#oshunmare

Music is very important for contact with the Orixás. I speak more about the rhythm and power of the atabaque (musical instrument) than about the music itself. We have a playlist with some "sung points" (which in short, are the songs to the deities). The sound is very different for those who are not Brazilian or even of the religion.

Try a little bit: macumba hits

Hi @standamagicman ! Thanks for your patience, it took me some time this week to really find the space and energy to devote to a reading. Worked out well as I was able to spend a lot of time in prayer to my Egun and meditation before this session - and right around the new moon as well, which turns out to have a strong tie to the message of your reading in renewal and the start of some new possible beginnings for you on your path :)

I hope these messages bring you some insight for your work with spirits! Best wishes to you.

1) What could be blocking me from hearing, sensing, and seeing spirits?

Ten of Chalices: Oshunmare & Joseph Cinqué

When you reach out to the spirits, they take notice, they hear you, some of them try to communicate back. And you are hearing and sensing it, but it is lost in the sea of noise and distraction in your mind. It’s like paint on a canvas that is so busy and full of other colors that you can’t find the brush strokes you are looking for. It’s so loud and noisy that you can’t hear what you’re listening for. You need to quiet your mind and your being enough to get in tune with the messages being sent your way.

Oshunmare is the Orisha (spirit of the Yoruba culture in West Africa) who is depicted here as a rainbow snake flying across the sky. On the Ten of Chalices, Oshunmare represents rebirth and renewal. With this, I can feel that you need to turn things some things upside down and be willing to start over to get the peace and quiet necessary to hear the spirits.

Joseph Cinqué gives a lesson on how to do this - he was a slave on La Amistad who revolted, won, and had a chance to fight for the right to be free since by that time the Atlantic slave trade was illegal in the US. Cinqué succeeded, and likewise you must free yourself from old patterns and habits that are holding you back. Speak up for what you need, fight for the quiet and peaceful space that you need. Make time to devote to resting your mind and clearing your head.

2) How can I better hear, sense, and see spirits?

Three of Pentacles: Agé & Benjamin Abnneker

This card speaks on mastery of an art, great ability, skill, craft, and specialization. Agé is a great hunter spirit of indigenous cultures in Benin and Togo. You see him on the card aiming with great precision and focus using his bow and arrow to strike a particular target. Benjamin Abnneker is a skillful masterful of the diaspora, an African American slave who gained his freedom and used his knowledge of astronomy to author a successful series of almanacs.

The message for you is that it takes time, practice, patience, and hard work to gain the knowledge, skill, and mastery that it will take to become a medium or a psychic. The Ten of Chalices told you the first step to solving your issue - learning to quiet your mind so that you can hear spirits and creating renewal in your life to remove the obstacles to peace in your mind. But once that has been achieved, the roads will only be open and clear for you. Then you will need practice to hone your skills for traversing and traveling down those roads.

The religion combines influences of the Caribbean traditions and Catholicism, since our ancestors in African were stolen from their home lands as slaves, and their masters wanted them to worship their catholic deities, to keep their believes our forefathers needed to trick their masters into believe that they were worshiping the catholic saints. This makes Santeria a little complex because it blends the Orishas with the Catholic saints, although they are not the same, they had some similarities. This is why some statues are used in our Yoruba altars, like the Saint Barbara or Saint Lazarus.

For a long time the religion was somewhat secret keeping itself away from persecution, it survived as an oral tradition passed down from generation to generation, through initiation ceremonies celebrated on a very tight community.

Time passed and the religion started to spread through the United States, Europe and South America and the world gaining a great deal of followers, believers and popularity.