Sanse and cultural misappropriation

When talking to other practitioners of ATR traditions, i've found its quite common for people to raise concerns about a perceived emphasizes on cultural missapropriation. Now as I look across at my at my altar, I can see parts of it devoted to mysterio, commision spirits, saints, buddhas and hindu gods. So from a first impression it would seem I have misappropriated various deities onto my altar. However first impressions can be deceiving and in order to truly ask if my interpretation of Sanse performs misappropriation, you need to first look at the culture and practises that created the religion.

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.

Commisiones, en corrente spirits and mysterio

Within Sanse regular mention is made of commisiones, los seres, en corrente spirits and mysterio. However alot of the time it can be confusing for someone new to sanse to see these terms and understand what they mean. As such I thought I would write a blog post explaining the difference between these spiritual forces. Now these terms all refer to various groups of spirits which are vital to the practise of sanse, most of these beings are ancestral spirits that are at various levels of spiritual elevation.


The first group I will discuss are the mysterio, now these are the exceeding powerful and elevated spirits. They are ancestral forces that are seen as having come directly from african deities, the spirits of dead african slaves or from the native gods of the Taino people (the Native American people who originally inhabited the islands around Puerto Rico and the Dominican republic). These spirits tend to be the foundation of a sansista's spiritual court, they will oversee a medium's spiritual and physical development throughout a medium's life. They tend to be associated with various environments, forces or ideals such as love, luck, the sea, rivers, beauty, anger, war, etc. As such they are often prayed to or invoked for there protection or aid when it comes to the matters over which they preside. Because the mysterio are seen as being more elevated and therefore bigger and more abstract forces, they are also correspondingly harder to call into possession. Therefore in sanse they often work through proxies.


Which leads us nicely to the subject of en corrente spirits, these are muertos (dead spirits) that have agreed to become a proxy for a particular mysterio in order to elevate themselves. They will turn up in possession in that mysterio's place and will talk and act for her or him. Because they were once a living person they will have their own personal likes and dislikes that may be different from the spirit that they serve. They will also have their own name, for example a en corrente spirit of Zili Danto might be called Hannah Danto or a sanse of Belie Belcan could be called Robert Belcan. The advantage of a mysterio sending one of these spirits is that are smaller and less elevated and therefore will be easier to call. This also means they will take less of a toil on the medium if they possess him or her (in terms of how tired the medium becomes afterwards).


Finally the last type of spirit that can be worked with in sanse is a commisiones spirit, there are many types of these spirits. Most of the time when a medium refers to a commisiones spirit, he is normally talking about los seres. These are muertos that have reached an elevated state (although not normally as elevated as a mysterio or a deity) and have become associated with a particular class, job, role or ethnic origin. In some ways they are almost like smaller versions of the mysterio themselves, as their own particular role allows them to have specialities within that sphere. for example the marinero commisiones (sailor commission) are particularly good at aiding in giving a person's life direction. The madamas (black slave spirits of the home) specialise in folk and kitchen magic and the arabes (arabic spirits) aid in teaching the magic of the djinn and islamic magic. As los seres are generally less elevated then the mysterio their possessions are easier to achieve and they require less energy to summon.


There are also a number of commisiones that have reached levels of elevation equal to the mysterio, for example the hindu gods, orisha, saints and buddhist spirits can all be served in sanse (long with a number of other spirits). They are generally conceived to be within the same scope of elevation and power as the mysterio.

Division de Metresas

If there is one group of spirits in Sanse that I feel an especially strong connection with it is the division de metresas (the division of female spirits). It is the division off all the beautiful female mysterio, and is often invoked when dealing with matters of love, empathy, wealth and spiritual cleansing.


As these spirits are so important to me, I wanted to talk about some of the mysterio that are part of this division. The division itself is ruled over by Metresili, a spirit that is intrinsically linked to love, beauty, luxury and wealth. She is a very beautiful spirit, passionate and romantic in the extreme but sometimes prone to immense sadness. For when she comes in possession, many times the pain and disappointment of our world fails to live up to her idealised expectations. Like many of the Metresas she loves to be given flowers and also has a passion for expensive perfume, jewellery and sweet candies and pop. She is normally offered pink, white and blue. However, (as is common in sanse) she may be served with other colours and offerings as she sees fit.


The dreamy and alluring La Sirena is another important spirit within sanse and in some ways is quite similar to Metresili. She is a siren that rules over the mysteries and wealth of the sea and is said to call men to her with her enchanting glamour and voice. She is the patron of singers (and in my own personal experience artists as well) and can be called on to help improve these talents. Of all the metresa she is one of the most empathic and understanding. As such the people she walks with sometimes have problems saying no to others, even if sometimes it would benefit them a great deal to do so. La Sirena loves to be given perfume and jewellery just like Metresili, however she has a great love for mirrors and combs and can also be offered melon. Unless she requests something different, colour wise you can offer her sea blues and greens.


Anaisa Pye is one of the most popular female myterio within Sanse, she is seen as being a beautiful young woman who loves to dance and is associated with joy, sex, love and wealth. She is extremely generous and if she comes in possession she will often consult over a number of matters such as love, work and money. Anaisa is a mysterio that rules over all the things in life that bring joy and as long as she is well placated she will work hard for the people that serve her. However she can be a very jealous spirit and if she feels she is being ignored or sidelined by someone she walks with she can wreck havoc in her servitor's life. She loves to be given flowers, mirrors, Corona beer, perfume and cigarettes. Colour wise she will often ask to be served with bright yellow.


Santa Martha La Dominadora is another well loved mysterio within both sanse and 21 divisions. She is associated with snakes and as such (depending on the puntos she arrives in) she will often crawl around on the floor. She is most famously a dominator of men and will often aid in bringing back a potential man (or snaring a new one). She also often cleanses people when she comes, leaving them free to attract the attention of those they like. She takes brown eggs, flowers, cigars and cigarettes and is often served with the colour purple.

Todays been a day when i've felt relief, because everything has been peaceful and still. To be honest i've needed it, as I haven't had much of a chance to sit down and reflect on my life in the last few months. But i'm grateful because I got the chance to truly think about the good things God and my spirits have brought me.

This is because sometimes when i'm caught up in the act of living I forget to look at those things. Instead of appreciating what I have and what i've achieved, I look at other people and find myself lacking. I compare myself to them, imagine how they see me and end up losing to their imaginary perfection. But thats the thing people aren't perfect and most of the time I think we are all trapped in our own little bubbles, comparing ourselves to others and finding ourselves lacking.

But if their is one thing a number of my metresa have taught me, its that we should be ourselves. Or rather the very best of ourselves, because we're beautiful inside and out. And the God that we reach towards everyday made us this way, so we should remember it and be grateful.

Twenty twelve

Its been a little while since I last posted on my blog. This is because my life has been a little bit chaotic over the last month or two, but I feel like its been a good chance to reassess my life and think about what I want to do with it. This is also been a chance for me to look at how I respond to difficult spiritual experiences, as well as the knock on effects that it has on my life.


Its also been an exciting time for me; I've been learning new spiritual techniques, I'm about to undergo another spiritual initiation and I've been refocusing on key spirits in my life that I have allowed myself to get distracted from.


So it looks like 2012 might be an interesting time for me and hopefully a good time to progress, spiritual, mentally and emotionally.

P.S. Also hopefully no Apocalypses on the horizon...

Tonight I sat down with my guide, I prayed for him and talked to him. Then I spent the next half an hour getting upset with him. You see he had told me some things which I didn't want to hear and to my shame i'm not always the best at taking bad news. I wish this is the first something like this has happened but its not, its not a frequent occurrence but it is something that happens occasionally.

But the thing is as I got upset, prayed for a different outcome and generally acted like a bit of a dick, my heart began to clear. Feelings poured out of me that had been building up for weeks; my frustration, loneliness and heartache boiled to the surface and my guide took all those feelings and left me cleansed of them. He told me to have hope, that my spirits would guide me and he lifted up my heart. In short he took all my pain, bitterness and anger and in its place he left me feeling peaceful and hopeful once again.

And for that I'm truly grateful to him, because my guide and my spirits aren't just there for me when things are going well. They are also there for me when I'm in a bad mood, or sad or angry or depressed. They help to pick me up when I fall down and they help to steer my course when i'm heading in the wrong direction.

The Ancestors

This week as I do every week, I lit a candle for my ancestors and I prayed for them and for their elevation. I thought about the people I loved who had died in my life and I sat and listened to their advice and their wisdom.


Ancestor veneration is a very important part of Sanse, this is because as my papa says you come into the world standing on the shoulder's of your ancestors. Without them I wouldn't be here right now and without them letting in my other spirits in I couldn't work with them.


When I first started practising I found working with my ancestors one of the hardest things to do. It was painful to think about the ones I love who had died every week and so I tended to avoid doing it. Once I began to serve them however, I began to deal with those feelings of grief and it helped me to remember my ancestors with  loving memories rather then painful ones.


Now when I serve with my ancestors its a deeply positive experience. I get the sense of them being like a wall or a chain, they surround and protect me. They lend me their wisdom and their strength and act to help me in numerous way. Furthermore as I have begun to work with them more, I have begun to discover new commission spirits and discovered links between my own family and the Mysterio that walk with me.


As I work with them more I hope to discover more about them and help them rise up and one day when I join their ranks. I hope I can provide the same understanding and wisdom to future generations that they have given to me.