Santeria questions

[aranarose]

A thread for our Santeria questions!

[Teresa]

http://www.mojomoon.net/santeria.html

http://www.santeriareligion101.com/

http://www.saxakali.com/caribbean/dviteri.htm

[Darkest Eve]

When looking into Santeria and Palo (more for clarification of their differences from Vodou), it seems that these two religious practices are very, very similar in many ways, although they originated in different tribal areas.

However, Palo seems to have been less Christianized (for lack of a better term) by Roman Catholicism being included in the practices (as they noted, to help protect the practitioners from persecution by the church) by the original Palos, and there are still sects of the practice who do not utilize the Catholic saints, rituals, etc that some other areas use.

Are there also practitioners of Santeria that forgo these aspects in their practice of the religion?

Does anyone here actually practice Santeria and/or Palo and can you give any first-hand experience with each?

Or, has anyone done extensive research on one or the other (or both) that can offer some additional insight into what you may have found out about these two practices?

[Ochareo!]

Santeria is very complex and not easily understood. The idea that people can learn about this tradition online or by links on the internet really do a dis service for themselves and set themselves up for failure. Santeria is really comes from the translation ---the worship of the saints. The name itself is not an accurate view or understanding of its true form a worship. Oricha worship is the real terminology here. We dont worship saints. We worship orichas. The saints come into play because slaves had to use the saints that represented the dieties of worship from the yoruba land. For the record I contacted the administrator back when I became member of this forum to teach a class. I was told that I was to wait. Since I have a busy life and practice my tradition and teaching online would be a privdlige of mine to share information.


Palo is different school of thought! In this tradition we practice more with the dead and the dieties of palo.

If anyone gives wrong and misleading information I am obligated to correct them. Links and literature that is publish is distorted and not accurate. Whom ever uses such is only contributing to continue to confused and reinforce lies or false information.

I am an initiated preist of Chango/ Yemaya. I practice Lukumi. I practice this tradition everyday, and I am not a no it all. I humbly admit when I dont know something, however, I seek the guidance of elders since our tradition survives due to our elders and ansestors.......Iku Lobi Ocha!


If anyone is intrested or has questions please feel free to ask me. I will comment on some thing already posted if warrented. I can't make it an effort to go to every thread to validate the expression of others if there true or false. If your initiated priest then lets come together and share. If your not I urge you to be cautious of the information you provide.


Ochareo!