A SHORT APPROACH ON CANDOMBLEH
Newton O. Milhomens Filho
Professor, Curitiba, Brasil, newton@kirlian.com.br
ORIGINS:
Candombleh is a religion that was born in Africa and arrived to Brazil during the Portuguese colonization time, when the portugueses bring the negroes from Africa to work as slaves at the plantation fields and farms in Brazil, fom XVI to XIX centuries.
To the portugueses, all negros were the same – only negroes – and they never could imagine that the negroes lived divided into several nations and that among them there were all social class persons. Also the portuguese thought that negroes have not any kind of Religion.
Among the slaves there were priests of the common religion on all Africa – The Candombleh.
And these priests, when contacted the christian catholic fathers, and after learnt to speak Portuguese, started to compare their divinities (the orishahs) with the catholic ones (the saints, devil and God). After this comparison, they decided to mix and correlate the orishahs with the catholic divinities. This action received the name of Synchrestism.
The catholic fathers obliged the negroes to adore the catholic divinities and the negroes, missing to deceive the fathers, during the night, buried the images and other ritualistic objects of the orishahs and above this place, they built an altar and put on it an image of a catholic saint. All the nights, they danced and song around the altars and saint’s images (indeed they were dancing and singing to the orishas, below the saints) and when the fathers asked them about, they said they were praying to the catholic saints by their own style and in their native idiom.
And so, the Candombleh survived safely during near 300 years, till the Independence and the liberal Brazilian Constituition that allows total freedom of belief, thought and Religion. So, the Synchretism was abandonned.
Today, in Brazil, Candombleh is no more a negro religion, but a very popular religion, with all kind of persons and ethinical groups inside.
DOCTRINE:
The Candombleh doctrine says that in the beginings, only existed Olorum, the Supreme Creator of all. One day, Olorum wanted to create Universe in two patterns that were complimentary: – Matter and Energy. Olorum created too, two kinds of beings to care the Universe: 1 – The Eguns (all organic beings) to care the Matter part of the Universe and 2 – The Orishahs (Energetic or spiritual beings) to care the Energy part of the Universe. But Olorum conditioned that both, Eguns and Orishahs, will work in total harmony, with total collaboration.
There are 16 kinds of “male” Orishahs and 16 “female” Orishahs.
All the organic beings are joined with some kind of these 32 Orishahs.
The human beings are connected with 3 different Orishahs: 1 – Head Orishah 2 – Solar Plexus Orishah and 3 – A sexual Orishah (named Eshoo)
Some ancient African priests discovered a way to contact the Orishahs through the transe (or Altered State of Consciousness – A.S.C.) under certain especial rituals, mainly through the ritual dance.
Personally, my head’s Orishah is Shangow, my solar plexus’ one is Ogoom and my sexual Orishah is Eshoo Marabow.
Note that I am intending to show the more next of the Portuguese pronounce with this manner to write. OK?
The contact between Mankind and Orishahs is very good to each other. If you desire a help (in any case or situation) you will have to pay by the “work”. The price is the Orishah who says through the medium in whom is “incorporated”. Generally, the price is paid through an animal, a plant, finally, any kind of meal, ritualistic meal as a sacrifice, a ritual sacrifice.
By other way, the Orishahs can “speak” through the priest (Pai-de-Santo, in Portuguese or Babalorishah, in African idiom). Pai Veco (Father Veco) is a Babalorishah. When Pai Veco “read” your life through the “Jogo de Ifah” (Ifah’s Play), a ritual divinatory play with the conches, he was in A.S.C. state and he read the conchs – the Orishah “speech”- and transmitted the message for you. Did you remember?
Well, Pai Veco was gentle enough with you and did not charge any money from yours. But, normally, his price is near about US$30.00 to each divinatory session.
WHAT, PERSONALLY, I THINK ABOUT:
After many and many years studying Candombleh and other mediunic brazilian religions, I started to suggest an hypothesis about, as follows:
- The transe state is a hypnotical state. All the mediuns were hypnotized because of the dance and the drums rythm.
- During the A.S.C., the Archetypes, the ancientest Archetypes of Mankind, will emerge from the medium’s deep Subconscious and this is all.
- When we study what is the dominion of an Orishah, suddenly we are able to identify what type of Archetype we have present. For example, Shangow, my head Orishah is the “King of Justice”. So, we are speaking about the Justice Archetype. Oshun is a female Orishah and she is the “Queen of Feminine Coquettich”, whose Archetype is the Feminility. Ogun is the “Lord of War”, whose Archetype is the Warrior Archetype. And so on.
During my researches, I took many and many Kirlian Photos, before the transe, during the transe and after the transe. When you were here, I shown you some of these Kirlian Photos.
By extension, after I researched during years on Spiritualism and other Brazilian Mediunic Religion, the Umbanda. In these religions, I found the same situation, but with different types of Archetypes, according to what is “channelled” during the ritualistic A.S.C.. These other religions are working with more recent Archetypes, as the Healler one, as the Heroe one, etc, the newest Archetypes that were appearing in Mankind subconscious mind during the evolutionary way of Civilization.
So, this is a short history of Candombleh and I contacted with Pai Veco and he said me that you and all the strangers will be welcome in his temple and we have to advise him some days before and he will organize a very nice ritualistic dance to give for all, the best energies that the Orishahs can furnish to each one and also he will “play conches” to whom will desire, but this time he will charge each one by the common price about US$30.00. So, I can translate or the official translator of the Congress will do the same. I talked with him about and he agreed to help in translation.
Thus, if you will want to communicate to the swedishes, if they want to know a new kind of religion, Pai Veco is at their entire disposal.