Wiktionary
n. (alternative form of nahual English)
Wikipedia
In Mesoamerican folk religion, a nagual or nahual (both pronounced [na'wal]) is a human being who has the power to transform either spiritually or physically into an animal form: most commonly jaguar and puma but also other animals such as a donkeys, birds, or dogs and coyotes.
Such a nagual is believed to use their powers for good or evil according to their personality. Specific beliefs vary, but the general concept of nagualism is pan-Mesoamerican. Nagualism is linked with pre-Columbian shamanistic practices through Preclassic Olmec depictions which are interpreted as human beings transforming themselves into animals. The system is linked with the Mesoamerican calendrical system, used for divination rituals. The birth date often determines if a person will be a nagual. Mesoamerican belief in tonalism, wherein every person has an animal counterpart to which his life force is linked, is also part of the definition of nagualism. In English the word is often translated as "transforming witch", but translations without the negative connotations of the word witch would be "transforming trickster" or " shape shifter".
Usage examples of "nagual".
The Nagual and Ge- naro and Eligio could go in and out of that eye like nothing.
Be that as it may, she ended up seducing the poor sexton, who fell so deeply, so hopelessly in love with Amalia that he ended up in the hut of a nagual man.
Nagual and Genaro received those mysteries from their bene- factor and then they held them in their bodies.
The Nagual gave them specific instructions to let their pieces ex- plode as far as they could in order to restore their strength.
When the table was filled, he ex- plained to them the difference between the tonal and the nagual, in the same terms he had explained it to me in a restau- rant in Mexico City, except that in their case his example was infinitely more graphic.
But, for the moment, just let me tell you another farfetched story about one of the naguals of my line, the nagual Sebastian.
Juan said that what transpired between Sebastian and that man later became the ground for an agreement that had bound all six naguals who followed Sebastian.
All the other naguals who followed him, however, gladly and proudly accepted their gifts.
But in describing the relationship between the tenant and the naguals of his line, don Juan kept on mixing the Spanish-language male and female gender denotation, creating a great confusion in me.
As payment for the energy taken from all those naguals, the woman in the church taught them exactly what to do to displace their assemblage point to some specific positions, which she herself had chosen.
Juan remarked that the death defier, being definitely a creature of ritual habits, always met the naguals of his line first as a man, as it had happened with the nagual Sebastian, and subsequently as a woman.
Juan went on to say that the knowledge of specific procedures involved in shifts was not available to the eight naguals who preceded the nagual Sebastian, and that the tenant showed the nagual Sebastian how to achieve total perception on ten new positions of the assemblage point.
I am your servant, as I have been the servant of all the naguals who preceded you.
She said that the gifts she had given to the naguals of my line had to do with what the old sorcerers used to call the twin positions.
This is what I am doing to you now, and what I did to all the naguals of your line.