2- What is Umbanda?
Let's see what Aurélio tells us:
Entry: umbanda
[Do quimb. umbanda, 'magic'.] S. m.
- Cult form originated from the assimilation of Afro-Brazilian religious elements by urban Brazilian spiritism; White magic.
- Bras., RJ. folk High priest who invokes the spirits and directs macumba ceremonies. [Var.: Emband.]
UMBANDA is a religion!
If within Umbanda we can reconnect with God, we can remove the veil that covers our ignorance of God's presence within us, then we can call our faith Religion. As another way of feeling God in our lives, Umbanda fulfills its religious function if it leads us to reflect on our actions, on the urgency of reformulating our behavior, bringing it closer to the practice of the Love of God.
Umbanda is a beautiful religion, and of great foundation, based on the cult of the Orixás and their servants: Children, Caboclos, Preto-velhos and Exus. These groups of spirits are in Umbanda "organized" in lines: Caboclos, Preto-Velhos, Children and Exus. Each one with very specific functions, characteristics and ways of working, but all subordinate to the forces of nature that govern them, the ORIXÁS.
In fact, Umbanda is beautiful precisely because it is mixed like Brazilians, so it is a totally Brazilian religion.
But it is imperative, before dealing with the Annunciation of Umbanda on the physical plane in the form of religion, to synthetically expose a history of the religious and cultural precedents that precipitated its emergence, in the 1st decade of the 20th century. In 1500, when the Portuguese saw what for them were the Indies, in reality Brazil, when they disembarked they came across a land of dazzling beauty, and already inhabited by natives. The Lusitanians, imagining being in the Indies, called these aborigines Indians.
The first contacts between the two peoples were, for the most part, friendly, as the natives identified with some symbols that the foreigners had. However, time and coexistence were responsible for showing the inhabitants of Pindorama (Brazil's indigenous name) that white men were there for less noble reasons.
The relationship, until then peaceful, begins to crumble like a sandcastle. They are unscrupulously enslaved and forced to work on the new farm. They react, they resist, and many are cut from their lives in the name of freedom. Later, the enslaver made the first black slaves disembark in Bahia who, under the aegis of the whip, were also dumped on the farm. Like the Indians, they suffered all kinds of physical and moral punishment, and even the subtraction of their own lives.
In this way, Indians and blacks, united by pain, suffering and the yearning for freedom, disincarnated and incarnated in the Lands of Santa Cruz. Sometimes working on the astral plane, sometimes as incarnate, these spirits fought incessantly to humanize the white man's heart, and to make their brothers and sisters free themselves from the rancor, hatred, and suffering that were inflicted on them.
In addition, many of the Indian and black children were killed, as girls (for not being fit for heavy work), when sick, through torture when they prepared their “arts” and with that they disturbed some lord. Some white children ended up being killed too, victims of the revolt of some Indians and blacks.
Then, joining the children's spirits, those of the blacks and the Indians, they ended up forming what we now call: Umbanda's Karmatic Trilogy. Thus, today we see these spirits working to lead the tormentors of yore back to the path of God.
The Catholic Church, concerned with the expansion of its religious domain, invested cowardly to eliminate black and Indian religiosity. Many priestly entourages are sent, with the "noble" intention of "saving" the souls of natives and Africans.
The need to preserve culture and religiosity made blacks associate the images of Catholic saints with their Orixás, as a way of circumventing the religious oppression suffered at that time, and thus continuing to practice and spread the cult of the forces of nature, this association was called "Religious Syncretism".
Yoruba candomblé, or jeje-nagô, as it is usually called, brought together, from the beginning, cultural aspects originating in different Yoruban cities, originating here different rites, or nations of candomblé, predominating in each nation traditions of the city or region that ended up lending him the name: queto, ijexá, efã. This Bahian Candomblé, which proliferated throughout Brazil, has its counterpart in Pernambuco, where it is called xangô, with the egba nation being its main manifestation, and in Rio Grande do Sul, where it is called batuque, with its oió-ijexá nation (Prandi, 1991). Another Yoruba variant, this one strongly influenced by the religion of Dahomean voduns, is the Nagô mine drum from Maranhão. In addition to the Yoruba candomblés, there are those of Bantu origin, especially the so-called Angola and Congo candomblés, and those of markedly Fom origin, such as the Bahian Jeje-Mahim and the Dahomean Jeje-de-Mine from Maranhão.
In the year 1889 the "golden law" was signed. The social framework of the ex-slaves is one of total misery. They are left to their own devices, without a government program for social inclusion. In the religious part, their cults are almost directed to evil, revenge and the disgrace of the white man, a reflection of the slavery period. In the astral field, the spirits that had been incarnated as Indians, caboclos (Mamelucos), Cafuzos and Negroes, had no field of action in the existing religious groupings. Catholicism, the predominant religion, repudiated communication with the dead, and spiritism (kardecism) was concerned only with revering and accepting as noble the communications of spirits with the label of "doctors". The Lords of Light (Orixás), attentive to the existing scenario, by direct orders from the Planetary Christ (Jesus) structured what would be an Astral Current open to all spirits of good will, who wanted to practice charity, regardless of the earthly origins of their incarnations, and that could put a brake on the religious radicalism existing in Brazil.
The Astral Current of Umbanda begins to take shape, in the form of religion, with its hierarchy, bases, functions, attributes and purposes. Meanwhile, on the earth plane, in 1904, the book Religiões do Rio appeared, written by "João do Rio", pseudonym of Paulo Barreto, emeritus member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. In the book, the author makes a serious and unequivocal study of the religions and sects existing in Rio de Janeiro, at that time, the federal capital and socio-political-cultural center of Brazil. The writer, in order to make society aware of the various segments of religiosity that were developing in the then Federal District, visited churches, temples, witchcraft terreiros, Rio de Janeiro macumbas, synagogues, interviewing people and witnessing facts. Despite this work having been based on deep research, in no page of this respectful edition the word Umbanda is mentioned, because such terminology was unknown.
The historical formation of Brazil incorporated the heritage of three cultures: African, indigenous and European. This process was marked by all kinds of violence, particularly by the colonizer in relation to others. The persecution was due to prejudices and the belief of the Brazilian elite in a supposed alienation caused by these cults in the popular classes.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the clash between the Europeanized culture of the elites and the culture of the urban popular classes, caused the emergence of two religious trends in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In the white elite and in the middle class, Catholicism prevailed; among the urban poor (blacks, whites and mestizos) there was a great presence of rituals originating in Africa which, by virtue of their nature and police persecution, had a reserved character.
In the second half of this century, cults of African origin began to be attended by whites and mulattos from the middle class and some people from the elite itself. This undoubtedly contributed to the open and legal character that these cults have acquired in recent years.
This mixture of races and cultures was responsible for a strong religious syncretism, unifying mythologies from the similarities between Catholic saints and African orixás, giving rise to Umbandism.
Unlike Candomblé, Umbanda has great ritual and doctrinal flexibility,which makes it capable of adopting new elements. So the black element brought Africanism (nations); the Indians brought the elements of pajelança; Europeans brought Christianity and Kardecism; and, later, the eastern peoples added some of their ritual to Umbanda.
These five sources created the Umbanda pentagram:
True Umbanda followers only practice White Magic rituals, that is, those made to improve the life of a certain person, to do good, and never to harm anyone. The spirits of Quimbanda (Exus) can, however, be invoked for the practice of good, as long as this is done without having to give gifts or money to the medium who receives them, because the objective of the true medium is only to practice of charity.
Some Umbanda houses honor some Orixás of Candomblé, such as: Oxumarê, Ossãe, Logun-Edé. But they, in Umbanda, do not incorporate and are not orixás regents of any medium.
We have our work guides and among them there is one who is responsible for our spiritual life and that is why he is called a chief guide, usually he is a caboclo, but in some cases he can be a preto-velho.
Dominant Aspects of the Umbanda Movement
- Ritual, varying by origin
- Clothes, usually white
- Altar with Catholic images, old blacks, caboclos
- Spiritist sessions, forming standing groups, in halls or terreiros
- Normal current development
- bases; Africanism, Kardecism, Indianism, Catholicism, Orientalism.
- Constant social service on the terreiros
- Purpose of material and spiritual healing
- White magic
- Baptizes, Consecrates and Houses
Ritual
Umbanda does not, unfortunately, have a centralizing body that, at a national or state level, dictates norms and concepts about religion or can curb abuses. That is why each terreiro follows its own ritual, dictated by the terreiro's head guide, which differentiates the ritual between one house and another. However, the basis of every terreiro has to follow the basic principle of common sense, honesty and material disinterest, in addition to preaching, of course, the basic ritual transmitted over the years by practitioners.
The most important thing would be that everyone could find in their cult differences, what would be the most important link and join it. Such a link is Charity!
It doesn't matter if the atabaque plays, or if the rhythm is clapping, not even if there is no sound. What matters is the honesty and love with which we surrender to our religion.
