The World of Esh? and Pomba Gira

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If Pomba Gira helps you, it's because she feels like it, it is not because you ask for it, it depends on her mood in that day.

Attraction is her strongest point and sensuality her intelligence: with these two weapons she can move the whole world and deceive anybody. She is an accomplished actress and does not believe in feelings but in passions, she moves by instinct and before being hurt, she hurts you first.

She does not understand apologies or forgiveness: if you have failed, you have failed. There are no second chances. She does not like the weak, she is the goddess and enables love and she would do anything to achieve it.

Love and sex are connected with her: love and sweetness belong to Pomba Giras of Praia, fun and easy money to Ciganas and problems of moorings to Kalunga.

Just as she helps you to get a love, she cleanses you of any mooring that has been made to you or the person you care about. Anger and revenge from Kalunga’s Pomba Giras are immense and their effectiveness is very fast. You cannot tell them what to do, you must let yourself go in their hands and entrust yourself to them to come to fruition.

Chapter 4 – quimbanda

To talk about Quimbanda does not mean to talk about black magic, as to talk about Umbanda does not mean to talk about white magic: such things do not exist. Both Quimbanda and Umbanda have their own lines and rules.

Quimbanda is a religion within the Afro-Brazilian cult and has the following influences and syncretism: Bantu, Indigenous, Catholic, Nag? or Menina, modern spiritualism and Oriental currents.

We must bear in mind that due to the syncretism between Eshu and the devil there is a lot of misunderstanding. In addition, due to the lack of information, Quimbanda is sometimes believed to be a kind of Satanist cult.

The Eshu of Quimbanda is simply an egun, the spirit of people who belonged to the cult.

Quimbanda means sorcerer.

Quimbandas are sorcerers who during slavery, both in African Bantu and in Brazil, were known for their quimbandero works which included being in a trance, smoking cigars, drinking and being in contact with the dead.

Many of these Quimbandas resembled the things they represented and worshiped. After their death, many were considered to be the messengers of Eshu whom they had served faithfully in life. According to the Bantu and the Indigenous traditions, the spirit of the shaman or sorcerer returns to earth through the trance of some living sorcerer.

Quimbanda is not synonymous with devil, with darkness, or with witchcraft. Like in any spiritist expression, it is a way to move forward in daily life, trying to progress spiritually having people around us, i.e., our friends who with their advice and strength give us joy in times of affliction.

The magic of Quimbanda is not to do evil. The use we make of it is our fault and not the entities’ fault.

In the beginning there was only Nzambi, the owner of all secrets.

Nzambi was a great mass of energy that could explode, and it did: millions of pieces of matter became a star, a planet, etc. And from there all the elements of the universe began to separate and the universe became bigger and bigger. Then, Nzambi decided to create a being that could go through all the different spaces. Thus, focusing on a point he created Eshu. Eshu was made both man and woman at the same time and was given 7 powers (hence the origin of number 7 in him for everything):

– To have the key that opens the boundaries between one space and another, between light and dark, between hot and cold.

– To be free to choose between the good and the bad.

– To have knowledge of everything and memory of all things from birth, as well as the ability to enrich his wisdom following his own experiences.

– To be able to create beings by precipitating his own energy on the matter without life.

– To travel in time.

– To understand all creatures.

– To divide and create beings similar to him but inferior in powers and faculties, if required.

This would be the origin of our Eshu in Quimbanda.

Eshu had the mission of going through all the different spaces where Nzambi could not go, especially in the areas where nothingness and darkness reigned. Eshu was made a dark red colour, with a lot of moving particles, bright as torches, thus allowing him to be in all spaces of light or darkness: his colour is his life.

According to a legend of his origin, when Eshu saw his own power, he decided to crown himself king of the dark areas and get by without Nzambi.

Since he had the power to create, he created 7 beings of himself. These beings had his same powers and faculties but to a lesser degree. These are the 7 kingdoms:

– Rei Das 7 Encruzilhadas

– Rei Das 7 Cruzeiros

– Rei Das 7 Liras

– Rei Da Kalunga

– Rei Das Almas

– Rei Das Matas

– Rei Da Praia

Each of these kingdoms was divided into 7 territories and each of the kings into 7 parts so they could be everywhere.

The power of Eshu to divide himself resulted in that each new part had a new personality. Each time one of them was born, it was divided into 7.

The first 57 were the most powerful and became the leaders of the others. Everyone who had enough energy to carry the name of Eshu was given a name as well as a mission within the territory.

Those who had no power and stayed on the lowest scale were not given any mission or power. They formed a group and went to speak with the first of all, told him their problems and the king gave them some energy. He took their spirits and moved them to material bodies: the first men.

These men were androgynous and could not have offspring. When they died, the king had to use his energy again to put the spirits back into a body. All this took a lot of time and too much energy and weakened him. Then, the king thought how he could solve such problem: he had the key that opened and closed the limits.

Therefore, he thought about separating them by sex, but they got angry. He answered them that, from then on, their spirits would have no body because he would only make bodies with definite sexes. However, they rebelled against him and thus they could never be neither man nor woman, and their space became the darkness.

This group was called quiumbas, spirits without light who harmed people.

This would be a brief history of the origin of Eshu in this religion.

Eshu is its main god and the energy that is in nature. He is the messenger of men to the Orishas. From this force emerge the others, spirits that were once in transit in this planet and that wrapped in energy evolve to reach higher levels, trying that this stage they have to live is of great spiritual light so they can achieve the evolution they are looking for. That is why there is an organisation chart in Quimbanda, in which we can see their task and the place where they are.

Quimbanda emerged at the beginning of the 20th Century. Ancient Macumba was transformed into sorcery and this into Quimbanda. Eshu is its basis and an element of nature that is part of a whole. It is the cult of Eshu as the owner of the Earth, the communicator with the Orishas and also the one closest to humans.

At first, to speak of Quimbanda was to speak of the astral police that removed everything that could disturb humans.

In order to belong to Quimbanda, a spirit had to choose you first. This spirit would manifest itself by making someone sick and there would be no medication to cure that person.

The clairvoyant would then discover that one of the person?s ancestors was a Quimbandero and that the spirit of the dead was responsible for everything. He would leave the person alone if he served as a professional medium, healer, sorcerer or macumbero. The medium would be instructed by the interested spirit.

Quimbandas were usually clairvoyants. They absorbed the blood of the animal sacrificed during the initiation ceremony. A divination test then followed, in which buried objects had to be found.

Talismans and amulets with snails, wild boar teeth, deer horns and burned portions of hearts of different felines, nails and crushed snake skin had to be made.

When imposed, the amulet had to insert the same substances of the amulet within the person’s body. Hence, a small incision was made in the left forearm and the medicinal powder was placed at the tip of the client's tongue.

When Quimbanda arrived to Brazil it changed, evolved and mixed with black magic.

Quimbanda also works with entities other than Eshu and Pomba Gira. I will not talk about them now but I will name them for your knowledge. These entities are:

– Ciganos

– Ciganas

– Bahianos

–Affricans

–Quiumbas

–Eguns

Each entity has its own evolutionary degree of light.

There are also 7 lines (linhas) of spirits of known Quimbanderos who worship Eshu. These groups are:

Linha das Almas is led by Eshu Tranca R?a das Almas and is commanded by Omulu and Eshu Caveira. The spirits are those of sorcerers.

Linha Nag? is led by Eshu Ganga. African spirits of yerberos and religious of Eshu.

Linha Mista is led by Eshu das Campinas. Different peoples, races and countries, especially gypsies and their spirits.

Linha dos Cemitеrios is led by Omulu. They are the prisoner spirits of the laws of karma.

Linha Mossurubi is led by Eshu Kaminaloa and they are African sorcerers.

Linha Malei is led by Ogun Megue and they take care of the cemetery doors.

Linha Caboclos Quimbandeiros is led by Eshu Pantera Preta. They are chiefs and sorcerers of the Guarani Indians.

They come from the Bantu, from the peoples of Angola-Congo. It is a combination between the Menina culture, Nganga and Tat?s 8 Spirits of the Quimbandist chiefs of the Bantu nations.

They are spirits of the night and the cult is done at night.

They are messengers who work with spirits during the night. In life they were important characters.

Baptism is done with blood and ceremonies with sacrifices, dances and banquets.