Todo es Místico
Everything is Mystical
Vamos a ponernos raros, amigo.
Over the weekend the President of Mexico tweeted this:
In English it reads:
I share with you two photos of our supervision of the Tren Maya construction site: one, taken by an engineer three days ago, apparently of an aluxe; the other, by Diego Prieto of a splendid pre-Hispanic sculpture in Ek Balam. Everything is mystical.
The comment feed on Twitter is, not surprisingly, full of critics, some bashing him for being stupid in believing that aluxes—Mayan woodland elves—exist, and others mocking his claim that the picture was taken three days earlier, when it can be found in an Indonesian newspaper from a year ago.
So we have a few things happening here. First, the photo it seems really has been recycled from an Indonesian news site. More on that in a bit. But this means El Presidente is either duping people or is himself the dupe. I’ve read elsewhere that his administration is currently constructing railway systems to Mayan sites and it’s rather controversial and that this tweet shows some solidarity with “indigenous folk beliefs” in an effort to smooth things over. I suppose that’s possible.
But if the President was trying to dupe people for propaganda purposes, why would he use a picture that is relatively easy to show is not an original? If you’re thinking “Because politicians are stupid people and stupid people do stupid things” I can’t argue with you. But my guess is that he really does believe in fairies and he got duped. Some clever troll is snickering and his friends are buying his drinks.
But here’s the thing, regardless of whether he got duped or was trying to dupe others, his critics thus far have only debunked the time-frame in which the picture appeared, not the picture itself. They’re scoffing because he used a recycled picture and they’ve proved it by linking to the original site.
You don’t have to look for it. I got you.
And because it’s in Indonesian, I’ve taken the liberty to translate it for you. And to further aid you, here is a mini-glossary: A “pocong” is a Javanese ghost of a dead person trapped in their shroud. And “pesugihan” is an activity that involves using demons to get rich. Here’s the article:
Supernatural Expert's Explanation of Mysterious Figure in Singkawang
Quoted from Hi! Pontianak, an apparition of a mysterious figure was recorded by one of Singkawang. According to information obtained by Hi! Pontianak, the sighting of the mysterious figure was recorded on Thursday night, February 4, 2021, at around 23.00 WIB.
From the recorded sighting, there is a figure that looks very strange and mysterious. According to a resident's statement, he took pictures while walking at night, precisely on Jalan Ayani-Jalan Firadaus, passing Jalan dr Soetomo. In the middle of the road he heard the sound of people laughing.
At first the figure was not detected by the citizen, then after being searched and recorded, a very mysterious figure appeared. With a pocong-like head and hairy body like a monkey.
From the findings of the picture, Dukun Millenial tried to ask Putra Kayang, one of the supernatural experts in Banten. According to Putra, the figure does look very strange because Putra believes that each region has supernatural creatures with their own characteristics.
Nevertheless, Putra believes that the figure belongs to a type of demon. Not just any demon, the figure behind the picture is a demon resulting from the incarnation of a human who performs pesugihan by drinking animal blood, which is why the figure has a head like a pocong while the body resembles a monkey.
"In my opinion, it is a demonic figure, although each region has its own special creature, but I see it as a demon from the results of pesugihan. I think he uses the ritual of drinking animal blood, so that's why his figure is like that," Putra explained to DM.
Putra also considered that the demon figure posed a threat to humans because it could endanger lives. This is because the figure usually targets human and animal blood as a condition of the ritual.
"Yes, that figure is quite dangerous because it often targets human and animal blood as a requirement for black magic rituals, if it's late at night it turns into a demon," Putra added.
Well according to Sobat Dukun, what do you think the figure in the picture is, is it really a demon or is it one of Singkawang's endemic animals?
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Not only does this site include the picture tweeted out by Mexico’s president, but it also includes this one:
So his critics have proved that this picture couldn’t have been taken three days before, and they can denounce him as a fraudster or a fool for tweeting the picture in that context.
Now comes the ironic part.
They may have debunked his claim that this photo was taken in Mexico, but they didn’t disprove his claim that todo es místico. Everything is mystical.
In fact, I’d argue their debunking provided further evidence.
They said he was wrong and proved it by linking to the year old website. But that website claims these are pictures of a demon…which—give or take a year and a few thousand miles distance—is basically what the President claimed. And as far as I can tell, no one has debunked the pictures, they just can’t tell what it is.
If we stop playing Gotcha! for a moment we see the President of Mexico tweeted a picture of a Mayan sculpture of an aluxe, indicating the ancients were familiar with these beings, and a modern photo from Indonesia in which people from separate cultures have identified as a spiritual being (even if they got the location wrong), and he concludes that everything is mystical.
What’s almost even more amazing is that this tweet came from a world leader. Modernity has kicked the belief in nature fairies, impish elves, and wood demons to the curb to be taken to the dump like old embarrassing furniture. What the President did here was tantamount to dragging out that old fashioned sofa from the garbage and inviting the world to watch him kick his feet back on it. Modernity has taught us that the only people who believe in that stuff are ignorant backwoods peasants whose beliefs ought to disqualify them from becoming a dog catcher much less the Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. And yet here we are.
I take this to be yet another indicator that a major shift is occurring. It’s happening whether we like it or not. When you have top US officials discussing UFO’s with the public and the Mexican President tweeting about Mayan wood spirits, I’d say some cracks are forming in the Secular Materialism that has long upheld Modernity. At some point it will crumble and something will fill that void.
We are in the midst of shifting from an era where everything is mechanistic to one where todo es místico.
Are you ready?
“ We are in the midst of shifting from an era where everything is mechanistic to one where todo es místico.
Are you ready?”
I’m ready.