Sanse as we know it developed within Puerto Rico as a form of Espiritismo Cruzado, created as it was out of a mixture of 21 division practises brought over from the Dominican Republic. Espiritismo that had already been brought to the island by the spread of Kardecian ideals and bruja based practises. Added to these already disparate elements were native Taino beliefs and practises, the influences of french, irish, indian and haitian immigrients, chinese labours, romany gypsies and even pirates. As such Sanse became somewhat of a cultural melting pot of these influences and ideas. This is even reflected in the mythology of how Sanse came to exist, as stories tell of a 21 division Papa Boko who came to live in Puerto Rico. Over time the native spirits already served on the island came to him asking to be served, under the direction of his own mysterio he began to do so creating Sanse in the process.
So why is it relevant to talk about Sanse being a cultural melting pot when talking about misappropriation? Well the answer comes when we look at what some of the best minds on the subject have to say. Cultural and racial theorist George Lipsitz argues the following:
When the majority culture attempts to strategically anti-essentialize themselves by appropriating a minority culture, they must take great care to recognize the specific socio-historical circumstances and significance of these cultural forms so as not to perpetuate the already existing, majority vs. minority, unequal power relations.
Now bearing in mind that Sanse came out of at least a hundred years worth of cultures mixing and influencing each other (and has itself socio-historical reasons for existing). The argument that it somehow performs cultural misappropriation begins to become somewhat weakened.
Further serving to undermine this idea of cultural misappropriation, is the fact that sansistas only ever work with a spiritual entity if they are approached by it in the first place. This is because a sanse practisioner's cuadro is open to attracting new spiritual enities based on factors such as personal ancestery, personality and potential lessons that an individual may need to learn in this incarnation. Typically a sansista can find out about a potential new addition to his caudro through a number of methods such as misas designed to investigate that individual's spiritual court, possessions, readings, dreams, visions or signs and portents. When a practisioner suspects that he may have a new additional to his spiritual court he will frequently turn to the authority of a more developed medium in order to have this confirmed. This is to ensure that any attempt by a malenvolent spirits to try to trick the medium into working with them can be uncovered.
Now to individuals from a more conservative tradition, this may come across as an unusual way to unravel the mysteries of someone's spiritual court. But while sanse does have its own traditions and teachings it must be remembered that it is first and foremost a path of mediumship. Practisioners are also very careful to confirm new additions to their caudro through evidence based confirmation, this is done to avoid a sansista from wandering into delution and self deception. For example from dreams and visions i've personally had, i've been able to learn information about certain deities that have had astounding correlations in real life spiritual practises. Such as finding out about the association between umbrellas and hindu deities, offerings for certain buddhas and the traditional colours used for certain saints in sanse.
Finally its important for me to stress that while we can and will work with a wide range of spirits within sanse, certain ones are considered fundimental to our over all development. A sanse practisioner will always try to prioritise their personal mysterio, guides and seres before working with other spirits for example.
So why is it relevant to talk about Sanse being a cultural melting pot when talking about misappropriation? Well the answer comes when we look at what some of the best minds on the subject have to say. Cultural and racial theorist George Lipsitz argues the following:
When the majority culture attempts to strategically anti-essentialize themselves by appropriating a minority culture, they must take great care to recognize the specific socio-historical circumstances and significance of these cultural forms so as not to perpetuate the already existing, majority vs. minority, unequal power relations.
Now bearing in mind that Sanse came out of at least a hundred years worth of cultures mixing and influencing each other (and has itself socio-historical reasons for existing). The argument that it somehow performs cultural misappropriation begins to become somewhat weakened.
Further serving to undermine this idea of cultural misappropriation, is the fact that sansistas only ever work with a spiritual entity if they are approached by it in the first place. This is because a sanse practisioner's cuadro is open to attracting new spiritual enities based on factors such as personal ancestery, personality and potential lessons that an individual may need to learn in this incarnation. Typically a sansista can find out about a potential new addition to his caudro through a number of methods such as misas designed to investigate that individual's spiritual court, possessions, readings, dreams, visions or signs and portents. When a practisioner suspects that he may have a new additional to his spiritual court he will frequently turn to the authority of a more developed medium in order to have this confirmed. This is to ensure that any attempt by a malenvolent spirits to try to trick the medium into working with them can be uncovered.
Now to individuals from a more conservative tradition, this may come across as an unusual way to unravel the mysteries of someone's spiritual court. But while sanse does have its own traditions and teachings it must be remembered that it is first and foremost a path of mediumship. Practisioners are also very careful to confirm new additions to their caudro through evidence based confirmation, this is done to avoid a sansista from wandering into delution and self deception. For example from dreams and visions i've personally had, i've been able to learn information about certain deities that have had astounding correlations in real life spiritual practises. Such as finding out about the association between umbrellas and hindu deities, offerings for certain buddhas and the traditional colours used for certain saints in sanse.
Finally its important for me to stress that while we can and will work with a wide range of spirits within sanse, certain ones are considered fundimental to our over all development. A sanse practisioner will always try to prioritise their personal mysterio, guides and seres before working with other spirits for example.
