The sources describe the term kalku (Calcu) as a borrowing from the Puquina language and situate the concept within longer-range parallels between Mapuche and Central Andean cosmologies (the article links adoption of the term to historical contacts dating to the Tiwanaku period). Beyond the loanword note, the provided material frames kalku as a culturally recognized category of human practitioner rather than providing a specific mythic origin tale.
The provided sources do not give a physical description of individual kalku as human practitioners. What is documented is their affiliation with spirit-servants (for example, Anchimayen) and that the Chonchon is described as the magical manifestation of a more powerful kalku; sources do not state that all kalku have a visible or stereotyped human appearance.
Kalku work with wekufe ('spirits or wicked creatures') and with negative or 'black' magical forces. They command or employ harmful spirit-agents and other subordinate supernatural beings; named associates include the Anchimayen and the Chonchon (the latter described as the magical manifestation of a powerful kalku). The role may be inherited, or a machi may become a kalku by pursuing lucrative or transgressive practice and ignoring the admapu (the Mapuche rules).
Weaknesses
- otherNo specific vulnerabilities recorded in provided sources
Wards
- otherNo specific wards or protective rites against kalku are recorded in the provided sources; machi (benevolent ritual specialists) are indicated as the culturally authorized responders to malevolent forces
Wekufe
In Mapuche cosmology the wekufe (wekufü) is a class of harmful external force or spirit whose essential quality is to disturb or destroy the natural and social order. The term covers a range of beings and energies—from extracorporeal disruptive forces to material monstrous forms—and is tied to ritual order, sorcery (kalku), and healing practices (machi, machitún).
Anchimayen
Anchimayen is a small, childlike luminous creature in Mapuche mythology described as a servant or familiar kept by a kalku (Mapuche sorcerer). It is said to take the form of small children and to transform into flying fireballs that emit bright light; some sources also describe a later conception as a fuego fatuo (will-o'-the-wisp)-type being that can frighten travelers.
Chonchon
A Mapuche legendary being described as the detached, flying head of a sorcerer or person who has entered into sorcery. The chonchon is associated with kalku (evil sorcerers), nocturnal covens, and functions as an omen-bearing, predatory extension of illicit witchcraft in southern Chile and Argentina.
*Perkʷūnos
*Perkʷūnos is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European thunder‑god hypothesized by comparative linguistics and mythology. Scholarly reconstructions portray him as a storm or thunder figure associated with fructifying rain and as the combatant who fights a multi‑headed water‑serpent to release life‑giving waters; no direct attestations from the Proto‑Indo‑European period survive and the figure is inferred from later Indo‑European traditions.
*Péh₂usōn (reconstructed)
Péh₂usōn is a hypothetical Proto‑Indo‑European pastoral guardian reconstructed by comparative scholars from parallels in Greek and Vedic traditions. Proposed as a Graeco‑Aryan ancestor‑figure, the reconstruction describes a protector of flocks, roads, and travellers rather than an attested historical cultic personality.
57 Mnemosyne
57 Mnemosyne is a large main-belt asteroid (S-type) discovered in 1859 and named after the Greek Titaness Mnemosyne. It is a non-sentient astronomical body studied for its orbital and rotational properties and has been used in dynamical measurements related to Jupiter.
Abaddon
In Hebrew scripture Abaddon is primarily a noun meaning 'destruction' or a section/condition of the underworld paired with Sheol; in the New Testament Book of Revelation Abaddon is personified as an angelic figure (Greek Apollyon) described as the king of an army of locusts released from the abyss during the apocalypse.
Aban Yasht
The Aban Yasht is a hymn from the Persian tradition that praises Anahita, a goddess associated with water, fertility, and wisdom. It consists of 132 stanzas and is part of the 21 Yashts collection. (Note: - Power tier should be "Primordial" or possibly "Cosmic", given that it's a hymn of great spiritual significance and associated with a goddess. - The article incorrectly states that Anahita is associa)
Abath
No corroborated folkloric entity named "Abath" is documented in the provided sources. The string appears in the supplied material only as a surname/personal name in Aruban/Dutch-Caribbean archival records and as an unrelated taxonomic or encyclopedic hit; no mythic attributes, origin stories, rituals, or apotropaic practices for an entity called Abath are present in the documents reviewed.
Abatur
Abatur is an uthra (celestial emanation) in Mandaeism described as the 'father of the Uthras' and called the Ancient (ʿattīqā). He resides on the boundary between the World of Light and lower regions, functions as a judge who weighs souls (Abatur Muzania), and supplies instructions and materials to the demiurgic uthra Ptahil in accounts from the Diwan (Scroll) of Abatur.
Abatwa (Twa / Batwa)
Abatwa (also recorded as Twa, Batwa, Mutwa; singular forms Barhwa or Murhwa in some transcriptions) are indigenous hunter‑gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, historically identified as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. The available sources treat them as human ethnic groups whose livelihoods, lands, and populations have been severely affected by conservation policies and modern violence.
Abellio
Abellio is a theonym attested in Roman‑period inscriptions from the Comminges area of the Pyrenees and reported as worshipped in the Garonne Valley of ancient Gallia Aquitania. Surviving evidence is limited to a small number of inscriptions; scholars have variously hypothesized solar or arboreal associations and compared the name to forms of Apollo or to Celtic Belenus, but the deity's precise role in local cosmology remains uncertain.
Abraham
Abraham (originally Abram) is the foundational patriarchal ancestor in the Hebrew Bible whose life establishes a covenantal relationship between his family/people and God. He functions as an exemplar of faith, the progenitor of promised descendants, and a narrative anchor for claims of land, blessing, and communal identity in later religious traditions.
Abraun
Abraun is an attested name in German-language plant-legend scholarship (Der abraun, ein beitrag zur pflanzensagenkunde, 1916) and a short database entry (Wikidata) labels it as a spirit from German mythology. Surviving accessible documentation is extremely limited: the principal academic treatment is a 1916 contribution to pflanzensagenkunde (plant-saga studies), but the excerpts available here contain only bibliographic metadata and do not record tales, descriptions, or rituals.
Abtin
Abtin (Persian: آبتین), attested also as Athwya, is a mythic ancestral figure in Iranian tradition described in Avestan and later epic literature as one of a small set of formative human-like figures involved in preparing the corporeal world and as the father of the epic hero-king Fereydun in the Shahnama.
Community Record
- [1]Kalku — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Kalku' article (accessed source material provided)wiki
- [2]Kalkun (Wikidata entry Q41988347). Wikidata entry noted in source list; does not contribute mythological detailswiki