This presentation examines the ancient prophetic traditions of the Americas through the lens of the Sibyl and the werewolf — figures who embodied trance, possession, and the breakdown of ordinary identity. Drawing on Indigenous accounts of nagualism, skin-turning, and animal doubles alongside classical sources on lycanthropy and ecstatic prophecy, the talk explores a world in which spiritual authority came from entering a “feral” state rather than delivering calm doctrine. The corn-throwing ritual appears as one small survival of this older system, where truth was read from patterns cast into the world instead of spoken as law. Far from superstition, these practices point to a radically different model of consciousness — one in which the human self could split, transform, or be overtaken by something older than civilization.

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