TEMPLE LUCERO MUNDO

About "Santeria"

(Lucumi Yoruba-Lukumi) 

    Santeria is a syncretism religion of Caribbean” Origin. Alzo know as Regla de Ocha, Cari Ocha, La Regla Yoruba Lucumi OR Lukumi. The word "Santeria,” often used by colonial Europeans to describe the religion of Africans whose origins are Yoruba (present-day Nigeria and its surrounding environments), can be loosely translated from Spanish as the "Way of the Saints".

     The Africans, however, called themselves "O lukumi" or "my friend". This term may have emerged from the consolidation of African beliefs and culture under the banner of a colonizing country, in this case, Spain. It formed the basis for a new "people", united under oppression.

    The priests are known as Babaolorishas, (fathers of orisha), and priestesses as Iyalorishas, (mothers of orisha), and serve as the junior Ile or second in the hierarchical religious structure. The Babalorishas and Iyalorishas are referred to as "Santeros (as)" and they function as diviners of the Orissa’s.  In addition, they can be considered as Oriates, (high priests).

    The highest level of achievement is to become a priest of Ifá (ee-fah). Ifa priests receive Orumila, who is the Orisha of prophecy, wisdom and of knowledge. Ifa priests are known by their titles such as "Cabala" or "Father Who Knows the Secrets." in land of ifa.

      In the recent years, there have been initiations of "Iyanifa" or "Mother of Destiny," but their role as Ifa diviners is not generally accepted per the Odu Ifa Irate Intel, which states women cannot be in the presence of Olofin or Igba Iwa Odu and therefore cannot be initiated as divining priestesses and equally to the Santeria different way of performing the ceremony’s

       Instead, women are initiates as Apetebi Ifa, are considered senior in Ifa to all but fully initiated Babalawos. The most well known Orishas are Eleggua, Oggún, Oshún, Changó, Oyá, Obatalá, Yemayá and, Orula. These are the most common Orisha names, especially in Cuba.

      Santería is one of the syncretism religions Yoruba lukumi. It is a system of beliefs, that merge the Yoruba religion (brought to the New World by slaves imported to the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations) with Roman Catholic and Native American traditions and front the city of Santeria the island of Cuba in the arrive in nineteen sixty and empress truth the city of new York and all over de word.

      These slaves carried with them various religious traditions, including a tradition of a trance for communicating with their ancestors and deities, animal sacrifice, and the practice of sacred drumming.

    In Cuba, this religious tradition has evolved into what we now recognize as Santeria. In 2001, there were an estimated 1,000,000 practitioners in the USA alone, but the number may be higher as some practitioners may be reluctant to disclose their religion on a government census or to an academic researcher. Of those residing in the USA, some are fully committed priests and priestesses.

     Others are "godchildren" or members of a particular house-tradition, and many are clients seeking help with their everyday problems. Many are of Hispanic and Caribbean descent but as the religion moves out of the inner cities and into the suburbs, a growing number are of African-American and European-American heritage.

    As the religion of Africa was recreated in the Americas, it was transformed. "The colonial period from the standpoint of African slaves may be defined as a time of perseverance.

     Their world quickly changed. Tribal kings and families, politicians, business and community leaders all were enslaved in a foreign region of the world.

    Religious leaders, their descendants, and the faithful, were now slaves. Colonial laws criminalize their religion. They were forced to become baptized and worship a god their ancestors had not known who was surrounded by a pantheon of saints.

    In witch, the early concerns during this period seem to indicate a need for individual survival under harsh plantation conditions. A sense of hope was sustaining the internal essence of what today is called Santeria, a misnomer for the indigenous religion of the Yoruba Lukumi people of Nigeria.

    Because, in the heart for their homeland, they had a complex, political and social order. They were a sedentary hope farming cultural group with specialized labor. Their religion based on the worship of nature was renamed and documented by their masters.

    The religion of Santería, a pejorative term that characterizes deviant Catholic forms of worshiping saints, has become a common name for the religion.

   Reason the term santero (a) is used to describe a priest or priestess replacing the traditional term Olorisha as an extension of the deities. The orishas became known as the saints in image of the Catholic pantheon."  Santería in Contemporary Cuba: The individual life and condition of the priesthood) as mentioned, in order to preserve their authentic ancestral and traditional beliefs.

    The Yoruba Lukumi people had no choice but to disguise their orishas as Catholic saints. When the Roman Catholic slave owners observed Africans celebrating a Saint's Day, they were generally unaware that the slaves were actually worshiping their sacred orishas.

      In Cuba today, the terms "saint" and "orisha" are sometimes used interchangeably. The term Santeria was originally a derisive term applied by the Spanish to mock followers' seeming over devotion to the saints and their perceived neglect of God. It was later applied to the religion by others.

     This "veil" characterization of the relationship between Catholic saints and Cuban orisha, however, is somewhat undermined by the fact that the vast majority of santeros in Cuba today also consider themselves to be Catholics, have been baptized, and often require initiates to be baptized.

    Many hold separate rituals to honor the saints and orisha respectively, even though the disguise of Catholicism is no longer needed. The traditional Yoruba Lukumi religion and its Santería counterpart can be found in many parts of the world today, including but not limited to: the United States, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama, Nicaragua, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Great Britain, Canada, Venezuela, and other areas with large Latin American populations.

      Moreover, a very similar religion called Candomblé is practiced in Brazil, which is home to a rich array of other Afro-American religions. This is now being referred to as "parallel religiosity"[5] since some believers worship the African variant that has no notion of a devil and no baptism or marriage and at the same time, they belong to either Catholic churches or mainline Protestant churches. In where, these concepts exist.

      The yorubaLukumi religiosity works toward a balance here on earth (andocentric) while the European religions work toward the hereafter. Some in Cuban Santería, Haitian Voodoo or Puerto Rican spiritualism (Afro-Latin religions) do not view a difference between the saints and the orishas.

    Hour over, the ancestor, and, deities of the Yoruba Lukumi people of Ifa religion. There are now individuals who mix the Lukumí practices with traditional practices as they survived in Africa after the deleterious effects of colonialism. Although most of these mixes have not been at the hands of experienced or knowledgeable practitioners of either system, they have gained certain popularity. In 2007, the first Santería church in the United States was incorporated as the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye.

 This Santeria mythology of the Yoruba people