The orisha crossed the ocean wearing saints' faces.
Yoruba religion as it survived slavery in Cuba: the orisha syncretized with Catholic saints — Shango behind Santa Barbara, Yemaya behind the Virgin of Regla — initiation lineages intact, drums intact, and today practiced openly across the Americas.
DeitiesOlodumare distant; the orisha present — the saints their public faces
Founded1800 CE · Cuba
AfterlifeThe dead are tended; the ancestors (egun) come first in every rite
TextsThe Lucumí inheritance of Ifá
The map
Santería / Lucumí’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
The saints' faces kept the orisha alive.
Syncretism was strategy: Santa Barbara's feast fed Shango for centuries. The masks can now come off, and often do.
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Initiation makes the priesthood.
The orisha is seated in the head (kariocha); lineage godparents carry the ashe forward — no self-made santeros.
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The egun come first.
No orisha is greeted before the ancestors — the dead of the lineage open every ceremony.
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Kariocha — the seating of the orisha.
Seven days of seclusion, the head crowned, a year in white to follow — the making of a priest.
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