3 - Other Afro-Brazilian Religions
Toré
Toré is a dance that also includes secret religious practices, to which only the Indians have access. The ritual objective of the toré is communication with the enchanted or enchanted, who live in the kingdom of jurema or juremá, a reference to the drink made with the bark of the juremeira root. As for the dance itself, it assumes different characteristics in each community. They dance in circles, counterclockwise, making and undoing successive spirals. The group dances in four lines, which perform various choreographies, creating movements of rare beauty. The ritual, which starts around 9 pm and goes until 3 am, is a collective dance accompanied by chants and the sound of rattles made from gourds. What is most impressive about Toré is the force with which everyone steps on the ground, rhythmically, together, as if they were one person.
Pajelança
During the therapeutic ritual, the shaman prays and smokes at the same time, breathing tobacco smoke over the patient's body. In the meantime, he holds the maraca in one hand, the noise of which signals the approach of the spirit. The shaman can reach trance by smoking and hyperventilating continuously, which gives him visions that direct him to understand the strange acts that take place in the village, or to predict successes and failures.
The pajelança is a ritual-act of healing, carried out by several shamans. On these occasions they gather for healing purposes or to carry out a spell that benefits all communities participating in the event.
The belief of pajelança is based on the figure of enchantment, that is, it is a cult to enchantment. Enchanted are the invisible beings that inhabit forests, the subterranean and aquatic world, regions known as "enchanted". The shamans serve as instruments for the action of the enchanted ones. To become a shaman, the individual needs to have a gift from birth or "acquired" (acquired).
The Catimbó
Jurema is a tree that blooms in the northeastern agreste and caatinga; from the bark of its trunk and its roots a magical-sacred drink is made that feeds and gives strength to the enchanted ones of the “other-world”. It is also this drink that allows men to get in touch with the spiritual world and the beings that reside there.
Catimbó involves, as a standard, the ingestion of the drink made with parts of Jurema, the ritual use of tobacco, the trance of possession by enchanted beings, in addition to the belief in a spiritual world where the entities reside.
For its adepts, the spiritual world is called Juremá and is made up of kingdoms, cities and villages. In these Kingdoms and Cities reside the enchanted ones: the Masters and the Caboclos. “Each village has three 'masters'. Twelve villages make a Kingdom with 36 'masters'. In the kingdom there are cities, mountains, forests, rivers. How much are the Realms? Seven, according to some. Vajucá, Tigre, Candindé, Urubá, Juremal, Fundo do Mar, and Josaphat. Or five, teach others. Vajucá, Juremal, Tanema, Urubá and Josaphat”.
The plant's trunks are seated in earthenware vessels and symbolize the cities of the main house masters. These trunks, together with the princesses and princes, with images of Catholic saints and Afro-Amerindian spirits, maracas and pipes, will constitute the Jurema Tables. Table is the altar at which the spirits are consulted and where the obligations owed to them are offered.
The princesses are round glass or earthenware vessels in which the sacred drink is prepared and, on special occasions, where food or drinks are offered to the enchanted. The princes are goblets or cups, which are usually filled with water and eventually with some beverage to the liking of the entity.
The Inhabitants of the Juremá
Two categories of spiritual entities have their settlements on Jurema's tables, the Caboclos and the Mestres.
The Caboclos are identified as indigenous entities that work mainly with healing through the knowledge of herbs, give passes and perform blessings with herbs and foliage. They are associated with higher spiritual currents, those that work for good, but which can also be dangerous when used against someone. That's why they are so feared.
Another category of entities that receive worship in Jurema is that of the Masters. Masters are described as healing spirits of slave or mestizo descent. People who, when in life, had knowledge of healing herbs and plants. On the other hand, something tragic would have happened and they would have died, being “enchanted”, thus being able to return to “help” those who were left “in this valley of tears”. Some of them were initiated into the mysteries and “science” of Jurema before they died. Others acquired this knowledge at the time of death, as it happened next to a specimen of the sacred tree.
The symbol of the masters is the pipe or "mark", whose power is in the smoke that both kills and cures, depending on whether the smoke is "to the left" or "to the right". This relationship with the “magic of smoke” is expressed in the settlements of the mestres, where “rodias” of roll tobacco are always present, in the pipes and in the tunes.
The marks are engraved on the pipes, and indicate the victories achieved by the master who uses it. When on land, the masters already arrive drunk and talking slurred. They are playful, they swear, but they are respected by everyone. They dance based on the rhythm of the Ilus and the lyrics of the tunes. As offerings, they receive cachaça, tobacco, food prepared with crustaceans and various molluscs. With these delicacies, the masters are pleased and strengthened. The drink made with the bark of the Jurema stem or root and other “science” herbs (Junça, Angico, Jucá, among others) added to the brandy, is, however, the greatest source of strength and “science”, for these entities..
The Masters also work at Catimbó. Such masters are experts in "affairs of the heart", they are the ones who give advice to the girls and boys who want to get married, who carry out the amorous ties, who make and break marriages.
Juremação
Many juremeiros say that “a good master is born ready”; however, some rites are used to “strengthen the chains” and give more magical-spiritual knowledge to the disciples. The simplest ritual, however “a lot of science” is known as “swearing”, “implantation of the seed”, or “Science of Jurema”. This ritual consists of planting in the disciple's body, under his skin, a seed of the sacred tree. There are three procedures for this. In the first one, the master himself promises the disciple and after some time, mysteriously, the seed appears in any part of the body. A second procedure is that in which the religious leader performs a special ritual, where he gives his godchildren the seed and the Jurema wine to drink. After this rite, the beginner must abstain from sexual relations for seven consecutive days, during which time he must be taken in dreams by his spiritual guides every night, to know the cities and villages where they reside. At the end of this period, the ingested seed should reappear under your skin. In a third procedure, the juremeiro implants the seed of Jurema, through a cut made in the skin of the arm.
Meetings and Parties
A “Table” can be opened “from the right” or “from the left”. In those opened “by the rights”, only the highest entities should be present. Incorporated they give passes, prescribe herbal baths and smokes.
When a table is opened “from the left” any kind of spiritual entity can come. The works do not necessarily need to aim at someone's harm, however, once the works are opened on this side of "science", it is already possible to return to the countless enemies, who are always lurking, the evils that they may be doing.
Prayers and greetings made, chanting to open the "table" and call the guides. In some houses they give their presence, stating that they will protect their disciples during the work. As the last Indian or Caboclo ascends, it is time for everyone, except the juremeiro-mor, to kneel on the ground and ask Juremá for permission to enter his domains; is that the "Master Masters" are already arriving ...
The disciples ask for a blessing from the older Juremeiros in the house. They greet with blessings the Mesa da Jurema and the artifacts of the Masters. Jurema is said to be open. The Lord Masters begin to arrive.
It is time for consultations that always have the right clientele. A moment where serious things are treated with irreverence, without, however, losing the gravity and haste of the masters, always ready to help their godchildren. In the most serious cases, however, the master soon schedules a more convenient day, when he can carry out "private work". This is how the master brings the necessary financial resources for the maintenance of the house of worship and his disciple. When the Masters leave, the Masters arrive.
The Candomblis
Candomblé is a religion of African origin, with its rituals and (in some houses) sacrifices; it is through rituals that the Orixás are worshiped.
Candomblé is divided into nations, which came to Brazil at the time of slavery.
There are two nations with their respective ramifications:
Sudanese Nation: Ijexá, Ketu, Gêge, Mina-gêge, Fom and Nagô
Bantu Nation: Congo, Angola-congo, Angola.
From very early on, still in the 16th century, the presence of Bantu blacks can be seen in Bahia, who left their influence on the Brazilian vocabulary (acarajé, caruru, amalá, etc.). Then there is the arrival of a large contingent of Africans, coming from regions inhabited by the Dahomeans (Gêges) and Yorubas (Nagôs), whose rituals of worship to the gods seem to have served as a model for the ethnic groups already installed in Bahia.
The slave ships transported across the Atlantic, for more than 350 years, not only manpower destined to mining, sugarcane and tobacco plantations, but also their personality, their way of being and their beliefs.
The religious convictions of the slaves were, however, put to the test when they arrived here, where they were mandatorily baptized “for the salvation of their souls” and had to bow to the religious doctrines of their “owners”.
First Candomblé Terreiros
The institution of religious confraternities, under the order of the Catholic Church, separated African ethnicities. The blacks of Angola formed the Venerable Ordem Terceira do Carmo, founded in the church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário do Pelourinho. The Dahomeans gathered under the devotion of Our Lord Bom Jesus das Necessidades e Redenção dos Homens Pretos, in the Capela do Corpo Santo, in the Lower City. The Nagô, most of whom belonged to the Ketu nation, formed two brotherhoods: one for women, that of Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte, the other reserved for men, that of Nosso Senhor dos Martírios.
Through these brotherhoods (or brotherhoods), the slaves, even if from different nations, could practice together again, in places outside the churches, the worship of the Orixás.
Several energetic and willful women, originally from Ketu, former freed slaves, belonging to the Brotherhood of Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte of the Church of Barroquinha, would have taken the initiative to create a Candomblé terreiro called Iyá Omi Asé Airá Intilé, in a house located on the slope do Berquo, now Viscount of Itaparica.
The versions on the subject are controversial, as are the names of the founders: Iyalussô Danadana and Iyanasso Akalá according to some and Iyanasso Oká, according to others.
The terreiro located, when it was founded, behind Barroquinha, was installed under the name of Ilê Iyanassô on Avenida Vasco da Gama, where it still stands today, being familiarly called Casa Branca de Engenho Velho, and in which Marcelina da Gama Silva (it is not known whether she is Iyanasso's carnal or spiritual daughter) became the mother-of-saint after Iyanasso's death.
The first “touch” of this Candomblé was performed on a Corpus Christi day and the revered Orixá was Oxossi.
Candomblis from Caboclo
Candomblé, upon arriving in the country with the slaves, found here another cult of a mediumistic nature, called "Pajelança", practiced by the native Indians in various forms. In both cults there was the communication of spirits.
Over time, some terreiros began to mix the rituals of Candomblé with those of Pajelança, giving rise to another cult called "Candomblé de Caboclo". Naturally, the spirits that manifested were those of Indians and blacks, who did so for different purposes.
Like all our culture, caboclo candomblé is a mixture of Europeans, Africans and Amerindians, a true mixture of beliefs and customs that their entities bring in their passages through the land according to their phalanges or lines that are divided into Caboclos de Pena., the line there are only Brazilian Indians, Caboclo de leather that belongs to the line of men who dealt with cattle, sailors who are those who lived at sea and others like the famous baianos that is the line that represents the northeastern worker who suffered in the Brazilian backlands, as well as Zé Pilintra's phalanx that history tells that he was a wronged "rascal" who became enchanted. The latter are more common in Umbanda cults in the southeastern region of the country.
Ketu, Gêge, Catholicism, Amerindian influences
In rituals, they use the gongá or peiji (a word of indigenous origin that means altar), where they mix images of all kinds: saints of the Catholic Church, pretos-velhos, children, Indians, mermaids, etc.
They bring from Candomblé the festivities that praise the Orixás and use the atabaques (ilus); instead of the sessions they carry out the tours. The clothing is the same as in Candomblé; they use snoring, camarinha, making and at the exit the personification of the Orisha occurs (the medium leaves with the Orisha's clothing); use sacrifice (killing) of animals.
In normal sessions, caboclos use headdresses, bows, arrows and when it comes to work, the name given is “Mandinga”.
They use the ipadê or padê, a requirement of the Exús; the songs are called orikis and mix songs in Portuguese and Yoruba.
Omolocô
Influences: Angola, Congo, Ketu, Gêge, Catholicism, Amerindia.
Also called Mixed Umbanda, Cruzada Umbanda, Traced Umbanda.
It is the closest to Umbanda do Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas; according to researchers, this Candomblé would be in transition to Umbanda.
Quimbanda
The law of Quimbanda has a supreme chief, whom they call the “Maioral da Lei de Quimbanda”, an entity that understands directly with the heads of the Seven Lines of the Law of Umbanda, to which it renders obedience, receiving and following orders from São Miguel. Archangel, through them.
The Law of Quiumbanda is divided in the same way as the Law of Umbanda, that is, in Seven Lines and the subdivisions are also made in the same way as the other. And this way we have:
Line of Souls Chief Omulum graveyard people.
Line of Skulls Chief João Skull
Nago Line Chief Gererê people of Ganga (Crossroads)
Malei Line Chief Exú Rei people of Exú (Crossroads)
Mossurubi Line Chief Caminaloá African savages (Zulu, cafes)
Caboclos Quimbandeiros Line black panther boss american savages
Mixed Line Chief Exú da Campina or Exú dos Rios Composed of spirits of various racesThe spirits of this last line (Mixed), delight in the practice of evil, like all the components of the other lines, however, they act indirectly, that is, they enlist suffering spirits, unaware of the spiritual state they are in, to put them together of the person or group of people to whom they wish to harm, thus provoking, in the individual, various diseases, through the fluid contact of these spirits with the victim's perispirit. Generally, it is verified that the active spirit transmits to the victims the diseases that he was carrying, when still trapped in matter, on Earth.
The spirits of the other lines of the Quimbanda Law are cunning, selfish, sagacious, persistent, self-seeking, vengeful, etc.; however, they act directly and are proud of the “victories” obtained. They often do good and evil, in exchange for gifts at crossroads, in cemeteries, in the woods, at sea, in rivers, in quarries and in the fields.
Black Magic mediums are also self-interested and only work in exchange for money or gifts of some value.
Among all Quimbandeiro spirits, the best known are the Exús, because their armies are huge and powerful. They act in all sectors of life on Earth and, in this way, the names of many Phalanx and Legion chiefs are known.
Ex: Exú Veludo, Exú Tiriri, Exú Mirim, Exú da Campina, Pombo-Gira, etc.
All the spirits of Quimbanda's law have red light and the so-called "Maioral", has an irradiation of red light so strong that none of us would bear its approach.
There is a need for the existence of these quimbandeiro spirits. It is through them that we pay for our faults, suffering the consequences of our wrongdoings and mistakes. They are, therefore, the agents in charge of contributing to our trials, depending on the faults of the past, or even the present. They are the Lords of Karma.
Umbanda (Branches)
Today, we have several branches of Umbanda that keep very strong roots from the initial bases, and others that have absorbed characteristics of other religions, but that maintain the same essence in the objectives of providing charity, with humility, respect and faith.
Some examples of these branches are:
- Traditional Umbanda - Coming from Zélio Fernandino de Moraes";
- Popular Umbanda - Which was practiced before Zélio and known as Macumbas or Candomblés de Caboclos; where we can find a strong syncretism - Catholic Saints associated with the African Orixas";
- White and/or Table Umbanda - With a spiritist nature - "Kardecista" - very expressive. In this type of Umbanda, for the most part, we do not find African elements - Orixás -, nor the work of the Exus and Pomba-giras, or the use of elements such as atabaques, tobacco, images and drinks. This doctrinal line is more related to the work of guides such as caboclos, pretos-velhos and children. We can also find the use of spiritist books - "Kardecists - as a doctrinal source;
- Esoteric Umbanda - It is differentiated between some segments coming from Oliveira Magno, Emanuel Zespo and WW da Matta (Master Yapacany), in which Umbanda is called as Aumbhandan: "set of divine laws";
- Initiatic Umbanda - It is derived from Esoteric Umbanda and was founded by Master Rivas Neto (Synthesis School conducted by Yamunisiddha Arhapiagha), where there is a search for a doctrinal convergence (seven rites), and the reach of Ombhandhum, the Point of Convergence and Synthesis. There is a great deal of Eastern influence, mainly in terms of Indian mantras and use of Sanskrit;
Other forms exist, but do not have a proper name. They differ from other forms of Umbanda by several peculiar aspects, but which have not yet been classified with an appropriate adjective to be placed after the word Umbanda.
