Santería

Communicating with the Orishas

Santería is a Spanish term that means “the way of the Saints” or “worshipping the Saints.” (Santería is more formally known as Lukumí, La regla Lukumí, La regla de Ochá, or La regla de Ifá, although many people, public and practitioners alike, would not recognize it if it were designated only by any one of those terms.) The religious-cultural practice involves beliefs in deities (called Orishas in Yoruba language, Santos in Spanish) and ritual that focus on communication and interaction with these deities.

Santería practitioners participate within a structure of rituals toward their deities and under the direction of padrinos (Spanish for godfathers) and madrinas (godmothers). Orishas come and participate in the activities, contributing with their charms, personalities, and funny or possessive behavior. The religion centers on its appreciation of, worship of, and dialogue with the Orishas; their benefits for practitioners; and the sense of community based on such worship. A few dozen Orishas are known in U.S. Santería practice.

Additional elements linked to the religious practice through which people worship and communicate with their Orishas include (a) readings (divination) of destinies and the course of action when practitioners are confronted with illness, family problems, and the like; (b) animal sacrifice as one way of negotiating, or attempting to alter, one's destiny (which is never fixed and without the possibility for change); (c) individual initiation into the religion; (d) the participation within the religious structure into a house (a house is a lineage of initiates led by godparents); and (e) the possession of Santería practitioners. After animal sacrifice, possession is considered by some to be the second most challenging aspect of Santería.

Worshipping the Orishas takes place through public ceremonies such as bembés or tambores (Spanish for drummings), or birthdays, as well as the maintenance of home altars. Padrinos and madrinas are responsible for guiding new initiates, especially during their first [Page 1200]year of formal entrance to Santería as a practitioner, or an Iyawo (or called in Spanish a Yabó). Thus, there is generally a hierarchical approach of communication and direction: from the Orishas, to the godparents, to newly initiated practitioners, to the uninitiated. This communication restriction is especially evident for the first year after a Santero or Santera formally joins the practice as a Yabó, because the Yabó has become a wife to the Orishas (irrespective of his or her gender) and at the same time she or he is a newborn. In the process of becoming initiated, the new Santero or Santera enters a lineage where her or his place is marked by the time she or he entered this relationship to the Orishas and her or his community.

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