The spirit of gypsies as guides in Umbanda

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Gypsies in sociology are an ethnic group with ancestral relations to India. Nomadic in nature the gypsies spread to different countries and were heavily persecuted for centuries. Most European groups believe these group came from Egypt and the word “gypsy” was a corruption of the word “Egyptian”. In European Mediterranean countries the word “cigano” as it is in Portuguese came from a corruption of the Greek “tsigganos” (τσιγγάνοι). In 1971 members of the group gathered in London, UK, and decided to use the endonym “Romani” as the preferred way to refer to this group.

Umbanda centre continue to call the Romani people “gypsies” (ciganos). For this reason and being an article about Umbanda I will continue to use the term gypsies or ciganos for the remainder of the article. In the future revisionist groups might reinterpret as a way to continue to hygienize the religion.

The spirit of gypsies in Umbanda

As mentioned in the article “Umbanda, an overview” around 1908 one in every three Spiritist centres channeled the spirit of preto-velhos and caboclos as guiding spirits. With the formalization of Umbanda in 1908 mediums channeled four entities of entities and they are: preto-velho, caboclo, erês and exu. These four spirits make the first generation of guides.

Umbanda has many elements that open the religion for new influences: It’s syncretic by nature (the influence from Catholicism has been present from it’s beginnigs), its a new religion movement (outside of pre-modernists pretensions of being the universal truth), it’s Spiritualist (similar to Christian who are continuists and open to new prophecies, Umbanda is open for new revelations of guiding spirits) and it was created from the fusion of four spiritual traditions (Indigenous spiritualities, African spiritualities, Christianity and Allan Kardec’s Spiritism). Bad actors can also create a fifth element: In centres that are less Christian and less Spiritist mediums can sell magic rituals to believers, creating a financial incentive for bad spiritual leaders to add as many influences as possible to increase their markets and their profits.

It is in this context that Umbanda act: as a sponge of spiritual traditions, that the ciganos are added to this melting pot. In the beginning showing a type of pomba-gira and over time becoming its own line of work, called the line of Orient (lit. trans. of Linha do Oriente). The line of the Orient welcomed the influence for many Eastern esoteric traditions — Buddhist monks, Hindu gurus, gypsies and even ninjas were being channelled by mediums.

The traditional veneration of the Romani people for Saint Sara Kali was also added to Umbanda. Some call her Sara-la-Kali, “Black Sarah”, “Black Madonna” and many other names. St. Sara is considered to be the patron saint of the Romani people. Her feast day is the 24th of May with a big procession in the city of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the region of Provence, France. She is not recognized by the Catholic Church as an official saint.

The story is that Sara Kali helped the three Marys — Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary of Clopes also called Mary Jacobe. Soon after the crucifixion of the Christ she is put in a boat and sent adrift in the Mediterranean. Sara prays to Jesus and vows to spread the word of his gospel wherever she lands if she is saved. The story tells that the boat arrived to Saites-Maries-de-la-Mer and from there she started her work to preach the gospel to the peoples of the Provençal and Occitan region.

The veneration of Saint Sarah Kali is a traditional practising dating back to the 16th century. Above a painting of the popular saint.

The view that Umbanda had of the mythical ciganos was very different from the North American and European of the real Romani ethnic group. Ciganos in Brazil were seen as something exotic and from far away lands. The average Brazilian man in the 80s would think of a beautiful woman belly dancing, wearing golden jewels and covering their faces with thin silk veils, women would think of caliente passionate sex and mystics reading palms and performing magic rituals.

Part of the popular culture in the late 70s, 80s and 90s would reinforce this idealized perception of the ciganos. A famous singer Sidney Magal would release two music hits with this romanticized notion of the Romani: Sandra Rosa Madalena (1978) and Meu Sangue Ferve por Você (free trans. “My Blood Boils When I See You) (1977). I’m adding the link on their names in case you want to hear some 80s Brazilian music. Soap operas such as Explode Coração (1995) would feature ciganos as leading characters like the famous cigano Igor.

The video clip of the song Sandra Rosa Madalena (1978) features many drawings of gypsies.

In Umbanda today ciganos are seen as working all lines of magic — left hand meaning black magic or destruction magic and with the right hand with white magic and healing magic. They have a close connection with magic rituals for prosperity, can use crystal balls and work with divination — tarot, palm reading (chiromancy) and graphology.

While traditional Umbanda centres will never charge for any spiritual service, many card readers see the ciganos as a way to profit on their spiritual powers. It is said that for the gypsy tarot to work it is necessary to have an “exchange of energy” meaning that the fortune teller would need to be paid for the service to be delivered. It’s a convenient reason for them to charge for their time and one that fits the popular imagination of what Brazilians would expect the ciganos to do.

Historical development

Around 1980 a second generation of guiding spirits began to appear in Umbanda centres: The gypsies together with sailors, cowboys, malandros (bohemians) and many others would be channeled by mediums to continue the work of spiritual charity. Pomba-gira would start appearing as a separate entity from Exu and with a bigger protagonist of its own.

The first book that mentions the gypsies in Umbanda is from 1985 (Umbanda by José Guilherme Cantor Magnani). The first time the authors mentions these spirits is exactly when he was describing an Umbanda centre with “images of Chris, Holy Mary, Catholic Saints next to an image of Buddah, Iemanjá, indigenous, ciganos, preto-velhos and images that would suggest demons”. The author also describes them as being part of the Line of the Orient in contrast with the African Line or Line of Souls from the pretos-velhos. A third and interesting point is he reflects the widespread idea of the 80s that these entities are all part of marginalized groups in society (an important point to understand the development of the second phase of Umbanda that will be explored in a future article).

In 2005 a brief description from the psychology cornerstone project O Arquétipo do Malandro by Igor Macedo Fernandes would describe them as working with the exus and pomba-giras in the left hand of magic.

Finally in 2019 Leonardo Montes publishes Curso Básico de Umbanda and on the following year Eliana Pacco publishes Os Mistérios de Umbanda with an extensive dissertation of the essence for gypsies entities in Umbanda.

Names, offerings and greetings

The oldest book with a list of names for the gypsies that I could find is from Curso Básico de Umbanda by Leonardo Montes (2019).

Most of the names are proper names preceded by “Cigano” for masculine and for female “Cigana”. For males we have Cigano Wlado, Wladimir, Iago and others. And for females, Sulamita, in Umbanda centres and on social media you will find Cigana Carmen, Esmeralda and many other names.

The greetings for ciganos are varied. The most common being is “Optchá!” and it would mean “Hail!” or “Salve!” but I couldn’t find a source in Romani language (rromani ćhib) establishing a connection with a Romani word. Ciganos are also greeted with “Arriba ciganos!” and “Alê ciganos!” a reference for the mostly Hispanic origin of these entities or greeting to Saint Sara Kali.

Offerings for ciganos have some common elements with the offerings for pomba-giras. Believers usually deposit incense, coins, perfume, roses, bread, wine and dried fruit for these entities. Brazil went through many changes in currencies during the 90s and some believers may deposit coins with no current value but representing the energy of money and prosperity.

A performance of what Umbandistas believe happens in the incorporation process of a cigano:

[embed]Vídeo: Ciganos na Umbanda. Channel: TUPA — Terreiro de Umbanda Pai Arariboia.

This article was written by Light Through the Crystal and registered in the Brazilian National Library. The content is copyrighted.

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