Palo: a liberatory, healing technology (Part I)

Nganga ngombo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pende, 19th century AD, wood, rafia, bast fibers - Ethnological Museum, Berlin

Nganga, Museo de Guanabacoa, Cuba.

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of being featured on A Little Juju Podcast interviewed by Samantha bka Juju Bae titled “Palo, A Liberatory Technology”. This article is the first of a series intended to be a accompaniment to that interview and as you can see from the title, I am going to hone in on the connections between healing and liberation as I understand them through my Palo Mayombe lens.

As a formally trained social scientist, and a Capricorn with HELLA Virgo in her chart, I am going to start with historical context because clarity is important and I do not condone ahistoricity. I am an active proponent of citationality and so I will foreground this text and this series by mentioning the scholars and scholar-practitioners whose research and lived experience inform my thoughts: Teisha Shaw, Ernesto Mercer, Kimbwandènde Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau, Robert Farris Thomas, Stephan Palmie, Quentin Nolet de Brauwere, and Linda Heywood.

Definitions
For the sake of this discussion, the following terms will be used in the following way.

• Las Reglas Bantu: Bantu Rites. A term used synonymously with Palo to refer to all branches of the initiatory rites

• Palo: an umbrella term used to refer generally to all the branches of the initiatory rites also called Las Reglas Bantu, also sometimes referred to as Palo Monte

All other terms will be defined in the text.

Socio-historical Context
Palo or Las Reglas Bantu is spiritual tradition conceived and born on Cuban soil comprised of an amalgam of beliefs contributed by Bantu peoples of various ethnic groups who were enslaved in their African homelands and brought to Cuba. These individuals came from the Kingdom of Ndongo and Matamba (Queen Nzinga’s territories), the Bakongo empire with it’s seat at Sao Salvador in present day northern Angola, the Kingdom of Loango, and various other territories of West and West Central Africa.

These individuals were members of highly organized and cosmopolitan civilizations who were no strangers to war. Queen Nzinga is an excellent example of this. She is notable among all historical leaders of the African continent, particular for the prowess she exhibited at outsmarting the Portuguese where diplomacy and war games were concerned. She employed the Imbangala, who were known for their thoroughly vicious warfare tactics namely cannibalism, against the Portuguese. Due to slavery, the Imbangala were dispersed throughout the Americas to the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Where you find quilombos, you have traces literal and figurative of the Imbangala. I say all this to say, Bantu people knew warfare and militancy before being enslaved and sent across the Atlantic.

Palo’s antecedent cultural contributors were acutely aware of the realities of suffering (mpasi) meaning, they took mpasi as par for the course and understood it as a function of being in the world. They also understood it as a state of being that was aberrant and needed to be resolved. They did so through their spiritual practices, most notably a society called Kimpasi, which consisted of healer specialists that came together for the sole purpose of resolving mpasi.

Palo, as we know it, in its more or less contemporary form, developed in Cuba during the latter part of the 19th century around the time of the Ten Years War, 1868-1878; Cuban abolition of slavery, 1886; the Cuban War for Independence, 1895-1898; and the early part of the 20th century during the time of the Negro Rebellion of 1912. A notable group of Black soldiers referred to as the Mambises fought valiantly and aggressively in these wars and are purported, though this information does not seem to be readily accessible, to have been practitioners of Las Reglas Bantu , but also Bantu spiritualist practices such as Bembe de Sao.

Palo was conceived and birthed in a wholly violent social environment that considered and treated African people as non-human and continued to do so even after slavery ended and Cuba won its independence from Spain. Palo is about liberation through and through. In colonial Cuba it was a tool that Afro-Cubans used to free themselves from physical slavery. In post-colonial Cuba it was used by its adherents to survive in a society that, as exemplified by the Negro Rebellion of 1912, had no regard for Black Cuban life.

It is a tradition of a specific time (the colonial period and slavery era) and place (Cuba) that continues to adapt to the time and place in which it finds it self. Palo emerged as a technology for Black life to persist. It exists still, for that reason: persisting, particularly going beyond simple survival, into thrive mode. In order to thrive, we’ve got to heal and healing can only happen once suffering is unrooted. Palo’s specialty par excellence, in my estimation, is healing. It is a toolkit, a technology, and a multitude of methodologies for healing. It is through healing that liberation becomes visible and thus possible.

I think I shall leave it here for now. The next post is on October 31 and is an art one. I am going to look at some Palo aesthetics but also share with you a few modern and contemporary artists who pushed Palo to the fore through their works.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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Spiritual Hygiene Tips for You and Your Home

We all know the importance of physical health and hygiene, and mental health and wellness has been a trending term for at least two decades now; however, what do we really mean when we say spiritual hygiene? In layman’s terms, spiritual hygiene references the acts one carries out to insure that the energy surrounding their physical person and in the environments they frequent regularly is positive and comprised of beneficial energy to support the person’s day to day life.

An important thing to note: one does not need to be initiated into any spiritual system to practice spiritual hygiene. It is recommended - whether you are new to this or not - that you have someone who is experienced in this area who can advise you as needed. Personally, I recommend that said person be a practitioner of a tradition (again no need to be initiated) where spiritual hygiene is the norm. The advice of established practitioners will assist you in gaining a breadth of knowledge that you can use as a foundation upon which to build your own spiritual hygiene practice.

Here are some tips that I employ in my own practice and are, generally speaking, framed within a Afro-Diasporic context. Again, these are not mandatory; rather, I include them to give you an idea of what is possible. If you are unsure, ask someone who is knowledgeable and that you trust.

• Meditation and/or prayer. You should be regularly engaged (ideally daily) in a meditation practice or incantatory prayer that allows you to tune out of the mundane world and into an interior space that is restorative. Whether you are praying/incanting or meditating, this time should be used to clear the mind of thoughts and ideas that do not serve and to refocus on additive and generative thoughts that you can incorporate into action.
  
  If you opt to meditate, start first by quieting and clearing your mind. Do this for as long as necessary to achieve the desired effect. After that, you can start to focus on a specific intention and open yourself to receiving messages in response to that intention. Once you complete the meditation, write down anything that comes to you and use it, as you see fit, to guide your actions and inform subsequent meditations.
  
  If you opt to pray or do incantation, it is helpful to prepare your prayer beforehand and commit it to memory. Choose a time that works best for you - I find morning after waking or evening just before sleep work best for me - and repeat this prayer daily. If you pray at an altar this can be done at your altar. This can also be done in nature, which personally, I find very effective.

• Divination. If you are a proficient medium and/or you practice a divinatory system, set aside time weekly to check in with your ancestors using your clair senses or your divination system. This can be done at a consecrated ancestor shrine (in accordance with the rules of the tradition to which that shrine pertains), or at an altar for your spiritual guides, such as the Boveda used in the various Espiritismo traditions.
  
  Please note: While anyone can speak to their ancestors, orisa (Lukumi and Yoruba traditions), lwa (Haitian Vodou), and mpungo (Las Reglas Bantu) only speak through consecrated shrines constructed by initiated priests. In divination, these entities speak through ritually consecrated implements or through possession by an initiated priest. These entities do not speak through altars that have not been ritually consecrated.

• Using plants. Herbalism is an increasingly widespread practice, which when coupled with research and prayers offer a powerful option to assist in one’s spiritual hygiene regimen. Many plants across the world have healing properties and should be used according to the desired effect. Speaking generally, plants with bitter properties are great for energetic cleansing. Plants with sweet properties are great for restorative work, upping ones vitality, and bring specific kinds of energies into a space. I can not stress enough how important it is to research and speak to a knowledgeable person.
  
  There are innumerable spiritual practitioners who sell ritually consecrated products (soaps, oils, liquid baths, incenses, floor washes, etc.) designed to achieve a certain energetic purpose. Use your intuition or ask your ancestors and/or spiritual guides to lead you to the right practitioner. If you follow this web site or my social media, you are already aware that I work in this area. I now sell spiritual soap! If interested, click here and follow the instructions to make your purchase.

Join me here on September 19 for an art-focused discussion where I will delve into studio visits and take a deep dive into curatoriality. As I mentioned previously, August 31 was my last day on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter and/or IG, and/or subscribe to my mailing list on the contact page. Until next time!

Negarra A. Kudumu

Did you enjoy this post? Share it with your friends and networks by clicking on any of the social media icons below. Interested in my practice? Visit the work and practice sections in the left hand navigation menu to learn more and schedule your appointment. Until next time!

Recalibration

I decided to resume blogging because I am a writer and writers don’t miss opportunities to write. Also, I have some specific things in connection to art and healing I want to explicate. Last but not least, I am very fortunate to be in community with folk who want to hear what I have to share.

I chose the shark image in correspondence to last Thursday’s tarot and oracle card reading, where I pulled the Shark from The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit oracle deck, as the representative of the overarching theme for the full moon in Aquarius. Sharks are ocean creatures that reside in the depths of kalunga (ocean). As much as we consider sharks to be ravenous, blood thirsty killers, sneak attacking their prey, really they are just living their lives. Like all other living beings, sharks need to eat. It just so happens that their eating methodology is harsh and bloody. It’s also efficient. Further, the notion that they intentionally seek out humans is false. They only strike at humans when humans attack first.

All that said, the appearance of the shark card got me to thinking about false perceptions and presumptions about potential threats when really there is no threat, provided we all stay in our lanes. This reading was a confirmation of this blog post (which I’d already written previous to the reading in draft form) and a dream I had the night before (see interpretation of tarot spread here here). It was both a revelation and a set of directives for the months to come. How appropriate as we move out of summer into autumn.

So, in the spirit of my return to blogging and my imminent and permanent departure from Facebook, I want to start by reiterating my process, points of departure, and the standards to which I hold myself. Here are 9 points you can depend on:

1. I am a Yayi Nkisi Malongo, aka a Palera. I’m also a muertera (a kind of nigromancer) and espiritista (medium). I’m also an independent scholar of contemporary art, a published writer, and, of course, a blogger. I talk and do art and healing at the crossroads where these two seemingly disparate disciplines intersect. Sometimes the outcomes are near perfect, other times there is discord. It’s all ndoki, always fecund, and I’m here for all of it.

2. My code of conduct is Kortesia Kongo. I don’t deal in value judgements of whether a thing or person is good and evil. I’m more interested if the act or person is additive and generative or subtractive and extractive. I do not/will not serve any monarch or self-appointed human cum alleged deity. I am unemotional when it is time to take action and I reserve my feelings for loved ones and those who make genuine, consistent effort. Trust and believe that if I initiate an action, I have considered and am ready for any consequence. My toolkit always works.

3. I don’t deal in petty, low-level brujeria (witchcraft) nor critique-less art writing (excepting ekphrasis). I do deal in transformational healing work that is sufficiently unflappable to stand the test of time. I deal in incisive writing that offers historical context, critical assessment, and intentional placement, when appropriate, within various cultural canons.

4. I am a practitioner of “be ready so you don’t have to get ready” and “go to the mattresses”. Consider that when you creep my social media or send spies.

5. Call out culture is messy but sometimes, it’s useful. See item 4 and be reminded that if I bother to call a thing out, I’m ready.

6. Where visual culture is concerned, especially African diasporic visual culture, I’m here for Megan Thee Stallion and #noirwave as much as I’m here for opening parties to biennials and sundry art exhibitions in the white cube and it’s various iterations. I’m here for moderating panel discussions where the lines between art and politics have been agentically blurred, or standing on corners in hoods local, national, and international till 3 am hanging with my friends. I’m especially here for writing long form critical essays nerding out about painters, film makers, sculptors, and photographers who manipulate light and texture (Soulages, Alley-Barnes, and Dwight to name just a few). I don’t have to like a thing to believe that it matters and merits visibility. I will, however, launch an incisive critique when the smallest portion of the spectrum gets all the attention and thus becomes the definitive identity of the spectrum.

7. Where healing and spirituality are concerned, I’m here for cutting etheric cords and unhealthy people, ending generational hexes, becoming the best Yayi there is, supporting people through their healing process, and revoking your petty, low-level brujeria (witchcraft). B.k.a an actual priesthood versus the appearance of one.

8. I have friends who keep me from drowning in the shallow gutters of the moral high ground. Get you friends who do the same before you say some more high minded, moralistic mess that contradicts the high minded, moralistic mess you said last week, thus revealing the threadbare nature of your claims to ethics and consistency.

9. I appreciate my family and community in real life and online. If you are a part of it, thank you for being here. If you are not and have no intention of genuinely doing so, let’s just be easy.

Join me here on September 5 for a discussion on spiritual upkeep and spiritual hygiene. August 31 is my last day on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter and/or IG, and/or subscribe to my mailing list on the contact page.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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On Healing: Where and How It Happens

On April 15, I posted an earnest question in a private Facebook group that exploded and sent much reverb throughout said group, related groups, and some of the english speaking population of Isese, Lukumi, and Candomble Ketu practitioners. Subsequent posts ensued. One was my own, where I called out the misanthropic and offensive commentary of two individuals related to the April 15 post. Another of which called out a specific practitioner who is alleged to have abused several individuals.

These conversations were and are about very real issues happening within and affecting Isese, Lukumi, and Candomblé traditions: the proliferation of political Ifa; the disregard for license, authorization and regla (generally accepted standards of practice); ceremonies, namely initiation, being done incorrectly; initiation without training, and the increase and normalization of fraud and charlatanry.

Here’s the catch: none of these issues are new. I have been in and around Lukumi and other Afro-Cuban spiritual communities for 14 years and its the same conversations. Elders and colleagues who have been around double or triple that time tell me the conversations are the same. The one, underlying thread running through all of them was this: none of them centered the lived realities of doing healing and being healed.

That said here’s my first question ahem

Where’s the healing?
Based on my observations there is NO healing happening on Facebook. To be specific, there is no healing-centric discourse happening on Facebook in any of the groups that I have been a part of. There is a lot of talk about protocol, history, language, culture, definitely a lot of calling out, but none of [rarely do] those discussions ever include discourse about doing healing and being healed.

When I observe the actions of my colleagues and elders, they are, as a rule, not on the internet. They are tending to themselves, their families, their godchildren, and/or their clients. If they tune into any group, it is because they have been tagged; however, even then they may not respond. As such, I repeat, it is my conclusion based on firsthand observations that there is no healing to be found within Facebook discourse and especially not in any of these groups. You may, if you are lucky be able to find useful discourse, but I often question whether any of it is useful. Even some of the useful stuff easily becomes  a distraction.

Now for the how…ahem

How should healing happen?
This position is informed by my experience as a student and lay practitioner of Lukumi and Espiritismo, a student and priestess of Palo Mayombe, and my own independent research conducted on Isese, Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions. These conclusions have been drawn from the historical record of these traditions, their ancestral roots - in the case of Isese it’s contemporary trajectories in Nigeria - on the African continent as well as conversations with lay and initiated practitioners. These are my informed opinions. These opinions are steeped in facts that can be easily found within the historical record.

As such, I assert two typologies  of information: 1) the context that delimits the circumstances within which healing can happen, and 2) where healing happens, how it is measured, and how to identify it.

Context

1. While the internet and specifically social media can be useful for the purpose of research and, if you are lucky, discourse, it is not the domain of healing;

2. The generally accepted practices and protocols of a given tradition exist to promote the perpetuity of the tradition, to establish a foundation for growth through learning, and as proof that the competency and authority of the person in question has been granted by ethical elders and co-signed by the ancestors and spiritual deities of that tradition.

3. In initiatory practices, initiation confers license, better known as authority. When one has license, one can perform ceremony for initiates and non-initiates and teach ceremony to others who also have license. As an initiated person, teaching ceremony to those who have not been initiated, is a violation of generally accepted practices and protocols. Performing a ceremony that is foreign to your chosen tradition without license, even if you were legitimately taught the ceremony,  calls into question the spiritual potency of the ceremony you performed, the validity of your knowledge and training, and your ethics.

4. When healing happens, the contributing factors can and should be named by the participating parties. In the case of Lukumi, Candomble Ketu, and Isese the contributing parties are any combination of priests, ancestors, and orisa, as well as other spiritual entities such as the Mothers or one’s egbe. This is information that can be confirmed via divination. The contemporary trend, if not obsession, with African and African rooted traditions have given way to much obfuscation. Healing through the medicine of of Lukumi, Candomble Ketu, and Isese traditions is not the same as healing by a priest in any of those traditions who uses modalities outside of those traditions to heal.

Doing and identifying healing

1. Locus: Healing happens in intimate, often solitary, liminal spaces. These liminal spaces include spiritual communities, but also client-practitioner relationships. It is often kicked off by a galvanizing event such as a divination, ceremony, or training session. It evokes visceral physical and emotional reactions that can be identified and explained by a trained medium or priest.

2. Measurement: a primary assessment tool for gauging healing and its resultant outputs is divination. For the sake of this discussion, divination is not limited to the manipulation of tools. It includes trance possession, the deliverance of information within the misa espiritual,  and related methods that resemble shamanic journeying. Before the galvanizing event, divination will relate an individual’s state with commentary on what is working in the best interest of the person and what is working against the person. It will also explain why. It will also offer solutions for resolving the scenario. If healing is occurring, meaning the person has followed through on the works suggested by divination and has adopted new behaviors that support their growth and development, subsequent divinations will acknowledge the progress. Results previously unachievable will manifest.

3. The look of healing: There is a look to healing that manifests energetically, emotionally, and physically. Some noticeable characteristics are: weight loss or weight gain (depending on characteristics of the previous unhealed state), organic happiness that is not co-dependent on a person or circumstances, clarity of thoughts and related speech, commitment to ongoing work of healing and personal development as evidenced through deeds, friend groups that support the person in their healed state, and increased ability to manifest the life they want.

In thinking about, and now writing about this, I have resolved that in the coming weeks and months, I will exit most of the discussion groups I’m currently in and reorient my time and energy to myself, clients, and community. The point is to immerse myself almost exclusively within the loci of art and healing. One of those loci, as my godmother says, is in the trenches creating real solutions for real people in need. Another lineage elder rhetorically put it like this, “Do they [the teachings but also the acts] bring succor and joy into the heart?”

I want to be in the place where succor and joy are the standard. I am more clear than ever on where that it is and especially, where it is not.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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Why return to our ancestral traditions?

In conversations with colleagues and clients, the question often arises about why we, at a certain point, feel pushed towards a spiritual connection. It was only until I was midway through an intense transitional phase of my own, last fall, that I really got clear on it. The info came as a result of a divination done for me by my godmother where we parsed a specific subset of my challenges attempting to source their origin. What she said next was profound, and I continue to ponder it to this day. She said, we put down our indigenous traditions.

When considering the experience people of African descent in the Americas, we can estimate that this started happening as early as the 15th century on the continent of Africa and lasted en masse throughout slavery. It is important to note, however, that some of our forebears never put down their traditions and this this is how we have Lukumi, Haitian Vodou, Obeah, Kumina, Shango Baptist, the various Candombles, Abakua, Arara, Palo Monte, and the various (often Bantu in origin and praxis) quilombos/maroon colonies whose descendants reside throughout the Americas (yes including the US and likely even Canada). Looking at European peoples, we must consider that it started as early as the 11th century with the Crusades moving east across the European continent, followed shortly by various Muslim incursions in Europe and Africa in the form of the Islamic Caliphates.

At first inspection that statement may come off as harsh. Most of our ancestors didn’t just put down their traditions. A decision was made, more likely than not, under extreme duress. Humans, who tend to choose survival, chose to survive rather than risk death for maintaining their cultural praxis. No judgment; however, fast forward to the present moment and people are feeling these visceral internal pushes to connect spiritually that they can not fully comprehend nor tackle. They are noticing that issues in their careers, family, and love life remain unresolved or worse, falter, while this impulse to connect to the universe (please excuse the cliche) intensifies.

Within the context of the traditions I practice, I explain it as such: the spiritual entities we work with, and our ancestors too, are primarily interested in carrying on the lineage and harmonious conditions that facilitate it. They will shake your entire lineage to its core until they find the one person who will tune in, listen, and do. Only then will things slowly but surely begin to balance and improve. For those of us who heed the call, harmonization is an ongoing process. It took me 14 years of involvement in Lukumi, and subsequently Palo Monte and Espiritismo to begin to understand that what I was/am doing is indeed a mending of that break with my ancestral traditions. It was only within the past six months that I found language to even discuss the signs that were confirmation of the break needing to be mended. These signs have come in the form of new people I have met who feel like old friends or family (but we know there is no possible way we could know each other, or so we think); in the form of dreams; in the acceptance of death as a necessary growth moment; and very importantly in the ancestralization process of deceased loved ones.

It is a many pronged process and it is never “ this or this…” always “this and this and this and…” I do not romanticize any of this. It is hard work. It feels solitary when you are in the thick of it. However, it is not impossible and it remains, most certainly, some of the most gratifying and beneficial work I have done to-date.

Negarra A. Kudumu

Did you enjoy this post? Share it with your friends and networks by clicking on any of the social media icons below. Interested in my practice? Visit the work and offerings sections in the left hand navigation menu above to learn more and schedule your appointment. Until next time!

Vernal Equinox + Full Moon in Libra: notes and recommendations

Spring is here, HURRAH! After a harshly cold and snowy winter in the Pacific Northwest, I am ready for the higher temps. I am also ready for spring art events, spring cooking and eating, and ongoing healing leveraging the properties of my favorite spring herbs. But what does any of it mean?

Vernal Equinox: What is it and what does it look like?

In the Northern hemisphere we are entering a period of increasingly longer days, more sunshine, and warmer temperatures. It is one of two days per year where day and night are more or less the same duration. In the world, plants, trees, animals and humans are awakening from the slumber of winter. Rain begins (or continues in Seattle’s case), Leaves and flowers begin to grow, the soil is warmer and ready to receive new seeds to cultivate.

Full Moon in Libra, entering into Aries season, while Mercury is retrograde: What does the Tarot say?

Anchored by Justice, the major arcana in the Tarot that  represents Libra, the energy of the current moment is urging us to practice fairness, truth, accountability, and transparency with others but most importantly, with ourselves. In this practice lies the balance that will allow us to advance.

Life is about more than just us. While we must occasionally seek refuge to contemplate our lives alone, a life without other people and new experiences is stagnant. Go inward if you must, but coming back out is the only way forward.  

The conflicts that encourages you to be like the Herit, emerges from an internal struggle between your exuberant naïveté and wistfulness, like the Fool, and your very real desire to reap an abundant yield from the ideas and projects you want to initiate, as exemplified by the 7 of diamonds (7 of Pentacles). You can’t have it both ways. Eventually the yellow brick road ends and one must be decisive. 

A lack of resolution means that you eventually, like the Tower, it will all come tumbling down. And you, my dear,  will fall to pieces with it. That is the price to pay for vascillation and indecision. The upside is that you can build anew but of course the questions are what and in this case, more importantly, how.

The Devil shows up to inform us about what’s lies in the shadows - the stuff we want to avoid; the same stuff that probably drove us into Hermit land. You’ve got to first acknowledge that it exists, excavate it, look at it, and then handle it.  Be just and accountable with yourself, and see what unfolds and generates as a result. 

A Palera’s Perspective

We are baring witness to all of these planetary events and noticing the increase in energies of all living things. As my elders say, the lembe is rising: in us too, in the dead still. We look forward specifically to the May rains for the collection of particularly potent waters to be incorporated in the building of and relating with the things we build and relate to.

See below my recommendations. Any questions? Contact me here.

Art World Events: Sharjah Biennial, Art Dubai, TEFAF (Maastricht and NYC), Frieze (NYC), 1-54 (NYC), Whitney Biennial, Venice Biennial, Art Basel (Basel)

Crystals: Bloodstone, Bustamite, Citrine, Moonstone, Opal, Prehnite, Rose Quartz, Sunstone, Tourmaline, Zincite

Herbs: Lemongrass, Lime Leaf, Mint, Rosemary, Thyme, Calendula, Dandelion, Nettle Leaf, Holy Basil, Sage, Lavender

Things you can do:

• Make yourself a bath using bitter herbs and your prayers to cut and remove stagnant and/or negative energy from your home and person. Follow it up with sweet herbs like mint and holy basil to usher in an abundant high vibrational energy;

• Schedule a divination session with your preferred provider to get insights into this spring transition, and direction on short to medium term goals;

• If you suffer from seasonal allergies , make a tincture of nettle leaf, lemon grass, peppermint, spearmint, and calendula;

• Visit your local art museums and galleries and take in their exhibitions and public programs - especially if it offers a meditation session or studio classes;

• Procure cleansing crystals such as amber, tourmaline, citrine, or peridot and situate them in your home or office to keep your space free of toxins.

Negarra A. Kudumu

Did you enjoy this post? Share it with your friends and networks by clicking on any of the social media icons below. Interested in my practice? Visit the work and offerings sections in the left hand navigation menu above to learn more and schedule your appointment. Until next time!

Dreams & Spirituality: A Connection? Yes.

This week’s topic was sourced from two social media acquaintances both inquiring about the importance of dreams in spirituality. Let’s start with a definition.

What are dreams?
According to Psychology Today,

Dreams are the stories the brain tells during sleep—they’re a collection of clips, images, feelings, and memories that involuntarily occur during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of slumber.  

The stuff of dreams and spirituality
Dreams are generally comprised of elements from one’s waking life: people, jobs, travels, etc. They can also, as is the case with me and many I know who are spiritually inclined, include elements of past and future scenarios not lived by the person having the dream. Depending on the spiritual tradition, dreams may be used as a form of divination giving a person insights into what has happened and what may happen. Dreams can also be mode of communication with one’s spiritual guides and ancestors, as well as a state that enhances and enables astral projection.

While Abrahamic traditions and related Western cultural practices don’t consistently give much credence to dreams, in the shamanic traditions found in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, dreams and dreamers are accorded respect ad gravity for the quality and timeliness of the information provided.

How do I know if my dreams are spiritual in nature?
There is no official check list that will tell you for sure if your dreams are spiritual. For those who take to heart the adage “as above, so below” everything is spiritual and so then yes, all your dreams would be too even if you ate a bunch of cheese right before sleeping. Sometimes the unexplainable acts you recall from your dreams are your subconscious just working out some stuff. Here are, however, a few questions to consider when attempting to ascertain if any of your dreams are of a spiritual nature:

• You dream of dead relatives you never met (particularly those who died before you were born);

• You dream of people you’ve never met and then you meet them in real life;

• You dream of yourself in the future and see children that appear to be your biological offspring;

• You see a scenario from a time period you never lived in that involves people you know in the present, in your waking life;

• You have dreams where you are watching yourself interact with others as a third party;

• You receive or see precise messages in your dreams, which are confirmed once you are awake; and/or

• nightmares with aggressively violent acts in which you are the perpetrator or the victim.

This is not at all an exhaustive diagnostic mechanism. In fact, in my opinion, to be truly sure that your dreams are indeed of a spiritual nature, seek out a competent diviner, knowledgeable of how dreams function and dream interpretation to help you demystify your dreams. If you are experiencing physical or mental anguish as a result of your sleep and/or dreams, seek professional medical advice.

Astral Traveling While Dreaming
I will pay brief attention to this topic here as it is, I believe, something that is more common than people realize. As I have experienced it, astral travel is the ability to leave one’s body during sleep and travel across time periods, cities, countries, and/or continents before returning to your body and waking up. In the traditions I study and practice, this ability is enhanced by one’s connection to, or embodiment of, certain kinds of spiritual entities that often have celestial or primordial characteristics, and are often called, very simply, ancient forces. These forces offer capacities for spiritual sight and experience that goes beyond the mundane and regularly crosses between planes. Again, if any of this resonates, seek a competent diviner to support you in investigating and excavating your lived experience of astral travel.

So what does any of it mean?
It means as much as you decide to make it. A dream can be an indication of a spiritual inclination or a set of spiritual abilities; however, in the end it is up to you to follow that inclination, or leverage the skill set, towards, if not, beyond its logical conclusion. A dream may in fact deliver a message pertaining to a spiritual calling. Divination can confirm that and offer guidance. Ultimately it comes down to a personal decision about meaning, desirability of the dream state, and willingness to act on your dreams.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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The Purity Trap: A Brief Note

Humans like to think of themselves as singular. This is magnified where religion and spirituality is concerned. This position is minimally laughable, but on a broader scale it is problematic because of its ahistoricity. Regarding African and African-rooted spiritual traditions, migratory patterns on the African continent and enslavement trajectories heavily influenced the timing and process through which certain African ethnic groups met and eventually mixed.

It is important to understand that African people, throughout the continent, were in contact with each other and with other peoples on other continents previous to European and Arab colonization. As a dear friend is wont to say, “Y’all did not introduce us to us.” The great kingdoms of Africa, of which there were many, were comprised of, allied with, at war against, and absorbed other African ethnic groups.

When you look at the Orisa venerated both in the African diaspora of the Americas and in Yorubaland today, you see that the Yoruba absorbed into their corpus spiritual entities cum Orisa from the Nupe people, Fon/Ewe, and the Egbado to name a few. You will also see, if you look carefully, the influence Islam has had on the cult of Orunmila in Yorubaland. Within the Haitian Vodou tradition, there are lwa derived from Yoruba, Fon/Ewe, Bantu-Kongo, as well as those home grown in Haiti.

Within Las Reglas Bantu (Palo Monte), the tradition pulls from practices associated with the Bakongo, the Bavili, Baluba, and the Ovimbundu, amongst others. In Cuba, certain branches of Palo Monte established pacts and agreements with Haitian Vodou and Abakua. Others with Lukumi and Espiritismo. Within Lukumi, there is an entire branch called Arara, which has maintained a tradition of initiating the Orisa Babaluaye directly, which is, as a rule, is not the case in other Lukumi branches. In West African Vodou, the cult of Mami Wata, while connected to ancient African spiritual concepts of the great mother and water spirit veneration, its popular iconography is a relatively recent (19th century thereabouts) addition to Vodou on the African continent.

I say all this to say that, whether in the African Diaspora or on the African continent, purity - as understood by a single, untouched, unsullied, belief system - simply does not exist. People travel, they trade information, they learn from one another, and they incorporate the ideas and practices they like into their own. The uglier sides of the historical record show that people also kill and pillage their neighbors, and later enslave, often with no remorse. Enslavement is a very efficient mixing pot. Very profitable too. 

That is the story - with differences specific to geography and culture - of how Diaspora is formed just about everywhere it is formed. This is how you get African-Americans in the Diaspora whose DNA represents a plurality of African ethnic groups. Follow the routes and timing of those slave ships and you’ll see who went where, from where, and you’ll eventually be able to put together the reasons why.

To complicate matters further, especially where the African diaspora of the Americas is concerned, Africans were enslaved and delivered to a land already inhabited by peoples with highly developed societies with their own spiritual beliefs. These people were in large part - but not 100% - exterminated in the Americas through genocide. Here we - Africans in the Diaspora of the Americas - are attempting to reconnect to our own indigenous traditions, alleging that one tradition is better than the other, for whatever reason. But do we acknowledge that we are visitors on this land too? And that when our offerings work it may in fact be - at least in part - because the spirits of this land condone it and give the ok?

I wonder.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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On Training and Community: Realities of Post-Initiation Life

In a previous post, I discussed lineage and initiation with a focus on the costs - material and otherwise - one must pay. If one was initiated in any of the traditions referenced in that article, there was a community of individuals that came together to realize that ceremony. Not only is initiation a rebirth, an access pass granting you permission to learn and practice secret, sacred praxis, it is an entry into a community of individuals who [ideally] support you, claim you, train you, verify the validity of the your initiation and subsequent ceremonies, and defend you, all in accordance with the rules and regulations of the tradition in which you are all adepts.

While the initiation ceremony confers license to access information - and depending on your lineage, the right to initiate others - it is training by one’s godparent and elders that confers the knowledge, praxis, and the customs needed to appropriately enforce the rules and regulation of the tradition. Training is conferred in many ways. My elders often use the adage “chop wood and carry water” to describe their experience pre- and post-initiation. Being taught wasn’t a given and while initiation granted access it didn’t always mean your elders were going to make the process easy. Learning was often, and still is, an earned privilege.

Training meant showing up and spending time in the community. Sitting at the foot of the elders, listening to stories and looking for the tidbits of knowledge that may be included. It did, and still means, working: working all the pieces of a ceremony from the preparation, to the ceremony itself, and the post-ceremony resolution. In African and African Diasporic traditions, learning has historically been carried out by doing. Increasingly, priests are offering structured classes to their godchildren that mimic a classroom form. That said, there is still an expectation that you show up and work.

With globalization in full swing, more often than not individuals live far away from their spiritual communities. This begs a question to which I am still seeking an answer and logistical solutions: how does one’s training continue, and how does one advance their knowledge - given the primary mode of learning is by doing - if they live far from their godparent and community?

My story
I was initiated into Palo Mayombe and was fortunate enough to spend two years apprenticing with my godmother. That apprenticeship consisted of classes she taught, one on one conversations, watching and assisting with client work, active participation in ceremony, and reading the vast multidisciplinary archive of scholarly materials and oral records she accumulated over the years. About two years after I initiated, I moved to the opposite coast and my training took on a different form. Since the move, majority of my training has happened through ongoing study of the archive, one on one conversation with my godparents, the application of their advice and counsel in my practice, and as of the past two years flying in to participate in ceremony.

My Observations
Admittedly, I am very curious about how this works when the godparent and spiritual community are in an entirely different country. It has been my observation that people who meet and surmount this challenge are:

1. those who become proficient in the language of their spiritual community (especially true if you are initiating as a non-native into Brazilian Candomble, Haitian Vodou, Yoruba Isese, or any of the Afro-Cuban spiritual traditions in their countries of origin)

2. those who have the facility (money and time) and the will to make regular trips to the place where their godparents and spiritual communities reside; and

3. those who are able to create a network of verified and validated practitioners - either within their same tradition and lineage or across various traditions - in the place where they are or via regular communication as described above.

Item three has proved invaluable to me particularly with regard to broadening my knowledge of the history of Lukumi, it’s lineages, and the diversity of practice within the tradition.

Validity and Verification
Within the aforementioned African Diasporic traditions credibility cannot be overstated. An initiated person should be able to unflappably declare the name of their lineage, their godparents’ names, the officiating priest at their initiation, in some cases their godparents’ godparents, and produce the name of at least one other person present at your ceremony who can confirm that what you say is true. If and when this information is checked, and the result is that the declaration is untrue, you are persona non grata. Even if the declaration is confirmed, if your godparent or the elders associated with the lineage are not held in high esteem, you may also be shunned. Recently, one of my elders shared with me that in his thirty years of priesthood that one’s initiation is only considered valid within one’s own spiritual community. Thus, it would behoove people seeking these traditions to choose their communities wisely.

Proving that you are the initiated person you say you are, with the skill set that you purport to have, is made more difficult - though not impossible - when your initiation was done outside your country of residence. Over the past several years, I have increasingly heard first and second hand heartbreaking stories of individuals who meet one or more of the following conditions (this is not an exhaustive list):

• they were initiated by a priest who takes a hodge podge approach to initiation and so while they may have been initiated to something, no one can ascertain what that thing is and to which tradition(s) it belongs;

• the person was initiated by a priest who was ex-communicated by their spiritual community;

• the person was initiated by a priest who did not have the authority to initiate and thus the validity of this priest’s initiations are questionable (keep in mind, conferring knowledge of the initiation process is different than granting permission to initiate and establish lineage. In some traditions both are conferred simultaneously. In others they are conferred separately); or

• the person was initiated by a valid and verified priest from a valid and verified lineage but the person no longer - for whatever reason - has ties to that priest and community and thus none of their ceremonies can be validated or verified;

When I first caught wind of these realities, I was, in many ways, nonplussed; however, my desire for healing far outweighed my indignance. The rules of the game are what they are. You can play or not; however, do remember, it is always chess, never checkers.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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The Price of the Ticket: Cost in Certain African and African-Rooted Spiritual Traditions

The Yoruba Isese spiritual tradition, and the African Diaspora traditions of Lukumi, Haitian Vodou, Palo Monte, and Candomblé, are initiatic. Initiation gives you not only the healing you need for your life, amongst other things it bestows, but also an access pass granting you permission to learn the secret, ritual knowledge of the cult. Perhaps the most notable characteristic being how to initiate others, better known as establishing lineage.

A Few Notes On Lineage
Lineage is determined by a continual line of initiations under the auspice of a specific spiritual community that traces its collective history back to a person who was the first to inaugurate that lineage. In the case of Yoruba Isese, the lineages are millenia old and spread across numerous towns within Yorubaland. Some of the most well known of these towns are Osogbo, Oyo, Ile Ife, and Abeokuta. Where the aforementioned Afro-Caribbean/Afro-Atlantic traditions are concerned, people of African descent have been in the Caribbean and Brazil since the 16th century. There is evidence documenting the existence of cabildos (mutual aid councils) and cofradias (fraternities) that pertained to Lukumi, Palo Monte, and Abakua in Cuba as early as the 17th century. Lukumi and Palo Monte lineages, with the contemporary initiatic practices known and executed today by adepts in Cuba and elsewhere, developed in the 19th century. These lineages have roots that were planted in the 16th century by Bantu peoples, and in the17th century by Yoruba and related peoples (who ultimately became known as Lukumi). Haiti has a similar religio-spiritual timeline. The oldest Candomblé Ketu houses were formally established in 19th century Brazil in the Northeastern city of Salvador da Bahia with Casa Branca do Engenho Velho / Ilê Axé Iyá Nassô Oká being the oldest.

Gaining Access bka Pay Your Fare
Let me be clear: without initiation your access is severely limited. In certain of the aforementioned traditions, no initiation = no access.

So if initiation gives access to ritual knowledge and practice, as well as [eventual] permission to perform initiations, thus by extension establishing lineage, in accordance with the rules of the tradition, then how does one get initiated?

You pay.

You pay with your time and your energy, and you most certainly pay with cold hard cash.

Before we get to the meat and potatoes of this topic, here are a few notes to dispel possible bunching of shokotos:

• The prices listed below were provided by individuals initiated in one or more of the aforementioned spiritual traditions. Two of these individuals are my godparents;

• The information quoted comes from priests across the aforementioned traditions located in various areas of the United States with active ties to their root lineages in Yorubaland, Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, and the United States;

• On the surface some traditions look cheaper than others. If you are traveling to initiate, you will have to factor in flight, housing, and food. Depending on where you live, this can significantly augment your overall costs for initiation;

• These prices are estimates, not absolutes. There is no such thing as a standard price. Prices fluctuate depending on geography, ceremony specific needs, the cost of ingredients, and the character and economic conditions of the person/people doing the initiation; and

• All prices are quoted in USD.

Palo Monte
Also known as Las Reglas Bantu, Afro-Cuban Palo Monte is one of the least expensive of the African Diasporic initiatic traditions. Prices for initiation range from $900 - $1,500 depending on the level to which you are being initiated.

Lukumi
Perhaps the most well known of the African-Diasporic initiatic traditions, Lukumi (also known as Santeria or La Regla de Ocha) seems to have the most price variation. Depending on the Orisa to which one will be initiated, the price can range from $7,000 to as high as $15,000. I have been told that costs for Lukumi Ifa initiate demonstrate extreme variability with prices quoted as low as $5,000 and as high as $20,000. It was heavily emphasized that the final decision on cost for Lukumi Ifa initiation is made by the Oluwo Siwaju.

Haitian Vodou
Like Palo Monte, Haitian Vodou has various levels of initiation. The head wash ceremony ranges from $1,500 - $2,500. Depending on the level of priesthood to which one will be initiated, you are looking at a range of $2,500 - $5,000.

Candomblé
Candomblé is the popular overarching term for the three main branches of Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions: Ketu, Jeje, and Angola. The information provided here pertains to Candomblé Ketu. Orisa initiations range from $3,000 to $5,000.

Yoruba Isese
Increasingly many individuals are looking to practice Yoruba spiritual tradition as practiced in Yorubaland. Yorubaland is comprised of several centers of Orisa worship that each maintain unique initiatic practices. Prices are as follows:

• Orisa initiation starts at $2,500

• Egbe initiation starts at $2,500

• Ifa initiation starts at $3,500

Please note: inherent to Yoruba culture is the notion of bartering and negotiation. There is an expectation that when one is given a price that a bartering session will ensue, and this is the case whether the topic is the cost of food or initiation.

Words of caution for those looking to initiate (these opinions are mine and do not represent the opinions of anyone other than me):

• The priest or priestess you work with should have no issue giving you a flat number that represents the full cost of your ceremony.

• For traditions that have different levels of priesthood, do your best to find out the the level you are initiating to. Not all have the same requirements and thus there are likely to be fluctuations in cost;

• Fraudsters and charlatans are no strangers to these traditions. If the price sounds inflated, it may very well be;

• Overpaying for an initiation, or going into debt to pay for an initiation, is not in your best interest;

• The godparent sets the cost of the initiation;

• Generous priests who apply the concept of charity to their pastoral work will be willing to work with you by offering a payment plan or discount. This is not an invitation for you to get brand new and think you are exempt from reciprocity or showing gratitude. Initiation, though focused on a person, happens because of the culmination of many priests and their deities, all leveraging and focusing their energy to support your healing, growth, and development. Do the right thing and repay these costs with your time, money, respect for your godparents, and devotion to your ancestors and deities.

Thanks for tuning in. Until next week!

Negarra A. Kudumu

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A Practice Centered Around Making

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Honey On A Razor Blade #mwangihutter

A post shared by Mwangi Hutter (@mwangihutter) on Jun 4, 2017 at 3:35am PDT

Fetish woman, Accra. (= a priestess of the traditional religions), Accra, 1890s. The National Archives UK [OGL (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/1/)]

I would imagine, that when one thinks about an independent scholar of contemporary art, writer, and curator, you’re unlikely to think she is also a healer. The converse may be true. Fact is, I am both, however, why and how is the lynchpin to understanding my practice.

I see art and healing as the flip sides of the same coin. Both are practices that center making. It is the exertion of energy into the making of a thing, that can then be used and experienced by the intended parties in a way that is, or at least should be, additive and generative. As a healer I create holistic, integrated solutions for my clients that observe and engage with them in their entirety (spiritually, physically, and mentally/emotionally) in their contemporary state. I achieve this through intense divination, and often the creation of objects with various life spans that I work according to the pacts and agreements of my particular branch and community of Palo Mayombe.

On the art side, I unify and leverage my writing and research skills to create texts that contextualize contemporary artists within and betwixt the canons or cultural movements they occupy (or are confronting). These texts put artists in conversation with their contemporaries and their forebears. In this way, they are visible not just in a temporary exhibition but in the historical record that is documenting the art and related ideas of our time. When making an exhibition, I seek a balance of aesthetic prowess and intellectual rigor that highlights, the artist’s meaning and the over all intended narrative. One of my goals is always accessibility. Non-negotiable is an installation that allows the work to reveal the breadth of its beauty and meaning.

Personally, I believe art can be healing for the mind, body, and soul. Here, I speak of art in the writ large sense: visual, theater, music, dance, literary. I am driven to work with and for artists because I believe in it as a strategy for resolving some of humanity’s most common issues. Conversely, spirituality (not religion, to be clear) particularly when understood as technology, should include art as one its myriad strategies for reestablishing harmony and pursuing liberation. There are myriad examples of arts with healing capabilities. Fundamentally, we must choose that, which is medicine for our body, minds, and soul.

In 2019, I am asking myself - and maybe you too - some fundamental questions where art and healing are concerned:

• Does it bring joy and succor?

• Is it additive and/or generative?

• Does it center freedom and autonomy of my body, as well as the mind and spirit?

• Does it help me support myself and my community?

• Does it offer a vision for a world where I can see people like myself living in peace and able to support ourselves without inordinate struggle?

• Food or medicine? And if it’s food, is it nourishing or simply filler?

• Do we know how to work the things we have to achieve the ends that we want?

• What sacrifice am I/are we willing to make and am I/are we willing to deal with the related consequences of said sacrifice?

Happy holidays, however you choose to celebrate. Wishing you the 2019 you are willing to work for. We’re on winter break, but back on the blog Thursday, January 10, 2019.

Until then.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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Christianity, Christian Holidays, and African-Rooted Spiritual Systems

For Christians this is a time, presumably, to reflect on the significance of the birth of Jesus Christ and to reunite with family. Practitioners of African-rooted spiritual systems are doing and/or thinking differently depending on their relationship to the Christian religion. This article focuses generally on Las Reglas Bantu / Palo Monte, Lukumi / La Regla de Ocha, and the Brazilian Yoruba rooted practice known as Candomblé, offering an overview of the relationships and history fused with my own analysis.

Lukumi / La Regla de Ocha
If you follow me on Instagram, you will have noticed that I recently posted images in honor of two Afro-Cuban Orisa feast days: one for orisa Sango, syncretized with Santa Barbara; and the other for orisa Obaluaiye syncretized with Saint Lazarus. Amongst practitioners, you will often hear Lukumi referred to as Santeria and the practitioners as Santeros. This is not incorrect. Keep in mind the history of African-rooted spiritual systems in the Americas. These traditions and their practitioners were under constant threat of attack from the colonialist slave system that was, in Cuba and Brazil, in place until 1886 and 1888 respectively. Even after slavery ended, the oppression leveled at practitioners of African rooted spiritual systems continued, as a matter of course, well into the 20th and 21st centuries.

The language of these traditions have always reflected the history. One must look to the liturgical language, commonly called bozal, which is a creole comprised of Yoruba of, at least, the 19th century, if not older, and Spanish. The syncretism of orisa with Catholic saints, and the corresponding linguistic references to orisa as santos and the practice as Santeria, was, in my opinion, a survival tactic to maintain the safety of its practitioners, and to keep their beliefs from being completely and totally destroyed by the colonial state. Many of the famous mutual aid societies, referred to as cabildos, include names of Catholic saints. If you knew the correspondence, you knew what orisa was hallmark of that cabildo.

There has been a move, over the past nearly 60 years away from the use of the Spanish language terminology (Santeria, santero/a, etc.) and referring to orisa as saints, largely by non-Spanish speaking, non-Latino practitioners. While I agree, Santa Barbara is not Sango, it is an important part of Lukumi history to know and understand how Catholicism was used as a cover to shield our traditions in an oppressive and violent environment. Knowing the history allows us to more effectively practice, and for those with godchildren or serving clients, this allows the legacy of our oral tradition to be passed down as accurately as possible.

Candomblé Ketu
On Friday, July 29, 1983 an article in the Brazilian newspaper Jornal da Bahia titled “Candomblé diz não ao sincretismo” (Candomblé says no to syncretism) included the following excerpt (translation mine, link to original Portuguese here).

From here on out, Candomble practitioners will no longer learn their Orisa tradition in syncretism with the Catholic faith. The Bahian Iyas and Babalorisas also no longer want to permit that their religion be treated as folklore, a sect, animism, nor primitive religion, " as always happens in this country and in this city". They also want to halt the use of their ritual clothing and ceremonies used in tourist events…

…Mãe Stella de Oxossi, - one of the most respected Iyalorisas of Bahia, always averse to publicity and the press, spoke exclusively to Jornal da Bahia, explaining:
- The saints and Catholic images have their value, We are not giving up belief, for example, in Saint Bárbara. Without a doubt, an elevated spirit. But we know that Yansa is an other energy, she isn’t Saint Barbara. One can not impose religion; it depends on each person’s conscience. But we want respect for Candomblé. This has nothing to do, for example, with putting Yansa’s food at the foot of St. Barbara's image. It does not make any sense. The food is for Yansa; it's another energy, completely different from what Saint Barbara is, you see.

A Candomblé Ketu initiate of Casa Branca lineage shared with me that there are still houses descendant of these original Ketu lineages in Brazil that halt all festivals and ceremonies between the beginning of Lent and Corpus Christi. This time is considered a period of rest. Upon the completion of this period, they resume their liturgical calendar.

The use of the Catholic liturgical calendar and other syncretic practices were a function of the social environment in which Candomblé developed. The social, economic, political, geological, and topographical conditions in Brazil (and Cuba too) were not and are not those in Yorubaland. Also, I reiterate, it can not be underestimated the intense volume of oppression launched at practitioners and their traditions. Nonetheless, the 1983 position set out by the leaders of the great Candomble Houses also makes sense, and is in my opinion also true and important. As times change, we must understand our traditions in the contemporary context in which we find ourselves as practitioners.

Las Reglas Bantu / Palo Monte
The Bakongo people, one of many Bantu peoples who contributed practices and ideology to the rites known as Las Reglas Bantu, commonly known as Palo Monte, experienced Christianity as early as the 15th century, previous to their forced arrival to Cuba and had incorporated into it into their indigenous beliefs. Many already spoke Portuguese. We see remnants of this knowledge in sundy aspects of our rites.

Certain Bakongo royalty converted to Catholicism for political reasons. Others, like Dona Beatriz, also known as Kimpa Vita, a practitioner of indigenous Bakongo spirituality, publicly declared that she was possessed by the Saint Anthony. She considered Saint Anthony an nkita (a long dead ancestor). While possessed by Saint Anthony she had visions that Jesus Christ was not born in Nazareth, but rather Mbanza Kongo (capital of the Bakongo kingdom). Dona Beatriz and her Antoninian ministry began to spread these and other messages, and calling for the unification of Kongo territories. I imagine her detractors didn’t take kindly to that and that is, at least, one of the reasons why she was killed. James Thornton has written an informative text on Dona Beatriz. You may find it here.

That said, the Paleros I know, who happen to mostly be Mayomberos, put in work on Christmas eve and Christmas Day. During Holy Week, some of us really put in work. I have been informed through conversations with elders that Paleros of the Santo Cristo Buen Viaje ilk, observe all Christian holy days. I am a practitioner of Palo Mayombe, of the Brama Con Brama lineage, founded in eastern Cuba. We work for ourselves and the people we serve every day. Christian holy days are no different. Holy Week is a period many of us do some our most efficacious work.

However you spend the forthcoming holidays, I wish you a plentiful and prosperous time for you and yours. I will spend mine doing what Paleros in my lineage do, working Palo. My schedule is open Saturday - Monday, December 22-25 specifically for this purpose. Do reach out, if you are so inclined.

Negarra A. Kudumu

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