I’ve recently had the opportunity to witness a number of different umbanda sessions, in 3 different terreiros and I’ll give a brief account of them below:
The first (just outside Rio, we were taken there by one of our nieces who is a medium there) was very caboclo (indio) based, with the lead medium’s entity being called Sra Jurema. The entity denoted its presence with puckered lips and hands behind the back.
The session was breathtaking. I saw something like 20 mediums (young males and females, my niece amongst them) enter the large hall dressed completely in white, singing pontos cantados while accompanied by drums and other percussion instruments in a fast pagode rythm.
‘Sra Jurema’ was the first to posess her medium and the last to leave, remaining incorporated for something like 4 hours straight. She would dance to the music by keeping the left hand behind her back, the other pointed straight out to the side, index finger pointing, and so spinning in tune to the drums. It was all very dynamic and eye catching, easily qualifying as an evening of exotic music and dance even without the spirit work!
The other mediums where brought forward to certain places and made to draw marks on the floor with their fingers, some being possessed during this act and others shortly after. Within an hour, they were all possessed and followed ‘Sra Jurema’ in her dynamic dance. After much dancing and singing, they were led to the garden outside where those present could consult them in private.
The other two terreiros (one in Nova Iguacu and the other, outside Joao Pessoa), operated in a similar fashion, only one focussed on a different falange (group) of entities every night (among which I spoke to pombagira 7 Ruas da Encrucilada & Vo Maria Conga, on different nights) and the other worked strictly with ‘Exu’ entities, with the principal entity appearing there being Ze Pelindra (a Paraibano who moved to Rio and led a legendary life in the underworld there – more on him later).
Now, my confusion arises from the fact that all three terreiro leaders called themselves Maes/Paes de Santo. I was told, in no uncertain terms, by a number of people involved (some family members included – many of which on my wife’s side are active participants) that ‘making the saint’ in Umbanda was the same as doing it in Candomble. I even had a go at a Buzios reading to see if they could identify my ’saints’ correctly and the reply I was given was precisely what I have deduced from my own personal experiences. So I’m left wondering, do they or do they not work with Orixa?
All three terreiros had an area covered in statues (the ‘Conga’ I think it was called) with Oxala (syncretised with Jesus) at the top, and others like St. George (syncretised with Ogun), below, etc.
Everyone present, when asked, swore that those statues represent the same Orixa that are found in Candomble.
The issue was further confused by a series of personal experiences I had immediately following my first two Terreiro visits (at night, in trance) which led me to conclude that the entities visiting the terreiros were spirits, not Orixa, only that they arranged themselves according to the preconceived ideas of the people that frequented their terreiros. Almost like roleplaying.
As an example, one of the visions I had was of a number of skulls, arranged in a block, one on top of the other, with a green and yellow line surrounding them and the words ‘Salva nossa terra’ written above. The skulls I believe represent ‘Quiumbas’, a word literally meaning ’skulls’, as used by a quimbandista friend who claimed it came originally from the Kabyla tribe who were known for working ‘bad’ / dark magic .
The conditions that accompanied that vision were typical of what I’ve learnt to recognise as those encountered when a number of spirits have come close in the past (cold breezes around the head and a feeling of pressing body heat resulting in a lot of sweat).
So that is the first, possibly most important issue that I would like cleared-up, as it is probably the most important. Do Orixa exist within Umbanda?
I have a number of other questions concerning things like animal sacrifice and the use of certain seeds for opening chackras in both religions, etc, but I’ll approach those later, if allowed.
By: Tony of MySanteria..
