Light Through the Crystal

For the list of all articles, click here. I’m bringing a second ponto of Exu. Pontos are songs sung during Umbanda rituals, usually to either worship the orixás gods or help medium achieve mediunistic trance. The video below is interesting because it shows a ritual in practice. The medium with a black cape, cane and top hat apparently  channelling the Exu Street Locker with the believers dressed in white clapping and singing.   The lyrics in Portuguese and English side to side: Deu meia-noite - It's midnight A Lua se escondeu - The moon has hidden itself Lá na encruzilhada, dando a sua gargalhada - He is at the crossroads, laughing out loud Tranca Rua apareceu - Exu Street Locker is here É laroyê, é laroyê, é laroyê - Hail the messenger! Hail the messenger! Hail the messenger! É mojubá, é mojubá, é mojubá - I salute you!  I salute you!  I salute you! Ele é odara, dando a sua gargalhada - He is the greatest, filling the room with his laughter Quem tem fé em Tranca...

For the list of all articles, click here. Pontos are songs sung by the members of a centre similar to Christian hymns. Pontos for Exu are very famous and tend to include themes that involve revenge, hell, the Moon, darkness and cemeteries. The ponto below is probably one of the most popular and its know by many umbandistas. The name of the ponto is " Quando o Sol Aqui Não Mais Brilhar " with the literal translation being "When the Sun No Longer Shines Here", or a free translation being "At sundown", and is usually sung for Exu Tranca Ruas (Exu Street Locker), an entity associated with the crossroads and is responsible for opening and closing—or "locking and unlocking"—the paths of a person's life.   Quando o sol aqui não mais brilhar - When the sun here no longer shines. Quando a lua o seu clarão refletir - When the Moon shines É sinal que está na hora - It is a sign that it's time É ele quem chega agora, já deu meia-noite - He is com...

For the list of all articles, click here. Exu is by far one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in Umbanda and Youruba spirituality. Out of 70 books about Umbanda 41 mentioned this entity and 17 were books solely devoted to understanding more about this force. Many describe Exu as an essence of movement, the famous medium Norberto Peixoto gives us a paradoxical but insightful description of Exu as the reorganizing force of chaos.   One of the earliest depictions of Exu as a guiding spirit. Taken from the book Trabalhos Praticos de Magia Negra, Antonio de Alva (1984) (lit trans. Practical Works of Black Magic). African roots Yoruba spirituality gives a central role to Exu (in Yoruba language graphed as èsù and in English as eshu) and he is considered to be of the main gods of Yoruba traditional religion, called orixás . In its cosmogony when Olorum gives to the heavenly god Oxalá the task of creating the world he asks first Oxalá to do an offering to Exu. Oxalá doesn’t...

 For the list of all articles, click here.   The goal of this article is to translate some of the content about orisas in Umbanda to English. In Yoruba called Òrìṣà , and in Spanish orisha and in Portuguese orixá . Since we explore the gods in Umbanda, I will use “orixá” as the reference for the remainder of the article. Orixás are the gods of the Yoruba pantheon, some are personified forces of nature, others are deified human beings. Similar to Greek mythology the gods exhibit the same attributes and flaws of a human being (many acting in a way worse than most humans).   The orixás. Image from the article "O que são Orixás" by Glaucia Carvalho. Link: https://www.raizesespirituais.com.br/o-que-sao-orixas/ In the four pillars of foundation in Umbanda the orixás are a contribution from African spirituality (the other three pillars being Catholicism, Spiritism and Indigenous spirituality). The traditional African religions arrived in Brazil due to the slave trade. Africans...

 For the list of all articles, click here. Umbanda is a spiritualist religion within the new religious movements. Originated in Brazil Umbanda was formalized as a faith in 1908 with Zélio Fernandino de Moraes, according to its codifier Umbanda can be described as the incorporation of spirits by mediums for the practice of charity. The religion is pluralistic and syncretic by nature bringing together elements of Catholicism, Spiritism , Indigenous spirituality and African spirituality. There is no definite book determining the elements of the faith and each temple differs on the way the religion is practised. History There is no consensus on the origin of Umbanda and there is an ongoing effort to reinterpret the religion The foundational myth that unites most practitioners is that 17 years old infirm boy, Fernandino de Moraes (1891-1975), was taken to a Spiritist centre with the hope of being cured. During the meeting Zélio channelled the spirits of an Indigenous, the Caboclo das S...