Not everything involves the orisha or spirit guides. Some of it involves putting things in motion on your own, by using things like herbs, feathers, dirt, pictures, found items, etc. Pretty much anything can be used, really. Regardless of whether you call it witchcraft, hoodoo, etc., the concept is pretty much the same. It often involves using “sympathetic magic” to bring about change — using items representing your goal to manifest that goal in real life. The type of change, of course, depends on your intent, abilities, and state of mind. There’s also “contagious magic”, which uses items that were physically related to your focus. This doesn’t have to mean using the hair and nail clippings like in the stereotypical “voodoo dolls” popular in old movies. It could also simply be a piece of brick from a building, dirt from a location of importance, etc. Sometimes, there will be elements of both sympathetic and contagious magic being used. It really just depends on the situation.

Still, for someone like me who doesn’t do well with visualizations and “altered states“, working with my hands and actually creating something that way can be quite effective. I’m sure it taps into the same (or at least similar) stuff, ultimately, but just goes about it a little differently. I’m not very good at keeping my focus on stuff by just sitting. By actually creating a bundle, “mojo bag“, etc., I can keep the ultimate purpose in mind without needing to do it consciously. Also, just like with cooking, I can make minor adjustments here or there with the ingredients based on my own tastes.

The most basic of books on this topic is Santeria Formulary & Spellbook by Carlos Montenegro. It covers candles, herbs, incense, and oils. To be quite blunt, this book is geared towards a certain type of audience… If you lack confidence and creativity (be honest), it would probably be a great way to get your feet wet. It goes into quite a bit of detail on things that, to me, are silly… Since I have seen those same topics asked about online, I guess it can’t be dismissed as irrelevant. An example can be found in the Candle section, where it goes into the meaning behind the candle going out, the glass breaking or blackening, etc. While there could be something to that type of thing, I’d be willing to wager a bit of money that 99% of the time, it’s someone attributing spiritual explanations to something that is actually a common everyday type experience. If the candle went out, was there a breeze or is the wick too short? If the glass holding the candle broke, maybe you should try a different band, since it’s probably just that the wick wasn’t set properly and had been too close to one of the sides. Same goes for the blackening of the glass. It’s probably just an issue with the wick either not being set centered as it should have or it was made of inferior material to help save manufacturing costs. Don’t obsess over this type of stuff if it happens… That’s my advice. Also, some of the ingredients in the book were absolutely silly. A tablespoon of powdered bat…? Really? Look, this isn’t a freakin’ Shakespeare play. What I would have liked to see is more of the meanings behind things. So the only thing I can suggest — especially with hard to find plants and animals or even just stuff you feel would be a bit over the top — is to substitute it with something a bit more practical. Give some thought to why that ingredient was there. If it tells you to add semen (to represent virility, for instance), substitute it with a condom. Not as fun for us males, but a lot less of an “ick” factor. Instead of quills from an African Porcupine, use thumb-tacts. None of this stuff is written in stone. So rather than attempting to follow asinine ingredient lists, make it your own and have fun with it.

Next is Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo & Conjuring with Herbs by Stephanie Rose Bird. As is typical of most books published by Llewellyn Worldwide, it stays fairly superficial and includes “filler” like Four Thieves Vinegar. I would’ve liked to see more new content, but — overall — I was satisfied with the book. I think it would be a decent book for skimming, if you’re in need of ideas. There are elements of Santeria thrown in here or there, but mostly just in a way to try and add credibility to certain workings or whatever. Still, it wasn’t as distracting as in other books I had seen, so I’d still recommend it — at least for general reference or ideas. Also, totally unrelated to the content itself, I thought the cover’s artwork was nice. Most of the books I own are either extremely cluttered or quite plain.

The last book I want to review on this topic is Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions by Dorothy Morrison. First off, I absolutely loved the idea behind the book! Usually, books will talk about the importance of only doing workings that are for protection, prosperity, etc. and will just sort of brush over the topic of curses, hexes, etc. To me, I think it all sort of goes hand-in-hand. The whole idea of “do no harm” is absurd. It’s like running across a fly trapped in the spider web. What could you possibly do that would cause no harm in that situation? If you help one, the other suffers. So it’s kind of silly to think that if you do something to help you attract someone else, acquire financial wealth, or whatever, that someone — somewhere — isn’t going to be affected. It may only be slightly. You might not even know the person. And they might not even notice it. But you will affect them. That’s just how it is. Ethics aside, what did I think of the book? Eh. It follows the typical cookbook-style. One thing I really liked is that it actually explained why certain ingredients were used and gave suggestions for adapting things to your own need. Also, I didn’t find the typical nonsensical ingredients in this book, which is nice. One part that made me laugh out loud was a portion about using cemetery for portions of the work. Like the previous book, this one made generalized statements about the orisha as a way of adding credibility to various practices. This one, though, actually had a page-long “incantation” to recite to Oya before entering the cemetery. I think it’s important to enter the cemetery with respect — both for the dead, their family members who may be there during your visit, and Oya. But an incantation? That’s messed up. As a whole, the book was good. Like earlier, though, I’d recommend this more as a means of inspiration or better understanding of why things are done more than as something that should be followed exactly.

DISCLAIMER:

I know I shouldn’t have to say it, but — folks — use common sense and discretion. While I think it’s interesting to learn about this sort of thing, you should attempt to deal with things in your life like a NORMAL PERSON most of the time. If you have problems at work, try to work it out. If you can’t keep a relationship, try examining why that is. If you need money, try making a budget and sticking to it. If more people adhered to this extremely basic piece of common sense, there’d probably be a whole lot less drama out there. You don’t need witchcraft to solve your problems. You just need to focus on the right issues, not dwell on the negative, and make good decisions. The rest pretty much takes care of itself.

For those unfamiliar with a pataki, they are stories/myths of the orisha. Some share life lessons, elaborate upon odun, etc. Almost all pataki, though, are great at revealing the various idiosyncrasies and mannerisms of each orisha. They often give a more complete view than you’ll find in most “intro” books about the religion.

I bought a few different books a while back, all with patakis. Each had its own unique style.

First up is Santeria Stories by Luis Manuel Nunez.

The Good: The most complete book of patakis that I have ever seen. Very well-written. I strongly recommend this book. In addition to fairly general stories, the last section of the book is dedicated to stories relating to the oddun. Also, even though it’s fairly subjective, I really liked the tactile feel of this book — both the covers and the pages seem of high quality and make reading quite comfortable.

The Bad: This book is quite long at around 400-pages. There were some stories which were nearly identical but had a minor change in characters or whatever. I suppose that was to account for the differences in pataki between lineages and whatnot, but I still found it a little annoying.

Overall: Love it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys patakis or simply wants to get a better understanding of the orisha. Also, it should go without saying, but the reader should remember not to take everything literally…

Another book I picked up around the same time was Afro-Cuban Myths: Yemaya and Other Orishas by Romulo Lachatanere.

The Good: This one is a lot easier to read through. It has a lot of nice but minimalistic black and white illustrations along with some of the sections. The design of the book makes it feel a bit like something geared towards young readers, which might make it a good gift for children/teens who have an interest in the religion (or just like stories).

The Bad: While I loved the feel of “Santeria Stories” in my hands, this one felt very cheap. Also, for some, the hard plastic-feeling cover and design might distract slightly from the content.

Overall: Aside from my gripes about the book design, the quality of the material seemed decent. It’s nowhere near as complete as the Nunez book, but seemed to cover most of the popular stories.

Last but not least, I also have Sixteen Mythological Stories of Ifa (Ita Merindinlogun) by Chief/Ms FAMA. I didn’t know too much about Ifa at the time, so this just happened to be one of the books I got on it. I figured that its focus on pataki of the odu would help me better understand my readings later, if I needed any clarification.

The Good: For what it covers, it does a pretty good job. If you just need a quick reference to a specific odu, this might do the trick. There’s a glossary in back with the meanings of some of the names/words used in the stories, too, which is somewhat helpful.

The Bad: It’s a really short book with larger-than-normal fonts, charts, etc., so there isn’t a whole heck of a lot beyond the basic pataki. There were also some calendars in back from the late-90′s showing different days of significance in Ifa. Not all that practical these days — seeing as how it’ll be 2009 in a few weeks Also, the accent marks used all over the book — while perhaps technically valid — were incredibly distracting.

Overall: It’d skip this one, personally, unless you’re really into both Ifa and patakis.

Powers of the Orishas is the second and final Migene Gonzalez-Wippler book I own. I mainly got it as somewhat of a ‘cheat sheet’, for remembering the typical attributes of the various orisha.

The Good: It’s a very short book, so it works pretty well as a simple reference book. As I said, the list of attributes can be somewhat helpful when first starting out. It covers colors, days, numbers, items, etc. There are also discussions of some of the various paths of the orisha as well as common ebbos.

The Bad: The paths are interesting, but I doubt many of them are ones that you can crown or receive. The list of ebbos is pretty silly, in my opinion. That should come out through divination, mounting, etc. Unfortunately, I think the lists given will probably be used by people wanting to take matters into their own hands without actually knowing what they are doing.

Overall: It’s all about what your expectations are, I suppose. If you’re looking for something that focuses solely on the orisha and has a consolidated list of attributes, descriptions, and little pieces of information about each orisha, it’s pretty good. I suppose it would also be good for those looking to set up an altar, offering, etc. and want to pay homage but haven’t yet received that orisha.

Despite the drama revolving around the author, my first official book on the religion was Santeria: the Religion: Faith, Rites, Magic by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler.

The Good: A wide range of topics are covered. As with many introductory books, this is extremely good for people new to the religion, who really have no starting point yet. Unlike most other introductory books, though, it covers important areas such as eggun and even talks about things most people wouldn’t even think to ask about, such as what happens when a santero dies.

The Bad: Sometimes, it gets a little too diverse. I appreciate that the author was trying to expose the reader to many of the topics in the religion, I felt that the chapters on Palo and Candomble could’ve been left out. Also, looking back on it, some areas of the book were a little too detailed for my liking. I’m not one to rant about the pictures she includes of ‘sacred’ objects and whatnot, but I did feel that the detailed story of an asiento. Much like receiving elekes or warriors, a lot of the beauty and excitement is lost when a lot of the details are known beforehand.

Overall: If you have no exposure to the religion yet (which I doubt, since you’re on this site), it’s a decent book. If you’re already in the religion, it’s not really worth the money.

Rather than just my usual links to Wikipedia and whatnot, I also plan on doing some book reviews on here.

With each book, I’ll have a link to Amazon, so you can see other reviews and — if you want — get the book yourself.

I’m hoping to make a little money here or there by referring people to books I’ve read. It won’t bring in much, but it’ll at least help me get that much closer to making ocha.

Stay tuned! And feel free to share your own opinions on any of the books I list.