Santeria: The Religion: Faith, Rites, Magic
The Religion
Author: Migene Gonzalez-Wippler Series: Llewellyn's World Religion & Magick
Blending informed study with personal experience, Gonzalez-Wippler describes Santerfa's pantheon of gods, priests, divining shells, herbal potions, and controversial ceremonies—including animal sacrifice. She has obtained remarkable photos and interviews with Santerian leaders that highlight aspects of the religion rarely revealed to nonbelievers.
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Summary
Blending informed study with personal experience, Gonzalez-Wippler describes Santerfa's pantheon of gods, priests, divining shells, herbal potions, and controversial ceremonies—including animal sacrifice. She has obtained remarkable photos and interviews with Santerian leaders that highlight aspects of the religion rarely revealed to nonbelievers.
Description
When the Yoruba of West Africa were brought to Cuba as slaves, they preserved their religious heritage by disguising their gods as Catholic saints and worshipping them in secret. The resulting religion is Santeria, a blend of primitive magic and Catholicism. Gonzalez-Wippler describes Santeria's pantheon of gods ("orishas"), the priests ("santeros"), the divining shells used to consult the gods ("Diloggun") and the herbal potions prepared as medicinal cures and for magic ("Ewe") as well as controversial ceremonies - including animal sacrifice. Migene Gonzalez-Wippler has also written "The Santeria Experience", "The Complete Book of Amulets and Talismans", "Dreams and What They Mean to You" and "The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies and Magic".
Critic Reviews
There are over 100 million practitioners of Santeria in the United States and Latin America. Despite such wide acceptance and practice, Santeria remains, for the larger, non-Hispanic culture, a mystery shrouded in secrecy. Secrecy was once vital to the religion's survival. An African religion brought to the Americas by slaves, it was disguised within a facade of Catholicism. Recently, Santeria has experienced a surge in interest among many cultural groups. Now you can discover the inner secrets of this religion in Santeria: The Religion by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler.
In this book, you will find more of the true secrets of Santeria revealed than ever before. You will learn about its fascinating history and its previously clandestine practices and even come to understand some of the most controversial beliefs and practices of this religion.
Through her extensive personal experience (as an initiate into Santeria) and advanced academic study, Gonzalez-Wippler reveals all sides of this mesmerizing faith. She shows how this complete, dynamic spiritual system is as viable as any of the world's major religions.
Santeria may be the best-kept secret of Hispanic culture. If your exposure to this religion has been from seeing voodoo dolls in bad movies, I challenge you to consider an alternative: the truth. No matter your background, if you are ready to discover the secrets of this faith, get Santeria: The Religion.
About the Author
Migene Gonzalez-Wippler was born in Puerto Rico and has degrees in psychology and anthropology from the University of Puerto Rico and from Colombia University. She has worked as a science editor for the Interscience Division of John Wiley, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Museum of Natural History, and as an English editor for the United Nations in Vienna, where she lived for many years. She is a cultural anthropologist and lectures frequently at universities and other educational institutions.
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