ORIXAS or ORISHAS

Afro-brazilian cults were brought by the black slaves from Africa to Brazil. They used the rituals which are an expression of their negritude to preserve their culture. Today the ritual is open to all ethnic groups. In the Candomble, still alive in Bahia, we find a magical and ritual religion, blending the African roots with native influences and christian images, to hide the pagan origin.

In the Candomble the search is for a concrete interface of the beyond with this world; this is done by calling for the sacred power to come down, calling upon the divine energy to be present here and now - and thus the orishas manifest in their sons and daughters.

The foundation of the afro-brazilian cult is the existence of divinities or energies called orishas with different attributes, powers and tasks in human life. As the religion has no ethic background, the deities do not have moral aspects and they don't punish or correct human beings for their faults. What matters is the ritual. To distinguish what is bad or good depends on the relationship between the person and his or her personal orisha. The devotee should respect the tabus of his orisha and what is prohibited for one person is not necessarily the same as for another person.

In Africa the different ethnic groups had about 400 different orishas they worshipped. In Brazil today we have around 20 of them. Each person has a personal orisha, the master of his or her head. The oracle using certain shells will reveal which orisha reigns over a person and is done by the Mothers and Fathers of Saints (ialorisha and babalorisha).

Each orisha is in charge of certain aspects of nature and of human or social life. Each one has its own symbols, colours, clothes, objects, rhythm and chants as well as special food. There is a personal call for each orisha, as a salutation. The devotee's task is to identify with the divine pattern which belongs to him. By using mythical stories the oral tradition of this religion provides patterns of behaviour for the sons and daughters of Saints. The mythical pattern is a model to be imitated.

Besides the orisha reigning over the "head" there is a second deity, normally of the opposit gender, called "united"; in this way every son and daughter of the saint have divine parents, have a mother as well as a father. The orisha might be young or old, in times of war or peace, he may appear as king or as servant - there are infinit possibilities of combinations, so that every individual gets his or her own godhead.