Alan Gaskill

The Island of Magic

I lived in the city of Florianópolis, Brazil from August 2009 until February 2010, and although my stay was relatively brief, this place known as “The Island of Magic” profoundly affected me – in the absolute best sense of the word.

As I volunteered and taught in the community, I simultaneously underwent a journey of spiritual exploration. A beautiful young woman named Nathália Dias de Moura brought me to her spiritual home – the Umbanda Center of Pena Verde. In this spiritual center, I was introduced to an incredibly warm and generous community, gathered around a “spiritual mother” named Mother Bia. I was also introduced to a host of incredible teachers – both physical and non-physical.

If you’ve read this far, you may already have a whole range of questions. I will try to explain briefly:

Umbanda, meaning “one banner,” is a miscegenistic religion that emerged in Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century. “Miscegenistic” means “a mixture of races” a usually refers to children with parents of two different races.

Just like the United States, Brazil is a giant melting pot, in which it is possible to see people of every color, size, shape, and height. In this melting pot, religions and spiritual traditions mixed and blended too. Imagine a place inhabited by animist-spiritual Native Americans that gets colonized by Catholics, who then bring in droves of African Slaves who are also animists and practice a variant of Earth-based spirituality.

If you throw 19th century European spiritism into this special mix of Native American spirituality, Traditional African Religion (TAR), and Catholicim – that is, the practice of communicating with spirits through a medium (a person who temporarily allows a spirit to use his/her body as a means of expression) – then you wind up with Umbanda.

Umbanda is commonly misunderstood and frequently maligned – even demonized – by adherents of more mainstream religious traditions like Catholicism or Evangelical Christianity. In its 103-year history, it has been vehemently persecuted and tolerated in alternation by the Brazilian ruling class. Today, the religion thrives in Brazil and exists in pockets around the world where there are a significant number of Brazilians.

Cosmologically, Umbanda upholds that God is One, and recognizes Jesus Christ as the savior of the world. Services are strongly African – there are live drums, singing and movement, and finally the practice of serving as a medium for the spirits who are aligned with the house of worship – known as a “terreiro.” Spirits participate in services as guides and teachers, offering counsel and support to the human members of the community who wake up each day to confront the challenges of life. The focus of the religion is inherently practical – it is about uplifting its members and helping them live happier, more loving, prosperous, and connected lives on Earth.

The house of worship is called a terreiro. “Terreiro” means “plot of Earth,” and is a reference to the poor blacks and mulattoes who practiced the Umbanda and other forms of African-derived spiritual work on the dirt floor of a ramshackle hut, or some place outdoors out of view of those who would intervene or try to prevent services from taking place.

It is worth noting that the origins of Samba music are to be found in the terreiro.

Finally, when we say that a spirit “manifests,” it means that a spirit has successfully partnered with a willing and open medium, and through the willing consent of the medium, is able to use said medium’s powers of speech and movement as a way to directly communicate with human beings on the Earthly plane.

And now, a guest article describing the origins of Umbanda from my dear friend and sister Nathália, from the Umbanda Center of Pena Verde, in Florianópolis, Brazil.

THE BEGINNING OF UMBANDA

Nathalia Dias de Moura

Umbanda emerged in Brazil in 1908, through the psychic Zélio de Moraes under the influence of the spirit named Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas. ( Cacique of the Seven Intersections or Seven Divine Crosses).

However, the spiritual guides who manifest in Umbanda were manifesting in Brazil before Umbanda came into being. There are three principal types of spiritual guides in Umbanda:

Preto-velho

• Pretos-velhos: meaning “black elders,” these spirits in their last human incarnation were slaves in colonial Brazil.

Caboclo

• Caboclos: also known as “caciques,” these spirits were Brazilian indians in their last human incarnation.

Children

• Children: these spirits are exactly as their name implies - beings who departed the Earth as children, and bring purity, joy, and laughter with them wherever they go.

Before Umbanda, these spiritual guides (pretos-velhos, caboclos, children) had in in fact already been manifesting in religions – or simple sporadic instances of manifestation -  whose rituals involved spiritual channeling and worship of the Orixás.

However, it was through Zélio that a true religion was organized, with well-defined rituals and features, which was named “Umbanda.”

In those times, there was no religious freedom. All religions with any semblance of African ritual were persecuted, their temples were destroyed and their practitioners were arrested. The African rituals began in Africa (Candomblé) in ancient times, and with the arrival of the African slaves in Brazil, their faith came with them, which was mixed with the faith of the Indians who already lived in that land, and was also mixed with the Catholicism of the Portuguese Jesuits who were installing themselves in Brazil.

Many centuries later, the spirits of those Africans and Indians began manifesting themselves in Umbanda.

HOW EVERYTHING BEGAN

Umbanda founder, Zelio de Moraes

In the end of 1908, Zélio Fernandino de Morães, a young 17 year-old man who had plans to start a military career in the Navy, began suffering from strange “attacks”. His family, very traditional and well known in the city of Neves, in Rio de Janeiro, was caught by surprise by the events.

These “attacks” were characterized by Zélio taking the posture of an old man, speaking senseless things, as if he were someone who had lived in another time. Many times he would assume a form of a jaunty cat who seemed to know a lot about the things of Nature.

After examinating him during several days, the family´s doctor recomended that it would be better to send the patient to a priest (who was Zelio´s uncle). The doctor said that the boy´s madness didn´t fit anything he had ever studied. He believed that the kid was possessed.

Someone in the family suggested that “ this must be something from spiritism.”

[Allan Kardec´s Spiritist movement emerged in France around 1800, and was en vogue among the upper echelons of european society through the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. In general, Spiritist meetings were characterized by seances, in which a medium would make contact with a spirit and allow that spirit to communicate through him/her to the assembled gathering. - Alan]

The family decided to take the boy to the Spiritist Federation of Niterói, whose president at the time was José de Souza. On November 15th, Zélio was invited to participate in a spiritual session, taking a seat at a table of mediums.

Possessed with a strange force beyond his will, and violating a rule that forbade anyone sitting at the table to step away from it, Zélio stood up and said: ” There should be a flower here”. He left the room, went to the garden and came back with a flower, which he placed in the center of the table. This attitude caused an enormous commotion among everyone present. When the session re-started, the spiritist mediums at the table channeled spirits who called themselves black slaves and Indians.

The director of the session found this absurd and addressed the spirits with roughness, mentioning their “simplicity and low level of spiritual evolution” and told them to leave.

After that incident, again a strange force was manifested in Zélio and he said: “ Why do you repel the presence of these spirits, if you do not even dignify yourselves to hear their message? Will it be because of their social origins and their color?”

A heated dialogue started among those present, and director responsible for the session tried to talk down to and undermine the unknown spirit communicating through Zélio - a spirit who spoke with secure arguments.

A spiritist psychic at the table asked the spirit manifested in Zélio:

“Why does the brother speak on these terms - intending that we accept the manifestation of spirits who, by the degree of culture they had when alive, are clearly lagging behind [other, more highly evolved spirits] in knowledge and wisdom? Why do you speak like this, if [with clairvoyant sight] I can clearly see that I am talking to a Jesuit and your white clothes reflect a shining aura? What is your name brother?”

To this, the spirit replied: “If you want my name, so it is: I am the Indian of the Seven Intersections - because to me, there are no closed roads.”

Caboclo das sete encruzilhadas

The Indian of the Seven Intersections went on:

“The form in which you now see me is the remnant of an earlier incarnation. I was a priest named Gabriel Malagrida. Accused of sorcery, I was burned in the Lisbon inquisition in 1761. In my last physical existence, God gave me the grace of being born as a Brazilian Indian.”

He went on to announce the mission he was sent forth from the spiritual dimension to carry out:

“If you judge the spirits of black people and Indians as having a low level of spiritual evolution and without wisdom, I declare that tomorrow (November 16th) I´ll be in the house of this instrument (Zélio), at 8 pm, to initiate a society where these brothers will be able to give their messages and fulfill the mission set forth for them in the Spiritual Plan. It will be a religion that will speak to the humble ones, [the poor, the disenfranchised] symbolizing the equality that must exist among the brothers, alive or not.”

To this, the clairvoyant responded with irony: ” Do you really believe that someone will attend your cult?”

And the spirit said:

“Every hill in Niterói will be a spokesperson, announcing the religion that tomorrow shall begin.”.

To finish, the spirit added:

“God, in His infinite goodness, established death to be the great universal leveler - rich or poor, powerful or humble, everyone would be equal in death. But you, prejudiced men, not satisfied with establishing differences among the living, try to take these same differences even beyond the border of death. Why can´t these humble travellers from the spiritual world visit us, despite not having been socially important people on Earth, and also bring important messages from the beyond?”

The next day, in the house of the Morães´ family at 30 Floriano Peixoto St., around 8 pm, gathered the members of the Spiritist Federation to verify the truth about what had been said the night before. Also present were the nearest relatives, friends, neighbors, and outside, a crowd of unknown people.

The home of Zélio de Morães

At 8pm, the Cacique of the Seven Intersections manifested himself in Zélio. He proclaimed in that moment the beginning of a new religion, in which the spirits of old Africans that had served as slaves - who in the afterlife were having trouble finding suitable places to be manifest and contribute to human spiritual evolution due to the growth of the black magic cults – and the spirits of the native Indians, could work for the benefit of their living brothers, no matter the race, color, creed or social condition.

The practice of charity, in the context of brotherly love, would be the main characteristic of this religion, which would be based on Jesus’ teachings.

November 15th was recognized as Umbanda´s day.

November 15th - Umbanda Day

Since then, Umbanda has grown, and has developed into numerous sects and forms – some mix more with other traditional African forms of worship, and others less so. Umbanda in the form conceived by Zélio and his non-physical collaborators still exists in many places, such as Centro de Umbanda Pena Verde. (www.tupveg.org.br)

The Umbandist Pristess known as Mother Bia, has worked with Umbanda for 30 years, practicing charity, helping those who seek her help, and fighting against the religious intolerance in Brazil, hoping to keep her workplace and the peace of the practice of her religion. The Brazilians have forgotten that no religion is so Brazilian as Umbanda.

Mãe Bia, center, with fellow umbandista Ana Paula da Coppir and city councilman

In this house are given theories and practical teachings from spirituality, charity, compassion, love and respect to moral values. Members of the house also underake spiritual work as mediums, channeling highly-evolved spirits who possess great wisdom and compassion, among them the Caboclo Pena Verde (Green Feather Indian) and the Preta-Velha Vó Rosa (Black Elder Grandmother Rosa), who are the two chief spirits of this house, guiding their human sons and daughters on the path of spiritual evolution.

Nathalia's baptism