Candomblé Reflections
It has been a difficult re-entry. More difficult than I ever expected.
Coming home after only 6-weeks in Bahia, Brazil has been a shock to my system. My first grocery shopping trip, to Trader Joe's on De La Vina, was a disaster. The cashier spoke to me in English, and for the life of me, I could not understand a word she was saying! I think she was angry at me because I made her repeat herself about four times. I felt like an idiot, and this experience helped to deepen the depression I was already feeling. Classic separation anxiety?
In a way, it shows how much I assimilated to a new environment almost too well.
Shaun came home and exclaimed how he hated the American "green" money - no more Brazilian and Portuguese multi-colored designs and sea turtles on the currency. U.S. greenbacks reflect a lack of imagination.
Now, I've come back into a balance of "seeing through" our American culture with a little more compassion. I must be tolerant and all the while vigilant, for that is what both Brazil and Candomblé have taught me. I can't ignore the problems within our own culture, but I also can't stand back and sneer at the representations of mass media and consumerism. I'm beginning to imagine more and more, just how much mythology can enter into the heart of a problem, all the while accepting complexity, differences, shadow, and generate creative solutions.
The generative power of myth is completely natural. My intention is to continue to connect to creativity, imagination and the natural world: the big three that the Cartesian mindset seems to have forgotten. The body and the earth are venerated as much as the orixa (the African deities) in Candomblé. When showing reverance to an orixa, one must first bend down, touch the earth with one hand and then bring the hand up to touch the forehead and the back of the head. The mind and its processes are not looked down upon either.
During my first "jogo de buzios," a form of divination from Africa used to find out a person's life destiny, Mae Marinalva, Iyalorixa (high priestess) of the terreiro Bate Folha, told me:
Your mind is like a whirlwind - one day blowing this way, one day blowing that way. You have so many ideas in one minute that you are prone to much confusion in your life. But still you have many big ideas! Because you think like the wind you can triumph over anything - you will blow down any obstacles in your way!
It wasn't so much that she had me pegged that impressed me, it was the lack of judgement about my being completely scatter-brained most of the time. She could see that my problem was also an asset, and that it just was. I did not decifer any inkling of Marinalva trying to fix me or change me. I was accepted in whole. Now, to learn how to do that for myself and others!
Brazil has its own set of problems to be sure, but the people use their imaginations when it comes to finding solutions. One of the most ingenious ways, has been through the formation of drum groups to keep at-risk kids off of the streets. There are many of these groups forming all over Bahia, two of the most famous are Timbalada & Dida. To overcome the expense of needing an large amount of drums, members of the groups painted giant aluminum oil drums and put plastic heads on them to beat. It is believed that this is why there are so many women drummers in Salvador da Bahia.
Drumming is a healing and empowering activity. I made the trip to Bahia, Brazil for the purpose of conducting research for my dissertation at Pacifica Graduate Institute, yet it ended up defining my life's work in the most profound ways. Some of these paths I have known for a long time, while I believe new ones will reveal themselves on their own terms and in their own time.
- Kris Seraphine
Coming home after only 6-weeks in Bahia, Brazil has been a shock to my system. My first grocery shopping trip, to Trader Joe's on De La Vina, was a disaster. The cashier spoke to me in English, and for the life of me, I could not understand a word she was saying! I think she was angry at me because I made her repeat herself about four times. I felt like an idiot, and this experience helped to deepen the depression I was already feeling. Classic separation anxiety?
In a way, it shows how much I assimilated to a new environment almost too well.
Shaun came home and exclaimed how he hated the American "green" money - no more Brazilian and Portuguese multi-colored designs and sea turtles on the currency. U.S. greenbacks reflect a lack of imagination.
Now, I've come back into a balance of "seeing through" our American culture with a little more compassion. I must be tolerant and all the while vigilant, for that is what both Brazil and Candomblé have taught me. I can't ignore the problems within our own culture, but I also can't stand back and sneer at the representations of mass media and consumerism. I'm beginning to imagine more and more, just how much mythology can enter into the heart of a problem, all the while accepting complexity, differences, shadow, and generate creative solutions.
The generative power of myth is completely natural. My intention is to continue to connect to creativity, imagination and the natural world: the big three that the Cartesian mindset seems to have forgotten. The body and the earth are venerated as much as the orixa (the African deities) in Candomblé. When showing reverance to an orixa, one must first bend down, touch the earth with one hand and then bring the hand up to touch the forehead and the back of the head. The mind and its processes are not looked down upon either.
During my first "jogo de buzios," a form of divination from Africa used to find out a person's life destiny, Mae Marinalva, Iyalorixa (high priestess) of the terreiro Bate Folha, told me:
Your mind is like a whirlwind - one day blowing this way, one day blowing that way. You have so many ideas in one minute that you are prone to much confusion in your life. But still you have many big ideas! Because you think like the wind you can triumph over anything - you will blow down any obstacles in your way!
It wasn't so much that she had me pegged that impressed me, it was the lack of judgement about my being completely scatter-brained most of the time. She could see that my problem was also an asset, and that it just was. I did not decifer any inkling of Marinalva trying to fix me or change me. I was accepted in whole. Now, to learn how to do that for myself and others!
Brazil has its own set of problems to be sure, but the people use their imaginations when it comes to finding solutions. One of the most ingenious ways, has been through the formation of drum groups to keep at-risk kids off of the streets. There are many of these groups forming all over Bahia, two of the most famous are Timbalada & Dida. To overcome the expense of needing an large amount of drums, members of the groups painted giant aluminum oil drums and put plastic heads on them to beat. It is believed that this is why there are so many women drummers in Salvador da Bahia.
Drumming is a healing and empowering activity. I made the trip to Bahia, Brazil for the purpose of conducting research for my dissertation at Pacifica Graduate Institute, yet it ended up defining my life's work in the most profound ways. Some of these paths I have known for a long time, while I believe new ones will reveal themselves on their own terms and in their own time.
- Kris Seraphine
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