Santeria: The Way of the Saints
Cathay Smith
Key
words
Santeria Lukumi (Lucumi) Yoruba syncretistic
Afro-Cuban
religion Espiritismo Kardencian spiritist Orisha ritual
sacrifice
I.
Abstract
Santeria is a syncretistic religion with aspects of
Roman Catholicism, Kardecian spiritism, and a base of Orisha worship from
Africa. Because the Yoruba people of
current day Nigeria were baptized into the Roman Catholic Church upon arrival
as slaves in Cuba, they began identifying each of their Orisha, or deities,
with a Catholic saint. Over the years
the two religions mixed, blending with the Kardecian spritist movement, formed
today’s Santeria. Santerians believe in
a Supreme Being and Orisha or spirits.
They believe that a human’s objective is to balance the flow of ashe, energy in constant motion
governing the earth, to achieve harmony in the universe. The religion is kept in secrecy, only
initiates into Santeria are taught of its beliefs and rituals, often including
dancing, drum beats and animal sacrifices.
Santeria is a syncretistic religion based on a
western African religious tradition brought to the New World by Yoruba slaves
(Clark 118-119). Throughout its stay in
Cuba, the original African religion fused with Catholicism and Kardecian
Spiritism from France, forming the current day Santeria (Clark 121). Today Santeria can be found in countries
such as Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, France, the Netherlands, and
many other Caribbean countries. In the
US, it is practiced mainly amongst Hispanic populations residing in Florida,
Puerto Rico, New Jersey, New York City, and Los Angeles (Robinson). The American Religious Identification Survey
performed by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York estimates
that 22,000 people in the United States practice Santeria. Adherent.com estimates the number to be
800,000 in the US, while Egbe Lukumi puts the number at over 5 million. J.E. Holloway, the author of Africanisms in America, believes there are
300,000 practitioners of Santeria in New York alone (Robinson).
Santerians believe that the universe is one of “pure
movements” packed by forces in continual process, or an “ontology of dynamism,”
as put by the Belgian missionary Placide Tempels (Murphy 130). The universe consists of five different
levels of power: Olodumare (sometimes referred to as Olorun), the Orisha, human
beings, human ancestors, and the lowest group consisting of plants, animals,
natural entities, manufactured items, and so forth. Olodumare is the “supreme god.”
He is the supreme source of ashe,
“spiritual energy that makes up the universe, life, and material objects”
(Crawford). Orishas are
“multidimensional beings.” They are
similar to “guardian angels” that take an active part in everyday life (Clark)
and rule over forces of nature. Each
Orisha rules over a certain aspect of human life, and can be contacted through
prayer, ritual offerings, and trance possession (Crawford). The purpose of Santeria is to seek and
reserve balance with forces of nature, or ashe
(Vega 3). Humans are called upon to
sustain the universal flow of ashe
through the web of beings. Humans
direct and control the flow of energy between various elements, and must learn
to use ashe to benefit the lives of
the participant and those around them (Clark 119). Initiates of Santeria are lifted out of “self-absorption and
frustrations of ordinary life into world of power,” where everything is ashe and destiny (Murphy 131).
Santerians recognize that the connection between
secular and sacred worlds can be welcomed with the strength of Orishas. Initiates of Santeria can channel these
forces in order to insure good health, spiritual growth, prosperity, and to
unify the family and community (Vega 2,3)
a.
Sources
and Criteria of Valid Knowledge
Santeria adheres strongly to tradition, and is
passed on orally to its initiates. It
has no sacred scriptures or texts. Its
myths are called “patakis.” Beliefs and
ways of worship are taught through story telling, and based on thick tradition
(Crawford). Its beliefs, rituals,
symbolism, and practices are kept in strict secrecy only disclosed to those who
have gone through initiation (Robinson).
The process of initiation includes a day long service in he or her
godparents’ house where the initiate is kept in blindfold, an animal is
sacrificed on his or her feet, and dancing and drumming takes place (Mason
27). Once one is initiated, the
individual enters the family of his or her godparents. This family keeps the initiate accountable
for following the strict regime of Santeria (Crawford).
b.
Methods
of Inquiry
Santeria’s beliefs are passed down orally only to
its initiates. Acquiring knowledge of
Santeria would require an individual to become initiated into the religion
before he or she is taught the rituals and beliefs of Santeria. After initiation, the individual is able to
consult his or her godparents with inquiries.
Personal experience with Orisha is the main way a Santerian acquires
knowledge.
Ritual sacrifices are significant in the Santeria
belief. Blood of the animal is usually
collected and offered to the Orisha.
These sacrifices are intended to please the Orisha, to bring good luck,
purification, and forgiveness of sins to the human (Robinson). Most sacrificial animals are chickens. Before Olorun is called upon, the sacrificer
must invoke Elegba, the “owner of roads and doors” in the world between
“humanity and divine.” Once he opens
the door of communication, one can pray to Olorun (Crawford). Drums provide an African background rhythm
that changes for the specific Orisha that is being invoked. Every Orisha has its own drum beat, number,
symbol and color. Dancing and animal
sacrifices are common in a Santeria ritual (Robinson). There are many different rituals in the
Santeria belief to be performed for different occasions. Ebo
guoni or “reaching the other world” is for the initiation of a priest or
priestess. It involves the sacrifice of
a four-legged animal, and a series of rites that last for three days. Ebo
Yure is a one-day sacrifice involving animals, fruit, drum and dance. Ebo
itutu are part of the mortuary rites.
Ebo lire or eleri is a sacrifice to the head to
strengthen or cleanse one’s mind (Brandon 124). Later in the ceremony, questions that may have been posed by the
Santerian are answered, and the Orisha commands certain commands to be obeyed
or animals to be sacrificed.
The practice of Santeria and Voudoo are similar in
various aspects, because they originated in the same area of Africa. They both recognize the existence of a
supreme being, and the “fulfillment of destinies,” Santerians achieving this
through Orisha. They also both use
trance possession and Orisha to achieve their goals. The difference in these two religions lie in the strong Catholic
influence in Santeria. In the Santerian
faith, Catholic saints and Orisha are compatible entities. While a Santerian is worshipping an Orisha,
he or she is simultaneously worshipping the coexisting saint. Although Voudoo worships the same spirits as
Santerians, they do not have this same link to Catholicism, making the spirits
they worship very different from Santerians' Orisha (Crawford).
c.
Institutions
and Professional Structure
Because of past popular aversion to “bizarre”
African religions, Santeria has been practiced in secrecy since its founding in
1517. Although today there is no need
practice in secrecy, it is still performed out of a strong sense of tradition,
and mainly practiced in secret. There
are a few churches in the US that allow Santerians to practice their beliefs
together, such as The Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye founded in South Florida
in the 1970s. The African Theological
Archministry founded by Walter Eugene King in South Carolina, and The Church of
Seven African Powers founded in Florida during the 1980s are also places where
Santeria is encouraged (Crawford).
There is a title of priesthood or Olorisha in
Santeria. These can be either priests
are priestesses. Males are called
Santeros or Babalochas, and female priestesses are known as Santeras or
Iyalochas. These Olorisha first must
study the oral tradition, dance, song, and healing methods of the faith for
many years, then go through a period of solitude before they can be initiated
into priesthood (Robinson).
The secrets of the religion are not disclosed to a
person unless he or she has been initiated into the Santerian belief. Before one can claim a deep involvement in
the religion, the individual must be well trained in the rites, music, dance,
and language of the tradition. The new
initiate then becomes a member of his or her godparent’s house, and a member of
that extended family. The family keeps
the initiate accountable for answering to Olorun and Orisha for his or her
actions (Crawford).
IV.
History
Santeria originated from the Yoruba people of West
Africa. The Yoruba can be traced back
to AD 1000 to the sacred city of Ile Ife in today’s Nigeria (Vega 1). Between 1820 and 1840, the majority of
slaves shipped from the ports of Bight and Benin were Yoruba. It is estimated that around 527,828 to
702,000 Africans were taken to Cuba during the slave period of 350 years. Most of these slaves were Yoruba or
baKongo. Their influence on music,
dance and religion is still evident in Cuban culture today (Murphy 21-23). The Yoruba were able to establish a strong
community in Havana. They retained the
name “Lucumi” from the way they would greet each other by saying “my friend,”
or Oluku mi in their native tongue
(Murphy 27). Spanish law demanded that
slaves brought into Cuba be baptized into the Roman Catholic Church as soon as
they set foot on Cuban soil. It was
said “a life of servitude was a small price to pay for the opportunity of
eternal life with Christ” (Murphy 27).
The official founding year of Santeria is unknown,
but can be traced back to the slave trade beginning in the 1700s. Because the
Yoruba were forced to give up their native faith, and were often baptized into
the Catholic church upon arrival in the Caribbean, they began a system of
equating each one of their Orisha’s to a Catholic Saint in order to stay true
to their faith (Robinson). Elegba
became St. Anthony; Ogun became St. Peter; Ochosi was equated with St. Norbert;
Obatala represented Our Lady of Mercy; Babalu Aye became St. Lazarus; Orunmila
represented St. Farncis of Assisi; the ultimate supreme god Ororun was equated
with Jesus Christ and so on (Crawford).
These Orisha were also became identified as “Santos,” and were
worshipped while the Santerians worshiped the various Catholic saints. It is their pious devoutness to the saints
that gave the religion the name of “Santeria,” sometimes still seen as a
derogatory term (“What”).
In the 1800s, a French teacher of chemistry,
physics, comparative anatomy and astronomy by the name of Leon Denisarth
Hippolyte Rivail took up extensive research in the topic of
“table-turning.” He sought for a
scientific spiritism that could open the channel between the visible and
invisible worlds. He renamed himself
Allan Kardec, and published two books: The
Spirit’s Book and The Book of Mediums
that he claimed were dictated to him by the spirits (Clark 121). In 1850, Kardecan spiritist literature
arrived in Cuba, and the movement proceeded to become an organized cult in the
1870s. The Hispanic version of Kardecan
spiritism, known as Espiritismo, was practiced by the middle class of Cuba as a
defiant gesture towards their Catholic occupiers. Espiritismo was counter to all Catholic beliefs. Within the lower class and rural areas of
Cuba, a crude and adulterated form of espiritismo began to blend with
Catholicism and eventually helped shape the current day Santeria tradition
(Brandon 121 “Africanism”).
V.
Representative
Examples of Argumentation
“The Orisha will respond only if the seeker gives
something of himself or herself to them” (Murphy 129). They will not respond if one’s heart is not
fully engaged in prayer or worship.
Because Santeria is practiced in such secrecy, and only people who are
initiated into Santeria are taught its actual beliefs, most members that
practice Santeria are already strong believers. Orisha have responded to them, because they truly believe. If in one’s heart there is doubt, the Orisha
will not respond. This is another
reason why ritual sacrifices are a common practice amongst Santerians.
An important part of Santeria’s belief is animal
sacrifices. Recent conflicts have
occurred between the American ethos and this important ritual performance. In the early 1990s, the city of Hialeah in
Florida passed a number of ordinances outlawing the killing of animals except
for the primary purpose of consumption.
The Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, located in Hialeah, felt this to be
a direct attack on their religious freedom.
The case was resolved with the Supreme Court deciding that the city
ordinances had violated the church’s First Amendment right to freedom of
religion. The American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also raised arguments about the way that
sacrificial animals were being killed in Santeria rituals (Crawford). Santerians pointed out that their
sacrificial animals were killed in a humane manner, and most of the sacrificed
animals were eaten later, just as animals killed for food at slaughter houses (Robinson).
The Matamoros Incident occurring in Matamoros,
Mexico early 1989 put Santeria in the spotlight once again. Near the Texas border town, over one dozen
bodies were found murdered. The
killings were quickly blamed on Satanists, Witches, Voodoo priests and
Santerians. The police investigation
later showed that the murders were actually arranged by a drug trafficking
group that happened to have a few Santerian members (amongst followers of
Christianity and Palo Mayombe as well).
The murders initially seemed similar to Santerian ritual sacrifices
because the members were influenced by The
Believers, a film combining Santerian sacrifices with non-Santerian human
sacrifice.
VI.
Suggested
Position in Comparative Scales….
The assessment
of these different standards will be expressed using a scale of 1 to 10.
a.
Relative
emphasis on traditional authority 1-----10 or the testimony of experience. 2
The basis of Santerian
belief is tradition. The religion is
mostly still practiced in secrecy, and only initiates into the religion are
taught its beliefs, symbols and rituals.
The system is passed to initiates orally, and has not changed for the
past 500 years.
b.
Relative
centralization of authority 1-----10 or decentralization (individual inquiry,
lay teaching). 7
Santeria is relatively decentralized. Because the religion is practiced in secrecy, there are not many central authorities to which the practitioners would belong. It is somewhat centralized through the tradition of priesthood and godparents. When an individual joins Santeria, he or she enters into a family that keeps the new member accountable. Initiates of Santeria can also enter priesthood after extensive study of rituals, music, and dance.
c.
Relative
emphasis on invisible (spiritual or heavenly) realities 1-----10 or material,
earthly ones. 4
Santeria believes in the
ever-moving forces of the universe, or ashe. The object of a human is to help find
balance of this ashe that flows
through all beings, visible or invisible.
This aspect of the religion emphasizes invisible realities. But the religion also holds strong beliefs
in nature and natural things. Herbs are
a large part of the Santerian belief system.
d.
Mainly
spiritual or moral objectives 1-----10 or pragmatic aims (prediction, healing,
etc.) 4
The main objective of
Santeria is to use ashe to better the
lives of the practitioner and the people around him or her. It is also to insure good health, spiritual
growth, and prosperity. This would be consider pragmatic aims, but Santeria
also holds spiritual objectives to lift the practitioner out of
“self-absorption and frustrations of ordinary life into world of power,” where
everything is ashe and destiny
(Murphy 131).
e.
Most
power or agency reserved for a divine being 1-----10 or realizable in individuals. 2
Santerians believe in a
supreme being that created the universe, and is the source of all ashe.
They also believe in deities, or Orisha, that control different aspects
of nature and a human’s life.
Santerians pray to Olorun, and to the different Orisha, or Santos, that
control specific aspects of life. But
the main objective of a Santerian is to help balance the ashe flowing through the web of beings – providing a realization of
human power.
Annotated Bibliography
Santeria: The Way of the Saints
I. Primary Sources
Fores-Pena,
Ysamur and Roberta J. Evanchuck. Santeria Garments and Altars: Speaking
Without a Voice. Jackson, Mississippi:
University Press of Mississippi, 1994.
This book was the most colorful of the books on Santeria. It provides good visual depiction of
different garments, symbols, and altars used in the Santeria tradition. The authors are both initiates in Santeria,
and Flores-Pena is also initiated as a priest.
Hagedorn,
Katherin J. Divine Utterances: The
Performance of Afro-Cuban Santeria.
Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press,
2001. This book focused on musical
expressions in Santeria. It also had a
CD in the back cover of Santerian music.
It did not provide much aid on this paper, except for providing the
background music for research.
Mason,
Michael Atwood. Living Santeria: Rituals
and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban
Religion. Washington DC: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 2002. This book
provides an account of Mason’s experiences with Santeria in Cuba. It was interesting because it took on a
journalistic, first-person form of writing.
Mason does a good job describing the rituals that he experienced, but
the book would probably benefit a reader already with an understanding of basic
Santerian beliefs and history.
Murphy,
Joseph M. Santeria: An African Religion
in America. Boston, MA: Beacon
Press, 1988.
This book is a combination of a primary and secondary source. The first section of the book give a brief
account of the history of Santeria, references taken mainly from primary
sources. The second section of the book
is an account of Murphy’s observations of a Santerian community in Bronx, New
York. This book was found useful in the
paper, and cited in various places.
Nunez, Luis M. Santeria. A Practical Guide to Afro-Caribbean Magic. Spring
Publications, Inc. 1992. <http://w3.iac.net/~moonweb/Santeria/TOC. html> 14 March. 2003. This is an online version of the book sharing the same title. It is divided into thirteen chapters, beginning with history, ceremonies, then gods and oracles, and ending with talismans and spells for various practical needs. It is easy to navigate, and provides a good source for practicing Santeria.
“What is Santeria?” Orisha Net. Botanica Lucumi. <http://www.seanet.com/
~efunmoyiwa/santeria.html> This web site was created by an Orisha
priest to educate others on Santeria’s beliefs and practices. It provides detailed cultural information of
Santeria, and briefly explains ceremonial rituals.
Vega,
Marta Moreno. The Altar of My Soul: The
Living Traditions of Santeria. New
York: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 2000. This book focuses on the traditions of
Santeria that are still present in its current day practices. The author was not only initiated into the
religion, but also born into a family that practiced Santeria. It is written in the first person, and was
helpful for the paper.
Brandon, George. “Sacrificial Practices in Santeria, an African-Cuban Religion in the
United States.” Africanisms in American Culture. Ed Joseph E. Holloway. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1990. This essay appeared in a composite of essays focusing on African traditions present in the Americas. The essay’s main objective was to describe and explain sacrificial practices in Santeria, a large part of the religion’s tradition. The essay first comments briefly on Santeria’s history, its change, and then goes into the sacrificial practices. It was found quite useful in understanding an important part of Santerian rituals – sacrifice.
Brandon,
George. Santeria From Africa to the New
World: The Dead Sell Memories.
Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1993. This book focuses heavily on the history of
Santeria. It separates its chapters
into Africa, Cuba: Pre-Santeria and Early Santeria, Cuba: Santeria, and
Santeria in the United States. It was
found useful only in the history section of this research paper.
Clark,
Mary Ann. “Santeria.” Sects, Cults, and
Spiritual Communities: A Sociological
Analysis. Ed. William W. Zellner and
Marc Petrowsky. Connecticut, USA: Praeger Publishers, 1998. The author of this essay focused on
presenting how the physical aspect of Santeria influenced its philosophical
ideas. She was initiated into Santeria,
but this essay was the result of her research, thus proving to be a secondary
source. It was found very useful in
this report, and is cited throughout the paper.
Crawford,
Sarah. “Santeria.” New Religious
Movements, University of Virginia. 26
December. 2001. <http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/santeria.html> 13 March. 2003. Crawford developed this web site for a University of Virginia Sociology class titled New Religious Movements. It had clear subtitles, and was very easy to navigate. Its bibliography also provided much help in finding other sources for the paper. Crawford is cited throughout the paper.
Gonzales-Wippler,
Migene. Santeria: The Religion. A Legacy
of Faith, Rites and Magic.
New York: Harmony Books, 1989. This book gives one an extensive and complete layout of Santeria. It is divided into twenty-six chapters, each discussing an important aspect of Santeria. The author obviously has an extensive knowledge of Santeria, and the book provides some explicit pictures of ritualistic offerings in the middle of the book. The book was found useful as an overall understanding of the religion.
Robinson,
B. A. “Santeria: A Syncretistic Caribbean Religion.” Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance. 3 Jan. 2003. <http://www.religioustolerance.com/
santeri.htm> 31 Jan. 2003. This web
site provides basic overviews of various religious traditions. It is well categorized, and very easy to
navigate. It was found extremely useful
in this paper, and is cited throughout.
For an understanding of a religion’s basic beliefs and practices, this
web site is indispensable.