How do I practice Santeria and Wicca together?

I am coming from a Wiccan background and I want to worship the Orishas.

Honestly, I cannot answer since I don't know much about the Orishas and Santeria. I did however find a book on amazon that features the combining.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Ritual-Combining-Santeria-Traditions/dp/0877288984

BUT! Read those reviews carefully. Seems a number of people feel it's not a well done book and several offer suggestions on what to study.

Good luck!

You can't; they are two separate pathways and pantheons.

Grab a coin, and assign one to Santeria, and the other side to Wicca. Throw the coin, and practice one or the other, as dictated by lady Fortuna.

In other words, keep them separate, because paradigms seem to work well separate.

I am Wiccan; my mother-in-law is Santero. We don't speak the same language and my husband, though Pagan & a man of faith, is not very interested in the details of different religions and was never really interested in her religion. So I never got into much of an in-depth discussion unfortunately.

Like Wicca, Santeria is primarily an initiation-based mystery religion... however unlike Wicca, you don't find a lot of solitaries or eclectics.

Solitary eclectic Wicca is much more laid back than Santeria in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to your personal relationships with the Divine. The Gods in Santeria don't take kindly to being worshiped any old way. There is definite protocol you are expected to follow. Worshipping incorrectly would be considered disrespectful.

Also there are a lot of potential conflicts between Santerian and Wiccan ethics. Seems to me that, to worship a religion's Gods, you should be willing to do it their way... which brings up some conflicts between these two, such as animal sacrifice (which is integral to Santeria but generally considered unethical by many Wiccans).

I'm not judging one over the other... I think Santeria is a beautiful, powerful religion, and I am not myself a "Love & Light, 3-fold law pushing, 'harm none' is Law" kind of Wiccan so I can respect Santerian ethics & morals & practices pretty much. But I think if you want to worship the Orishas you have to come to them on their terms, not Wicca's terms.

You can if you want. But in my experience of having previously tried to hold to opposing religious perspectives it doesn't really work to well, and Santeria and Wicca are rather different.

My advice would be to simply study and practice Santeria and see how it works for you first, instead of trying to mix the two religions together. Then you will have a better knowledge of if and how you could practice them together if that is what you want to do. You might find that Santeria is the religion for you. Who knows.

If you are truly interested in getting involved in santeria you can contact me privately at crossroadsbotanica.com

Eleri