In order to start working with Quimbanda it is
useful to make an effort to know your personal spirits and those spirits benign
towards you. This knowledge is commonly revealed in a gira or session at the intervention
of a Tata or Yaya that is already in connection with their guardian spirits
able to see and discern the spirits that gravitates towards a given person.
It is my belief that these spirits seen by the
Tata or Yaya during a consult, session or gira are spirits that was with the
person in question from birth, that the Exus and Pomba Giras in their capacity
of being guardians of places of power will also guard our soul as a place of
power. These personal spirits do reflect in the mirror of the soul, hence one’s
Exu and Pomba Gira is often referred to as a Tata and a Yaya, given the bond
between spirit guardians and the soul
awaiting this knowledge.
We might see this as a way of understanding
from where we are coming, as our personal spirits do reflect facets and aspects
of us that we are aware of or try to hide. Nevertheless these qualities are
with us and what we accept and deny as a part of us is still with us no matter denial
or acceptance.
What is often seen is the expectation of having
some powerful badass Exu or Pomba Gira as ones personal patron. If expectation
is met a new challenge present itself as much as having a spirit perceived as ‘inferior’
or ‘obscure’. No matter if you are a working class woman wanting a Queen in
your life or you are a necromancer horny for Omolu or Meia Noite and realize
that your Exu is something completely different, a soul search should start if
the expectation is rewarded or punished. To have a Queen as your patron can be
as challenging as having an Exu Pagão as your patron, the dynamic is always the
same, to call you into awareness of who you are and where you are.
When I gained knowledge of my personal spirits
a profound increase in awareness of Self was caused and albeit with some initiate
resistance I understood that this was myself teaching myself about mysteries
important for my understanding of Self. It was strange times and the dreams
were even stranger. A battle between confusion and understanding was instigated
as I saw myself in my personal spirits in the form of a conglomerate of likes
and dislikes. This went on for quite some time, until acceptance and
understanding held hand with willingness.
Our personal Exu and Pomba Gira mirrors who we
are in glasses darkly and brightly and we have a work to do there in a wide
array of arenas. Some of us experience an immediate repulse of our personal
spirit when it is revealed. This reaction just takes the pulse of our self
awareness and addresses our lack of comprehension. For instance, if an Exu like
Ganga/Mulambo is coming up in your session and you realize that this Exu is
related to garbage, what people throws away. You might enter into the entire garbage thing,
which is a good spiritual exercise, but hopefully you will realize that a
spirit like this is guarding a specific power that has to do with giving value
and transforming this garbage into fertile soil. When these sentiments rises themselves
and we enter into a field of negativism it is always because of a lack of
understand and a failure in our appreciation and understanding. Our personal spirits agrees with us and they
challenge us, they serve as an awakening to realize who we are so we can
understand Self and Fate better. So in concluding this analogy, Exu Ganga will
enter your life question you if you are shit or if you have what takes to
transform shit into something fertile and miraculously wonderful.
Then we have the spirits referred to as ‘working
spirits’. They are not mirrors of who we are, but friendly spirits that do
challenge us as our personal spirits do, but they are also spirits disposed to
work for us no matter if it is good or bad for us. They are tricky friends, the
kind of friend that never objects to your will and desire, but do what you want,
no questions asked. But at some point you will ask the question and your
working spirit will just say, ‘I did what you wanted’, and in this a different
challenge is presented. These spirits are drawn to us by some sort of affinity,
they are not mirrors of the soul, but variations of friends, and in this they
remind us about the delicate order we find in the social world where friend
meets friend and where a friend makes a foe as a foe makes a friend.
Spirit friends can be as deceptive as human
friends. Sure they are turned towards making favours, but they give a social
challenge and question how you deal with relations that gravitate towards you
in following your wishes. Indeed they are tricky, but in their trickiness they
also mirror how tricky you can be with your world and environment. It is all about you, but in a different level,
the social. You as the one you are, the one you think you are and the one you
act out in the world are always so different that they meet...
Surely, Quimbanda is about Self awareness, but
it is also about smartness and the failure of being smart. It is about the
lesson of the street and tavern, the wrong card played in the face of five aces
and what it teaches you, as much as realizing that a immature demand do tend to
explode under your left big toe. The
working spirit is your true friend, the one that never question, but is ever
willing to speak after you made a choice that just brought hurt. In giving a
demand and reaping misfortune we often accuse the messenger – but this is only
another form of self accusation.
Quimbanda is at root about becoming aware and
assume responsibility. We have our mirrors and we have our friends, the
personal spirits and the working spirits all have in common that they seek to
challenge us to be the guardian of our soul and life, no matter what it
takes... because they truly care, as genuine mirrors and true friends...
If you want a consult or products search for
Sacred Alchemy Store, Wolf & Goat or House of Quimbanda