Tonahual (MH659r)

The grasping hand could have a double reading, referring to possession and to the phonetic “hua” of “-nahual.” The first-person plural possession of -nahual might suggest that this man and woman share a nahualli, but that is speculation. Although it is not the case here, the term nahualli is often represented by a shape that is reminiscent of a caterpillar, which, of course, transforms itself into a butterfly, conveying part of the meaning of nahualli. Nahuales were perceived as "form-changing shamans" (in the words of James Maffie, 2013, 39), sometimes taking on the attributes or abilities of animals, such as a jaguar, and becoming that creature as a "temporary incarnation of cosmic reality" (Maffie, 40, citing Raymond Fogelson). The term nahualli can refer to the shamanic power of transformation or it can refer to the being into which the shaman transforms, such as an animal, according to James Maffie (Aztec Philosophy, 2014, 38.) If the nahualli is an animal spirit, that creature will sometimes be located on a person'shead, as shown in a couple of examples below.