Guañameñe or Guadameñe was the name of a

Guanche Guanche may refer to: *Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canary Islands *Guanche language, an extinct Berber language, spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century *''Conus guanche ''Conus guanche'' is a species of sea snail, a ma ...

fortune-teller who had prophesied the arrival of the Castilian conquerors to the island of

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

( Canary Islands, Spain) at the end of the fifteenth century. Subsequently, the word ''Guañameñe'' was extended to denominate the highest priestly rank of the Guanche society.

History

The story about the fortune-teller Guañameñe is mainly due to the friar

Alonso de Espinosa Alonso de Espinosa (1543–?) was a Spanish priest and historian of the sixteenth century. He was the first official historian of the island of Tenerife. Little is known of his early life. He is first heard of towards the end of the sixteenth cent ...

, who in his work ''Historia de Nuestra Señora de Candelaria'' mentions that the Guanches had been warned by the fortuneteller that some white people were to come inside large birds by the sea. According to the Dominican, Guañameñe would have prophesied these facts a century before the arrival of the Castilians in 1494, and was the reason that the mencey of Taoro ordered the rest of Guanche kings to notify him if any foreigner arrived on the shores of the Island, something that the one of

Güímar Güímar () is the name of a municipality, town and valley in the eastern part of the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, and part of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (province). The municipality extends for 102.9 square kilometers from ...

did when appearing on its beaches the image of the

Virgin of Candelaria The Virgin of Candelaria or Our Lady of Candle ( es, Virgen de Candelaria or ''Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria''), popularly called ''La Morenita'', celebrates the Virgin Mary on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands (Spain). The cent ...

. For his part,

Antonio de Viana Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

turns the fortune-teller Guañameñe into a character in his epic ''Conquista de Tenerife'' published in 1604. In this work narrates that the fortune-teller asks the mencey

Bencomo Bencomo (; 1438 – 1495) was the penultimate ''mencey'' or king of Taoro, a Guanche ''menceyato'' on the island of Tenerife. He fought in the First Battle of Acentejo, a victory for the Guanches against the invading Castilians, after having refu ...

of Taoro, who is in the audience, and predicts that foreigners would arrive from the sea and that they would rule the island. This upsets the mencey, who responds by ordering Guañameñe to be hanged from a tree.

Priesthood

Guañameñe also refers to the highest rank of

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

Guanche (high priest) who advised the aboriginal monarchs, called menceyes, on the island of Tenerife before the Castilian conquest. The Guañameñes enjoyed a high social consideration and had a great knowledge of oral tradition and interpreted natural and celestial phenomena. Possibly they had a great influence in the political control. They presided over the assemblies or Tagoror. According to Bethencourt Alfonso, the Guañameñes wore black and wore an amulet or idol called

Guatimac Guatimac or the Idol of Guatimac is an owl-shaped Guanche cult image, found in 1885, hidden in a cave between the municipalities of Fasnia and Güímar (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain) wrapped in goat hide. Characteristics The idol, made from ...

Nowadays

Currently the term ''Guañameñe'' is used as a reference to the highest priestly caste of the Neopagan organization called

Church of the Guanche People Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

.Religiones entre continentes. Minorías religiosas en Canarias. Editado por la Universidad de La Laguna
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References

Guanche Guanche people Guanche mythology Shamanism {{mythology-stub