Yoruba Orishas

Un viaggio iniziatico attraverso l’antica saggezza degli Oracoli e la loro storia. Dalla geomanzia, ovvero la Grande Madre dell’Astrologia, fino ai misteriosi Orixà della tradizione afro-brasiliana, e il lancio delle conchiglie. Viene trattata anche la Tasseomanzia, ovvero la lettura delle foglie del tè e dei fondi di caffè. Il tutto unito da prove pratiche che guidano all’interno di questo misterioso e affascinante viaggio nel mondo degli Oracoli.

Conocido en Ọ̀yọ́-Nigeria como Aganjú Ṣọlá o simplemente por Angajú y que en América su nombre cuenta con ciertas variaciones en las religiones de matriz africana de Cuba y Brasil, donde se le puede identificar como Agayú, Aggayú, Aggayú Solá, Argayu, Algayu, Algallu o Argallu dentro de la Regla de Ocha o Santería cubana, y como Angaju, Angajú o incluso como Xangô Angajú (este último lo explicaré líneas abajo). Son muchas las teorías, narraciones, mitos e historias que se han tejido y desarrollado alrededor de esta misteriosa entidad yoruba. Y es que uso el término "misteriosa" por todas estas conjeturas y teorías que se han generado a su alrededor, sobre si es o no un Oricha, o si es un ser divinizado por su pueblo, o si es el mismísimo Changó, o, incluso, de aquellos que afirman que no es realmente una entidad yoruba, sino un Vodún del pueblo fon que fue adoptado y resignificado por sus vecinos. Al final esta discusión podría ser tan larga y ancha como se quiera, sin embargo, lo que busco a través de este texto no es exponer una verdad absoluta sobre Aggayú Solá (el cual nombraré bajo el término de la Regla de Ocha o Santería cubana, que es el sistema de creencias en el cual estoy iniciado, mientras exponga información general sobre él y utilizaré la terminología de cada tradición conforme la esté abordando), sino poder traer una recopilación de narrativas a las que he accedido a lo largo del tiempo con personas que

In the Latin American theatre, especially in Cuba and Brazil, with a high black population, Greek heroes of this race were represented on stage for the first time. Black Orpheus, created by the Brazilian Vinicius de Moraes in his dramatic work Orfeu da Conceição (1956), became worldwide popular thanks to the cinematographic version of Marcel Camus (Black Orpheus, 1959). This paper demonstrates the important
influence of the works of this Brazilian author on the dramatic Carnaval de Orfeo (1980) by José Milián (from Cuba), and analyses an interesting
cultural syncretism that occurs on stage, linking the known classical Greco-Roman myth with the Orishas of Yoruba mythology.

My fellow Americans, Last month, on November 8th, 2016, we voted to elect a new president. The outcome of that election sent a wave of surprise and trepidation around the world. We knew at that moment, that the United States of America has reached a new crossroad that may forever change our cause for humanity. Many of us are afraid, many of us alarmed, many are still deeply troubled by the possibility of re-experiencing the drastic results of racial arrogances that culminated in blatant destruction of precious human lives across time. We all remember the Trail of Tears, Shark Island, Greenwood in Tulsa, ButcherQaeda, ISIL, Boko Haram, Abu Ghraib, 9/11, Guantanamo, and so many other tragic death traps that marred human history across time and around the world. The progress that we have made in the tenure of human civilization was marked by a speech delivered by President Ronald Reagan to the people of West Berlin a little over two decades ago. That faithful afternoon, in West Berlin on June 12, 1987, Reagan said, " We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! " The Berlin Wall, referred to by the President, was built by Communists in August 1961 to keep Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into Democratic West Berlin. The twelve-foot concrete wall extended for a hundred miles, surrounding West Berlin, and included electrified fences and guard posts. The wall stood as a stark symbol of the decades-old Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia in which the two politically opposed superpowers continually wrestled for dominance, stopping just short of actual nuclear warfare. We have since come a long way in the progress of human development and world peace. Because of the peace between the East and the West, we have made a huge leap in the world of technology, medicine, humanities, and trade; the world has become more cohesive and tolerant. However, a new wave of religious defiance, civil unrest, and sectarian wars persist especially in the middle east. Disharmony and divisions are once again encroaching upon us all, as we found ourselves at the mercy of leaders whose yearning for power and record of arbitrary decisions reflects uncertainty and high level of risk. The new leader of the free world threatens to build a wall between our nation and its neighbor; threatens to pull U.S. out of World Trade Organization and threatens to pull U.S. funding for the United Nations. This is revealing of perhaps unintended retraction of the advancement of human civilization. He has reawakened unprecedented apostles of greed and racial arrogances who are nihilistic of everything we hold dear and erode the cultural rapprochement and civil right improvement we have made in our society. This brings the gravity of the challenges we face with the new administration in the new year and coming years to a new level of concern. We are in a time where we can predict weather patterns, we can predict volcanic eruption, we can see far into other galaxies. We understand the lessons of historical challenges, we can interpret previous experiences in-order to engage current challenges, as well as to prepare for future challenges. Our diversity is our strength, it provides us with so many resources and it is time to tap...

1. Two Faces of Yoruba ReligionThe proliferation and overlapping of spiritual beings is a feature of many religions. Saints in popular Catholicism and Vishnu's avatāras in Hinduism represent, in different ways, the possibility of spiritual beings that are simultaneously one and many, clusters or series of manifestations whose inner relationships are often not fully explained. Yoruba òrìṣà are in good company. However, the way in which multiple aspects of gods are made and maintained clearly varies from one religious repertoire to another. I suggest that it is important to look at the means or medium by which fractions of gods are established, in order to understand how the relationships between them are conceived. Yoruba òrìṣà can scarcely be apprehended without taking into account the specific textuality of the oral genres through which they are created, maintained and communicated with.