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Spiritualism

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Religion umbanda

The name Umbanda comes from an union of ancient oriental terms: UM means God and BAND refers to a legion or persons' grouping; umbanda is a religious practice that approaches much the traditions of the African enslaved practitioners of the voodoo and the religions of the aboriginal peoples of the close states, but it is original of Brazil.

Also, the religion umbanda there him join the currents of the spiritualism Kardenista and the religious syncretism of the Catholicism. The origin of this religion is in the beginning of the humanity when the paleolithic man realized drawings of his gods in the walls of caves and caverns and when the new cultures began to develop.

Bearing in mind these ideas, the religion umbanda admits to the nature how commanded by Orixás that they are the construction gods of the universe and direct assistants of a supreme divinity, something like equivalent those that the Christianity recognizes as cherubs, seraphs, Ángeles and archangels, and as the above mentioned, the Oxirás do not have a material body not physical. Now then, many students in the topic name to the religion umbanda like a real cult to the human spirits that became incarnate in the ground and praise Obatalá (creative God of the human race) by means of the Orixás. It is necessary to emphasize that in the cult umbanda they inform human beings spirits desencarnados and several elementary spirits, and on another report the umbanda recognizes the hierarchies that possess some spiritual entities and the roll that the same ones redeem as for the functions of the universe. The target that chases the religion umbanda is to be to the service of the human beings in those difficulties that can be material or moral, in addition to that many priests umbanda award curative powers.

The hierarchies and the rituals umbanda

Inside the rituals umbanda we can find a species of liturgical hierarchy that is organized perfectly according to his function; for example first of all the chief Terreiro is, more known as paí in case it is a question of a man and Mae if she is a woman. His function is that of incorporating the spirit that protects the works that are already realized be the identification of the spirits that possess the faithful, to prepare the children for the beginning or to dedicate the images of the Orixas. Secondly of the hierarchies umbanda there are the ôgas that are the assistants; the function that they fulfill is that of intoning the singings and directing the works of incorporation that they realize the psychic; if there talks each other of a woman the name that is assigned to him it is of "jabona" or “small mae”. The Paí, Mae, ôgas or you soap there are the principal hierarchies in the religion umbanda, and a few levels further down you find the cambono or sambas and the psychic.

In every ritual umbanda there must be at least 10 of the above mentioned so that the ritual meetings are carried out successfully. With regard to the rituals we must say that there are many types and each one realizes in specific situations, for example, the religion umbanda practises ritual spiritualists where the Orixas are assimilated to the spirits of the men, and it is one of the rites that does not come to the dances and to the images. The Ritualistic rite for his part incorporates a lot of music and it is obligatory to use clothes or white tunics during his process. Images are used, dances and the declarations are straight of the Orixas and not of spirits as in other rituals umbanda.

The ritual umbanda named Ritmado is the most primitive of the religion, and there are used percussion instruments that accompany the dance steps and also there is a variant of this ritual that is named Ritmado and ritualizado and is hard influenced by the Candomblé. During this rite several musical instruments are used and the clothes that is used must be coloring, but this will depend on the color corresponding to Orixá that is protecting the rite. Finally, two of the most important characteristics of the rituals umbanda are the gifts and the sacrifices. According to the case, the gift is usually constituted by flowers, alcoholic beverages, sails, hairs, honey and they usually settle in those places where the presence of the orixás resides. There are usually green places along with watercourses or in the intersections of the ways. The small animal sacrifices like the hens, the dogs, the cats or monkeys are a habitual practice in the religion umbanda, although there does not exist any believer that admits publicly that this should be realized.