When was santeria born

Then we started saying prayers over it and it was weird--the hen got really calm. The priest held the hen in one hand and twisted the neck off with the other.

The head popped off, just like that. Then he held the body upside down and poured the blood in the hole. Blood sacrifice is thought to be the most potent, because it is the essential life fluid.

The orishas love to come down and party. We are sitting in bright weekend sunlight on the patio of a house off Alvarado, in Echo Park. From inside, one can hear the insistent beat of the bata drummers. In a California culture clash, the ancient drums compete for dominance on the patio with heavy-metal guitar emanating from the house two doors up, where teen-agers are drinking beer and throwing the cans out in the yard.

We want to obey the law and avoid scandals. The community is still small enough that many of the priests know each other. If somebody is a phony, word gets around quick. The front room of the house has been emptied of furniture. In a side room, four or five new priests wait with an elaborate altar and offerings of fruit and various other foods. There is no alcohol anywhere, and no sign of drug use--just cigars, whose smoke is thought to attract orishas and ancestor spirits. Nearly everyone present is Cuban.

Many are wearing white in combination with the special colors of their orisha. The drummers have begun saluting 16 of the orishas in the expansive Yoruba pantheon actively worshiped in Santeria.

Each orisha has a rhythm and chant preserved from antiquity. The bata drums are held on the laps of the players, who play both ends with their hands and fingertips. The sound is earthier than that of the fiberglass conga drums usually used in Latin-jazz and rock groups, and the polyrhythms are more purely African.

In the front room, people are dancing and clapping to the drums. There are polite, middle-aged women in expensive dresses and high heels; professional-looking, gray-haired men you might pass on the golf course and not glance at twice; all swaying and moving together in distinctly African formations. A tall, seemingly tireless black man leads the chants. He sings a line, and the others answer in unison. All the singing is in Yoruba, which functions as a sacred language in Santeria much as Latin does in the Catholic Church.

The first is a slight, bespectacled man wearing a white skullcap and holding two coconuts on a plate. He is flanked by two other priests, one male, one female. Walking very slowly, but in rhythm, they bring him before the middle drum and lay him flat on the ground, where he leaves the coconuts. Then they help him up and dance a slow retreat. Again and again, they advance and retreat before the bata. The intensity of the drumming gradually increases, until the three are bent over at the waist, eyes closed, still stepping forward and backward in unison yet individually enveloped in the music.

Suddenly, the drummers double the tempo into a furious polyrhythm. The other two grab the new priest and begin running him in a circle. His whole body is shaking wildly. The others hold him up and guide him into the kitchen in the back of the house, where, for better or worse, in a trance he assumes the personality of his orisha for a time.

Something is always being revealed about the nature of the gods not known before. Oshun can be very stern and correct. A week later, that person died. Like Flores, Balewa is an initiate of Oshun. Unlike Flores, she was born in the United States. A black woman in her 40s who dresses in African fabrics, she grew up Catholic in the Bronx and was initiated into the religion there by Puerto Ricans 11 years ago.

She claims to be the highest-ranking black priestess on the West Coast, though in the absence of a central authority, such claims are open to dispute. Balewa works out of the Yoruba Temple, located in a decrepit-looking building near the corner of Vermont Avenue and 42nd Street. The Yoruba Temple was founded about three years ago by Sekou Ali and Imodoye Shabazz, former Black Muslims who discovered in the religion a missing link to understanding their African heritage. There is no charge for any of the services.

You can see that people are not slaughtering children, or slaughtering animals, in here. We put more emphasis on character-building, on doing positive things in this world. He is careful to emphasize that the LAPD does not monitor santeros , any more than it does practitioners of other religions.

The way they explain it is, if there is something they can do to give us an edge, why not? But these are the ones that make the news. The last time I was in Miami, I met a woman who saw my bracelet and asked me what it meant.

I told her I was a santero, a priest. I have never used drugs. I almost never even drink. Santeria is not Witchcraft. It is not the study of spells or using spells to harm or affect anyone else. Anyone who thinks that Santeria can be used to keep a girlfriend, harm an enemy or win the lottery has not understood the principals of Santeria and is misguided. Santeria is about living the life that has been assigned to you the best way you possibly can.

Followers of Santeria may use various tools to protect themselves such as spiritual baths or the wearing of sacred Necklaces. They may use various herbs to cleanse or protect, or they may make offerings to their ancestors or to Orisha.

That does not equate with Witchcraft. Much has been made about Animal Sacrifice in the Santeria religion. Offerings to an Orisha may include a glass of water, flowers, a candle, fruit or prepared items of food. More often than not a reading will recommend behavior modification or suggestions for improving ones behavior.

It is rare that an animal would be marked for Sacrifice. However it is a part of the practice of Santeria. There is nothing cruel about the sacrifices and more likely than not the animal is eaten and not thrown away. The animal is slaughtered in the same way that animals are slaughtered in Jewish and Moslem practice for Halal or Kosher meat.

Prayers accompany the sacrifice and more often than not, those attending the ceremony eat the animal. A Santeros house is their temple In general Santeros do not have a Church or a place of workshop as such. Their houses are their temples. They do not have anything such as a bible and commandments but each Santero has their own personal advice from the Orisha that they should follow. They use systems of Divination as their guides and they also look to the ancestors for help and guidance.

The stories and moral tales that derive from the Divination systems were passed down orally, but there are also now books that tell them. There are songs that accompany every single ceremony…. The ceremony is public and anyone can come in, although the uninitiated have to be at the back and not approach the drums. Everyone can sing the songs though and it is important that everyone sings in order to build up the energy.

A tambor is a ceremony that involves the bringing down of Orisha. The initiated priests become vessels for the Orisha to inhabit for a short time, in order to impart their knowledge and positive advise to all that partake in the ceremony. There are many cultural projects these days that have explored the tradition of Orisha Song, however they are cultural interpretations and although the rhythms are the same, the drums are not consecrated. It is important to note that the songs are beautiful, the singing of them are deep but they are in essence a cultural interpretation that come from a living breathing spiritual tradition.

Sign up to our weekly newsletter for the latest articles, events, news and special offers Here. Tweets by latinolifeuk. Skip to main content. Society and Politics. Things You Should Know About Yet much fear, mystery and misunderstanding surrounds it. To explode some of the myths, here are some things you should know about Santeria.

A title such as Babalawo , or Santero , means little, if that individual cannot show that they live and understand the concept of Iwa Pele 7. Mexico: Informal Workers and the Pandemic. Spotlight on Mariah Angeliq Thursday, October 28, - Like us on Facebook.

Not all people continue to the main initiation after having performed the first ritual. They remain on what we might call the lowest step on the religious ladder. The reason may be that they do not need to go any further, cannot afford it or do not wish to get too involved. Those who choose to take a further step into the cult are initiated.

This means a total involvement in the religion, which entails letting your everyday life be marked by this choice. The initiation itself is called hacerse santo , which means "making oneself santo". Through a week-long ritual you receive the power of the santos that guide your life. In addition, you receive the representations of all the various santos you are to place in tureens in your personal home altar.

The actual ritual lasts for seven days, but the preparations may go on for months, even years. What takes most time is raising enough money for the initiation and all the sacrifices, the special clothes, assistance, sacrificial animals and food required. Then you must find a godfather or godmother and make all the purchases, before you step into the small room which only the initiated may enter.

Initiation itself symbolises a rebirth, in which you are stripped of your old self and start upon a period as novice. First, you acquire a new social position and a new network through your new ritual family, and thus also get in some ways a new start in life. Secondly, as newly initiated you get access to the powers which the santos possess and the help they may give. The period after initiation is, for example, marked by a number of restrictions which reflect the vulnerability of the novice as newborn.

They must, for example, only wear white, not stay out after six in the afternoon, not go outside in the rain or strong sun and never touch alcohol. In the course of the initiation ritual, in addition to confirmation of the relationship with your ritual parents, you are informed of the identity of your other santoral parent. There are always a male and a female santo, in the same way as your biological parents.

That fitted well with my intelligent and calm nature. In the same way as you resemble your biological parents, you resemble your santoral parents. And just as you cannot chose your biological parents, you cannot choose the santos that are your divine parents.

It is the santos that choose people and not vice versa. After initiation and the ensuing period as novice, you can call yourself a type of religious expert at a lower level. You now possess knowledge and a number of secrets, among other things how to perform rituals, and you can now start working in the religion.

The santeros and santeras are said to have equal states because they have access to the same secrets and can perform the same rituals and divinations, but not all female devotees agree. The reason could among other things lie in the men's use of menstruation as an excuse for not permitting women to participate to the same extent as men.

Babalawo means the father of secrets. A babalawo also has the right to sacrifice animals, and in addition he can foresee the future through his contacts with Orula , santo of divinations. And by that I mean real men. Babalawo means the father of secrets, and neither women nor poofs can keep secrets….

Most of them have, moreover, gone through the initiation ritual for becoming a santero. This shows that persons with different roles in the hierarchy depend on one another for help and assistance.

The believer can uphold his part of the relationship with the santos by respecting the prohibitions given during initiation, hold feasts in honour of the santos and by making offerings. It is usual for the believer to greet the santos in the morning by attracting their attention with the use of a bell or a rattle, and then to pray for the day to be good.

This is done before the home altar. Apart from this morning prayer, believers turn to their santos if they have any special wishes or problems. Such a wish is often followed by an offering. What is sacrificed and how important it is, depends both on which santo is involved and how big the problem is.

If you really have a big problem, the santos want a big sacrifice, and you must therefore contact a babalawo and get his help to sacrifice a whole hen or a pigeon, for blood is every santo's favourite!

This is how the santero Raul explained what a sacrifice could be. Offerings can therefore consist of food, flowers, candles, objects or blood. Blood sacrifices entail slaughtering one or more animals, and normally the believers and the santos share the sacrificed animal. The others get the meat, which is usually eaten in connection with the conclusion of the ritual.

In addition to sacrifices, devotees may show their veneration by arranging feasts for the santo. Because of the relatively large expenses such a party entails, not all people can afford to celebrate both days.

Furthermore, in one family several people may be initiated and there will therefore be many days to celebrate during one year. Food is bought in for the feasts and the altar is decorated and turned into a festive throne by covering all the tureens in scarves in the proper colours.

Everyone is invited to the party: neighbours, friends, family and naturally the ritual family. Santos may also attend the feasts by possessing one of the guests. Possession only occurs if a feast with drumming is arranged and there is someone present who has the ability to be possessed.

The most common form of communication with the santos is divination. There are many different types of divinations, depending on what you want and who performs it.