Marinero, marinero

"Sailors in great storms invoke your name as the Lady of Regla, thereby freeing themselves of fear. Before embarking, they give you offerings in your church in Regla, thus assuring themselves of safe travel." - Excerpt from a prayer to Our Lady of Regla

Sailors, innovators, navigators and guides, the spirits of the Marinero commission are all these things and more. I first came to work with these spirits at a time of my life when I was in real need of direction. I had recently been let go from a job and my confidence and sense of purpose was at an all time low. By working with these spirits I was reminded of my degree and love of nature and turned to environmental volunteering as a way to both build my confidence and get my foot in the door of this career path.

This ability to offer direction and guidance for those lost at sea (figuratively or literally) is something that these seres are well known for and so they are often turned to for these matters. However they are also spirits associated with innovation and as such can help you to find new ways of doing and thinking about difficulties that may get in your way. I also have a strong association with them and travel as for me they are spirits that take you somewhere new. Therefore I might also ask them for protection or help when travelling to a new or familiar destination (especially when it comes to travelling over seas).

As is often the case I have found there to be a profound connection between La Sirena and the marinero spirits that have approached me. For my la Sirena and my guide have directed me towards these seres and the marinero act at this mysterio behest.

When working with the marinero it can be best to offer them a candle along with water, white wine or perhaps even a little rum.

A Sanse of your very own

I'm not Puerto Rican or of Latin American descent, not even a little bit. I'm a Welshman from Cardiff (Wales as a country is that little sticky outy bit attached to one side of Britain in case your wondering). So some people reading this blog might be wondering what (if any) insights I might have into the practise of Sanse.

Well as one of my spiritual brothers once advised me, you need to make a Sanse of my very own. Now, when I first began practising Sanse this was a bit of a daunting task. My initiator lives in America and while I am always able to contact him via email or telephone, there was still alot to learn.

So I started slowly which as it turns out was the best thing I could do, I built a strong connection with a few mysterio at first. This allowed me to develop my foundations, over time new mysterio appeared to me and my cuadro began to develop. My first initiation was a step into a wider world, I was told who my guide was and how to work with him as well as which mysterio would be particularly important to my spiritual development.

This was a difficult step with me as I had grown used to working with the loa and i didn't get the same immediate sense of connection to my guide as he felt quite different. However as time went by I began to build more of a repoire with him and slowly we formed a close relationship.

It was also at this time that I began to attract more diverse spirits to my court, this was helped by the fact I planned to travel to India. By doing so I opened the way to me working with both buddhist and hindu deities. This gave helped give my cuadro more peace and stability when it came to working to elevate some of the more difficult elements within my spiritual court. It also helped me open up to working with the catholic saints more and helped me understand their importance in Sanse.

Not all of the experiences I've had in Sanse have been pleasant, sometimes I've had to interact with some of the more unpleasant elements of my cuadro. After travelling I had a prolonged period of time where I had to look at some more lonely, bitter and painful parts of myself. It was a grueling process both spiritually and mentally but by doing so I was able to come to terms with some parts of my life and maybe if I couldn't fix them I could at least find serenity in them.

I took my cemetary puntos most recently and have discovered much about my seres in the process, it gave me a greater understanding of myself, my ancestry and my connection to my mysterio and because of the time I had taken to get to this point I better able to appreciate all the elements of my spiritual court.

If I've learned one thing it that patience and time are the greatest teachers and if you take your time to learn don't feel ashamed by what you do or don't know. We are all learning and its better to take in the view on this road then to rush and stumble. After all we're all still putting together a Sanse of my very own.

Luz y progresso.

La Sirena

As the The Diosa del la Mar, La Sirena is both the sea's merciful queen and its tempestuous siren and as such hold's sway over all the ocean's depths, treasures and mysteries. She is also a Sanse Mysterio that I am extremely fond of. In hindsight its not really surprising that I would become so drawn to her, all throughout my life the sea has called to me and has continued to inspire me as I grow older. As a child not only would we take numerous trips to the sea but I would sit and draw mer-people of all persuasion. My family had a history of sailors and people with a draw to the sea (and as I found out possible Marinero as well).  This love of the sea followed me all the way to university, where I ended up studied Marine Biology.

As befitting a queen of such a rich domain, La Sirena is said to rule over money, luck and love and the people she walks with are said to be naturally lucky. As a mermaid her song has a seductive allure and as such she is often said to be the patron of many a singer (and from what I have found a muse for many an artist and writer as well). This same allure has been said to enchanted many a man and her children may share this mysterious glamour and call many a lover to their side. She loves to be given mirrors and combs to either look into or brush through her hair and as such is often said to rule over vanity as well. Her dominion does not end with the sea, however as she is also believed to rule over the moon as well.

Like the sea La Sirena can be as dangerous as she is lovely and it is said she may drown people as a punishment (or even if she likes a person too much, so they can be with her forever underneath the waves). There are also many stories about La Sirena abducting people under the waters from 7 days to up to 7 years, when they are returned to the mortal realm they are said to have been taught a great number of magical secrets by her. However, she is a very loving spirit and if worked with properly is a tireless, forgiving and hard working mysterio for her servitors.

This mystery and beautiful spirit is found in Sanse, The 21 Divisions and Hatian Vodou and can be served with melon covered in honey, flowers, sweet refresco, jewellery and perfumns.

Losing touch

Having a spiritual relationship with a mysterio can sometimes be alot like being romantically involved. When you first meet a spirit that you are close to its an incredible experience, I remember when I started working with La Sirena and how passionate I felt about serving her.

But any good relationship requires work and you can find that life can get in the way, for me this involved a number of factors that slowly began to put cracks in my relationship with La Sirena. A mixture of serving too many spirits, too much time spent in front of my PC, serving by rote instead of heart and a lack of artistic drive all led me to feelings of emotional disconnection.

So after the realisation that something was wrong, it was important for me to look at how I could repair our relationship. I started by setting aside a bit of my day to meditate on her and remembering when and how I had first connected with her. Finding time each day to pursue my artistic talents helped to restablish my bond with her. Finally putting her first and foremost amongst any spirits I served and remembering why I care about her so much helped me to overcome the problems I was having.

The thing to remember is that none of us are going to feel 100% passionate about our spirits all the time, we're all human and we all have doubts sometimes and thats ok. But if we can remember the love that brought us to our path, it might be enough to overcome those feelings and bring us back to God and the spirits we love so much.

Now if you'll excuse me i'm off to do something artistic...

Makes the world blind

One night I dreamt I was in ancient Africa, there two men lived and raised cattle. Now one of the men was a good man and priest who served God and the spirits faithfully. Over time however a conflict emerged between the two men and they grew to hate each other. One day the other man attacked and killed the faithful man's cattle. Enraged over the death of his livelihood and being as he was a powerful magician, the priest decided to take his revenge. He raised up the spirit of a dead man, who had until then faithfully served God and set the shade upon his enemy. The dead spirit swiftly found the priest's enemy and killing him, he feasted on the man's blood. As he feasted on his victim the man's blood ran into the spirit and darkened this nature. Seeing what he had wrought the priest put aside his need for God and in his mind put himself in God's place. And the spirit who was bound to him was sad, because it had been lowered by this act and in its heart it wanted to serve God not the man.

We as practitioners of ATR traditions are in a unique position of responsibly, if we are good at what we do, we are given access to a huge amount of power by our spirits. Not only this but we are free to excise this power without much in the way of a visible backlash in response. If I wanted to for example I could hex my neighbours, perform magic to dominate any individual in any way I wished. If it worked and had severe and long lasting consequences, there would no police knocking down my door to interrogate me over my actions, I could essentially get away with this scot free This goes beyond the realms of hypothetical, I've met good people whose lives have been ruined by disputes solved through the use of hexes and cursing without any recourse to justice. But just because we can do something without immediate consequence doesn't mean we should (in fact perhaps we should if anything put more thought into our actions because of this).

I took a strong message away from the above dream, we are not God. We don't have an automatic right for revenge and by thoughtlessly acting malevolently we can make the world just that little bit worse, not just for our fellow man but for our spirits as well. As for our actions having no consequence, is that really the case? In Sanse we are taught that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. What we deal out will be dealt back to us either in this life or the next. Even if you don't practise Sanse or believe that the universe punishes certain behaviours its worth noting that in many cases people who are abused often became abusers themselves.

Now I'm not saying that aggressive magic should never be done, or that I myself am above things like petty revenge (as i'm really not sometimes). But I do believe that true justice is about more then a personal need for revenge, it should be about impartiality, higher law and tempered with compassion and integrity. Otherwise we could just as well be animals fighting in the mud.

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.