwest
EraLiving tradition, documented 20th century
Moon◐ Any moon
DayTuesday
ElementAir
Difficulty●●○ Moderate
Time20 minutes
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
The working
Have the person who had the fright stand or lie down comfortably, and light the candle if you use one.
Pray or speak calmly in your own words, asking for help from God, the saints or whatever the family holds holy.
Sweep the herb bundle lightly over the body from head to feet, front and then back, in the sign of the cross at the head, heart and feet.
Call the person's name and ask their spirit to come back, for example: come, do not stay there, come home. Curanderos often say this three times.
Let the person sip the glass of plain water and rest.
Throw the used herbs away outside the house, since they are thought to hold what was swept off.
If fear, sleeplessness or loss of appetite continue, help the person reach a doctor or counselor as well.
Take care: This is cultural and spiritual care, not medical or mental health treatment: see a doctor for persistent symptoms, and a counselor after trauma. Rue is traditional but can blister skin in sunlight, so the steps use basil or rosemary; never leave a candle burning unattended.
Versions across time and place
i
Calling the spirit at the place of the fright
Rural Mexican and Mesoamerican practice · 20th century
Rubel and his colleagues studied susto among Zapotec, Chinantec and mestizo communities in Oaxaca. Healers sometimes went to the spot where the fright happened and called the soul back from the earth there, using the person's name and an article of their clothing. The study also found that people diagnosed with susto had real health burdens worth taking seriously.
Uses: the person's clothing
Recorded in: Arthur Rubel, Carol O'Nell and Rolando Collado-Ardón, Susto: A Folk Illness (1984)
ii
South Texas barrida with egg and prayer
Mexican American curanderismo, Lower Rio Grande Valley · 1970s
Trotter and Chavira, working in South Texas, describe curanderos treating susto over three days with sweepings using herbs or an egg, the Apostles' Creed, and the patient lying on the floor in the shape of a cross while the healer prays.
Uses: egg, herbs, prayer
Recorded in: Robert T. Trotter II and Juan Antonio Chavira, Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing (1981)
iii
Andean mal de susto
Peruvian and Ecuadorian Andean healing · Living tradition
Andean healers also treat susto, alongside mal aire and mal de ojo, by rubbing the body with an egg or other objects to diagnose and draw out the illness. Names and prayers differ by region, and many families combine these visits with clinic care.
Uses: egg, herbs
Recorded in: Studies of healers in Santa Isabel, Ecuador (University of Cuenca, 2014) and INMETRA, Peru
History
Susto, Spanish for fright, is one of the best studied folk illnesses in the Americas. It is believed that a sudden shock, such as a fall, a dog attack or bad news, can jar the spirit loose from the body, leaving a person listless, sleepless and without appetite. Ideas about soul loss in Mesoamerica predate the Spanish conquest and blended with Catholic prayer after it.
In 1984 the anthropologist Arthur Rubel and colleagues published Susto: A Folk Illness, a study in Oaxaca that found people with susto were often carrying heavy social stress and had higher later mortality. Robert Trotter and Juan Antonio Chavira documented curanderos in South Texas a few years earlier. Curanderismo is a living practice; this entry describes a simple household sweeping, not the full work of a trained curandero.
Sources
Susto: A Folk Illness · Arthur J. Rubel, Carol W. O'Nell and Rolando Collado-Ardón, 1984
Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing · Robert T. Trotter II and Juan Antonio Chavira, 1981
Healing with Herbs and Rituals: A Mexican Tradition · Eliseo Torres, 2006
