Hija de Obbatala

Thursday was the day of destiny. Chelsea, Honorio, and I went to the Padrino (and I don't mean the Godfather, although that is the literal translation of the word). The Padrino was our professor's guide into the world of Santeria. Now, he is technically ours as well. We went to him in the afternoon for a reading of the shells, in which he would be able to see our destinies as well as tell us how to take precautions if he saw anything negative coming up.

The Padrino was seated on the floor, on top of a blue and white woven carpet, which is sacred. I sat on a chair on the edge of the carpet, with my shoes off (otherwise would be an insult to the orishas). The Padrino started the reading by three times dipping his fingers in a small bowl of water next to the mat, and flicking droplets onto the floor; I think each of the three splashes were to honor his orisha, his Padrino, and his Madrina. He then began mixing the shells on the floor while chanting in the Yoruba-Spanish creole used in Cuban Santeria. Finally, he lifted the shells and touched them to my head, shoulders, knees, and feet, before resting them in my hands for a moment. He then threw the shells on the floor, and with them, my destiny.

The first thing that came out for me was related to the orisha Ogun, one of the war orishas, lord of knives and metal. You can imagine this doesn't bode well. The first admonition I received was to "beware the blood" or "take care of the blood". He further explained, telling me to take care when needles are involved, saying that I am prone to infection. Basically, my blood is weak and something could happen to me because of that.

The second warning I received (and Mom, you'll love this, since you always warn me about the same things- have you been in touch with the orishas lately?) was to be careful in the street. Honorio got this same warning, only his meant to actually beware of people in the street that will try to trick him. Mine was to legit take care when crossing the street, because it's possible that I will get hit by a car.

Now this all sounds like a lot of bad news, doesn't it? However, the first step towards winning the battle is knowing what the battle is, so I know what to watch out for. Also, we are going back to the Padrino's tomorrow, because we need to do a variety of cleansing rituals, so that should make for another fascinating blog.

Here's my favorite part of the reading. First understand that the Santeria belief is that everyone is the world has an orisha that looks out for them (akin to the Christian idea of a guardian angel). Regardless of whether or not you are a practicant of the religion, this orisha is with you and guiding you. So Padrino did the readings for each of us, and it came to be known that Obbatala is my guardian orisha, hence the title of my blog, which says in Spanish "Daughter of Obbatala". Obbatala is the most powerful orisha, and her realms are those of peace and purity. She is represented by the color white and the symbol of the dove (new tattoo idea right there). This fits in rather well with my world view, so I'm glad that this was what Padrino read in the shells.

Yesterday was also Rebekah's birthday, so as a group we all went to hang out with the Cuban guys that some of the girls have befriended. We basically just had a huge dance party in the salon where some of them work. Everybody had a great time and there are definitely some great stories, but hey...what happens in Cuba, stays in Cuba. There is a blockade, after all.