Light Through the Crystal

For the list of all articles, click here. This article is a continuation of “ Umbanda, an overview ”. If this is your first Umbanda article please start with the overview first.   Today instead of writing an article exploring more content that may not be available in English I would like to bring an Umbanda ponto. As mentioned in the overview article about Umbanda , pontos are songs sung by the members of a centre. The aim of pontos is to induce mediumistic trance in the mediums of the temple and honour orixás or guiding spirits. I’m bringing this song Oxóssi, by Mariene de Castro (1978 - ), a famous samba singer. This is a perfect song to translate after the article about orixás and an article about caboclos because the lyrics of the song explore a lot of the basic attributes of Oxóssi. I couldn’t find an official video to support the singer with the ads. The video below is a subtitled so you can follow up with the translation: The lyrics in Portuguese and English side to side: Eu...

This article is a continuation of “ Umbanda, an overview ”. If this is your first Umbanda article please start with the overview first. In Sociology caboclos are an ethnicity in Brazil that comes from the mixing of Indigenous and European ancestry. Brazil is not European, is not Indigenous and is not African, Brazil is the mixing of these three people. Understanding this mixing as part of creating a new national identity is crucial to understand Umbanda. Umbanda was formalized by Zélio de Moraes when channeling the Caboclo das Sete Flechas (lit trans. Caboclo of the Seven Arrows). Some may not know but on the day before Zélio formalized Umbanda he channeled a preto-velho (lit trans. Old Black Men) at his home. This duo of guiding spirits is the basis of Umbanda, caboclo (Indigenous + European) and preto-velho (African), making Umbanda from the start an essentially Brazilian religion. The goal of having a caboclo announcing the new religion was to show on one hand the vigour that the gu...

 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...