Cross Spiritism

Cross Spiritualism emerged in Cuba as a syncretic mix of Spiritualism traditional religious practices of Congo and Yoruba peoples. For Cubans, practitioners or that support the foundations of the religion of Yoruba origin, death is just another way of life. When a person has successfully fulfilled the tasks entrusted to debug as being incarnate as well, for their material and spiritual work strictly observed all the funeral rites, she managed to transcend to other dimensions that make you a "ku" or luminous spirit and in possession of this condition, reincarnated in the essences that are related. If not properly fulfilled all these conditions, death is its transformation into a "ba" or wandering spirit, which can only manifest as negative energy, it does not help to increase their spiritual cleansing, or what is the same, Ache to provide not embodied beings.

The deceased will only reach the category of "ku" when his soul reaches orun ode, or world of the gods, although the path to this spiritual level, Olofi assigned various tasks of collective benefit. This explains why in the Yoruba-theological treatises like the Bible, "death of the most important prophets came after many years of life: death is not synonymous with disembodied, but possible to reincarnate as a particle of divine light.

There is a great contradiction between the efforts that each person must do to procure the benefits (IRES) for him, his family and peers, and damages (Osogbo) that are sent by Eshu to limit and hinder their existence. Efforts to purify the spirit, is the lead a full religious life, make the sacrifices and offerings to the gods and ancestors. Among Osogbo appear: the sudden and premature death, illness, accidents, etc.

<<When Olorun proper subject attempted to create man, all parties to seek orishas, brought different materials, but none was provided for the purpose required. The death appeared with his hands covered with mud and had no pity for her tears, that distilled water. Oloddumare took the mud, who in principle and gave it to Orichanlá Olugama and then himself, he breathed the breath of life. Iku Olorun determined as was the one who chose the right material, would be privileged to reposition at any time in their home. >>

That is why at the end of existence, Iku brings us back to the mud. This is a return in a regression. In connection with this legend, we odduara Ifa "Irete Kutan," which in one of his poems says: "What gives the land, the land is eaten, indicating that death is a return to the essential principle of existence.

Another odduara of Ifa that contains a rich philosophical concept of death is Iwori Ogunda, "which says:" A tree that is pruned, sprouts, "which is interpreted as the existence should be limited to emerge strengthened. Pruning represents the interruption of life, the branches, the ancestors, the fruits, the children, the green leaves, the embodied soul, the flowers, the spirit, and leaves the disembodied soul.

When a person dies, pull the Obbi once, this is "Itutu." Then, nine days, there is a mass in the Catholic church, and finished it, all the companions return to the family home to give coconut and know your compliance. Year, it becomes a new Mass in the church, and then perform Santeria, which called "piercing the plate." The goal is to achieve the Itutu that dead loved ones, rest in peace. This practice is highly respected in this religion, which always has the dead.

The city of Matanzas, known as the "land of Santeria" is characterized as one of the cities of greater and more varied presence of cross products and syncretic magic-religious practices introduced by African slaves in Cuba. They are the Regla de Ocha or Santería Cubana, Iyessá Rule, Rule Arara, Palo Monte Rule and the Secret Society Abakuá. Among those who practice is widespread cross variant of Spiritualism, which is called Spiritualism fountains or Scientific Board, the Spanish Popular Religiosity and religious expressions of African origin, mainly the Regla de Ocha or Santería Cubana Rule Palo Monte.

Scientific Spiritism or Table was introduced in Cuba since the United States in the 2nd half of the nineteenth century and in the city of Matanzas, to the 60s of last century, one could find many Spiritist practice centers, which was characterized by:

- Presence of a simple ritual.
- Ability to communicate with the spirits directly or through mediums.
- Work with spirits "high" (priests, nuns, doctors, poets, heroes, Indians, etc.).
- Mass open to give birth to the spirits "backward."
- Character hipodinámico masses.
- Use of glasses of water, flowers and perfume.
- Reading of poems, prayers, prayers and spiritual songs of high transmission.

The sessions were attended by their mainly representatives of the petty bourgeoisie, doctors, teachers, lawyers, people whose cultural level allowed to assimilate and implement the "high" philosophical and ethical doctrines professed in Cuba Spiritism or Table Scientific. This trend has the ideas and lofty sentiments, the moral and spiritual development. Is identified with Catholicism and the ideas about heaven, purgatory, paradise, hell and the immortality of the soul.

As you penetrate the Spiritist practice among the broad masses, was assimilated elements of both popular religion, introduced by Spanish immigrants, poor, and of the ritual practices of worship of deities and ancestors who brought African slaves, and those who have been transmitted from generation to generation in a long, contradictory process of acculturation and syncretism, regardless of skin color and social background.
It should be emphasized that the practitioners of Cuban Popular Religiosity have expanded their magic-religious conception, through the generations, to establish the corresponding functional links between different religious expressions of African and spiritism. They, in general, believe that the more different elements dominate, plus support, power and protection derived from the supernatural beings and forces to which they worship. A single practitioner can be a spiritist, while being initiated into the rules of Ocha, Arara or Palo Monte, and also belong to the Secret Society Abakuá.

So the practice of Spiritism in the popular masses has assimilated elements of the worship of deities and ancestors of the various magical and religious systems of African origin in Cuba. This has been facilitated, the fact that the processes mediumistic and evocation of spirits, despite their different treatment, are inherent not only to Spiritism, but also to ritual practices mentioned. This favors their mutual influence and interpenetration. Even the practices of spiritism and Palo Monte are enriched among the initiates of Regla de Ocha and Rule Arara, worship of ancestors, for through the paths of Spiritualism and Palo, the dead can "download and labor "for the benefit of his brothers who" encouraged matter. "

Before proceeding we should clarify the position of Scientific Spiritualism in relation to the cult of the dead and the ancestors of African origin express regard Diolindo Amorin:

"... The mediumship is part of Spiritualism, but is imposed is not clear that mediumship spiritism, mediumship exists in African religions is something that is not disputed and that, accordingly, may present the argument that even when their base immortality the soul and make mediumship, the practices of Africanism, despite being spiritualists, there are arrangements of Spiritualism. ... The ritual Africanism is organized according to their secular traditions founded on the belief in deities peculiar to their cult, and it touches the Spiritism, has not taken or ritual of any kind, has no form of worship or worship deities. It is a scientific doctrine, prone to experimental method and philosophical meditations very high, since it is the destiny of the human soul, man preparing for the practice of good, the only path that leads to God "(1)

The invocation and evocation of spirits takes place in so-called masses or seances, which have as main objective the invocation and evocation of spirits in order to ensure their support and protection in the problems of everyday life and important. In addition, the masses, it is "giving birth" to those who need disembodied brothers, or the spirits to possess some form of spiritual backwardness. They can be classified as masses of charity, devotion to family, spiritual research, festive character, and so on. The Masses are conducted with the assistance of the mediums, which are people who, besides being able to communicate with spirits, have certain powers such as clairvoyance (visual and auditory), intuition, hunches, etc..

The mediums can work with various committees of spirits, including Arabic, Indian, African, Gypsy, marine, medical, etc., But in the popular variant of Spiritualism. Of these committees has established the African commission, chaired by the spirits congos. The latter have made their rich rituals in practice spiritualist, she is evident in the invocation and evocation of spirits, on the possibility of magical-religious manipulation and the propitiation of the spiritual atmosphere necessary with the help of "cleaning and carcasses. " These spirits are so vital need of offerings (food, beverages, flowers, etc.). And even animal sacrifices (pigeons, chickens and roosters) to promote its existence and supernatural powers. In its manifestations, through the mediums, they smoke, drink alcohol and perform various magic-religious actions. These spirits are presented in the masses "with the flow" of Palo Monte deities worshiped in life, with the action of Lucero (Elegguá), Sarabande (Oggún), Seven Rays (Shango), Mother Water (Yemaya), Mama Chola (Oshun) and others. In addition, music-dance companies use vehicles to create the right atmosphere and as a trigger for the states of possession, they have granted a hyperactive character masses. Hence have arisen spiritual masses festive nature, which is achieved by the manifestation of spirits, not with the help of high prayers, prayers and spiritual transmissions, but through songs and dances where they mix the richest traditions musician paleros-dance performances ("hala Congo") and the Cuban Rumba. These variations are festive: Drum, Cajon, and Rumba to the Dead. In them the use of space is much more active than in Scientific Spiritism or Table.

Practitioners of Spiritism Cruzado, as practitioners of the religious systems of African origin, is immersed in a continuous dialogue with transcendent beings and supernatural forces that loves, in order to find help and protection. This drag them to a special reality of existence, a world of fabulous, where water, plants, the aroma of certain foods, words, and the most dissimilar objects, actions and events surrounding it, turn out to be representations The containers, which aims to unleash the forces, and whose senses and alleged attempts to manipulate properties, thus promoting their protection and assistance. In relation to that "special" really expresses JJFigarola:
"... The reality conventionally taken as normal coincides with the reality that we have called the match sucked and this leads, in turn, to factual reality, customary, be replaced by a represented reality, within which anything looks, like touch or has any ownership in its specific materiality, but alone and simply what constitutes representation. There's certainly no representation chaotic or capricious, but also adjusted to a preset code, often cryptic and highly complex to decipher. " (2)

And in this particular reality or aspirated:
"... A glass of water is not a glass, a candle is a candle, a decapitated goat is slaughtered a goat, a tree is a tree, the soil is not soil, wind is the wind, life is not life, death is not death. are expressions of a unique and holistic subjective world that is not equal for all religious magic systems. " (3)

Thus, also the physical space where they reach their own religious activities of Spiritism Magic Cross is not the same objective space which takes the natural and social activity of man, and which establishes certain relations. This undergoes a symbolic reinterpretation through the prism of religious magical ideas and representations of the belief in question. It turns out the same space, yet it is not. As a result of a change of representations, mediated by the action of certain rituals, has been shedding its daily, has acquired certain characteristics, certain special atmosphere, which have transformed, and make it different. For the spiritualists, that space is essentially off the table altar. That space "special", according to Castañeda Mache Yalexis turns out to be:
"¨ ... the perfect place to transcend their ideas," feel "in your body forces or spiritual movements or" walking dead "in the words of the interviewees. Here all that happens is interpreted as an expression of" reality " than in the ordinary course of legitimating will meet the present and membership is only through the practice itself. To this we call real-symbolic space in which the practitioner draws on his own imagination of belief giving it meaning virtues and sacred powers, which are made explicit in practice by social and subjective dimension of the need arise. " (4)

In general, this expression has no religious or specialized local centers for their masses or meetings. The spiritualist uses a room in your home to place the altar table, which happens to be the center of force to which the activities take fundamental spiritualists. This is a table covered with a cloth or white cloth on which are arranged a series of objects that represent or symbolize the spiritual forces to which they worship, and which are necessary for the process of invocation and evocation of spirits. The chairs a crucifix and a crystal goblet with water, dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament. This spiritual entity turns out to be the superior spiritual force adored, giver of light and peace of mind, faith, hope and charity, so necessary for embodied or disembodied spirits, which the spiritist belief, inhabit the Earth. It also have six or more glasses of water, dedicated to the spirit guides, guards and relatives of the person who owns the altar table. It placed cards, vases with flowers and a candle. May also be present images of saints, dolls and dolls "loaded", which represent certain protective spirits

If the practitioner of Spiritism is started in the Rule of Ocha, Rule Arara, and even in Rule Palo Monte, then in the same room can be spirit-altar table with sacred objects and attributes, typical of these different expressions African religious. Thus, the altar table can be placed at the side of canastillero called the Rule of Ocha, cabinet where calls are tureens, bowls containing the attributes of their deities. Sacred objects can share space in the same room, but their ritual practices by established tradition, do not intermingle. Mutually exclusive. This leads to the same physical space there to be shared by the practice of different religious expressions in which the believer is started. But through certain rituals, each of the different religious expressions named assimilate, process, shared physical space, and become your own real space over the course of symbolic ritual. Masses in this area is established, at the outset, with the reading of the prayer spiritualist "At the beginning of the meeting," and the invocation and evocation of the spirits through various prayers and spiritual songs. The prayer "At the end of the meeting," which marks the conclusion of the seance, restores the "normal character" of space used. Keep in mind that sometimes the boundaries between spaces of different religious expressions are blurred a bit. Such is the case of the manifestation of the so-called "holy muerteros" in the masses. They are deities of the Rule of Ocha, but with "way" spiritual. They are La Caridad del Cobre (Oshun), La Virgen de Regla (Yemaya) and San Lazaro (Babalu Aye)

The altar table, chairs the circle in which they are arranged seats occupied by the participants of the mass. In its extreme left and the right to feel the mediums headers that direct the activity. Other participants will complete the circle. The geometric shape symbolically represents the finite space in which can move forces or spiritual movements in a more efficient and that will be channeled with the help of the sacred elements that make up the altar table, chaired by the cross and the cup the Blessed Sacrament, and symbolically lit by the flame of the candle. In the case of an "investigation", "development" or "coronation" spiritual, the person concerned will sit in the middle of the circle in front to the altar table, in order that it converge to the "forces or currents "Spiritual necessary to achieve the objective. The design of the circle is also used in the dances that take place in a festive Masses that take place in some homes, temples of the Rule of Ocha in the city of Matanzas. It is also to facilitate the proper transmission of spiritual movements among participants, which in turn encourages the states of spirit possession in law. We must remember that dancing in a circle in front of the ritual drums in the festivities dedicated to the orishas is part of the ritual tradition of Regla de Ocha, conducted with the aim of concentrating the forces that trigger the states of possession of the orishas among participants.

To the dead, called eggun in the Rule of Ocha, this Yoruba religious expression are worshiped in the "corner Eggun or Dead." This corner should be located in the courtyard of the initiate. There are different eggun devoted to offerings of flowers, food, drink or blood of sacrificial animals (pigeon, chicken or rooster), and are made up animal sacrifices, for their atonement in the worship of the orishas or saints . Traditionally, for santeros, conduct Mass at the Church or spiritual masses before any important ceremony of the Rule of Ocha, such as meals to the saints, birthdays, initiations, etc. The dead are the first to be served in the implementation of the various ritual ceremonies of the Regla de Ocha. Worship is so important that among the santeros, it is widely phrase "Iku Lobi Ocha (" The Dead stop at Santo "or" First the Dead, and then the Ghost. "). Talking about the deceased expressed santera eggun Noemi Gonzalez
"Eggun and spirit are the same dead, but spirits are those that are closer to Olofin, and glasses of water puts them up, and made them spiritual or masses in the church. They can talk through the mouth of the spiritualists who are mediums.

The eggun are attached to land, works of Santeria, which is why they are put in a corner, a little of everything we eat is alive and well, coffee, brandy, and snuff. They talk, but the coconuts and snails. Without them you can not do any work in Santeria. A dead man can manifest or eggun or spirit, depends on how you come to work ... "(5)

Eggun Corner is a special place that has gone beyond the religious system that originated, for the dead, without having to necessarily come in the way of the Regla de Ocha, it can get attention "more material." In addition, there rituals you perform certain actions that can lead the course of the spiritist activities.

In the event that the believer is started in the practices of Palo Monte, the nganga, casserole or garment must be located in another room or location of the house. Its "material" may interfere with the proper functioning of the spiritual realm, because the latter is considered "pure" by practitioners. Nganga We must remember that to be the container - container of objects and substances which represent or symbolize the forces or religious magical powers worshiped in Palo Monte. It contains, among other things, to different styles of the mountain, parts of some animals, soil or dust from different places, and even human bones, for the dead to be the catalyst, which channels the magical forces represented in the nganga. She also holds a significant place in the real space symbolic of the house of practicing Spiritism. In spiritual masses may also present these Nfumbe or "spirits of pot", which may be the dead of the Nganga, belonging to one of the participants of the mass. The Nfumbe may also occur as "spirits sent" by an enemy to disrupt the house, or one of the people taking part in the mass. With respect to various actions are done as an exorcist for obsessive people away from him, or expel him from the house where he carried out the mass.

If the spiritualist has a nganga or pan, its power will be dormant for spiritual masses. You can rely on the ability of exorcism in the event it is necessary to expel the session, and home to some spirit very "hard" or "pot" spirit that has not been sufficient common procedures "give light "(conviction, imposition of a crucifix, etc.). nganga The power of invocation and channels with the help of some magical procedures that are plotted in the so-called Palo Monte firms. These turn out to be a pictographic character graphic signs which combine figurative elements (sun, moon, stars, skulls, etc.) And geometric (lines, circles, crosses, etc.

Another highly significant place in the actual space used by the spiritualist symbolic it is the door of his home. Her for being the site that sets the boundary between home safety and the possibility of the unexpected, chance and the danger from outside, has been the subject of beliefs and rituals that grant it a special sanctity throughout history of humanity, within many peoples. It attaches great importance to its ability to stop the bad influences and miss the good ones. Despite the intangible nature of the spirits, his ability to pass through solid objects like walls and fences, they can only enter houses through their doors, which have a symbolic value is fully recognized in the spiritual dimension.

Popular in spiritism, influenced by the Rule of Ocha and Palo Monte, "is given to eat" at the door, with the aim of strengthening it. They are used, inter alia, corn meal, cocoa husks, roasted corn, smoked fish and guinea pig, honey, and even blood of chickens slaughtered for the purpose. During the mass is placed behind the front door with a lighted candle to Elegguá (Regla de Ocha) or Jessica (Rule Palo Monte) These are deities that represent the random, unexpected, "open and close" all ways. " They play their role as field guards there to keep out the "bad influences. In this sense, also placed different objects that have the power to detain and remove those "bad influences" are placed branches of certain trees or bunches of certain herbs, chains, knives, nails ready line. " Even firms are drawn Palo Monte on the inside of the door, which would represent the power of a watchman and protector of nganga.

In Masses also symbolic of the real space, which can be segmented, which has places and objects that surround it, and establishing special relations, we can also speak of an area referred to by the reference to supernatural beings in it manifest. It is a space that is the subject of references to be part of their individual stories or scenarios of action, but it may be the possible site or environment where there will be one of the "work" (religious magic actions) proposed by the mediums or the spirits that have been presented in the mass. They may indicate, for example, to promote the support and protection of Oshun, goddess symbolizing feminine sensuality and joy in the Rule of Ocha, the person must devote to it five Panetelas with honey, to take them to five days river and to put your request there.
Finally we can say that in the sessions of the popular variant of Spiritualism observed in our town is evident that the practitioner set them all transcendental dialogue with spiritual entities called with the goal of your help and protection. The dialogue proves to be a special process of communication, as does interacting partners from different planes of existence, real and supernatural. Through rituals of word and action is achieved by creating the right dimension that allows men and spirits converge on the physical plane, in space where the seance is held. But the house becomes part of the actual space provided by the symbolic ritual, from the room where the meeting takes place spiritually, the "Corner of the Dead" and the front door, to the corners of the rooms simple . The latter are the preferred sites, such as hiding places by the "dark spirits", which must be expelled from there, and the house, by means of "cleaning and waste."

The functionality of the space transformed by the ritual in spiritism Cruzado is conditioned by a convention established by tradition, ensuring its integrity, and prevents, or limits, the interference of supernatural forces or entities belonging to other ritual systems African origin. If no symbolic transformation of the space there is a proper course of the spiritist activity, and no favorable then a dialogue with the spirits invoked. The seance would be at the mercy of improvisation, as well as the possibility of attracting bad or evil spiritual entities, who would come to disturb the course of it, which is to avoid at all costs. Therein lies the importance of adequate treatment of space in spiritism Cruzado.

Comentarios (0)

RSS Comentarios