From: Tagi@cup.portal.com (Thyagi Morgoth NagaSiva)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan,alt.magick
Subject: Re: Santeria
Date: Thu,  5 Nov 92 11:29:13 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

9211.05 e.v.


Eshin-Fun writes:

[much omitted]

[Old Tagi}:

There was a request for information sources regarding Santeria.
I hope that someone will compile an authoritative list and follow
me up with it.  I have a very poor section in my library on this
subject, but I'll do what I can...


Eshin:

So, did you ever read the series on the Lucumi/Santeria that I have been
posting all along?? In fact there is one presently running LUCUMI 5.
In these postings there has been ample references and bibliography to follow
up the subject....


Response:

No I did not.  If I saw these, and I may have, then I found your writing
impenetrable and convoluted.  This says nothing about you, just that I
don't find your writing compatible with my reading taste.


[old Tagi]:

I've got some things about Voudoun and Yoruba, but these are somewhat
different than Santeria if my sources are correct.  Good luck!


Eshin:

There are good books and bad books. Whiples abortive attempt is a very good
example of a "bad" book. Lidya Cabrera's El Monte is an example of a "good"
book. Though both writers were uninitiated at the time of their first
writings, Cabreara is Cuban and got first hand info from old Santeros.

[Contentious criticism omitted.]


Response:

As I said, I have no claim to my sources yet was asking for a nice
bibliography (NOT an essay with a bibliography) about Santeria (and any
other of these subjects: Yoruba, Voodoo, Voudoun, etc., set into comprehendable
subject divisions where possible).  If you have this, please present it.
If it is attached to your essay series, please post JUST the bibliography
to this newsgroup and I'll be happy to compend a bibliography reposting 
each time the subject is inquired about in alt.magick.  Thanks.


Eshin-Fun:

Unfortunately, the Santeria phenomenon has more than terms and names of gods
to be understood. For there is also a cultural gap that has to be crossed, a
logic that escapes many American students as their upbringing is cross
circuited with many ideas and attitudes that would bar the student in
grasping many a point.


Response:

This is true for many serious traditions.  Santeria is not alone here.


Eshin-Fun:

For example, in America it is a common practice that a student take "notes"
and make refrence to "books" In the Santeria/Lucumi Vodoun Yoruba traditions
the native was originally comming from an illiterate background and an
ancient tradition of a) mystery religion b)apprentiship system. The French
in Haiti, and the Spanish speaking Cuban were the first to make records of
both the language in written form and record the oral traditions that
abounded mouth to mouth recitation.

To "learn" in these cultures was to "live" that which you were instructed
not to question, nor argue nor take it lightly like most people today follow
fads. To do otherwise automatically ended the interest of your teacher and
usually you would be left to vissititudes that in the end would confuse you.


Response:

Again, this is not isolated to these particular traditions.  Many are not
able to be derived via writings but must be lived to be learned (a good
example here is Zen Buddhism).



Thyagi
-------------------------------------------------------------
"I wanna be loved by you
By you, and nobody else but you.
I wanna be loved by you alooooone.
Boop-oop-ee-doo!"

Dunno the name of the song, but Marilyn Monroe is the one I
remember who sang it. ;>