Within the temazcal, Temazcaltoci, the Goddess, lives on. She is the Grandmother of the Temazcallis and is a manifestation of the goddess Tonantzin (since the colonization of the Americas, some people also refer to her as Our Lady of Guadalupe).  She is  the goddess of medicine,  medicinal herbs and of healers. The Zapoteca, in the state of Oaxaca, and the Maya in the Yucatan and Central America revere and honor her to this day.  It is said that it was due to the veneration of the goddess and her connection to the temazcal that the Spaniards banned the use of the temazcal.

 

However, the temazcal is much more than simply honoring the grandmothers and grandfathers.  In it, one finds all the elements: earth, wind, fire and water. It is a microscosm of the greater universe. Just as in the western hermetic axiom: as above, so below.

When we come to the temazcal with a good heart,  we connect to the ancients... to the ancestors who gave of themselves, often at great sacrifice, to safeguard the sacred rituals from desecration by the Spanish colonizers and early Christians who didn't understand the great significance and healing value of the ceremony.

When we participate in a temazcalli, whether as the patient or the temazcalera, we enter our mother’s womb once more, led by a grand Tonantzin or Temazcaltoci, the grandmother of the gods and humans, their beloved Mother, concerned for the health of her children. We offer our worries, our disconnection to each other and our world to the sacred elements for transmutation and healing.