All this reminded me of something that happened nine years ago. It was a very hot and humid summer. I lived on Seventh Street between B and C. I went out to get some groceries. At St. Marks Place I stopped and browsed around at what was being sold on the street. Lots of junk, as usual, hot bicycles and other wares. And there, in the middle of the chaos was sitting a young man, clean shaven, dressed in black. In front of him on the pavement was a piece of blue velvet on top of which were three or four religious pieces. I bought a silver cross from him and left. On my way home I heard some Latin music and singing from a small church. There was a man standing at the door. I wanted to take a peek. He said: "Come in, come in." I stepped in. A young girl with a pretty face in a white lace dress approached me. She said "I will translate to you; I will be your Guide." She took me by the hand and sat me down, next to her. I was enjoying the music, singing with percussion, congas and guitars. It was wonderful. I turned to the girl and told her that it gave me shivers how beautiful it was. She said that meant I was in the presence of God, then got up, went to the front and whispered something in the priest's ear. Then the priest came to the microphone and spoke. People started turning around and looking at me. His speech became more and more passionate, he pointed at me. The priest said that he had a message from God and that I was sent to them to be purified from Sin. He asked me to step to the altar. I had no way out, so I proceeded. I came to the front, he told me to lean down. A woman was on the other side of him. They laid their hands on me and started screaming for the Devil to come out. Then they started playing a rhythm on the drums and chanting I looked to the left, to the right; people were turning in circles like dervishes, going into a frenzy. A woman was crying. They poured water on the ground, on me. Then, slowly everyone settled down. I gave the cross I had bought earlier to the girl, excused myself, took my groceries and left. As I crossed the street to my door, put the key in, a torrential flood of rain suddenly descended. This sent a chill through me; I ran up all six flights of stairs in one breath. When I walked in my lower body was covered with blood.

I never had an explanation of what transpired that day. But now I was getting an inkling. Certainly it wasn't a purely Christian affair. It was more like a shamanistic ritual. It must have been a Santeria church that I walked into.

Santeria is not confined to the ignorant and the uneducated. Some of the people I met who are followers of the cult are real intellectuals. There are some 100 million practitioners of the cult in Latin America and the U.S., and that is a conservative estimate. In Cuba, where Santeria has developed extensively, the Yorubas are known as lucumi This term is derived from the Yoruban word Akumi, which is the name given to a native of Aku, a region of Nigeria where a lot of the Yorubas come from. The Cuban lucumis were influenced by the Catholic imagery, although the essence of the religion is purely African. I was delighted to have met Beatrice. She was from Cuba and an anthropologist! At the panel meeting she said that her mother, Rosa Levya "Shango Laramie," was a priestess, and many times wanted her to become one too. She resisted, saying that she was interested in anthropology, to which her mother responded that there is no difference, and that one day she would have to face her destiny. It was her mother who initiated Basha into the Yoruba religion.

The ceremony of initiation was renamed asiento in Cuba, a Spanish word which means seat. The choice of this word may be explained by the fact that the saints are believed to take possession of their initiates and literally "mount" them. The santera is commonly known as the "horse" of the saints. It is almost identical in the Voodoo religion. During the initiation, the mind is conditioned for its future work. One is initiated into the mysteries and rites of the particular Orishas who are recognized as the "Mother" and the "Father."

When Castro came to power, many Cubans fled the country, bringing with them the African rituals and magic. Soon it spread throughout the South, particularly New Orleans and Miami, as well as New York and New Jersey. Who would believe that the city that symbolizes the height of civilization and modernity has so many practitioners of this cult! But in New York you can see numerous botanical, which are the centers for practitioners. These stores were opened by women originally, and they are where you can purchase your candles and potions. And for a fee, it can be arranged for someone to cast or rid a spell. Sometimes it is quite costly, all depending on the seriousness of the situation at hand.

The Havana cigar is considered by connoisseurs to be the creme de la creme. It has been a forbidden fruit since 1959, when the U.S. put an embargo on Cuban tobacco. And the symbol of the capitalist world, many times seen in Communist caricatures, suddenly became readily available in the Soviet Union. And so Cuban magic traveled to Russia. Meanwhile Castro recently received an award from the United

Nations for quitting the cigar! Many Cubans believe that Castro owes his success to the black magic of the Cuhan mayomberos (witches). It is rumored that the African deities placed him in his position of power. In fact, quite a few dictatorships in Latin America have been credited to works of magic. Only recently, when Noriega fled from the U.S. troops, they found remnants of a magic ritual in his room. Animal parts candles, offerings. And the New York Ames reported that he always wore Red underwear as a means of protection.

Cuba has a peculiar history owing largely to its geographical placement. Less than 90 miles from the Florida Keys, it commands the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal. Now that Noriega has been ousted and the Soviet Union has gone broke, it finds itself isolated. The Indians who inhabited the island at the time of Columbus's landing possessed no written language and because they were peaceful were annihilated or absorbed, or else died out. At least three cultures swept through the island before the arrival of the Spaniards: the Guanahatabeyes, the Ciboneyes, and the Tainos, whom Beatrice mentioned earlier.

Most is known of the last group. They had a rather advanced economic system based on agriculture. Tobacco, cotton and corn were the most important part of the economy. The Tainos believed in a supreme invisible being and their religion was idolatry. Ancestor worship was common and they carved idols that resembled their ancestors. Tobacco was used for smoking as well as for religious ceremonies and for curing the ill. There was almost no mingling of races between the Spaniards and the Indians. But the black slaves did have contact with the Indians. After all, their cultures weren't that far apart from one another. They both worshipped nature, above all, and their ancestors. Beatrice Morales spoke about this connection.

Emilia's Monday morning cigar-smoking was a reenactment of an ancient Indian ritual. Beatrice translated a description of the ritual from Spanish:

The rebel Indians communicated with their ancestral warriors by keeping their bones in a clay pot and smoking tobacco; this pleased the ancestors and ensured victory. One of the most interesting rituals in the Afro-Cuban spiritual houses is the peculiar way in which the mediums smoke tobacco. The Afro-Cuban medium, and all the spiritistas, place the lit part of the cigar in their mouth, and they inhale the smoke in this way, without breathing or opening the mouth. At the stream end of the cigar, which is not lit, they exhale the smoke which reaches out into a fine, beautiful line and leaves a trail of aroma in the air, covering the room. And thus they sit in a circle. The tobacco ritual prepares the environment so that the group can transcend their everyday world. The power of culture is amazing. In the same way, we can see that tobacco was being smoked 500 years ago by the indigenous people in the Caribbean. This ritual was passed on to the Afro-Cuban women who were the traders of tobacco. Some people believe that tobacco is symbolic of the AfroCuban culture. It's a combination of strength; and it's composed of different cultures÷the AfroSemitic culture, which goes back to the 13th and 14th centuries when the Moors, Africans, Jews, and Gypsies formed a minority in Spain. We know that there was a lot of cultural assimilation going on when they came to Cuba in the 15th and 16th centuries....

The Yoruba tradition, as well as the Indian, was written down for the first time when it came to Cuba. Familiar symbols began to emerge as I read about Shango. Shango is a storm deity of the Yoruba. Each town or village in Nigeria has its own Orisha who acts as a patron saint and protector of the people. Shango is worshipped in the city of Oyo. This divinity was once a king, a strong ruler and a great doctor. But he was also tyrannical. He could kill people by breathing fire from his mouth.

There are different versions of the story of how Shango fled to the forest and eventually hanged himself. But all agree that the place of this tragic event was Koso. This shameful event was mocked by his enemies and they cast scorn on his name. So his friends contacted a great magician who summoned a series of thunderstorms, causing the devastation of the city of Oyo. His followers immediately proclaimed that the storms were caused by Shango's anger. Many sacrifices were made in his honor and his followers to this day proclaim "oba ko so," meaning ""the king did not hang himself."

In New Oyo, the central shrine is the palace of the king Alafin, who is said to be a direct descendant of Shango. His symbols are his mortar, in which he prepares the thunderbolts; his magic spell; his castle; and a double-edged axe, which is usually made of wood, painted in Red and white and covered with cowrie shells. His colors are Red and white and his numbers are four and six. He is the patron of the firemen. He is invoked in works of dominion, passion and many other endeavors.

All of the legends and the central theme of Shango are based on power, be it procreative, de-. structive, medicinal or moral. The power is materialized in Shango's staff, which generally depicts a woman with a double-edged axe on her head. Thunderbolts are called thunder axes and are said to fall on the ground whenever there is a storm. Many double-edged axes are found in the Mediterranean world also. The Yoruba compare the noise of thunder to the bellowing of the ram, and these animals are sacred to Shango and wander freely about the marketplaces. He is propitiated with apples, bananas, roosters, cigars, and on special occasions with the ram himself. At the mention of his name, his followers lift themselves off their seats in a show of respect for the electrifying Orisha.

The shrines of Shango in Oyo have a collection of thunderstones which preserve the power. These are collected by his priests from houses that are hit by lightning. The thunderstones are kept inside a wooden bowl which sits on a tall mortar (pilon) know as odo Shango. On the Orisha's festival the odo is washed in water containing the crushed leaves of several plants, the juice of a snail and palm oil. Then a rooster is sacrificed and the blood poured over the thunderstones. Later the blood of the ram is poured over the stones. These African practices have been preserved nearly intact in Santeria.

Saint Barbara is Shango's syncretization. She was identified with Shango because she has a cup in one hand (Shango's mortar), a sword (his axe) in the other, and a castle at her feet. Her mantle is Red, her tunic white, and she is associated traditionally with thunder and lightning. She is also the patroness of artillerymen. Once again, a virgin and a martyr. Her legend dates back to the 7th century. She was the daughter of Dioscorus, who kept her beauty guarded. When she professed Christianity to her father, a pagan, he was so enraged that her ordered her to be tortured and beheaded. Dioscorus himself performed the execution, and on his way home was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes. She is venerated as one of the 14 Auxiliary Saints, the Holy Helpers, and is invoked in thunderstorms.

The Santeria cult, like Voodoo, is frightening to a lot of people because it deals with our primitive, archetypal feelings, something that many of us have lost touch with. But any religion, cult, or philosophy can be equally dangerous, depending on how we empower it with our thoughts.