< >

3 Ebós* and a Herbal Bath

~

Karla Barroso & Daniela Brasil

this text was made for and published at #healing (faju)
20/12/2021
Curated by Alessandra Pomarico, Esther Poppe, Maya Varichon El Zanaty & Yayra Sumah
New Alphabet School
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Coordination: Olga Schubert

the_stone

 

Làròyé!*
May we…?

This is a healing protocol for walking on moving grounds in turbulent times. We think of healing as a path, a method, and a purpose. Healing is a process of self-knowledge requiring intention on an individual level, yet it is at the same time a collective process that favors endurance. We think of healing as an inner exercise for trusting and letting go, a seed sown in soils (whose composition we might not know, exactly) watered by our hope that it will sprout. To germinate, a seed needs essential conditions: devoted affection, care, attention, and trust in the flow of life.
Through this text, we would like to share a small selection of rituals and cleaning practices from Candomblé*–the afro-diasporic syncretic religion that is also the matrix of spiritual, corporeal and intellectual resistance of Black and Afro-descendant populations in Brazil, throughout centuries of colonialism. Ebós and the Baths are common practices in Candomblé, they are simple procedures for daily life. They are open to those who engage themselves through intention and attention, and don’t require initiation, just a disposition in seeking traditional knowledges and different worldviews. These procedures are indeed adopted by many with multiple spiritual affiliations. In Brazil, syncretic practices are the result of a plurality of cultures and voices that constitute the very formation of the country and that have always been connected with its history and practices of resistance. This plurality and, therefore, our invitation, are simultaneously forms of appropriation, reproduction, reinvention, reclamation and renewed creativity.

(…)

* Ebó

Ebó is the food with which you feed your soul and nurture your body. You can transform an element with a sense of healing, of circulating energy. Ebó invokes and circulates Axé, It does not work only on physical health, but it nurtures the Orí* (head), the individual self, brings strength to the thoughts, helps to have discernment, perception, and intuition.  (…)
Thus, in a decolonial framework, the intrinsic creativity in Ebó can be a form of communication, a process for those in search of transformation, looking towards another dimension, connecting in this case within the Yoruba cosmological dimension. Ebó is a rite and an encounter, it generates the sense that we can re-assemble our fragmented selves, resignify our existences, it is a call to our ancestry, moving beyond Western epistemologies. It is an invitation to stop and look around: where are we now? What is there calling for attention? Where shall we put our intention? Therefore, this path towards enchantment starts with the questions of who we are and what we want to transform.

We encourage you, dear Reader, Researcher, Learner, to listen to your inner questions and to try one of the Ebó recipes that we offer as a ritual. And to take a herbal Bath right after.

(…)

>>>>>> whole text available here:
https://newalphabetschool.hkw.de/3-ebos-and-a-herbal-bath

 

~

tagged under: 2021 Daniela Brasil publication research

hide project description ▽ show project description △