Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah

by Lionel

  Oya was also closely associated with Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582). Teresa was a renowned Spanish mystic. Like Catherine, Teresa was brilliantly intelligent and was officially recognized as one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church — only three of whom are female.

  For devout Roman Catholics, Stella Maris is Our Lady, Star of the Sea, the patroness of all who sail the world’s seas and oceans. But as well as protecting them, she is also understood as the guide and protector of those who metaphorically sail the stormy waters of life. Saint Bonaventure said of her that she guides those who sail the ship of innocence and penance through this troubled and difficult world to the safety and peace of the heavenly harbour. Santerians associate her with Yemaya, the Orisha of motherhood, the moon, and the sea. In one or two of the Brazilian religions such as Umbanda and Candomblé, her name is Yemanjá, or Lemanjá, and it is customary to honour her with gifts of flowers, perfume, decorative combs, mirrors, and jewellery. These gifts are thrown into the sea for her, and although she is regarded as normally benign and helpful, it is considered very rash and hazardous to pick up any offerings that were intended for her.

  There is a vast annual event on December 31 when many of these votive offerings for Yemanjá are thrown into the sea by a huge crowd who wade into the water from Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.

  It is essential to protect the identity of the central character of the following event, but rigorously accurate records of it are kept in the archives of the Society for Psychical Research in London. An SPR investigator was working in Brazil a few years ago when these facts came to his attention. The central character is referred to throughout as “Belinda” in order to protect her anonymity. She had studied psychology at the University of São Paulo, which had given her an objective, scientific attitude to life.

  One day, when she was with her family on the beach at Santos, which is less than one hundred kilometres from São Paulo, she discovered a small statuette of Yemanjá that had apparently been thrown up by the sea — and was almost certainly a votive offering from Copacabana Beach. Very little paint remained on the figurine after having been in the sea for so long. The paint that was left became highly significant when considered in the light of later developments. The jaw and neck retained some pigment, as did the arms. There was a little more between the shoulder blades. One eye still retained its bright blue colour.

  Despite the warnings of the more superstitious members of her family, Belinda took the statuette home with her. Within a few days, she became so ill that she was taken to hospital with suspected tuberculosis. X-rays revealed that there was a TB lesion on her right lung — corresponding to the spot of paint on the statuette. After her successful treatment, the doctors ordered her to rest and she stayed with her parents for several months in their home a long way from São Paulo. Nothing untoward befell her while she was there. Some researchers into the mystery wondered whether she was too far from the statuette for it to have any effect on her.

  As soon as she returned home, however, her pressure cooker exploded, badly scalding her arms, face, and neck in precisely the same areas on which the figurine still had pigment. Her gas oven then exploded just as inexplicably as her pressure cooker had done, and she began to feel very depressed and suicidal.

  Her scientific training and attitude did not help her, and, very reluctantly, she visited an Umbanda centre and obtained advice from their leaders. They told her to take the statuette back to where she had found it, which she did.

  From that moment on, the depression lifted, and she settled down to a safe, normal, routine existence.

  The episode is hard to reconcile with the normally benign nature of Yemanjá, otherwise known as Yemaya. If there was any mysterious, negative power in the figurine, was it some sort of evil, vengeful influence emanating from those who had made the statuette and given it to Yemanjá rather than from the benign Orisha herself?

  Yemaya is also identified with Our Lady of Regla, meaning Our Lady of the Rule. A church associated with her is situated in the town of Opon on Mactan Island, separated from the city of Cebu in the Philippines by a narrow causeway. In 1735, Father Avalle, who was an Augustinian monk, showed a picture of the Virgin de la Regla to his parishioners. The original image of her was venerated by Augustine in the fifth century, but when the Vandals arrived in AD 433, the monks took it with them to Spain. Centuries passed and the sacred likeness was all but forgotten, then King Ferdinand, who had reconquered Spain, dedicated the cathedral in León to Our Lady of Regla.

  An Augustinian priest in León then had a vision of her and was sent to find the lost painting. After a very long journey, the priest was sleeping under a tree when he heard a voice saying that he had now found the place. He prayed for further guidance and a ball of fire from heaven struck the tree without harming it. Amazed by what they had seen, local villagers came to help the priest. They dug into the ground beside the tree and encountered a large rock. When that was lifted it revealed the entrance to a subterranean cave where a lamp burned miraculously in front of a protective wooden case. A statue of Our Lady of Regla — not just a painted image of her — was found inside the case. A shrine to her was constructed over the cave. A large portrait of her was completed in 1735 and according to local tradition miracles began to happen when her help was invoked. These miracles associated with Our Lady of Regla fit in harmoniously with the Santerian ideas about their benign Yemaya.

  Cachita, Our Lady of Charity, also known as Our Lady of Caridad del Cobre, is closely associated with the Santerian Orisha known as Ochun, Oshun, or Ochum (spellings vary), who is in turn connected with love, beauty, and femininity. Maintaining pure, fresh water is another of her divine responsibilities.

  The story of Cachita’s discovery goes back to the start of the seventeenth century, when Juan and Rodrigo de Hoyos were travelling in a canoe with a young slave boy named Juan Moreno. They had to fetch salt urgently to preserve meat from the slaughterhouse at what was then called Santiago del Prado and is now El Cobre. This meat provided essential food for the workers.

  A terrifying storm made them seek shelter for the night, but next morning the sea was as calm as a millpond and they set out again to find the vital salt. A white bundle floated towards them, and they thought at first that it was a large seagull resting on the placid water. As it got closer they thought it looked more like a small girl swimming gently in their direction. When it reached them, they saw that it was a statuette of the Virgin Mary, standing on a representation of the moon among silver clouds in which three angels spread wings of gold. It was attached to a floating board on which was written “I am the Virgin of Charity.” Miraculously, in view of the storm that had driven the canoeists to seek shelter the night before, the statuette and her clothes were perfectly dry. The syncretized Cachita-Ochun became a central figure in local religion and is the divine entity associated with womanhood, happiness, love, gentleness, and fresh water.

  The names of the Orishas frequently present problems for researchers because of the different spellings that are encountered for the same mysterious entity. Sango, Chango, Shango and Xango, for example, are one and the same being. Historically, Shango was the fourth king of the Yoruba, but he was transformed in Santerian thought into their powerful and warlike god of thunder. He is, therefore, an African equivalent of the Celtic Taranis, the Norse Thor, the Babylonian Marduk, the Chinese Lei Gong, and the Japanese Tenjin. He is the counterpart of the Hindu Indra; he is Zeus for the Greeks and Jupiter for the Romans. In the strange religious hybridization that linked slave-centuries Christianity with ancient African traditions, Shango became united with Saint Barbara and Saint Jerome.

  According to her legend, Barbara lived around AD 300 and was the daughter of Dioscorus, a rich pagan merchant from Nicomedia in Asia Minor. Because of Barbara’s great beauty, her jealous father confined her to a tower. While he was away on a business trip, Barbara became a Christian, and she altered his plans for a new bathhouse so that it would have thre
e windows to symbolize the Holy Trinity. When he returned, he was furiously angry about her conversion and the alteration of his bathhouse design. He brought her before the local Roman prefect, who sentenced her to be tortured first and then beheaded. Dioscorus himself did the decapitation. Very soon afterwards he was struck by lightning that totally consumed his body. In consequence, Barbara became the protective patron saint from thunder, lightning, storms, and fires. After the invention of gunpowder and the development of primitive artillery, she also became the protective patron saint of artillerymen, who were frequently killed or severely injured when an artillery piece exploded instead of firing its missile at the enemy.

  While it is easy to see the thunder and lightning connection between Barbara and Shango, his connection with the peaceful, ascetic, and scholarly Saint Jerome (AD 342–419) is less obvious. His main achievement was the translation of Greek and Hebrew texts into the Latin version of the Bible referred to as the Vulgate. It is probably for his skills as an interpreter and translator that he is venerated by Santerians and ranked alongside Shango. For newly arrived African slaves, a sympathetic and kindly interpreter would have been a very welcome asset.

  Another important senior Orisha was known as Ogun, sometimes spelled Ogum, who was a warlord and a master of minerals, metals, tools, and implements. He can be seen as the African equivalent of Hephaestus or Vulcan in the Greek and Roman pantheons. Ogun’s powers also extended to animals and birds. The Christian saints with whom he was largely identified were Saint George the heroic dragon slayer and Saint John the Baptist — the fierce, uncompromising, Elijah-style prophet who criticized Herod Antipas for marrying his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias. The links between Ogun and both saints are logical and rational ones. The fearless warrior George, risking his life to slay a dragon to rescue a princess, is clearly a model of courageous self-sacrifice — a noble parallel for Ogun the African warlord. George is traditionally portrayed in armour, and Ogun, master of metals and workshop tools, can clearly be seen as a divine blacksmith and armourer. The equally great, outspoken, moral courage of John the Baptist is also a fitting attribute for a warlord such as Ogun.

  Another important Orisha is Orunmila, sometimes shortened to Orula. Orula is bonded with Saint Francis of Assisi in Santerian thinking. He is regarded as a teacher and prophet by his worshippers, as well as a healer. Working with him is Osain, the Orisha of healing plants and herbal remedies. Orula is also thought of as the guardian and interpreter of the mysteries contained in a Santerian book of baffling prophecies. He is thought of as controlling secret wisdom and divination — in these respects he is similar to Melchizedek, Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus, keeper and reader of the inexplicable Emerald Tablets. In Santerian eyes, Orula is also identified with Saint John the Evangelist. As John is recorded in early Church history as the teacher of Papias, one of the Church fathers, John’s identification with Orula as a teacher becomes understandable.

  Saint Francis.

  Dives and Lazarus are the central characters in a parable that Jesus told concerning a very wealthy man and a sick beggar lying outside the gate of the rich man’s house and living on the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Both die and the poor beggar goes to eternal comfort and joy in a paradise referred to as “Abraham’s bosom.” The rich man finds himself in a burning hell. Although intended only as a fictional character in the parable, Lazarus becomes venerated as a saint with especial responsibilities for helping the poor and the sick. In Santerian religious thought he becomes identified with Babaluaye, or Babalu Aye, the Orisha who provides money and healing for the sick poor. He is particularly associated with healing smallpox and, more recently, AIDS. His colourful robes are red, white, purple, and blue.

  Religious syncretism also needs to be analyzed in other ways over and above the identification of various leading African Orishas with Christian saints. Modes of address and prayers are remarkably similar. A familiar prayer to Saint Anne, mother of Mary the Virgin, contains these words:

  Dear St. Anne,

  I wish to honour you

  In your images and statues.

  They are the representations

  Of the mysteries of divine love

  That were brought about in you.

  Oh, good and great Saint Anne,

  Pray for me and for all my brothers and sisters.

  Hear my special prayer

  For the sick and injured,

  For the hungry and for those in need.

  Obtain for all men and women the gift

  Of love for one another in God

  And grant peace to God’s world.

  A Santerian prayer that is frequently recited by santeros (Santerian priests) contains these words:

  Hail to Oya, our Orisha, with her crown of light.

  Here is Oya, lady of the wind and rain.

  Hail to her as she travels over the forests and hills.

  All praise to her, for she is the mother of nine.

  Earthly winds, bring us health.

  Heavenly winds, bring us great fortune.

  Our lady of the winds is wonderful.

  Amen — so let it be — amen.

  Our lady of the sunset,

  You paint for us the leaves of autumn.

  We hear your song at dusk and dawn.

  The frequent, symbolic use of candles in Christian worship is a reminder to Christians that for them Jesus is the light of the world. Lighting a candle and carrying it into a place of Christian worship symbolizes that Jesus is there with his worshippers. When two candles are placed on a Christian altar, it signifies that for Christians Jesus is both man and God. When the candle is carried out again after worship it symbolizes the presence of Jesus in the outside world, the whole of the earth. Before the invention of gas and electric lighting, the candles in Christian churches provided light as well as acting as symbols of God’s presence in the place of worship. Votive candles can be lit to accompany prayers. In Orthodox churches, where icons are revered, candles may be lit in front of an icon. In some churches a paschal candle is lit at Easter, and then kindled again for special services such as baptisms and funerals. It is also customary in certain churches to observe Candlemas at the end of Epiphany, and at these ceremonies the priest blesses the candle that will be used throughout the remainder of the year. Candles were used on Christmas trees before electrical tree lights became available. In Scandinavian churches on December 13 (St. Lucia’s Day) it is customary to present a young girl with a crown of candles.

  Candles also feature prominently in the syncretized Santerian ceremonies and festivities — but they feature most significantly of all in Santerian spells and enchantments, where the behaviour of a candle is used as a monitor by the wizard who is performing the spell. Different Santerian authorities in different countries may interpret candle behaviour in different ways, but there is nevertheless broad, general agreement.

  If a candle refuses to light, or goes out almost immediately after being lit, it signifies to the Santerian wizard that spiritual cleansing has to be carried out before the enchantment will work. This cleansing may require the use of holy water — blessed either by a Santerian priest or a Christian priest. If the candle burns, but produces only a small flame, it indicates opposition to the spell currently being used. Suppose, for example, that it is a love spell: the low flame suggests that another spell, cast by a rival wizard, is weakening the attractive power of this particular magic charm. The man or woman at whom the love spell is being directed may already be under the influence of this opposing enchantment. When a Santerian sorcerer or enchantress is faced with a low flame indicator, he or she will augment the ineffective spell with two or three reinforcing spells. A high and vigorous flame naturally indicates the opposite of a low flame. It means that the incantation is working powerfully and swiftly, and that the healing, protection, or prosperity at which the benign spell is aimed will be rapidly achieved.

  An exploding candle is an ambiguous symbol. In some Santerian sc
hools of thought it means that something very powerful and negative has been directed against the wizard’s client, but the equally powerful defence spell that the wizard is using has neutralized it. Conversely, if the enchanter has been working on a benign spell to increase the client’s power and wealth, an exploding candle can mean that negative forces have neutralized his attempts to improve the situation. The accepted formula is to repeat the incantation and then light a candle of exactly the same kind as the one that exploded.

  The behaviour of the candle and its flame are regarded by santeros as momentous portents, but attention is also paid to the behaviour and colour of the smoke. There is a parallel here with the papal election process. When the ballot papers for the new pope have been counted, they are burnt in a special oven in the Sistine Chapel. Fumata nera, black smoke, means that no one has yet been elected. Fumata bianca, white smoke, means that there has been a successful ballot for the new pope.

  Candle spell indicators.

  Candle smoke.

  In Santerian magic, if a candle gives off white smoke, it’s a good omen — it means that the prayer being offered on the client’s behalf will be answered. If the candle gives off black smoke it suggests that negative influences are being defeated — and the client will succeed after a time.

  Very often, the sorcerer’s indicator candle is lit inside a protective glass cylinder. Santeros believe that if that cylinder is blackened from top to bottom, it means that the spell being performed on the client’s behalf has met with very powerful opposition. Reinforcing spells should be used, and another, identical candle should be lit in a different glass. If only the lower part of the protective glass cylinder is blackened, santeros believe that a benign spell employed on their behalf for improved health or prosperity has been weakened by negative forces directed against them. If, conversely, only the upper part of the glass is blackened, it signifies that there was opposition at first, but the client’s spell has conquered. Blackening on one side of the glass indicates that a spell was only partly effective and needs to be repeated. If the glass actually cracks during the performance of the spell, it suggests that the wizard has broken the dark forces that were being sent against him and his client.