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Palo Mayombe: The 'Dark Side' of Santeria?

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.religion.orisha,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick
From: nagasiva@luckymojo.com (dreadcomber)
Subject: Palo Mayombe: The 'Dark Side' of Santeria? (was Drums & Shadows)
Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 03:20:02 GMT

50000801 Vom

it is time for me to ask some questions. :> hi Eoghan

eballard@sas.upenn.edu (E. C. Ballard) re: "Drums & Shadows":
> ...remarkably like the palo "Rayarmiento". pp70-72....
>Thank you so much for bringing this book up in discussion here,
>Christopher.

speaking of books, I just got one called 

"Palo Mayombe: Spirits*Rituals*Spells; The Darkside of Santeria"

published by Original Publications and written by Carlos Montenegro.
it contains spells and rituals, initiations, cleansings, a description
how to do an animal sacrifice, description of magical tree branches 
(palos), candle magic, descriptions of dirts and powders, and numerous 
pages of 'signatures of the spirits' (vevers). the author describes its
purpose as:

	to present to those of interest information about
	Spiritual Palo Mayombe as practiced by the
	Montenegro Family of both Puerto Rico and Brazil.

the back of the book indicates that this family practiced these
"secrets" for over 200 years and that Palo Mayombe "originates
from the African Congo and is said to be the world's most powerful
and feared form of black magic."

since you mentioned palo above and I knew you would have some idea
how realistic this book might be if you'd seen it, could you give
me some feedback on its reflection of general Palo Mayombe as you
understand it.

this question and post is also designated for all others who know 
something of the tradition as I'll be interested in archiving 
responses that I see in alt.magick.tyagi so as to get a good 
cross-section of opinion on this apparently somewhat controversial 
magico-spiritual practice and tradition about which I know little.

thank you for your time,

dreadcomber
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From: eballard@sas.upenn.edu (E. C. Ballard)
Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.religion.orisha,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick
Subject: Re: Palo Mayombe: The 'Dark Side' of Santeria? (was Drums & Shadows)
Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 00:21:10 -0500
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So far we've heard a lot of second hand nonsense. You will read nothing
more or less than rubbish in Montenegro's book as well. 

If you wish to read anything really worthwhile about Palo then go to the
spanish. Lydia Cabrera wrote several good books that deal extensively or
totally with the subject of Palo. Her famous title, "El Monte" deals with
all the African traditional religions of Cuba and a fair bit of that book
is about Palo. Her titles "Palo Monte Mayombe: Las Reglas de Congo" and
"La Regla KImbisa del Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje" are soley concerned
with Palo.

There are various ramas or branches within Palo. The complexities of these
are too many to discuss in this brief post. They exist because Palo, which
is very different from what is usually called "Santeria" - ie, the Yoruba
derived religion of the Orichas in Cuba. Palo is not derived from the
Yorubans of Nigeria but is from the Congo.

More later, it's late and all good paleros should be asleep.

By the way, Palo has a bad rap but it is largely for political reasons.

Eoghan

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