María Lionza bodies

Corporalities, images and identities of a Venezuelan religion

Cesar Escalona, Venezuela.

The religion of Maria Lionza is a corporeal religion.

The marialioncero body is the basis of multiple evaluations and meanings that
diversify bodily conceptions that oppose and coexist with the western body-soul
duality. Being a religious phenomenon corresponding to the paganisms of African-
American religions, the body is the central axis of rituals and religious life. The deities
are incarnated in the marialionceros bodies, the multiple interactions with the sacred
images are established through the body of the believer and the body of the sacred
image ritualizing this interaction. The body is the means to communicate with nature,
ancestors and deities, as well as being the material that constantly seeks cleanliness
and healing. This religious system protects legacies and legacies of the diversity of
representations and valuations of the body corresponding to indigenous ethnic
groups and Afro-descendant groups of the American continent that have resisted in
the rituals of this religious phenomenon. As a result of anthropological research work
we will reflect these corporal aspects in four contexts of action belonging to this
religious system.
Maria Lionza image. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.
Afrocaribbean drummer. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2014.
Bodies in nature

Blessed by the waters. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.

In the María Lionza religion, the body is the means to experience and establish
communication with nature. Through the connection with the natural spaces and
temples, the marialionceros manage to penetrate into the sacred geography of the
goddess, merging with herself. The earth, the water, the wind, the plants, the rocks
and the living beings become a language for the marialioncero who seeks to decipher
the signs through the ritualization of nature.

Maria Lionza Caves. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2014.

Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2014.
Spiritual cannalitation. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2014.
The conjure. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.
Tabacco reading. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2016.
Missión to Chamarreros caves. Agua Blanca,Portuguesa, Venezuela, 2014.
Bodies in Adoration

Dressing to the goddes. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.

The relationship sacred image - body of the marialioncero is expressed through the
worship, contemplation, aestheticization and manipulation of sacred images.
Marialionceros reinforce their personal identities through the worship of sacred
images. The relationship with the body of the sacred images is also ritualized,
generating a continuity between the gods and the body of the marialionceros.

Terepaima devotee. Lucia river, Lara, Venezuela, 2014.

Negro Felipe. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.
Carry the queen. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2018.
. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2016.
Bodies in healing

Velation ritual. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2014.

The religion of Maria Lionza has a therapeutic vocation directed to the body that
waits to be healed through multiple rituals. It is the body afflicted and evicted by the
means of modern healing and not corresponding to the belief system of the
marialioncero patient seeking the cleansing and healing of the earthly body through
other strategies linked to magic that only the spiritual entities linked to María Lionza
can answer and respond.

Meditation. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2014.

Spiritual cleaning. Acarigua, Portuguesa, Venezuela, 2015.
Velación. Acarigua, Portuguesa, Venezuela, 2015.
The liberation. Acarigua, Portuguesa, Venezuela, 2016.
Bodies in possession

Spiritual possesion. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.

In the Maria Lionza religion the body of the believer is receptacle of the divinities.
The so-called spiritual matters are prepared to receive spirits and entities of the
sacred pantheon complex of Maria Lionza. In the rituals of transe and possession the
limits of body and soul are blurred, as well as the limits of masculine-feminine
gender. The spirits come to establish a carnal and phenomenological contact with the
devotee, to dance, to embrace and heal bodies, generating a unique and magnificent
circularity between bodies and divinities.

Body for a viking. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2018.

The baptism. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.
Negra Tomasa has arrived. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2015.
Viking spirit. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2018.
Chamarrero. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2018.
Baron Samedi. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2018.
Cartalina. Maria Lionza Mountain, Yaracuy, Venezuela, 2014.