Torch Club of The Fox Valley

Meeting Minutes
Torch Club of the Fox Valley
8 February 2018
Atlas Coffee Mill & Café

Notes taken by: Sofia Wilson, Secretary
Attendees:  Karen Bachhuber, Sue Bennett, Nancy Bodway, Dave Debbink, Marcia Debbink, Mary Flanagan, Paul Frieberg, Jean Jepson, Barbara Kelly, William Kelly, Jude Kuenn, Cam Maurice, Richard Schoenbohm, Katie Shaw, Jan Smith, Robert Swain, Helen Thiel, Peter L. Thiel, Scott Valitchka, Donna Weis and Sofia Wilson

Minutes, Page 2

• You shall neither fear death nor commit suicide
• You shall keep and respect my laws
• You shall teach my commandments to your children

Many of Santeria’s Orishas are associated with Catholic Saint, but not all. Some take an African form based in nature, others a human western looking form. Some Cubans use Catholic saints and Orishas interchangeably.

Two examples:

• (Picture of a rock shape with a face made with shells) Eleggua – Saint Anthony. This Orisha reflects the Yoruban nature based religion.
• (Picture of a woman clad in yellow) Oshun (Orisha of infertility) – Our Lady of Charity/Patron Saint of Cuba. Here the Orisha visually reflects the Catholic tradition.

Example chart of Orishas:

Orisha	Saint	Principle	Identity	Color	Most likely to Punish by
Agayu	Christopher	fatherhood
Babaluaye	Lazarus	illness	infectious diseases	light blue, royal purple
Elleggua	Nino de Atocha	way-opener messenger	warrior deities	red, black	causing accidents
	Anthony of Padua	trickster
Ibeji (twins)	Cosmus and Damien	children
Inle	Rafael	medicine
Obatala	Mercedes	clarity	sculptor of human form	white	paralyzing or blinding
Ogun	Peter	iron
Olokun	Regla	profundity
Osanyin	Joseph	herbs
Oshosi	Norbert	hunt, protection
Oshun	Caridad	eros, river	god of love	red, green, yellow, coral, amber, violet	inflicting lower abdomen /genitals
Oya	Candelaria	death
Shango	Barbara	force, thunder
Yemaya	Regla	maternity, seas	goddess of the living Ocean	blue and white
Orunla			god of wisdom	green, yellow	mental illness
Chango			fire and thunder	red, white	death or suicide by fire

Orishas serve as guardian angels to humans. Humans and orishas exist in a codependent relationship. 

Babaluaye is associated with Lazarus who died and came back to life and represents illness.

Humans need the ashe (energy) of orishas which manifests as guidance and protection. At the same time orishas need to be fed by humans, the ashe (energy) of sacrifice, the honor/achievements of the community, etc. Ashe can be equated to Grace.

Access to ancestors and Orishas is gained through

• home altars
• divination
• Godmothers and godfathers
• consultation in community

The priests help you access your ancestors and orishas and they oversee ceremonies, including sacrifice and drumming that provide community access.

The energy and power of any orisha is directly proportional to the prestige and power of the community the worships it.

Since Santerians do not invoke God directly, they have altars in their homes. They consult their godparents and priests in their homes who have more extensive altars/ worship spaces and knowledge. The priests and their community celebrate rituals together.

Ile Casa de Santo - House Church

A house in your community is where you seek help. When a santero or santera (person/priest) grows in knowledge and power and others seek them out for spiritual guidance they form a house church.
In basements and bedrooms shrines are built to different orishas – no shrines are built to the supreme being, Olodumare, there are no images of him/her.

Divination – casting of Cowrie Shells is one method of discernment.

To visit an Ile you go to the house and sit around the living room with bored children playing with toys waiting for their parents turn to enter the room containing saints, the altar and a santero or santera. While waiting, adults talk among themselves and praise their priest’s knowledge.

When a new visitor arrives, they are greeted with the bumping of elbows or hips, hugs and African words. Everyone is in the room because they have problem. They have come because on previous occasions they, or someone they know, followed the directions of the santero or santera by offering a sacrifice, taking an herbal bath, or lighting a candle at church (the Catholic Church) and their problem was solved.  Followers try to live well to bring honor and status to their Ile and in turn the Ile supports its members.

Listened to a recording of Jonathan Overby on Higher Ground speak on Santeria.

On our trip to Cuba, we were accompanied by, Eli Edelman, a Lawrence University graduate. He spent a summer in Cuba studying this drumming as LU student.  He is now a graduate student at Indiana’s Jacobs School of Music in their World and Percussion program. He has had the opportunity to go to Nigeria.  When he drummed for the Yoruba people what he learned in Cuba, they commented that he drummed like their grandfather drummed. Eli believes that in Nigeria the patterns are fluidly evolving, but in Cuba the drummers are maintaining their traditional forms.

The rituals give meaning and purpose to the follower’s lives, as well as justifying the overall faith community and its role within the society at large. Bembes is a festival of drumming and dancing performed for the Orishas.

During the drumming and dancing, Possession (Trance) happens. Possession is when the conscious self is suppressed in order to allow the entry of the divine. In biological terms, it is hard to understand the possession trance. (maybe impossible). For practitioners of Santeria possession is the temporary departure of the individual’s soul to make room for the Orisha.  The individual gives up their own consciousness to benefit the community. An Orisha can then inhabit their body and mind.  It is a positive, welcome experience.  Santeros report that they feel joy, peace and love when in the presence of the Orishas.  The person who is possessed is called the “horse” and when they return to consciousness at the end of the drumming ceremony, they are exhausted. Members of the community form a protective ring around the individuals when the Orisha enters and leaves the body, to protect the individual from harm. 

Things you should know about Animal Sacrifice:

• It is only done with the kinds of animals you’d find on a farm: chickens, goats, sheep, pigeons – It is for initiation
• Santerians do it with great respect to the animal, making sure they are well cared for before the sacrifice.
• The sacrifice method commonly used involves severing the carotid arteries to cause the animal to pass out before it dies – I think this is how the chickens we eat are killed.
• The meat is butchered, cooked and shared with the community.
• OK – the blood is shared with the Orishas and ancestors – put in the receptacles on altars.
• “When the US media demonizes Santeria’s animal sacrifices, few stop to think of the similarities between them and certain Christian practices.  ‘You can kill a turkey in your back yard, put it on the table, say a prayer, and serve it for Thanksgiving, but if they pray over the turkey, kill it, then eat it, we violate the law.’”

The US Supreme Court on Animal Sacrifice:

• In the US is the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993). The Supreme Court of the United States ruled unconstitutional a local Florida ban on Santeria ritual animal sacrifice. The issue is complicated by allegations of antisemitism and xenophobia.
• The logic was that the city was discriminating, since despite the city's interest in preventing cruelty to animals, the ordinances are drafted with care to forbid few killings, only those that are part religious sacrifice. Many types of animal deaths or kills for nonreligious reasons are either not prohibited or are approved by express provision.

Initiation:

• Like the organizations we belong to, some people may come as guests. They may come once or twice, some are regulars, some are drafted or seek leadership roles. The same thing is true in the Santerian religion.
• If you decide to join there is an initiation process. It involves a week-long initiation process and your Orisha is determined. Every person is believed to be the spiritual child of an Orisha. The initiated needs to determine their orisha.  When initiated you are paired with a godmother or godfather, who is then your primary mentor.
• The initiates wear white.
• Some criticize this process because it is expensive.  There are costs to visit a priest in a house church for a reading, be initiated, to buy the objects for your alter, etc.

I am really an unlikely supporter or defender, but I find this religion interesting and remarkably similar to Western religions.

Since the Revolution Cubans have maintained secrecy about their religion, because religion is illegal in Cuba.  Religion is officially forbidden, but Santeria continues to be practiced.

In the US Cubans practice their religion in the same way they practiced it in Cuba. In the 2010 census, there were 1,785,547 Cuban Americans in the US. 0.58% of the US Population.

We in the US are not fond of secrecy either, but neither slaves practicing and passing on their religion nor these Cuban refugees are likely to share their practices.  From what I read any individual who would like to enter a community would be welcome.

It is not a cult and the group of people is not small; there is no veneration of any particular object or person and it dates back to 7th Century BCE.

As a result of studying it I am aware of the its influences.

Santeria is NOT VERY secret anymore. Objects needed to practice can be found on Amazon and how to create Santerían bead strands can be found on Pinterest. 

Mardi Gras – Begins tomorrow February 9 – 13, 2018. One of the parades is Krew of Oshum the Yoruba goddess of love and intimacy. 

You don’t have to travel to New Orleans, Miami, NYC or LA to find Santerían influence or African Religion influence.

Santeria in the US or here? Sunday, February 4th, at the FVUUF  Sangodare spoke, she is a visiting scholar in the film studies department at Lawrence.  She introduced herself as an Igbo Priest.  The Igbo tribe is also a Nigerian tribe.

 Her talk was what if God were Hospitality. It is hard to be hospitable unless the guest and host know something about each other.  I think she asked us to not to visit each other, but to join together in ritual/living.

The last incident I would like to relate took place at the LWV Women’s Equality day when Dr Sylivia Carey-Butler, the Associated VP of Academic Support of Inclusive Excellence at UW- O and very accomplished woman.  Throughout her speech, she referenced her sorority.  The sorority is a society of black women professionals in NEW.  She did not take personal credit for accomplishments or ideas – she always referenced her sorority, Ile in Santerían terms.

The idea of emptying out self for and allowing the community to work through her was evident.

When Desi Arnaz, as Ricky Ricardo, belted out ''Babalu'' on the ''I Love Lucy'' show, he was referring to the Orisha Babalu-aye. (Listened to a clip of Ricky Ricardo play.)

Percussionist Milton Cardona, a santero who played the sacred bata drums, has recorded with almost all the top names in Latin music