Vodou Christmas: fire and baths for the New Year

We use the iconography of St Nicholas for Lwa Gran Soliel or the sacred heart, translated as big or grand sun. This spirit is very elevated, full of light and blessings. In Sanse there are spiritualists under Gran Soliel who assist to elevate the dead, as well as bring light, harmony and clarity to our lives. God or Papa Bonnye is more associated with the unknowable, and north pole star or destiny.

Saint Nicholas is the imagery for the chief of the 7 chief Sanses, as we hold him as the 8th. His iconography was partly used as a creation of Santa Claus or Jolly Saint Nick, along with Norse ideas of elves, reindeer, aminita mushrooms and Odin. At the winter solstice, the sun goes underground three days as the darkest, then begins to come back to earth. The sun brings new life, survival and warmth after the cold wet winter.

The face of God is unknowable and most use no iconography for Bondye, but some use St Nicholas as he lives at the north star at the top of the pole, and use the sacred heart Jesus as Gran Soliel. As it is the central organ in the body, which circulates warmth and the life blood.

This date was selected as Jesus's birth for reasons of conversions of the Europeans. As part of the Catholicism which entered Vodou, the symbolism is of the divine force, life, power and creational heat coming close to earth, mankind and physicality.

The Petro are saluted at this time, and the Simbi's feast date is January 6th with the three kings or magi. The are magicians, and fiery snake Lwa with Congo origins. Fires are lit, fireworks and gunpowder.
Leaf rubbing is also common, and the work of gads or protection. Basil is a very important plant. The Christmas Baths bring heat and to cleanse away the old year for a fresh start. The New Years mixture puts the spicy in with the sweet, the cool and hot for balance with the 2 baths. A very magic time of year.

Depending on your lineage, the three magi are viewed as Legba or Kalfou, Simbi Makaya and Baron Samedi.
Fireworks, the lighting of gunpowder, fire bathing and bonfires are traditional.
A bath are done to cleanse ourselves, the old, the home and ritual tools for the new year.

You might want to refer to my post on bitter and sweet baths to understand the concepts behind making the baths, such as number of ingredients you should put in the following should add up to or an odd number.

Cleansing Bath Bain Noel
We open the temple, give offerings and dance the leaves.

In Haiti they sacrifice an animal and add this to the bath after pounding it is set on fire, but we can add a blood substitute, I am not at liberty to share but in Lucumi they use red palm oil or epo when permitted by the shells for ebo. This is added along with the florida water at the end when the bath is set on fire, therefore you will need to use a cauldron or white metal enalmare basin.

Light a candle to God along with a clear glass of water each time.
Then mash and mix the leaves in warm water, putting prayer, songs and intention in.

Present the mixture to the  directions: EWSN in order each time.

Begin by taking a good cleansing shower or bath to clean the body.
Perform the bath neck down then dress in clean clothes, avoid sex or touching another person for 24 hours. It is preferable to sleep on white sheets alone, and wear a white head wrap to seperate your energy from others for the week. This is the time after until January when we clean and cover our altars with a white sheet, then we feed and perform an illuminayson to welcome them back. So this first bath is also protective during this time our misterios are less active.

Choose an odd number of ingredients below and add it to the warm water. Do the bath for 3 or 7 days.

Version#1

A white enamel bowl or a clean cauldron or fireproof bowl, can pace on cement, bricks or a cement slab

• 3 bunches of flat leaf parsley, recommend organic if possible… no pesticides

• 7 limes or lemons
• white rum, or coffee

•  7 coins or adding up to an odd number (does not count as an ingredient, throw into river or donate after)

• 1 bottle Florida Water
• 
  
• Version#2

One or two handfuls of fresh basil leaves
Seven key limes and citrons, cut in halves 
A handful of white mustard seed or yellow mustard seed. 
A pinch of rock salt or sea salt
white rum
1 bottle Florida water

Version#3
A bluing square, ball or liquid laundry bluing
4 lemons, 3 limes
1 bottle of Florida Water
1 bottle of Holy Water
3 liters of warm water
A large handful of fresh parsley
A small handful of rue (fresh preferred or dried)

Version#4
One teaspoon each, of 3 minerals - ex. crossroads dirt after paying 3 cents, salt, household ammonia, laundry bluing, gunpowder or saltpeter 
A handful of 3 fresh bitter plants such as parsley, bay, rue, sage, rosemary, and can use basil
One cup or bottle florida water, can also add rum and other alcohol based perfume, or coffee

Add the Florida water and set this on fire until it burns off. Fire hand passes can be done.
You can set a white novena in it to charge after you are done working the bath.

Take the solid material of the bath and a bottle of fresh Florida water. Place the material in a glass bowl and then pour the Florida Water over it.  Let it soak for a day, then strain off the liquid and rebottle in glass. You now have a weaker yet still potent version of the bath, floor wash or a spray you can use again. Keep in fridge if not using soon. Take the material (the solids) and wrap them tightly into a ball/packet and place it on your altar where it will continue to pulse it's power for the year.  Either that or leave them in the bath to scrub yourself, and dispose of the remnants.
When you do the bath do your prayer and light another white candle after a normal shower.

Bens chance New Years bath for prosperity and good luck
Baths are also made for luck, infused with the magic power of this time of year, and can be used for the new year, or for a specific purpose in mind. Usually done Dec 24-26th and January 6th-8th the Feast of the Epiphany for the  three kings or magi for the majestic bath. Some also work with the Erzulie's on this day, due to their association with luck, money, and the ability to break all black magic. They can be save for a short time when needed or done after the cleansing Christmas bath. Choose an odd number, or 5 or 7 ingredients below, plus the water, and do for 3, 5 or 7 days. I will be making a basil milk spice perfume variation.

Version#1
A white or white enamel bowl with warm water
warming spices: Cinnamon sticks, star anise, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg are good choices
fresh Basil
sweet perfume/cologne such as pompeya, 4711 or florida water, or rose or orange water
sugar or sweetener (like half a teaspoon or so, just a little bit)

Version#2

To a clean basin of warm water, add:
1 bottle of Pompeya Lotion perfume
1 bottle of Reve d'Or perfume 
1 bottle of 4711 perfume
1 bottle of Florida Water cologne
1 handful of star anise
1 handful of fresh basil
1 cup of rum (Rhum Barbancourt, from Haiti, is the best, but any good rum will work.)
(This one is expensive, and better suited to a larger temple group)

Version#3


Put half a basin of cool water aside. Simmer in a pot on a stove some water and into it add some cinnamon sticks, 2 or 3 star anise pods, a spoonful of honey, and about a cup or two of your choice of milk. Non dairy plant based milk or goat milk also works. Simmer until the scent begins to release stirring now and then. 

Let cool slightly then add to the other basin of water. Take a handful or two of white flower petals, add a teaspoon of sugar if desired and a couple splashes of sweet perfume (like pompeya, 4711, rev dor, florida water) or rose and/or orange water. (I buy mine at a local arabic market). Then add the basil.

Other ingredients you can use or substitute: mint, coconut or goats milk, vanilla, orange juice or juiced oranges or sweet fruits, floral essential oils like jasmine, gardenia, orange.

Beer, gingerale or champagne add when cool about to do the bath so the bubbles are still present, said to add good airy spiritual fluids to elevate your spirits, as well as your energy.
Beer and champagne are favored my many cool and female spirits, and are also great for prosperity.
The remanents of this bath can be used as a floor wash, and wash the front stoop.

References

http://blog.vodouboston.com/2013/01/three-kings-night-and-the-good-luck-bath/
Forty Days and Nights of Purity: Lent, Haitian Vodou Style by Mambo Tann

http://blog.threekingsvodou.com/a-hot-time-in-the-ol-town-the-christmas-baths/
http://sosyetedumarche.blogspot.com/2013/12/bain-noel.html 

Sancista 7 crossroads

Just judge & the 7 african powers

 Alot of people think the 7 african powers are the Orisha but they are not. The confusion came from the saint image of Jesus crucified with an array of saints around him. It did not come from the yoruba faiths that work with the Orisha neither, it came from puertorican espiritismo. People saw these products in the botanica and decided to use them without cultural context, and bad information was spread. You will also see the statues used as 7 madamas or 7 congos as a group of guides, sort of like a package of spirits. The original image likely came from someone in espiritismo to honor their own 7 african guides.

The Orisha religions do not have this concept of the 7 african powers of being "the most important" or prevalent Orisha at all out of a pantheon of hundreds, of some who will be more personally concerned with you than others. The Orisha are all received in ritual and pots anyways, or are in your court and not to be used as a group or pick and choose either. The beginning rituals in Ocha, usually is to receive the 4 guerreros or warriors for your own personal growth and care: Elegguá, Ogún, Ochossi and Osun. This does not make you an initiate until you make kariocha with your personal Orisha.

The 7 african powers are spirit guides, dead elevated humans, just like the madamas, or la madama, not everyone has one of these commissions in their spiritual court or cuadro that makes up your spiritual frame.
Therefore there is no reason to be petitioning them or honoring them without this knowledge, as it will weaken your spiritual connection with the guides you actually do have. Despite people making products and writing books that are not in these traditions since the 1980's.

They represent different african tribes, of dead, that one may have, and one will usually take the lead and come through a reading in Ocha or a misa (seance) in espiritismo. No one person will have the same guide that comes through this category. Dr E, a spiritualist, santero and hoodoo doctor identified them as coming from Yoruba, Congo, Takua, Kissi, Calabari, Arara, and Mandika tribes. Within the diloggun oracle’s corpus of information, the Seven African Powers are heavily referenced in the odu Edigbere (7-8). Interestingly, this odu also speaks about the importance of the drum as a tool to call down the Orishas and it also speaks about the power of Congolese magic within the religion of Palo. (however beyond that one cannot comment on Palo or ones spirits within that religion unless being a priest of Palo, but the dead are the dead). It speaks of working with the dead in context of being around the person, which santerismo, palo and espiritismo would be a path open to them being associated with strong dead.
If a person were to receive the odu 7-8, it would indicate that they have the Seven African Powers in their court of spirit guides and it would be up to them to seek an Espiritista to determine who they are, what their names are. 
Copied from http://santeriachurch.org/the-seven-african-powers/

I do disagree when he says anyone can approach them because we all have dead. Yes we all have dead, but it is appropriate within these traditions and for safety to go to misa, and work with your dead you actually have first. Its not to say you will have these at all, so its pointless. Can you call forth a dead from each tribe? I suppose, at your own risk with varying results. Would this then be guides as used in the originating culture, or the 7 african powers, no. It would just be working with the dead. And they are usually not ancestors, and guides are mostly contracted and present since birth. The best thing would be to enquire before a misa, or get a investigation or reading.

Elekes or Orisha necklaces hanging in a botanica, for the priests of Ocha to sacrifice and prepare over with specific leaves. Note on the second left: 7 potencias or powers. Many in Ocha also practice espiritismo and if they do both may call it Santerismo, especially in New York. In Sanse we do not do animal sacrifice, but may rarely participate in the need to have it. Our necklaces are prepared differently. In the Maria Lionza sect in Venezuela, they use 3 different races in figures of the Indio, African and Eurasian to represent the hereditary and ancestral cultures and of mankind as the 3 powers or potencias, a spiritist tradition, also of the dead. In Sanse you may also see this used, even though they are specific spirits, to represent the 3 groups.

The 7 african tribes are usually worked with a 7 color candle, and a 7 different color striped or patched cloth. For us in Sanse and puertorican espiritismo, 7 is the number of the higher spirits such as Lwa, enlightenment, the auric field light spectrum, and the celestial energies of planets. In my tradition we do not use the 7 bead pattern of 7 colors necklace. We do use a multicolored necklace from the more congo lineage, as we have palo pracitioners in our house. The multicolor also represent all your personal dead including ancestors, necessary spirits of the dead and guides, not just if you have these 7 african powers in our house. This would be called the egun and the egungun associated with the multicolor dress outfit in the yoruban faiths. This is why Oya the Orisha of the cemetary gate is associated with the multicolor skirt, the colors of the wind and dead, besides her brown-red-purple burgundy and the multicolor stripe skirt of the Palera. 9 is moreso associated with the dead and her number. And we use 9 color bandanas on our white table to the dead, 7 on the divisional table to the Lwa. I have seen one lineage use the 7 color 7 bead necklace sequence for the misterios or Jefe Lwa that a emmisario or messanger dead of the Lwa, but we personally do not do this, and have our own way of making a bead necklace for a misterio, but this is not traditional, nor receiving an eleke as they do with Orisha. In Haiti some hounfort do have necklaces which belong to the temple with a specific number of beads to represent all the misterio for the Mambo or Houngan, or made for a Hounsi if it is known the misterio they are under.

                                                       Oya –by Susan Matthews

Egun dancing masks, Benin, by Susan Carlslund

The just judge image is used for folk magic such as hoodoo in justice or court case work, usually in a multiple odd number of novena candles. The just judge is Jesus in the protestant tradition, or Yaweh as they are not polytheist as the judge of mankind, or at least the judaic followers. But it is also a mystic glyph of the sun who is the roman glyph of sol invictus, invincible (winning), and of the bay laurel crown (corona from the sun) of success and victory. Jesus's death signified victory over death as soul everlasting, as well as the justice of a new deal over old testament and Mosiac law. As lady justice has been blinded, many turn to court case work to get a fair trial, for forgiveness, against enemies (as the old guard god of vengence), protection from enemies, or a positive legal outcome. Psalm 94 is sometimes used.

This image and story contains many secrets held within the magical qaballah and hermeticism, and of the numbers, 7, 8 and the dead and solar mysteries.

Of course there are many different Jesus images, as there are fewer than the assorted Mary's used to represent the higher misterios of the Lwa and Orisha. The crucified Jesus may be use to represent Ogun of war and blacksmith god of making the nails and sacrifice, justice and progress,or Olofi incarnated god, the thorn crowned as power of god as mars, the one of good hope or esperanza as Torolisa the bull Lwa, and the sacred heart as Gran Solier sun Lwa.

The 7 saints usually picture around this is:

• Saint John the Baptist.
• Virgin of Regla.
• Saint John the Baptist.
• Saint Martin of Porres.
• Saint Joseph of Arimathea
• Jesus Christ on the Cross.
• Lady of Mercy.
• Saint Barbara.
• Lady of Charity of Cobre
•  The saints are not the Orisha, Lwa, nor the dead guides in question, and saints are used as such in a religious or catholic folk witchcraft, or modern hoodoo sense. As the saints were also not originally in hoodoo, added in since the 1970's. Just Judge, Jesus was used in the protestant sect.

There are many prayers you can use for the just judge. This prayer is from the book:
 New Revised Helping Yourself With Selected Prayers:

Oh Just and Holy Judge, Blessed Son of the Virgin Mary, let my body be calm and my blood be washed so that wherever I may go, the hands of my Lord Jesus Christ be in front of me. That of St. Andrew before and after me. St. Peter's in the back and the middle. Those of the Virgin Mary, that my enemies may come and go with eyes but without seeing me, with arms but without hurting me, and that justice may not apprehend me. That my body be covered with the cloth that covered Jesus Christ's body, that I may not be hurt, or dead, or incarcerated. Oh Virgin Mary, this prayer I say for good or evil that my enemies hold against me. If any sentence be in this day against me, let it be revoked by the blessings of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen

During spiritualist misas, just judge prayers and chantry or mass for the souls of the dead are done to the just judge and especially around the day of the dead, after funerals for their benefit, and souls in purgatory.

 I hope that this clears up the issue and should not discourage you, but encourage you to find out who your spirit guides are, inform your practice, and further your learning. Use this information to evaluate correct resources and teachers, who should actually be in the tradition you are learning about.

Sancista +++++++