On November 15th, Daniel Rodriguez, an initiated priest of Santeria gave a talk titled “Thrones of the Gods, Altars of the Soul”. He spoke about Cuban Santeria, in the sense of how it is meshing with modern society and spoke about his experience growing up in the Santeria tradition. Rodriguez also gave a very detailed description of each Orisha represented within the birthday altar of the Fleming Museum.

Rodriguez began his talk, with a brief introduction to Santeria. Also called Regla de Ochá or “gift of the Orishas”. Santeria’s name originated from Spain from the Spanish word Santero, which means sculptor, and this was the word used because before Santeria was an accepted practice, practitioners used to disguise their Orisha’s as catholic sculptures. However the word Santeria, split up means Santo, or saint and “ería” which in the Spanish language means a store or seller of something.

Rodriguez then began to tell the audience, that Santeria in very recent times in our society has come under fire, being negatively associated with Witchraft, or “devil’s work”. This was a main point of Rodriguez’s talk, as he spoke very passionately about Santeria, and he creates a very valid point, of the benefits of speakers like him, speaking authentically about the traditions and practices of Santeria, from a personal point of view.

Santeria, as a religion, is one that had been brought from Africa through slavery to the Caribbean. Today Santeria is considered a non mainstream religion, but to many is considered very “new age” and esoteric. Santeria is heavily based on a system of Hierarchy between practitioners, that is achieved through years of studying, practicing, and dedication to the Orisha and to Santeria. Rodriguez has been initiated for 31 years, and has built himself as a priest, and as a knowledgable practitioner. Rodriguez disclosed to us, the audience that when you are first initiated, you are given a few Orisha to worship, and eventually throughout your practice and moving up in the Hierarchy you gain more Orisha, and Rodriguez related this concept to the birthday altar. He mentioned that even though this altar is extravagant, altars for practitioners are usually smaller scale than this one, even for Rodriguez, a long-time initiate of Santeria.

Rodriguez began giving detailed descriptions of each Orisha represented in the birthday altar. Including Olocun, Ochun, Oco, Chango, Inle, and most importantly Yemoja and Obatala. Obatala is the orisha, or god that is most associated with Jesus Christ within Catholicism. Yemoja is the focal point of the birthday altar, and Rodriguez tells us that Yemoja, the Orisha of the sea, translatlanic voyages, mother of the world, etc. can be distinguished by her high stance above the other Orisha within the altar. She sits highly on her pedestal surrounded by blue and white fabric, the colors most associated with her. Each Orisha has a place of hierarchy, and this is shown within each Orisha’s height within the altar. The Orisha’s hierarchy is as real as the hierarchy within practitioners of Santeria, and this is described by Rodriguez when he says that “ The gods are just like us, and we can identify with them, they are not all holy and all perfect”.

I believed that Thrones of the Gods Altars of the Soul was well worth attending. I learned greatly from Rodriguez’s point of view, and personal experiences with trying to break negative connotations associated with Santeria, and a brief history of both Santeria and each Orisha created a combination of history and culture within Santeria. Rodriguez, as an initiate of 31 years spoke highly and creatively about his practice, and what it means to him, his brothers and sisters, and the Orishas. I actually wanted to do more research about Santeria altars and about Initiation of Santeria practitioners, after the talk. I learned a great deal about the hierarchy of Santeria that I didn’t know existed, and the unique humanistic point of view looking at the orisha of Santeria.