PAI JOSÉ and the teaching about our senzalas from inside and outside - the illusions of the world

From the series of four articles in Cantinho dos Anciãos: Life and Wisdom of Grandfathers and Grandmothers[1]

Image: Painting Old black, oil painting, by the Brazilian painter Vicente Caruso (1912-1986).

“Every Senzala[2] has, has tears, has pain, but has love for more than a hundred” – Pai José

In our first series of articles from Cantinho dos Anciões “Life and Wisdom of Grandfathers and Grandmothers” we bring the stories of Pai José, Vovó Maria Conga, Pai Cipriano and Negrinho Curador. In each life story, a theme will be addressed to deepen teachings of great wisdom experienced and passed on to future generations by brothers and sisters who cultivated simplicity, humility and universality throughout their lives.

The stories are intertwined by the abrupt arrival of Mother Africa through slavery and later by living with the violence of mistreatment in the lands of Cruzeiro do Sul. In the historical moment, Fazenda Santa Clara, in Santa Rita de Jacutinga, in the interior of the State of Minas Gerais and on the border with the State of Rio de Janeiro, received in an earlier moment, among many blacks, Pai Cipriano coming from Mãe África and in the time of the boy José , Grandma Maria Conga who had arrived at the farm very young. Both Pai José and Negrinho Curador were born to black parents and as slaves on the farm.

Picture of Santa Clara Farm, in the municipality of Jacutinga, Minas Gerais

Image: Credits from the Minas Gerais website of the State Government of Minas Gerais.

The environment of the farms and slave quarters was determined by an almost uninterrupted routine of work every day, as Grandma Maria Conga reports:

When we were kind of sad because sometimes sadness hit. Oh! Within mother slavery it was not easy. We thought ‘tomorrow all over again, the same thing’. Then we would arrange the places to sleep in the slave quarters, right. After our prayer, because the prayers were not always comforting, [because] the illnesses that I had in my mind [disturbed], you know. Then the blacks all over there and others over here. Packing all things for sleep. (Vovó Conga, 23 de setembro de 2014)

The very hard day's work created exhaustion of body and spirit, leading many to despair and others to seek in the high divine forces and nature the necessary knowledge to overcome the daily trials of pain and suffering. According to the report of Grandma Maria Conga, at bedtime, in the slave quarters, Pai José would arrive:

[...] after we had finished things in the field or when I had finished things in the kitchen at Casa Grande, he would come and ask us: ‘Are you ready for my children to sleep? Then each one said a little sad. 'We are!'; 'We are my father!', ‘There, I too, deep down, said we are my father’. [He continued] You stop mimimi! Stop wanting to sleep in life! Life was not made to sleep, you try to become aware and start to understand that life has to be overcome. So enough of mimimi. You can all sleep and leave that mimimi in your sleep, because tomorrow I want you all strong to deal with life. Then, with his cane, he put the herbs in the pot, because there was no tobacco like there is now! It wasn't like that! He prepared the dry leaves and then squeezed them with that very small, very black, very old hand, because he was old, hehehe, Then he took and squeezed those dry leaves well and then mixed them with some things that I don't know what it is, but I know that when that smoke exhaled there in that senzala. hey! My people, how good it was! Cleaned us all up. (Vovó Conga, 23 de setembro de 2014)

The pinch came with herbs from the bush harvested with a lot of knowledge and spiritual guidance to appease and revitalize body and spirit. Never to dull as there was a lot of work to be done first thing in the morning. The prepared herbs emanated balmy aromas that comforted and relieved body aches and had psychic repercussions on the emotional balance at the time of rest and revitalizing sleep. This simplicity to help and humility to teach everyone is transmitted through life in each experience lived with people in their joys and pains.

The knowledge of herbs for cures and treatments and the teaching of virtues to strengthen the spirit and practices in good and love comprise the mysteries of the wisdom of grandfathers and grandmothers. In the words of Darcy Ribeiro, about the knowledge and mysteries of this cultural matrix, which for so many times had its value diminished and even despised, it is possible to state that (2014):

It manages, even so, to exert influence, be it lending tricks[2] by speaking Lusitanian, or with [...] the little that he was able to preserve from the African cultural heritage. As this could not be expressed in the forms of adaptation [...] because they were rigidly prescribed by the structure of the colony as a stratified society, which was incorporated as a slave -, it would survive mainly on the ideological plane, because it was more hidden and own. He means, in religious beliefs and magical practices, to which the black clung in the enormous effort to console himself with his destiny and to control the threats of the unfortunate world in which he had submerged. Along with these spiritual values, black people retain, in their most hidden depths, both rhythmic and musical reminiscences, as well as culinary knowledge and tastes. (RIBEIRO, 2014, p.91)

The search and approximation of this knowledge, as well as its rescue, not only culturally, but mainly due to the responsibility towards spirituality, demand a lot of commitment and discipline from each one for the gradual development in the thoughts and practices of good and love of good. next. That's why the life and story of an old black man and an old black woman in spiritual lines comprises a living legacy of spiritual evolution put to the test in the bonds of faith. Links that were marked at the time by one of the most inhuman periods in our history, the period of slavery[3].

According to the historical research by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), Brazil 500 years on the Black Presence in the Brazilian territory and its settlement, Brazil was the country that most promoted the slave trade in the American continent between the 16th and 19th centuries. Just over four million men and women and the equivalent of a third of the entire record of the historical volume of the slave trade. The origin of the black matrix comes mainly from Mozambique, Angola, Congo and Nigeria (RIBEIRO, 2014, p.88).

Very different ethnicities and religiosities coming from a continental cultural melting pot, Mother Africa. Their diverse dialects already created many cultural divisions on the African continent. When this diversity arrived in Brazil, it was not welcomed and integrated with balance, quite the contrary. She was violently and inhumanly forced by enslavement into even deeper cultural shocks. The direct purpose was the workforce for all forms of menial activities and linked directly and concomitantly to the generation of profits for their lords of sugar plantations and coffee.

Pictures: In the image on the left, the facade of Casa Grande and in the image on the right, the building of the slave quarters with false windows, at Fazenda Santa Clara in Santa Rita de Jacutinga.

Images: Credits to the Santa Rita de Jacutinga Turismo website.

The farms comprised the Casa Grande (big house) and the Senzala (slave quarters)[4] a symbolic set of institutional structures for all enslaved men and women. This complex of structures was applied both on coffee farms in the Southeast of the country and on sugar plantations in the Northeast.

Image: Photo credits to Márcio Lucinda-Sauá Turismo.

The story of Pai José takes place in this context in the last century of slavery in Brazil, around the 19th century. According to a report by Carlos de Ogum (2023), Pai José was possibly born to black parents and as slaves on the same coffee farm[5] in the southeastern region of Brazil. Pai José is a relatively common name in Umbanda (monotheistic and afro-brazilian religion)[6]. At the baptism of black slaves[7] before arriving at the farms, the name of origin was changed to a Portuguese name, so many slave men and women began to have Catholic-oriented names such as José, Maria, Joaquim, João, Pedro, among others. To differentiate them, their origin was added, Joaquim de Angola or Maria de Angola, and also João do Congo, and so on.

Pai José, perhaps, did not have the opportunity to earn a name from his cultural heritage when he was born in Brazilian lands. However, from a very young age he saw and experienced the same pain and suffering shared by all the brothers and sisters enslaved in the slave quarters. He felt the weight of bigotry and malice continually exerted by the violent thoughts and actions of slaveholders and their overseers.

Nothing is known about his father, but, according to Carlos de Ogum's report (2023), his mother carried knowledge and great faith in the Orixás from her origins. This knowledge revealed great things to him and strengthened him through the force vibrated by prayers. A woman of great faith and great love for her Orixás who constantly addressed herself in songs and prayers chanted amidst the prayers and supplications, renewing her faith in the future and in the Orixás so that they could alleviate the sufferings and pains of all those intertwined by life and who today made up the bosom of his family in the slave quarters.

After a while, her mother lights up with joy at the feeling of having received the blessing of the pregnancy from the Orixás. During that period, on a day of her prayers of supplications, but now, also, of graces for the moment lived, this joy is renewed by a revelation while she was sleeping.

Picture: Woman with child in her lap, São Paulo-SP, 1910

As he fell asleep, after praying, the figure of a black man appeared to him and in his firm voice announced that a child would be born from her womb who would bring hope to all the brothers and sisters on that farm in the future. The child, the man said, would be a great healer for illnesses and pain, and also a loving conductor for the referrals of many tormented, confused spirits and even obsessors linked to the trials and circumstances, which, they were all interconnected in the environment of that farm.(OGUM, 2023).

Image: Portrait of the Italian and Brazilian photographer Vicenzo Pastore (1965-1918) in the city of São Paulo in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

This gift and this light of the child will be able to help many and all who resort to it. The black man stops for a moment and looks at the radiant face of the woman and mother, then complements, however, a difficult test will come when he is seven or eight years old. According to the report by Carlos de Ogum (2023), at that “[...] age he could be taken by the force of evil, and that force would do everything for the boy’s spiritual light to go out.”

In a few months the child was born. In the slave quarters, in his mother's arms, everyone contemplated an energy that enchanted everyone coming from the child's happy and angelic face. The blacks surrounded and took turns caring for and helping the mother with the boy. The child grew up under the watchful eye of his mother who did not forget, not even for a moment, the recommendations received by the black man in his dreams. Even more, because the boy José was a child who naturally sought to help people in need, for being vigilant and always ready, he attracted the attention of his mother and everyone else as he shared great kindness and sympathy through the practice of his actions.

It is no coincidence that in the wisdom of grandfathers and grandmothers there are always sayings coming from the Christic message: “We did not come to be served, but rather to serve” (Marcos, 10,45).

Picture: Woman praying with crying child

Time passes and the child is now eight[8] years old. His mother's apprehensive heart hoped that the boy Joseph would pass unharmed through the difficult test that had been announced to him while he was still in her womb. However, shortly after completing his eight years, the trials came in the form of hemorrhages without any visible physical reason, as they originated from great psychic and spiritual manifestations that weakened his body.

Image: Portrait of Italian and Brazilian photographer Vicenzo Pastore (1965-1918).

His very distressed parents sought help from the overseers and they refused, and even threatened with the trunk. The parents got together with all the brothers in the slave quarters and took turns with many prayers and prayers, while they sought the intersection of an old black man from the farm, who was a healer, healer and with knowledge of magic, he already traveled around serving countless other farms in the region , his name was Pai Cipriano.

The moment of this intersection is marked by a choice of courage, sacrifice and a lot of love by this old black man. The cure for the boy in a very serious condition and quickly evolving into an even more difficult condition would require much deeper knowledge than Pai Cipriano was used to.

Os detalhes e o aprofundamento desta história do menino José estarão no segundo artigo dessa série A história de Pai Cipriano e o mistério da magia da Luz.

Pai Cipriano spiritually verifies with the boy the great difficulties for his treatment and prays to the Orixás for the guidance that comes with enormous wisdom from the center of the forests, from the purity of the Elementals, Elements and Enchanted Ones[9]. The path to the herbs would be in the thickest forest and during his absence he applied a blessing to stabilize the effects on the boy's body and asked everyone to stay in prayer until he returned. The path indicated by the Orixás in their visions was through the forest. At a certain point, when entering the forest, it seemed like another dimensional reality accessed by permission of the Elementals, as if he had passed through a portal, and after finding the herbs, the way back, proved to be very difficult, but in the end he arrived at the farm, despite being quite weakened in the face of trials. The bath with the herbs is given to prepare you energetically for the blessing that is applied afterwards. While the boy recovers, tea is given to him from time to time to dissipate the last effects of psychic actions.

After this hard test of life in the face of difficult rescues and sacrifices, Joseph has his spirit temporarily freed from the ties of the past that were intertwined with brothers still remaining in obscurity. The kindness and natural satisfaction that José had for helping those in need, now received the use of new knowledge and future skills coming from the skillful hands of his master Pai Cipriano. In the words of Carlos de Ogum (2023): “From this cure, José dedicated himself to learning all the magic, blessings and the art of healing through herbs and roots, just like his master and savior, the old black Pai Cipriano”.

“Every Senzala has, has tears, has pain, but has love for more than a hundred” – Pai José

The emancipation of our inner and outer slave quarters is to convert them into sanctuaries of light, freeing each one of us from the captivity of illusion. The meaning inferred from Pai José's words is in the wisdom of those who have lived through the experiences of suffering, pain, difficult choices in crucial moments and the courage to overcome great sacrifices so that the light of Divine Love flourishes in the core of the spirit. These are words that represent the real magnitude of how love is developed in all of us and, therefore, how much willpower it takes for us to continually establish the foundations of that love in the community around us.

For each of us raising these foundations naturally expands the vibrations of thoughts and attitudes to others. This expansion of thoughts and actions is done in proportion to the knowledge acquired and the improvement of consciousness in simplicity, humility and universality. Primordial precepts and virtues coming from the Elder Masters and reverberated throughout the Path of Light for all beings who choose the path of spiritual evolution.

That was Pai José's choice, the boy who became a grown man, forged in the toil of the farm and in the solidary work with his brothers and sisters in the slave quarters. Gradually, he was recognized for his tireless effort and for not giving up on any obstacle, especially regarding the care and spiritual treatments of those in need, as his master Pai Cipriano, experienced and taught. Pai José returned the violence of the world around him with simplicity and understanding and his emotions were always demonstrated “with soft speech, a shy smile and a penetrating look, which enchanted all who sought him out, whether they were enslaved blacks, foremen or even the workers themselves. masters who owned slaves [...] He was really different, [...] he had a wonderful gift of calming pain, both in the physical body and in the spirit.” (OGUM, 2023).

At a given moment in the formation of Pai José, a second great story crosses his paths. The story of the black woman and as a slave on the farm, who would become known for her determination, knowledge and courage in helping other brothers and sisters not only in the slave quarters, but beyond, Maria Conga, better known today, in the lines of Umbanda and beyond, like Grandma Maria Conga. Pai José's life partner would share the hard journey for a long time, and in this journey of life, there would still be a great encounter with the third story intertwined in Pai José's path, that of the “Negrinho Curador”.

The stories of “Vovó Maria Conga” (Grandma Maria Conga) and “Negrinho Curador” (Little black Curator) will soon appear in the third and fourth articles of the Cantinho dos Anciões series “The life and wisdom of Grandfathers and Grandmothers”.

A few years later, with countless stories and works yet to be told and shared at the right moment by Pai José and by all those who were part of those moments, one event stands out from the others, mainly due to its correlation with the events of his first great trial in life.

The spiritual brothers[10] in the condition of obsessors awaited gaps in Pai José's spiritual guard to try again an incursion in their initial objectives, as we had seen previously. However, the years went by and Pai José grew stronger in the serenity of his thoughts, actions and in helping everyone. Thus, the brothers, still subject to the obscurity manifested by their thoughts and actions, did not reach and did not succeed in their objectives of diverting Father José's path of life.

Upon repeatedly noticing the practically insurmountable difficulties in harming the old black man in his serenity, the legion of brothers then began to analyze who in Pai José's surroundings could be affected. The chosen person had to create a gap and create enough imbalance in Pai José for him to fall into a trap. They patiently waited for the right day and time, when most of the blacks in the slave quarters were more fragile, including other external factors in addition to the hostile environment of daily mistreatment, such as climate change.

Thus, on a given day when all blacks were gathered at night in the slave quarters, a collective atmosphere of more fragile energies was formed as a result of suffering, mournful thoughts and even increased by the almost freezing cold of a winter night with lots of rain. The Blacks, with virtually no shelter and still at the mercy of a beaten floor with a few cold boards scattered in isolated parts of the floor, tried with great difficulty to stay together to warm themselves around small fires in the shed of the slave quarters.

Men, women and children as slaves around a campfire

Image: Cutout of the canvas "Slave market" by the painter Johann Moritz edited by us in another background image that shows a slave quarters shed in its internal environment.

At one of these bonfires, Father José was vigilant, but he was already showing signs of tiredness and was getting ready to fall asleep, when he felt something strange in the air and while looking with his eyes he noticed something strange in his “godson and protected”[11], The boy was the one everyone called "Negrinho". Father José at that moment approached and began to probe the boy. Upon discovering in Pai José's heart a paternal love for “Negrinho” the legion directed all efforts to psychically dominate the boy in the same way as they had done in the past with Pai José.

The objective of the brothers trapped in their illusions of the past between vindictive thoughts and resentment was to destabilize Pai José's emotions, planting the seed of hopelessness with the boy's fatality, which would undermine his faith and his luminous work in solidarity with everyone (OGUM , 2023). The legion of brothers quickly enveloped the spirit of the “Negrinho” boy, isolating him psychically and spiritually, as much as possible, from his physical body. The densified energies gradually expanded the domain until it became very fragile in its energies and lost its bodily vitality.

Pai José didn't have time to lose, the situation became critical very quickly. The boy's spirit had possibly been taken to dark regions. On impulse, he feels that he needs to do something profound and urgent so that the boy's body sustains its vitality and gains a little more time in the treatment to rescue the reconnection of the spirit of “Negrinho”. According to the account of Carlos de Ogum (2023), Father José, in a gesture of deep love and sacrifice for his godson, approached him and:

[...] embraced him and raised himself in prayers, and in that instant he understood that the soul of the little one had been given over to darkness, [...] Black José, still embraced with the inert body of his godson, cried out for Oxalá, [and ] asked his master Cipriano for understanding and wisdom. [...] and at that moment he heard her serene voice telling him, that the strength of his faith would lead him to save the child's already lost soul, he should [therefore] strengthen his strength, cry out to God with all the strength of his faith, and let his spirit take over the boy's body. By doing this he would be able to keep a soul in the inert body of the child, and in the same way he would be able to take his soul into the dark depths to rescue his godson “Negrinho”. But in no way should he weaken his faith, because then his soul would be trapped inside the dark fortress of the obsessors, and he would end up enslaved by Kiumbas and Zombeteiros (Mockers) (OGUM, 2023).

Undoubtedly there were many risks involved and the overriding recommendation was an attitude of unshakable faith that both could return safely. To our earthly eyes, everything that was about to happen would be revealed in the image of a desperate Father embracing the child and trying with his own bodily heat to save the inert body of his godson from the clutches of the intense cold in conditions that were heading towards possible hypothermia. However, Pai José's mediumistic spiritual gaze revealed an even greater situation in view of the circumstances, a possible even more painful suffering for the child's spirit. His spirit could miss the luminous mission that lay ahead.

Pai José concentrates, elevates his thoughts to the Greater Light and followed the guidelines of his master Pai Cipriano. The spirit expands and shares with the inert body of your godson when entering a deep trance. In trance, his body is agitated, becoming tremulous and his half-closed eyes reveal the psychic-spiritual discomfort with the region and the environment of densified energies in the darkness. The focus is to go with faith in search of the rescue of the soul of the little one (OGUM, 2023). The dark region weighs and drains spiritual energy very quickly and produces dense effects on the senses, creating illusions that shake the emotional even more. Concentration must be precise and continuous.

There being no room for error, he advanced, but in a short time he was surprised by many brothers. It was the legion that awaited him anxiously to weaken and imprison him. The concentration of these obscured brothers fell on the spirit of Pai José to deconcentrate him and lead him to paths with even more darkness. In some of these paths, fetid odors were amplified to cause enormous confusion in his psyche. During the journey, at each step, he prayed and prayed while remembering Pai Cipriano's advice that now resounded in his spirit with a subtle vibration. The fortress of labyrinths supported by generations of thought forms and feeling forms, in a huge obscure egregore of these brothers was overcome with a lot of effort and faith in the Greater Light, “[...] showing that their faith was greater than anything” (OGUM, 2023). Doing justice to the question, usually asked, by Grandfathers and Grandmothers in treatments and referrals: “Who can more than God, my children?” and the affirmative and immediate answer is always: “Only God and no one else!”

As the paths opened up, the boy's spirit revealed itself in a certain location in the labyrinth fortress that would be difficult to locate specifically. The joy of finding him again and bringing him close was interrupted only by the collective action of the legion of brothers who, now, more desperate, for witnessing the frustration of their objectives before them, advanced without any strategy, attacking from all fronts and in the most diverse ways. These countless brothers were Eguns[12], Kiumbas[13] and Zombeteiros (Mockers)[14], just to exemplify a few (OGUM, 2023). Nothing helped, because firm in the faith of the Greater Light, the Light of the Great Light, the spirit of Pai José rose again and asks, with simplicity and humility, to keep his faith and thus be able to leave the dark fortress together with the boy's spirit.

In the midst of darkness, the spirit of Pai José feels a deep ardor of renewed faith when at that moment a great white light reveals itself and expands, enveloping them in that astral dimensional environment. He opens his eyes slowly and hears from the core of the white light a confident and familiar voice telling him to keep moving forward together with his godson (OGUM, 2023). The firm voice of Pai Cipriano soon appeared in that environment with a legion of brothers, warrior spirits of the Light, the Exus[15], who in turn were commanded by their brother Exu Tranca Ruas[16]. As they approached, they gained ground and gave protection to the spirit of Pai José and his godson.

The return of the two spirits to their physical bodies from that dense and obscured environment made Pai José come out of his trance and regain consciousness. Pai José's fatherly embrace is contemplated by the happy face of “Negrinho” who looks attentively at Pai José's exhausted face. The boy smiles in gratitude at the goodwill, faith and love shown by the courage and sacrifice of this old black man, who did not even think once, faced with the need and commitment, to save his godson's spirit. of the trials and the valley of darkness of the legion of obsessive brothers (OGUM, 2023).

Father José, according to Carlos Ogum's account (2023), then “[...] knelt down and thanked Zambi, our Greater Father. He also thanked his master, Pai Cipriano, and the entire legion of light workers, such as the Exus brothers”.

The story of Pai José has several other chapters that the few words transcribed in this short article are not able to exhaust. But the lesson taught and shared by life, experience and attitudes renew in all of us the luminous spirit of the principles of simplicity, humility and universality elevated and established through such a vigorous commitment in the sacrifice of courage and light for the love of others.

All countries, cultures, ethnicities, homes, thoughts and ideas, we all have the commitment to look closely at our inner and outer slave quarters, and seek to promote changes that free us from the illusions in which we live.

For each one of us, let's start by seeing how much can be done for the other in our families, our relatives and at the same time, for all those around us who need help. Don't forget that the wisdom of Grandfathers and Grandmothers (Old Blacks and Blacks) begins with the little things. The essence for the loving awakening that will direct the transformation of our own lives is in the details of life.

Therefore, observe your surroundings attentively, and reduce the illusions that cover your eyes and observe how much pain, suffering, hatred, anger, revenge, anguish, anxiety, doubts and hopelessness that can only be be released and circumvented with small gestures of respect, kindness, understanding, empathy and love every day everywhere.

Small attitudes with simplicity, humility and universality really promote the alchemy of Light in us. In other words of wisdom from Pai José, he says: “Learn, my children, that it is useless to be a light if you do not illuminate the Path of Others”[17]

I loved the Souls!

Epà hey Bàbá

Love, Light and Peace Always!

Save the Great Light!

Ruan Fernandes da Silva

Team Cantinho dos Anciãos

How to cite this article: SILVA, Ruan Fernandes. PAI JOSÉ e o ensinamento sobre as nossas senzalas de dentro e de fora, as ilusões do mundo. <https://www.cantinho-dos-anciaos.com.br/en/post/pai-josé-and-the-teaching-about-our-senzalas-from-inside-and-outside-the-illusions-of-the-world>. Accessed on (insert date you searched for this article here, for example: Accessed July 15, 2023).

Fontes:

Andrade, Vinicius. O Silva que nos une - A trajetória de um dos sobrenomes mais comuns do Brasil. Portal Claro! - <http://www.usp.br/claro/index.php/tag/silva/>. Acessado em 10 de julho de 2023.

CAMPACCI, Claudio. Os sobrenomes mais comuns do Brasil. Primeira edição. Publicação autônoma. 2012.

FILHO, Duílio Battistoni. A escravidão dos negros em Campinas. novembro 16, 2017 IHGG Campinas. <https://ihggcampinas.org/2017/11/16/a-escravidao-dos-negros-em-campinas/>. Acessado em 10 de julho de 2023.

LOPES, Manoel. Exu Pagão e Exu de Lei. <https://www.blog.mataverde.org/exu-pagao-e-exu-de-lei/>Acessado em 14 de outubro de 2018.

PIRES, Fernando Tasso Fragoso. As grandes fazendas de café. https://www.abic.com.br/tudo-de-cafe/as-grandes-fazendas-de-cafe/. Acessado em 09 de julho de 2023.

REIS, J.J. A presença negra: encontros e conflitos. In: INSTITUTO BRASILEIRO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA. Brasil: 500 anos de povoamento. Rio de Janeiro, 2000.

SOUZA, Lucas Irain – Babá Alá Omín. 24 de agosto: saiba quem é Exu Tranca Rua na Umbanda. https://dol.com.br/noticias/espiritualidade/767768/24-de-agosto-saiba-quem-e-exu-tranca-rua-na-umbanda?d=1. Acessado em 14 de julho de 2023.

[1] We opted for the denomination of Grandparents and Grandparents in the title of the series of articles, in view of the universality of the language, as Grandparents and Grandparents has a greater reach and inclusion of other entities that recognize themselves as Elders, as well as other cultural Traditions and religious.

[2] The sense in which Pai José, the spiritual entity Old Black (Preto Velho), uses in the context of the sentence is referring to spiritual, moral and emotional prisons throughout our lives.

[3] Contribute speech elements and language modifications.

[4] It is known that the word slavery means the possession of man by man, legally sanctioned and dating back to very remote times. Roman civilization, for example, subsisted through it. Modern slavery inaugurated under the sign of capitalism has as its basic objective production for the market through profit. In Brazil, at the beginning of its colonization and given the lack of labor in the fields, all social groups united in maintaining the system, counting on the collaboration of the Church, which taught the captive to see in his master, a father, someone that he should love and respect, offering him the sacrifice of his work and his sweat. Father Antônio Vieira, in the 17th century, addressing the black people on a plantation on the day of São João Evangelista, said to them: “There is no work or way of life in the world more similar to the Cross and the Passion of Christ than yours. ”. (Son, 2017)

[5] It is important to add that there was, according to Fernando T. F. Pires, a kind of “functional square” that was always present in Brazilian colonial farms, mainly those producing coffee. In the words of the author they were: “The set of buildings, notably the main house, the slave quarters, the coffee mill and the granary, usually formed a “functional square”, a name given to the way they were implanted in the natural site, having the coffee yard, in the center, as a reference.” Its layout, still according to the author, was in many places: “[...] modified or adjusted to the size of the property when, for example, there was more than one yard or the topography of the site presented unevenness” (PIRES, 2021 )

[6]According to the Grandparents' and Grandparents' guidance, it was Fazenda Santa Clara, in Santa Rita de Jacutinga, in the State of Minas Gerais.

[7]According to Pai Léo Del Pezzo, the best known name is Pai José de Aruanda, but there are also several others with their respective names and life stories, Pai José de Angola, Pai José da Guiné, Pai José das Almas, Pai José de Congo, Pai José Cambinda, Pai José Nagô, Pai José da Cachoeira among others Pai José.

[8] According to historians from the Immigration Museum of São Paulo in the Department of History and Genealogy, men and women as slaves who docked in Brazilian ports were renamed with Portuguese names and surnames by Catholic priests. The names and especially the surnames were commonly linked to the names and surnames of their owners by contract through the slave legislation of the period. According to scholars, the most common surname among Brazilians today stems from this process, as the surname “Silva” was a surname of many slaveholders. Literally all freedom of origin was coercively withdrawn, including the name. Another aspect to consider is the observation, according to research carried out by Claudio Campacci in his book Os Sobrenomes mais dois do Brasil, that there was a division of the Portuguese who arrived in Brazil and registered an addition to their names in their names, both for those who stayed on the coast adding the surname “Costa”, like those who would go to the interior of the country and closer to the forests, with the addition of Silva which means from the Latin Selva.

[9] In a mediumistic conversation with Pai José, he insisted on confirming that he was eight years old at the time of this ordeal.

[10] Throughout history, all peoples and cultures of the world have recorded and told legends and myths about extraordinary beings that populate nature. Whether by literature (Brothers Grimm) or by alchemists (Paracelsus) or even by researchers (Rudolf Steiner), the search for a better approximation and understanding revealed initial knowledge that indicate degrees of great purity from these beings. Even though the dimensional universe of these beings of nature is so particular in relation to us, there are many relationships and interactions built over time between these two worlds. In the Traditions of great knowledge there is a lot of respect for Elementals, Elements and Enchanted Ones, mainly due to the dimensional connection with teachings, wisdom and cures revealed by dimensional portals that reconnect us to what is most sublime and essential in nature and in ourselves.

[11] Grandmothers and Grandfathers' guidance at all times and not just for Spiritual Treatments and Guidance is that we should always address everyone as brothers and sisters. And that obviously includes the brothers and sisters who still have dark thoughts and attitudes. Remember, we are a cosmic brotherhood, a cosmic one comprising a plurality of worlds and dimensions.

[12]According to Carlos Ogum (2023), the Negrinho (Little Black Curator) who was born at Fazenda Santa Clara by black parents and in the condition of slaves was protected and godson of Pai José, but also, had been adopted by all the others due to his charisma and the her “[...] sincere and captivating smile, a really charming child.

[13] Eguns is a broad term with African roots, more precisely, from Yoruba to designate all disembodied spirits, whether evolved or not. In the negative condition of the term, disoriented souls and spiritists, very afflicted and desirous of any guidance, are bound in this harmony. However, the frequency of their tortuous thoughts does not free them from what they were and still want from material life, mainly about desires and feelings. Under these conditions, they find an environment in the astral that further enhances these illusory frequencies of desires and feelings, consequently entering into the tune of others who wish to do everything to maintain these same illusions.

[14] The Kiumbas, according to African matrices and Afro-Brazilian religions, are Eguns with thoughts, emotions and practices that are still very coarse and violent. They have an attunement with archaic traits of other lives linked by ambitions, corruptions and degenerations manifested by wars, discord, greed for power and status quo, revenge and great concentrations of hatred and resentment. They are all backward postures that stifle spiritual evolution. The consequence of this reiterated stance is the deliberate and accumulated manifestation of thought forms and feelings that create large negative environments and zones of obscure egregors. In the game of manipulations aimed at destabilizing projects, environments and people focused on good, they present themselves as guidance and protection entities in various religions, or even as Exus in Umbanda. However, their speeches are mystified. Misrepresented and distanced from the teachings and luminous practices of the Elder Masters and Lightworkers.

[15] The mocking spirits, according to African matrices and Afro-Brazilian religions are Eguns, that is, disembodied and identified more by personality characteristics than by shape differential. Thus, its characteristics are associated with mockery, mockery, bad taste or exaggerated jokes, mockery, mockery, satirists, among many others.

[16] Exu is a term, according to Manoel Lopes, in Exu pagao and Exu de Lei, from African matrices and Afro-Brazilian religions. Exu is understood as an egregore or hierarchy of spirits at different levels of understanding and discernment. They help in many types of spiritual work, helping in communication, protection and in processes of passivity and/or approach in mediums.

[17] Exu Tranca Ruas or Tranca Rua, according to African matrices and Afro-Brazilian religions, is an envoy of Ogum. Exu Tranca Ruas is the name of the commander of the Phalanx of Exus that bears his name, Falange de Exus Tranca Ruas. In the spiritual tradition, according to Lucas Irain de Souza, Babá Alá Omín, from the T.E.U.C.Y house, the performance and work of Exu Tranca Ruas and his Phalanx of Exus is the astral cleansing of the ways of the world, captain of the crossroads, guardian of the paths and defender of the oppressed. Activities that comprise, in essence, the responsibility of all Exus, that is, maintaining the balance between the spiritual world and the material world as guardians of humanity.

[18] Pai José's phrase shared by Carlos de Ogun's account, História de Pai José (2023).