The Canon · No. 083
Santería
Lucumí; Regla de Ocha; La Regla Lucumí
c.1800 CE – present · African & Diasporic · Living · Cuba, Puerto Rico, US, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain
VI. REFORMATION & EARLY MODERN — 1500 – 1800
How many
Several million across Cuba and the diaspora; precise figures are impossible because most practitioners also identify as Catholic.
Who began it
No founder. Formed by Yoruba people, mostly taken to Cuba in the nineteenth century after the collapse of the Oyo empire, and preserved through the Spanish cabildos de nación, mutual-aid societies organised by African ethnicity that the colonial authorities permitted and that inadvertently kept the religion intact.
What it is for
To develop and maintain a relationship with one's orisha, and through that to live well.
What it worships
Olodumare, distant and uncultivated. The oricha: Elegguá (the crossroads, opened first, paired with the Holy Child of Atocha), Obatalá (Our Lady of Mercy), Changó (Saint Barbara — a male thunder god paired with a female saint, because both are associated with lightning), Yemayá (Our Lady of Regla), Ochún (Our Lady of Charity, Cuba's national patroness), Ogún (Saint Peter), Babalú Ayé (Saint Lazarus).
What it holds
Each person has a head orisha determined by divination. Aché, spiritual power, flows through consecrated objects, words and people. Destiny is real and negotiable. The saint-orisha pairings began as concealment under a regime that punished African religion, and have since become, for many practitioners, a genuine double belonging rather than a disguise.
What it does
Divination in three tiers: obi (coconut, simple yes/no), diloggún (sixteen cowries, used by santeros), and Ifá, read only by babalawos, who are always men. Initiation, kariocha, in which the orisha is seated in the initiate's head; the iyawó then wears white for a year and observes numerous restrictions. Drumming ceremonies (bembé, tambor) with batá drums, leading to possession. Animal sacrifice, followed by cooking and eating the animal in almost all cases — the practice that produced the landmark US legal case.
After death
The dead (egun) remain present and are honoured before any ceremony; a practitioner's ancestors are addressed by name. Reincarnation within the lineage is expected. There is no hell and no final judgment. The dead who are properly honoured become part of the family's spiritual resources.
Its texts
Oral. The Ifá corpus and the diloggún patterns, with their attached stories (patakís). Written libretas exist as personal notebooks.
Its branches
Regla de Ocha (Lucumí); Ifá; Palo Monte (Kongo-derived and distinct, often practised alongside); Abakuá (a separate Cross River men's society); Espiritismo, often blended in.
Of note
The name Santería, the way of the saints, was originally a Spanish sneer implying the Africans cared more about saints than about Christ. Many practitioners prefer Lucumí or Regla de Ocha.
Its timeline
- 1500s–1886 CE The Atlantic slave trade to Cuba; slavery is abolished in Cuba only in 1886, decades after most of the Americas, so the African connection remained recent and strong.
- 1800s CE Cabildos permit ethnically organised African religious societies; Lucumí (Yoruba) practice consolidates.
- 1959 CE The Cuban Revolution; religion is discouraged, and Santería is tolerated more than the Catholic Church because it was seen as a folk survival rather than an institution.
- 1980 CE The Mariel boatlift carries many practitioners to Miami.
- 1991 CE Cuba declares itself a secular rather than atheist state; open practice resumes.
- <strong>1993 CE</strong> Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah — the US Supreme Court rules unanimously that ordinances targeting ritual animal slaughter were unconstitutional religious discrimination. It is a landmark free-exercise decision and it was won by a Santería church.
- 2010s–present Growth in the US and Latin America; increasing public visibility and continued controversy over sacrifice.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.