I've heard of it. There are people in my area who practice this religion, and are devotees of various Krisha's. However, this is not my religion, so I should probably refrain from speculating on why people enter the priesthood in this faith. In my faith, one would enter the clergy in order to serve a congregation, among many other reasons.
Santer?a is one of the many pancreatic religions created in the New World. It is based on the West African religions brought to the New World by slaves imported to the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations. These slaves carried with them their own religious traditions, including a tradition of possession trance for communicating with their ancestors and deities, the use of animal sacrifice and the practice of sacred drumming and dance. Those slaves who landed in the Caribbean, Central and South America were nominally converted to Christianity. However, they were able to preserve some of their traditions by fusing together various Dahomean, baking (Congo) and Lukumi beliefs and rituals and by synchronizing these with elements from the surrounding Christian culture. In Cuba this religious tradition has evolved into what we now recognize as Santer?a.
Yes, Santeria (a polytheistic religion) has African roots and is commonly practiced in the Dominican Republic and among Afro-Cubans. The premise is the Catholic saints are worshiped as Gods, the roots are a change from the polytheistic African slaves who were shipped from Africa and forced to convert into Catholicism by the Spaniards. Its popular with black-Latinos especially in the Caribbean.
Is a religion that is practice by some people in the Caribbean. When the Spaniards brought the black people to the Caribbean as slaves, they practice Voodoo. The Spaniards convert them to Catholicism, they in return mixed Catholicism with Voodoo, hence Santeria. The priest/priestess is like the pastor of the religion.
Santeria is a religion developed from the practices of the Roman Catholic church and indigenous African beliefs. African slaves took their gods with them to the New World and combined elements from their old religions into the "new" ones.
From what I understand, the purpose of becoming a priest/priestess in that religion would not be much different from the purpose of becoming a spiritual leader in other religions.
Its basis is African and Caribbean pagan beliefs. They believe in animal sacrifice for SOME of the deities, not all.
Some people are freaked out by the fact that they use statues of saints on their altars. That was their way of disguising their religion. Saint Barbara really is African goddess X and such.
Most into Santeria do not sacrifice animals, do drugs or try and make other people into zombies.
Yes, they sacrifice goats to their "god". I'm not sure about chickens.
I don't know if it's anything like boo-doo, but some of sounds like it.
Heard something about it on the news one time when the ASPCA or Humane Society got after them for cruelty to animals.
"Santeria" is a sub-sect of Voodoo [Voudon] and Catholicism that uses black magic, witchcraft and prayers. It roots started in Jamaica during the slave trade centuries ago and it is still being practiced in some Southern states in the U.S. and in South America. Another similar religion is called "Obeah", which commonly practiced in Jamaica.
For a fee, its believers hire a priest or priestess to perform certain specific spells --either to harm someone, or to remove a spell that was cast on the victim-- which includes prayers, invocations and ritualistic sacrifice [killing] of an animal, chicken, etc. using its blood as part of the ceremony.
It's some scary stuff that's not worth messing around with. I know I won't.
If you are interested in the religion, check out the books- Santaria the Religion and The Santaria Experience, both by Migere Gonzolez-Whippler. Good books for the beginner.
Has anyone heard of the religion Santeria?
