Initiation & Training

For those interested in hands-on training and exposure to how Quimbanda works in a community and temple setting, we offer baptisms, empowerments, and formal priesthood training in the Quimbanda de Angola lineage. These formalized relationships demand physical presence and are reliant upon ongoing visits to the Temple to continue such training, supplemented by community resources online.

Quimbanda is a collection of practices codified by need.  Although often diverse in origin, these practices themselves do not arise out of nowhere- they are deeply a part of the inheritance of colonial Brazil. Quimbanda is a traditional witchcraft of Brazilian origin, born of the resistance of an enslaved and marginalized people. The practices that became called macumba and eventually Quimbanda have always existed in the context of community, not only in transmission, but in practice. These traditions at their fullest expression cannot be practiced alone. This appeal to community is embedded in the Congo-Angola mindset. The healer does not exist without people to heal; the community needs a healer. These healers, the kimbandas, transmitted their cures and medicines and passed on understanding and pacts with the natural world around them. As these traditions matured on Brazilian soil, other influences were incorporated, dependent on location and in reaction to the harsh realities of colonial life. Countless variants of these healing modalities continued to be practiced in small communities, sharing resources and knowledge to better themselves and their people. The Temples of today are an echo of the same impulse-to support each other in our practice and share resources to better serve the community, to better serve those who come to us for such medicine. 

Medicine here should be understood as a holistic concept: if you are poor, you have a dis-ease, an imbalance of money. If you are lonely, you have an imbalance of friendship and love, and so on. Health is our natural state where the body accumulates blessings and is able to function in the world. It is the job of the healer-now called Quimbandeiro-to remedy these situations. There is also a calling to become more familiar with your tutelary spirits–Exu and Pomba Gira–as a means of self-exploration and in turn, self-mastery. Our spirits have an intrinsic relationship with our shadows: our aggressions, our lusts, our desires, our envies, our resentments, our secret selves. These affinities contribute to Quimbanda’s reputation for being ‘dark’ and ‘evil’. Quimbanda is ultimately about agency, not morality. But no relationship is sustained without compromise and contract. And so the Quimbandeiro must make a commitment to observe and understand themselves and their impact on the world–not merely an assumed power over others, but truly, power over themselves. These spiritual affinities between a person and their spirits necessitates an increasing cultivation of awareness, but also allows for profound spiritual  transformation in addition to the pragmatic pact-based sorcery of the cult.

Ferramentas que promovem aumento de poder conterão sempre uma armadilha se não promoverem também aumento de consciência. Espiritualidade não substitui terapia, e terapia não substitui espiritualidade.

por Tata N’ganga Mujitu, Pedro Chaves, de Cabula Matari

Tools that promote increased power will always contain a trap if they do not promote increased awareness. Spirituality is not a substitute for therapy, and therapy is not a substitute for spirituality.

by Tata N’ganga Mujitu, Pedro Chaves, of Cabula Matari

For the self-serving, for the power-hungry, for the validation seeking, Quimbanda will always be attractive, Our devils provide many tools to attain power, and without an understanding of balance and consequence the Maioral will watch us repeatedly burn in fires of our own making. This tension between freedom and responsibility, between indulgence and avoidance, between aggression and attraction- this is the crossroads every quimbandeiro will come to, over and over. There is an internal work necessary to allow the mind-body-spirit the strength to call the devils and spirits that we do. Each must find ways to support their practices sustainably. What good is power without discernment? What good is agency without wisdom? When we invite war, calumny, and avarice to the table, what room is there for peace, love, and respect?

O mukutu kené mutue, ki kim’é.

The body without a head, is nothing.

It is character that keeps us upright, it is our values that bring us back to ourselves. We light the firebrand of the Celestial Maioral to engage with the Infernal; through developing our mutue–our head–the two become one, and under the watchful eyes of the Maioral, our Quimbanda empowers us, not just embolden us. Quimbanda does not exist separately from our actions in daily life, one reifies the other. This awareness and development maintains our verticality, allowing us to become both warrior and healer,  To become both at once, we must be in service, both to ourselves and to our community. The community demands awareness, it demands accountability, it demands communication. It is not easy, especially for those who identify as magicians, to submit to the mirror of the group. How does the individual not lose themselves in the collective?

The flow is never one way: community is something that we co-create, not something we join. If we come to the tradition with our cup overflowing, no amount of sacrifice will allow us to mature as quimbandeiros and we have poisoned ourselves before we’ve even begun. Those whose cup is already full will find contempt in community, projecting their traumas and egotism upon others, poisoning those trying to help. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, wisdom flows from the community, seen and unseen. For those who know how to drink from this cup, there is no sweeter communion. Vo zèyi kânda, zèyi Nzâmbi: If you know the commmunity, you know God. The community we cultivate and keep manifests our path, manifests our God.

Initiation: Massangá, Mbenge, and Beyond

A House is many things: its Tata or Mametu, their lineage and training, the spirits, and the members. Because this Temple is a living community, we encourage visiting and meeting in person before formal entry. Initiation in Quimbanda is a beginning, not a reward. The only prerequisites are a desire for it and permission from the Temple’s spirits; if the candidate feels a good connection to the community and wishes to proceed, massangá is offered. 

Massangá is a form of baptism, performed over several days at the Temple. These rituals include an honoring of Bakulu, the Ancestors, where the dead are honored and enshrined to provide a solid foundation of ancestral veneration and practice. Building upon this empowerment, the formal baptism is given and fortifies the body and empowers the new quimbandeiro to call their Exu and Pomba Gira with authority. 

Emphasis after this is placed on training and study, learning to call and work with your tutelary spirits, and developing increased communion with and agency through them. This includes mentorship by many within in the Temple, participation in community rituals, house events, educational sessions and retreats. Personal practice and proficiency builds the foundation upon which future empowerments and initiations might take place. There is no pipeline of initiation. For some, baptism and continued mentorship is what they desire and require. Others may choose to receive the mbenge of their spirits, to become Tata N’ganga or Mama N’ganga, or to train in depth and specialize in certain aspects of our priesthood and magics.

Each follows their own path, with the support of the community. While no one is demanded to be an active part of the community,  it is not possible to be at odds with it and remain in the Temple. Initiation in a Temple does not guarantee training, nor is training something that can simply be bought. Proficiency and knowledge are born of relationship: to each other, to our spirits, to the Temple, to the Tradition. Consistent practice fortifies what initiation empowers; consistent presence and engagement are the keys to Mastery, 

Salve nossa Cabula! Salve os Mestres! Salve o Maioral!

If initiation and participation in this community is of interest, contact us or schedule a reading.