Oshun's Book of Mirrors

Oshun's Book of Mirrors PDF Author: Asia Rainey
Publisher: Broken Levee Books
ISBN: 9781634059794
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
In a dark world where all hope seems lost, Oshun's book of mirrors reveals the true definition of beauty.

Oshun's Book of Mirrors

Oshun's Book of Mirrors PDF Author: Asia Rainey
Publisher: Broken Levee Books
ISBN: 9781634059794
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
In a dark world where all hope seems lost, Oshun's book of mirrors reveals the true definition of beauty.

Osun across the Waters

Osun across the Waters PDF Author: Joseph M. Murphy
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253108630
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Ã’sun is a brilliant deity whose imagery and worldwide devotion demand broad and deep scholarly reflection. Contributors to the ground-breaking Africa's Ogun, edited by Sandra Barnes (Indiana University Press, 1997), explored the complex nature of Ogun, the orisa who transforms life through iron and technology. Ã’sun across the Waters continues this exploration of Yoruba religion by documenting Ã’sun religion. Ã’sun presents a dynamic example of the resilience and renewed importance of traditional Yoruba images in negotiating spiritual experience, social identity, and political power in contemporary Africa and the African diaspora. The 17 contributors to Ã’sun across the Waters delineate the special dimensions of Ã’sun religion as it appears through multiple disciplines in multiple cultural contexts. Tracing the extent of Ã’sun traditions takes us across the waters and back again. Ã’sun traditions continue to grow and change as they flow and return from their sources in Africa and the Americas.

Oshun's Daughters

Oshun's Daughters PDF Author: Vanessa K. Valdés
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438450435
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Examines the ways in which the inclusion of African diasporic religious practices serves as a transgressive tool in narrative discourses in the Americas. Oshun’s Daughters examines representations of African diasporic religions from novels and poems written by women in the United States, the Spanish Caribbean, and Brazil. In spite of differences in age, language, and nationality, these women writers all turn to variations of traditional Yoruba religion (Santería/Regla de Ocha and Candomblé) as a source of inspiration for creating portraits of womanhood. Within these religious systems, binaries that dominate European thought—man/woman, mind/body, light/dark, good/evil—do not function in the same way, as the emphasis is not on extremes but on balancing or reconciling these radical differences. Involvement with these African diasporic religions thus provides alternative models of womanhood that differ substantially from those found in dominant Western patriarchal culture, namely, that of virgin, asexual wife/mother, and whore. Instead we find images of the sexual woman, who enjoys her body without any sense of shame; the mother, who nurtures her children without sacrificing herself; and the warrior woman, who actively resists demands that she conform to one-dimensional stereotypes of womanhood.

The Book of Umbanda

The Book of Umbanda PDF Author: David Barreto
Publisher: David Barreto
ISBN: 1916211119
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This authoritative volume offers a comprehensive exploration of Umbanda, meticulously crafted for both academic researchers and religious practitioners. As the most detailed analysis of Umbanda ever written in English, it covers the religion’s history, deities, hierarchies of entities, essential tools, rituals, and temple practices. Each chapter methodically unpacks a critical aspect of Umbanda: from ancient mythology and its more recent syncretic roots to its modern-day practices and the role of Brazil’s socio-political background in shaping it. Altar setups, chants, the role and composition of offerings, and the occult details of mediumistic channelling are explored with the precision and insight of a seasoned practitioner. Tailored specifically for English-speaking readers, this work ensures precise translations of key terms and names, bridging cultural gaps while maintaining the integrity of Umbanda’s spiritual and ritualistic essence. The translations are crafted to facilitate a deep understanding of Umbanda, ensuring the content is accessible and resonates without sounding categorically foreign or rather exotic. Topics Covered Include ● The historical, sociological, and political contexts that shaped Umbanda ● The religion's theological evolution and doctrinal development ● Orishas, spiritual hierarchies, and mythological narratives ● Temple layout, ritual implements, and the significance of sacred offerings ● The traditions of spiritual channelling and their hidden rites ● Essential images ● A comprehensive glossary of key terms and concepts The Book of Umbanda is an essential reference for students, educators, scholars, and practitioners of the religion from diverse backgrounds and life experiences. It also holds significant value for professionals and academics across various disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, philosophy, theology, and history.

Oshún

Oshún PDF Author: Baba Raul Canizares
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780942272697
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Oshun is the deity of river waters and is also seen as the embodiment of love and sexuality. She represents the joy of life and is, in many ways, what makes life worth living. Oshun is the patron of gold and all wealth is hers to give. She also rules marriage and is the giver of fertility. Her influence is gentle and loving and she teaches humanity that the secret of life is love.

Voodoo Rituals

Voodoo Rituals PDF Author: Heike Owusu
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 9781402700354
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Influence the unconscious mind. To practice Voodoo is to enter the ancient world of Magik, where secret arts developed from rituals held by ancient pagans, Native American tribes, Haitians, and Wiccans. Understand Voodoo’s underlying ideas and learn to make use of its powers with illustrated instructions and exercises. Use charms to bring good luck to your relationships, finances, and health--or curses to keep away harmful forces and persons. Make and employ the full range of sacred objects: dolls, candles, incense, ritual clothing, swords, knives, needles and nails, goblets, keys, mirrors, musical instruments, amulets, and masks, for charm or curse symbols to place in your room, car, or clothing. Breathing exercises enable you to enter trances, contact the unconscious and even the dead.

A Year in White

A Year in White PDF Author: C. Lynn Carr
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813572665
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
In the Afro-Cuban Lukumi religious tradition—more commonly known in the United States as Santería—entrants into the priesthood undergo an extraordinary fifty-three-week initiation period. During this time, these novices—called iyawo—endure a host of prohibitions, including most notably wearing exclusively white clothing. In A Year in White, sociologist C. Lynn Carr, who underwent this initiation herself, opens a window on this remarkable year-long religious transformation. In her intimate investigation of the “year in white,” Carr draws on fifty-two in-depth interviews with other participants, an online survey of nearly two hundred others, and almost a decade of her own ethnographic fieldwork, gathering stories that allow us to see how cultural newcomers and natives thought, felt, and acted with regard to their initiation. She documents how, during the iyawo year, the ritual slowly transforms the initiate’s identity. For the first three months, for instance, the iyawo may not use a mirror, even to shave, and must eat all meals while seated on a mat on the floor using only a spoon and their own set of dishes. During the entire year, the iyawo loses their name and is simply addressed as “iyawo” by family and friends. Carr also shows that this year-long religious ritual—which is carried out even as the iyawo goes about daily life—offers new insight into religion in general, suggesting that the sacred is not separable from the profane and indeed that religion shares an ongoing dynamic relationship with the realities of everyday life. Religious expression happens at home, on the streets, at work and school. Offering insight not only into Santería but also into religion more generally, A Year in White makes an important contribution to our understanding of complex, dynamic religious landscapes in multicultural, pluralist societies and how they inhabit our daily lives.

Ezili's Mirrors

Ezili's Mirrors PDF Author: Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822372088
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
From the dagger mistress Ezili Je Wouj and the gender-bending mermaid Lasiren to the beautiful femme queen Ezili Freda, the Ezili pantheon of Vodoun spirits represents the divine forces of love, sexuality, prosperity, pleasure, maternity, creativity, and fertility. And just as Ezili appears in different guises and characters, so too does Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley in her voice- and genre-shifting, exploratory book Ezili's Mirrors. Drawing on her background as a literary critic as well as her quest to learn the lessons of her spiritual ancestors, Tinsley theorizes black Atlantic sexuality by tracing how contemporary queer Caribbean and African American writers and performers evoke Ezili. Tinsley shows how Ezili is manifest in the work and personal lives of singers Whitney Houston and Azealia Banks, novelists Nalo Hopkinson and Ana Lara, performers MilDred Gerestant and Sharon Bridgforth, and filmmakers Anne Lescot and Laurence Magloire—none of whom identify as Vodou practitioners. In so doing, Tinsley offers a model of queer black feminist theory that creates new possibilities for decolonizing queer studies.

When God Lost Her Tongue

When God Lost Her Tongue PDF Author: Janell Hobson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429516703
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
When God Lost Her Tongue explores historical consciousness as captured through the Black feminist imagination that re-centers the perspectives of Black women in the African Diaspora, and revisits how Black women’s transatlantic histories are re-imagined and politicized in our contemporary moment. Connecting select historical case studies – from the Caribbean, the African continent, North America, and Europe – while also examining the retelling of these histories in the work of present-day writers and artists, Janell Hobson utilizes a Black feminist lens to rescue the narratives of African-descended women, which have been marginalized, erased, forgotten, and/or mis-remembered. African goddesses crossing the Atlantic with captive Africans. Women leaders igniting the Haitian Revolution. Unnamed Black women in European paintings. African women on different sides of the "door of no return" during the era of the transatlantic slave trade. Even ubiquitous "Black queens" heralded and signified in a Beyoncé music video or a Janelle Monáe lyric. And then there are those whose names we will never forget, like the iconic Harriet Tubman. This critical interdisciplinary intervention will be key reading for students and researchers studying African American women, Black feminisms, feminist methodologies, Africana studies, and women and gender studies.

Because You Are

Because You Are PDF Author: Jael Richardson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1443464813
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 31

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Book Description
A picture book about self-esteem, inner beauty and making a difference from celebrated author, festival organizer and diversity advocate Jael Richardson Little one, there’s something you should know You are just right just enough as you are Conceived of as a letter to her younger self, Because You Are captures Jael Richardson’s insightful lessons about growing up, being joyful and loving yourself as a young Black girl. By exploring what inner beauty means, this story inspires children to recognize and build their self-worth, to dream big and to make a difference in the world. These lessons are brought to life on the page with lively and tender illustrations by Nneka Myers.