Quimbanda means sorcerer.
Quimbandas are sorcerers who during slavery, both in African Bantu and in Brazil, were known for their quimbandero works which included being in a trance, smoking cigars, drinking and being in contact with the dead.
Many of these Quimbandas resembled the things they represented and worshiped. After their death, many were considered to be the messengers of Eshu whom they had served faithfully in life. According to the Bantu and the Indigenous traditions, the spirit of the shaman or sorcerer returns to earth through the trance of some living sorcerer.
Quimbanda is not synonymous with devil, with darkness, or with witchcraft. Like in any spiritist expression, it is a way to move forward in daily life, trying to progress spiritually having people around us, i.e., our friends who with their advice and strength give us joy in times of affliction.
The magic of Quimbanda is not to do evil. The use we make of it is our fault and not the entities’ fault.
In the beginning there was only Nzambi, the owner of all secrets.
Nzambi was a great mass of energy that could explode, and it did: millions of pieces of matter became a star, a planet, etc. And from there all the elements of the universe began to separate and the universe became bigger and bigger. Then, Nzambi decided to create a being that could go through all the different spaces. Thus, focusing on a point he created Eshu. Eshu was made both man and woman at the same time and was given 7 powers (hence the origin of number 7 in him for everything):
– To have the key that opens the boundaries between one space and another, between light and dark, between hot and cold.
– To be free to choose between the good and the bad.
– To have knowledge of everything and memory of all things from birth, as well as the ability to enrich his wisdom following his own experiences.
