and it's smooth sailing...Odoia Iemanja!

Since my godfather has more time these days, we have been having a misa/party for the orixas and egun every weekend. The one for Oxum last week was particularly cleansing and invigorating. This week, we are having one for Iemanja. Iemanja is celebrated on Dec 31st in Brazil. The beaches are crowded with devotees who make small boats filled with offerings to honor the Mother of the Waters. I like to call Iemanja, Miss 11:59 because she is the orixa who seems to bring in sudden change, at the last minute, and turns the situation around 360. She changes the tide, the current, and life becomes better. Where before there was a desert of despair, her waters wash away the sorrow and bring forth a garden of joy. So it is fitting that she is honored at midnight, on New Year's Eve/Day when the old year vanishes and a new one begins. Exu closes the doors to the past and opens the doors to the future.

I have a new godson too these days and my other goddaughter also visits from time to time. I am currently working through a training in Francisca de Grandis' 3rd Road Wicca tradition.

There appears to be a lot of new opportunities on the horizon, new love, prosperity, new direction. I hope you all are blessed with love, health, prosperity, and serenity in 2011. Ashe.

Home, Hearth, and Heart

In my bedroom, I have a shrine to the lwa Ezili Freda and Ezili Aila. Ezili Aila is the lwa of family love and the home. She is represented by Our Lady of Higher Grace (Altagracia). She is the patroness of the Dominican Republic but also is honored in the town of Delmas in Haiti. Altagracia is depicted as a young virgin usually crowned with the baby Jesus and husband Joseph in tow. This picture has always carried a special meaning for me. It reminds me of the desire for a home, marriage, and family. Since moving back home and leaving my own apartment, the desire for these ideals have increased. Often times it leaves me feeling depressed and it seems that I will never possess such things.
Altagracia has always protected the people that I love and treasure. She can be very stern, strict yet loving. She reminds me of the orisha Yembo in that aspect. She can be ladylike as Ezili Freda but more maternal.

Earlier this year, a Haitian mambo told me that the church in Delmas, Haiti dedicated to Altagracia was untouched by the earthquake. She said the church shook but there was no major damage while other cathedrals on the island crumbled into rubble, including the lovely cathedral in Port-au-Prince. She said that this was a mystery that no one could fathom, that why was this church spared and not others?

Perhaps it is because this lwa represents the strength of the family and home that is in the heart of the Haitian people and this can never be destroyed. That despite all the destruction and death, it is the family and loved ones who keep us alive. I know this is true for my life.

Haiti has not been the focus in the news lately but they still need our help. Recently a cholera epidemic has broken out on the island. One of my favorite charities for Hait is Konbit Pou Edikasyon. They help children on the island.
Their website is http://www.konbitpe.org/Konbitpe.org/Home.html

Looking at the picture of Our Lady of Altagracia, I am reminded there is a love that unites us, the gives birth to new ideas and that no situation, however bleak is permanent.

Autumn in New York

The season that brings change,
leaving the past behind,
the old wounds and griefs,
learning to love oneself,
harvesting the bounty and abundance of life,
walking in the fallen leaves has a cleansing effect,
Moving forward into Winter.

Love Me Like Palm Sunday

Love my Like Palm Sunday

by DG



Oh Baby, Love me like Palm Sunday

When you enter the city gates in triumph,

and the handmaidens of my soul lay out their cloaks before you.

Hossanah! Hallelujah! Praise the King!



Shake the tambourines, clash the cymbals,

preach to me your sermons of love,

read me your Gospel of Desire,

commence a revival in my heart,

cast out the demons of grief and loss,

transform this bitter water to sweet wine.

Redeem me in your saving grace, held tight in your passionate embrace.



Your Judas is gonna betray you with a kiss,

but I only have Oshun's honey on my lips.

Why drag yourself to your own crucifixion,

when I can raise you from the dead.

Let me be like Magdalene and anoint your feet,

to sit enthroned at my side like Solomon arrainged in glory.



Oh Baby, love me like Palm Sunday, I repent my misdeeds.

Take me to Heaven in a fiery chariot, and behold the face of God within you.



Can I get an Amen?

Can I witness your splendor?



Let the Angels sing in celestial choirs,

hymns of praise to you,

reveal to me your Mystery

and make Heaven and Earth one again.



Amen!

Me and My Shadow

I read this book last month entitled The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self by Debbie Ford, Marianne Williamson, and Deepak Chopra. It dealt with the concept of the Shadow, the aspect of ourselves that we do not like, that we endeavour to repress, that we try to hide from society. Yet repression in fact damages our soul and psyche even more. It is by learning to embrace these parts of ourselves that we can in fact find balance once more.
In spirituality we tend to focus on the light, the happy, the joyful. Yet this is not all there is in the cosmos. There is sorrow, pain, night has to proceed day. In fact, as much as love the summer sunshine, it is the cloudy days that make me reflective, the dark night sky that inspires mystery, the cold winter day that makes you curl up in your warm bed and relax, the intoxicating sensuality of the music in a night club. Our Shadow is just as important as the bright light within us. Our Shadow is the Deep Mystery of God, just as our light is Divine Love.
Remember as you walk this world, the complement of opposites that bring life to balance. Night brings rest and regeneration. A seed begins its journey in the darkness of the earth before it sprouts into sunlight, just as we swim in the dark waters of our mother's womb before entering into the light of the world.

Oya's Garden and La Iglesia Catolica

Today I took a trip to my old hood in Queens. I can't believe who much I miss it, how much it feels like home. I'm living again with family in the town I grew up but it doesn't feel like home. I miss my old apartment, the Persian restaurant, being close to the subway, etc.
I had some business to do in Oya's Garden. For those of you who know what that is, you know where her kingdom is. Nothing diabolic lol, just some Ancestral work that needed to be done.
Afterward I walked over to the beautiful cathedral in Forest Hills. I filled a whole empty bottle of Powerade with holy water. I figured I needed it. I ended up spilling some of the holy water on my shorts. It looked like I urinated holy water. God's joke I guess. Maybe that part of me needed to be blessed lol.
My next stop was to grab a bite to eat and then off to Barnes and Nobles. There I purchased a Bible. In one of Iyanla Van Zant's books, she writes that one should read one chapter from the book of Proverbs every day for a year. I have a huge decorative King James Bible at home that looks like an illuminated medieval manuscript. It's gorgeous but not for practical everyday reading. While looking at all the Catholic editions, I found their translations to be a bit too modern. I guess I prefer the King James version because of it's lofty and poetic language.
Thursday is my ocha birthday. I will be five years old in Candomble but that is another post :)

Let Go and Let God

Being the stubborn Taurus that I am, I am often hard headed. Whilst contemplaiting last night I realized I am like that man in the Bible, Baalam. He was the one who was trying to force his donkey to move. The donkey would not because there was a huge angel with a sword blocking the road. The donkey saw the angel but he could not. He then preceded to beat the poor animal but then God gave the donkey a voice who then protested at the beating and described the angel. Then the veil seemed to lift over Baalam's eyes and he saw the angel.
Sometimes we are our own worst enemies and we get in the way of our progress. Instead of allowing things to happen, we try to control every aspect.
The lesson here is to let go and allow the grace of the Divine to do its work.

and the rain fell down like a blessing from Olorun

My mind is thinking back to that dance production about Oshun I saw last month. The story was a bit of a different spin on the story of Oshun and Ogun. In the play, Ogun and his warriors were wreaking havoc on the earth, spreading destruction and terror in their midst. In one scene, the drummers started playing a slow mournful beat and the singer sang a song of praise to Olofi, the Supreme Creator. Normally most orisha music sounds joyous but there was something different about the way he was singing it. It was so slight but it sounded more like a cry for help although sounding like praise still. Two women entered on the stage. One was an old woman in a white gown with long white hair. She fluttered in and looked like she was suffering. Her body contorted in anguish. A younger girl in a red dress came out and clung to her. They looked like a mother and daughter clinging to each other in sorrow, distraught by the suffering caused by tragedy and war. They leave the stage and Obatala enters declaring that Ogun's raw brutality must be kept in check and there will be peace. Much later the girl becomes one of Oshun's handmaidens.
Oshun and her handmaidens enchant Ogun and his warriors and the drums of war become the sensuous Ijesha rythmns of Oshun. Love conquers War and peace and civilization are allowed to continue. The old woman who in my mind represents the human soul burdened by suffering now glides on stage and her daughter leads her to Obatala. She kneels before the King of the White Cloth and prepares to enter the next world. In Candomble, Obatala is sometimes associated with death, the final ending that brings peace and a ceasing of suffering.
This play brings to mind another story of when Oshun in the form of a peacock flies up to the throne of Olofi to beg the Creator to send rain. The sun blackens her feathers and she becomes a vulture. Once again she saves the world from extinction.

Sometimes I feel like that scene in the play where humanity cries out to the Creator for an explanation. But sometimes the explanation is there is NO explanation. Our human minds were not meant always to grasp these mysteries. Sometimes the only answer the orishas can give me is We love you. Sometimes I pray and the rain falls down like a blessing from Olofi.
I'm not always sure what path to take. I know what I have to do in this life. I may have to do it alone or perhaps may have someone at my side to love me. In either case, the only strength I can rely on is my own. I thank all of you here, whom I have mentioned and those not mentioned for giving me such love, good advice, and friendship.
In the words of a fellow priest, Omi Leti "The chains are broken and my waters will engulf the world." I say let the rain fall, whether its tears of joy or tears are sorrow, both are equally sacred. Whether a smooth flowing sweet water of love or an angry tidal wave in the end all that is negative, all that is not of the divine is washed away. Ashe.

Le roi monte sur son trône

So the dating thing didn't work out but it's cool. We're still friends. as a
result I think I want to become a monk and say 12 rosaries a day.
However doing so would deprive society of my magnificent presence so
NO! :) I will still say rosaries however but no monastery. Ah but the love of my heart is furthest from me.
In the meantime, it's time for the mission to continue. I need to get moving on my spiritual work again. I'm officiating the wedding of one of my co-workers next month in Central Park. This will be the third wedding I've officiated.
I'm currently reading the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and enjoying it immensely. It is supposed to be made into a film starring Julia Roberts. I like the author's writing style and her approach to her quest for happiness.
My love for the orishas and especially my own crown, Baba Logunede has deepened recently. All I can say is Orisha is Pure Love!

La Gente Unidos

Sunday I attended my first protest march with my friend Shanali in Jackson Heights, Queens. It was protesting police brutality against the local street vendors. Apparently they have been harassing the vendors with excessive tickets and in one case attacking one woman.
We took to the streets and marched down Roosevelt Avenue (a major road in Queens) all the way to the police precinct. Our slogans were "Si se puede, Arriba, abajo, la policia tan carajo! What do we want! Justice! When do we want it, Now!"
The energy was amazing and the people on the street who were watching us voiced their approval. The police had denied our group the use of bullhorns but you know when you get a group of people together we can yell in one loud voice and get our point across. They even threatened the organizer of the march with arrest merely because he was a few inches outside the police barricade. I think they were more angered at the words he was saying. The truth hurts sometimes. I was proud to see young people from the Filipino community as well come out to support the Latino community. Many have this image of Filipinos that we are go along with the status quo and are conservative. They forget the Filipino rebels who fought against American imperialism at the end of the 19th century.

Here is Shanali's commentary on the march.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xghmau14S94

The mission is what matters

Greetings dear readers,
I have been absent from here as of late. I still don't have a new computer so I must be content to use the ones at the public library. Thank God my phone has internet access or I would be totally cut off.
Spiritually things have been moving in a good direction. From tambors of the orisha I've attended to Pagan celebrations of Beltane, the Universe indicates things are moving smoothly with a few bumps here and there of course.
I am currently dating someone and I hope it works out :)
I have discovered a new patron saint for myself. She peeked out at me at a Haitian botanica. I've known about her all my life but never really connected with her until now. It is Saint Theresa of the Little Flower, a French Carmelite nun who lived at the end of the 19th century. She is the patron saint of people with AIDS, aviators, florists, and missions. She is kind of like a female St. Jude because she deals with cases of emergency and the impossible. After readings a few of her writings, I liked her style because she tended to be more spiritual and mystical rather than dogmatic. Also homegirl wanted to be a female priest and that was pretty forward thinking of her time. Her writings seem so spiritually affirmative. Well maybe she can help me on my "mission" since she is the patroness of missions. My goal is to go back to school and get a degree in Theology. As an initiate of an African Traditional Religion, I realize that very few of our priests and priestesses have clergy status in this country. I think this has to change. After all do we not perform the same functions as our counterparts of other religions?
Mother's Day and my birthday I saw a play about Oshun with my mom at the National Black Theater in Harlem. It was beautiful and it was a great experience to see the stories of our tradition visually enacted.
I spent the day today listening to various Candomble songs and writing the Yoruba words out phonetically. I think I am starting to learn them better.

Well I'm off to Brooklyn today to see Capicu Open Mic event.
Te Amo mis amgigos y amigos. Bendicion!

Persistance and Planning

I was doing a reading for a client last week and this idea dawned on me during the reading. I told her to make a list of 5 goals that she could accomplish in 30 days. I also did a list for myself. The net day at work, I had two of my co-workers do it. I think I am going to focus on short term goals rather than long term ones. With so many dissapointments in life, it feels good when you actually accomplish a task in a short amount of time, that you set out to do.
My five goals were in 30 days to
1) Update my resume
2) Eat healthier
3) Practice the art of forgiveness/letting go
4) Write a short story
5) Excercise

Ayiti-Forgetting and Remembering

Ayiti-Forgetting and Remembrance
by D.G

Everyone now speaks of the earthquake which reduced Port-au-Prince to rubble,
yet no one remembers the earth shaking revolution in which the slaves freed themselves
and established the first black republic.
Media images of poverty and voodoo, are conjured in our minds, a poisonous magic
that distorts the truth,
of Haiti's rich culture and religious traditions.
The gods of Africa are demonized and despised ,
by those who serve the god of the slave masters.
We rage at the idiocy of one evangelist's words,
yet we still live in ignorance about this island,
the Europeans called Hispaniola, Saint Domingue, Santo Domingo,
once the richest jewel in the Caribbean now known for it's poor.
“discovered” by Columbus, but it is we who need to rediscover this island, where
gods and saints walk among men,
where the raga music of carnival plays,
the sensual rhythms of kompa,
the hard working mothers who keep a spotless house,
a land of vibrant color and beauty
whose true name is Ayiti,
land of mountains,
named by the first inhabitants
put to death by conquistadors' sword and cross,
enriched by the people of Africa who were enslaved
but had the strength to win their freedom.
We forget the exploitation of the isles resources, the occupation of U.S. Marines,
we choose to remember the negative,
and banish Haiti from history's narrative.
Rise Ayiti, from the ashes of history, from the ruins of defeat,
let us remember your glorious past and praise your future.
La Union Fait La Force!

Reading list for Orisa Devotees

Since I composed a list of fiction books relating to orisha and lwa, I decided to do a non-fiction one. I'm going to do a separate list for Vodoun on another post. These are the ones that I own.

Black Gods: Orisa Studies in the New World by John Mason (comprehensive study of each orisha)

Altar of My Soul by Marta Morena Vega (a personal journey and guide to Lukumi and other Afro-Diaspora religions)

Finding My Soul on the Path of Orisa by Melody Tobbe Coreal (this is good for beginners especially)

Sacred Leaves of Candomble, African Magic, Medicine and Religion in Brazil by Robert Voeks (information on herbs used in Candomble and general info on Candomble)

Working the Spirit, Ceremonies of the African Diaspora by Joseph M. Murphy- a look at various traditons of the Diaspora

Santeria by Joseph M. Murphy -(the authors personal journey in the religion of Lukumi/Santeria)

Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble by James Lorand Matory (an academic study of Candomble)

Africa's Ogun: Old World and New (African Systems of Thought) by Sandra T. Barnes (a collection of essays about Ogun in various traditions)

Osun Across the Waters : A Yoruba Goddess in by Joseph M. Murphy and Mei-Mei Sanford (a collection of essays about Oshun in various traditions)

Manipulating the Sacred: Yoruba Art, Ritual, and Resistance in Brazilian Candomble (African American Life Series) by Mikelle Smith Omari-Tunkara ( a look at the ritual asthetics of Candomble)

Macumba by Bramley Serge (about Brazilian Umbanda)

Osun Seegesi: The Elegant Deity of Wealth, Power, and Femininity by Diedre Badejo (focuses on the worship of Oshun in Yorubaland)

Pataki of Orisa and other Essays for Lucumi Santeria by OTA OMI OLO OSHUN (written by a good friend Baba Ota Omi about the pataki of Santeria)

A Refuge in Thunder: Candomble and Alternative Spaces of Blackness (Blacks in the Diaspora) by Rachel E. Harding ( I don't own this book but it was recommended by a friend. When I read it, I will write a synosis)

Yemaya y Ochun (Spanish Edition) by Lydia Cabrera (if you can read Spanish this book is a classic)

Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy by Robert Farris Thompson (an academic overview of the African religions of the Diaspora)

I have a lot more in my collection and will update accordingly

Home Sweet Home

I'm picturing myself in a house. I've never had a home of my own. I've rented an apartment and lived with family. Lately I've been thinking and daydreaming about it. I'm nowhere close to achieving this but that doesn't stop me. I may complain, whine, and shake my fist to the heavens but in the end I rarely admit defeat. I bought a statue of Our Lady of Altagracia last week. In Dominican Vodou or 21 Divisions, She is Ezili Alila. A lwa that walks with Ezili Freda. She is strict, conservative and dislikes loud noise. She is the patron of the home and family love. She is patroness of the Dominican Republic. Maybe I bought her because I have that yearning for a home. Maybe I'm ready to settle down and have a serious relationship. I put her on the same altar as Ezili Freda, who I recently but up a shrine to again. I think I need a little luxury in my life, maybe not of the physical kind. That sense of ease, and leisure that comes from security. Ah that word security, it goes back to what Sra. Altagracia reprsents. I know one day I'll come home, relax, have my orishas in their own temple in the basement, my own office/study upstairs and a handsome husband to sleep next to at night. It could be years from now but I pray to Nuestra Senora de Altagracia/Ezili Alila that my daydreams become reality in the light of day. Ashe.

Litany of the Black Madonna

I wrote this poem a few years ago, but in light of recent events, it suddenly has become relevant again.

Litany of the Black Madonna

by DG

From the forest of Bois Caiman,

on Haiti's tropical isle,

to the plains of Poland,

Our Lady fights battles against the oppressors.

A symbol of Hope,

Comfort to the dying,

Champion of the poor,

She shelters those who toil,

under Her mantle.

She is...

the secret buried under the Earth,

burrowing Her way into the heart of the Church.

the slave brought over in the Middle Passage,

forced to bear the pain of the lash.

the courageous woman of color,

who defiantly refuses to sit at the back of the bus.

the scars on Her cheeks are like that of a girl, whose

clitoris is mutilated by the slashing pain of patriarchy.

the grieving mother, whose son is being tortured,

in a Latin American prison.

the single mother who works two jobs to support her kids,

loving and gentle but ready to give them a whoopin',

if they don't toe the mark.

the sister killed for daring to put aside her veil or be educated.

the revolutionary toppling a tyrannical regime,

the hammer that struck down the Berlin Wall.

the forgotten bride, pushed into the margins of history and scripture.

She is the voice of all women,

She reaches out,

and takes us to the Other Side.

Ayiti

Been busy the past few days donating and spreading the word on how to help Haiti. I went to the Haitian botanica in my town and the mambo and hougan (Vodoun priestess and priests) families are ok. However there are many whose families are not ok. It breaks my heart to see what is happening to this beautiful island. I grew up and still live in a community with a large Haitian-American population. I am going to keep up with the relief efforts and put updates on my blog. La Union Fait La Force! Ayibobo!

My New Financial Story for 2010

(The book, Money and the Law of Attraction, by Jerry and Esther Hicks, recommends that one retells their own financial story in a new, more positive way. Here is mine.)

Currently, I am working at a job that pays more money. As a result of being a more fun occupation, this job makes me feel good. At this time, I am doing several Tarot card readings per week for clients who are paying money for my services. In addition to that I am getting paid to do several spiritual workings. Also I am studying to be a professor. I can honestly say at this moment, I am a healthy, prosperous, and happy individual. I'm looking forward to using the money that I have saved to take a vacation to Venice, Italy.

Dawn of a New Era

New Year, New decade, New era. I really feel that we are ushering into a new point in history where humanity is going to be more open minded. However there is always the reaction and resistance to this. There are those who feel threatened by this. I saw an example of this on New Year's Day. I was on the bus and was listening to a Jamaican Rastafarian man and a Muslim woman converse. Despite their different faiths, they had similar viewpoints on God and spirituality in general. I felt drawn to their conversation and kept listening. However two Evangelical Christian girls got very upset with this conversation. First of all it was rude on their part to interrupt two people who were not talking to them. They asked the woman why she was talking to the Rastafarian. Then they called him "a lying spirit, which they rebuked and binded in the name of Jesus." Now sitting across from them, I told the two women they were negative. For all their supposed piety and holiness, they looked positively demonic when they were rebuking the gentleman. Their faces were filled with such hate and contempt. This is not the message of Christ just a bunch of hypocrites at work. Now if some elder African American grandmother from the South was doing the rebuking, I'd say wow look out! However two twenty something holier than thou chicas, I think not! It takes more than that to scare me! A Haitian man joined in and started telling the Muslim woman she had no Savior and Jesus this and Jesus that. I struck up a conversation with the woman and the Rastafarian and it seems the three of us had similar viewpoints.
A friend of mine once said in the physical world opposite energies attract, in the world of spirit like energies attract. This is what was at work this day. The Rastafarian blessed both of us and told us to continue the good work that we were doing. I felt validated by Spirit that I am on the right path and will continue to be in service to the Divine.