Abstract

The present article portrays relations between religion, spirituality, and mysticism existent in bullfighting. To illustrate its point, it focuses on a contemporary Spanish bullfighter Antonio Ferrera and takes into consideration the last seven years of his career, in which he has revealed interest in spirituality and religion not only through paintings and embroideries of his capes and suits (the use of colors and symbols decorating them), but more importantly in his way of performing a ritual ceremony, during which he completely abandons himself with the goal of becoming the receptor of the bull’s power and divinity. The ritual is divided into several stages: (a) physical and mental preparation before the bullfight; (b) withdrawal when the bullfighter is dressing up; (c) his entrance into the bullring when his face reflects uncertainty and determination; (d) the first part of the fight in which the bull manifests his power and totemic qualities, while the bullfighter looks for the point of connection with him; (e) the second part, or the liminal point, when the powers of the bull and the bullfighter become equalized; (f) the last part, when the bull progressively loses his totemic and divine qualities, while the bullfighter obtains them and transmits them to the audience; and (g) ecstasy during the death of the bull. To understand the psychological processes taking place in the bullfighter’s subconsciousness, the article draws on the sixteenth-century alchemical treatise Rosarium philosophorum (1550) and the interpretation of C. G. Jung, which helps analyze the mystical union with the bull and the transmutation of the soul that the torero experiences while he is performing the ritual.