Yorùbá Religion

The Yorùbá religion encompasses religious beliefs and rituals of the Yoruba people. These practices were being utilized before the Yoruba community faced Islam, Christianity and other faith; it originated from Africa and into the New World. This influenced several Afro-American religions such as Lucumí in Cuba, Umbanda and Candomblé in Brazil; in addition to the uproot that took place of the homeland religions. Similar to many other religions that have some form of beliefs and practices, Yorùbá religious beliefs are part of an itan. This is the term used for the sum of all Yorùbá; which include: myths, traditions, folklore, and other cultural concepts which make up the Yorùbá religion and society. Yorùbá religion included a trance and divination
In the early eighteenth century the Spanish Catholic church allowed for the creation of societies called cabildos, modeled on religious guilds existing in Spain, which were primarily for African ethnicities and provided means for entertainment and reconstruction of many aspects of ethnic heritage. Yorùbá slaves practiced Yorùbá religious ceremonies in these cabildos, along with religious and secular traditions from other parts of Africa, combining and amalgamating their masters' pantheon of Catholic saints with their own pantheon of Orisha which is the Yorùbá word for god” (www.newworldencyclopedia.org). The Yorùbá religion is formed of a combination of various traditions; after the slave trade these traditions spread in various countries and Cuba was one of them. The Yoruba religion was adopt within the Cuban community and the religion of Santeria or La Regla Lucumí (Lukumí) was born. Santería practices, songs, dance, initiations, and rituals. Also, when reciting prayers of the religion, the sacred language of Lucumí is
Here the spirits of the dead are sought to provide ashé. Ashé gives the worshiper power to accomplish things – to be healthy, wealthy, and powerful over circumstances and enemies. The ancestors called egun, the people of heaven, provide moral ashé or right behavior. By speaking to the living through one mounted or possessed by the egun, advice and counsel is given. However, the information communicated from the dead to the living is not moral in the traditional sense in terms of right and wrong behavior. Ashé from ancestors, or orishas for that matter, may be sought for protection in criminal activity: protection from harm from enemies or the police, or for acquittals in criminal court cases. The egun may prescribe means by which opponents or enemies may be overcome or harmed. (www.earthenvesseljournal.com).
The second way of power is through orishas; who are personifications of ashé that people can use to honor them. “In West Africa the lists of the orishas, or gods and goddesses, number about 1700. In the New World the number shrank to either 400 or 401, depending on what information you have, but in practical reality, in contemporary Santerίa there are seventeen orishas that are