What do you have to offer to the Devil of this Moment?

There are boundaries around each Kingdom.

Part of the mystery that is Quimbanda is that Exu and Pomba Gira are both transgression and obeisance, articulation and confusion, order and entropy. We walk with authority and agency in our own Kingdoms, but what happens when we exit what-is-familiar? Do we acknowledge the owners of the Kingdoms we now walk? The spirits that dwell in the street as well as the woods and beach? What is our relationship to them? Is it pure laud, or familiar respect, or perhaps even passive ignorance or active disdain?

When does the ritual begin? When we call attention to it.

The simplest of offerings changes our awareness: drops of alcohol on the ground of the tavern, a “Salve as Matas” when entering the woods, or stopping to balance a cigarette on a silver coin upon entering the Cemetery. Shifting our momentum, interrupting the inertia of habit, to acknowledge the world we share with our spirits, to acknowledge that we do not own the world, but exist in relationship to those we share it with–this shift of awareness is necessary to understand how and why our spirits work the way they do.

It is not as simple as hierarchical fealty, like peasants greeting their lord. It is understanding the roles each spirit has in their proper Kingdom. It is understanding that training and cultivating these relationships is a privilege born of hard work and time spent in communion with them, not conjuring and demanding. Exu and Pombagira are messengers yes, but not servants. So too of their priests. Priesthood is a choice to engage the world through communion with our spirits and learning from them. It is not something you can demand, it is something you cultivate.

Stop, look around–where are you going? Where have you come from? Do you know where you are? Before you cross this next road, what do you have to offer to the Devil of this moment?

Presence. Attention. Time. Changing our Inertia.

When does the ritual begin? When we call attention to it.

Salve Exu. Salve Pombagira.
Salve os reinos da Quimbanda.

Photo taken by: @sarahjezebel
Originally posted on Instagram @cabulamavilekitulakianjila
Reposted on Cabula Mavile Kitula kia Njila