Candomble in Brazil
Candomblé in Brasil
Europeans have segmented the philosophical foundations of the Candomblé.
Its sense of continuity has been lost, once its sons had been also
enslaved; its identity with the world also was lost.
In the XVI and XVII century africans brazilians of the Mandigueiros tribe, had a
solid knowledge of herbs and would ingest them with the purpose of sterilizing
the individual, once that it didn’t make any more sense to have
children, since the children were no longer theirs.
Bantus became acéfalos from a socio-cultural point of view; they
were enslaved and easily “domesticated”. This is the reason
why the greater part of Africans Brazilians enslaved in America were Bantus.
In the middle of the XVIII century the Sudaneses arrived in Brazil. They came
with a mental organization and with them they brought the organization
of the orixás Pantheon.
Code of thought - "If I am the synthesis of nature,
I react and behave as such".
Phenomena in nature – There are four basic principles symbolized by:
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Father,
son and the Holy Spirit, is the Star of David. It’s the beginning
of all Pantheist religions that establish the pantheon of nature.
Earth, fire, water and air produce physical phenomena.
There is a mythological history that the Africans Brazilians tell their descendants
through the centuries:
Olorum (God), found in his Throne Yemanjá (water, sea) and was
very angry. As a punishment, Olorum determined that Yemanjá would
go inhabit planet Earth. Yemanjá brings her share of water (the
7 seas) and tries to accommodate it in the 7 valleys of Earth, since
it didn’t fit, the Earth was flooded (Bible - "In the beginning
all was water..."). So she asks Ogum for help (physical work on
Earth). She asks Ogum to dig the earth so she can fit her water. Ogum
digs until he reaches a layer and reaches the kingdom Omolú (Geological
fire - subterranean).
Omolú became angry that his kingdom was flooded and reacted with an earthquake that wrinkled the Earth; and so mountains, valleys and continents were born. So from the infinite comes, Nanã who attempts to calm Omolú down with her sweet waters forming lakes and rivers; and soon all stabilized beginning the process of germination.
Yemanjá is the symbol of fertility (sperm and semen) and so life comes from the water (biology and the bible).
Xangô and all his fire genealogy warmed the earth creating the
conditions for life. Fire heats the water that then evaporates creating
air; this becomes Oxalá. The forests and animals then represent
Oxossi.
The Afro culture establishese 27 phenomena of nature that corresponds to 27 designations called Orixás.
Ori - Head, behavior
Xá - Chief, leader, responsible.
The chief
commands the behavior.
Men have all Orixás with themselves, in the 2/3 of water, like the planet Earth, there is Yemanjá, Olokum and Nanã (oceans and lakes) that are symbolized in the plasma. Oxum, Lady of the Rivers, symbolized by the veins.
All the hair in the body represents Oxossi (florests).
Heat and energy in the body is Xangô (fire).
Yansã:
lightning that doesn’t reach the earth (energy that surrounds
the individual).
Three of the 27 Orixás are highlighted in the individual: Orí, Odú and Adjuntô.
Ori – weak point in the organism (determines
our social behavior);
Odú – designates our instinctive behavior;
Adjuntô - censure.
Africans Brazilians believe that all people have a protecting spirit also known as Guardian Angel, due to the influence of Catholicism, that has necessarily tobe one of the Orixás in any of its forms.