Gods of the city: religion and the American urban landscape 9780253212764, 9780253113313, 9780253334992

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Gods of the City

Religion in North America Catherine L. Albanese and Stephen J. Stein, editors William L. Andrews, editor, Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century

1817 ,

Mary Farrell Bednarowski, New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America

Bret E. Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America |

Temple, and Jonestown ,

David Chidester, Salvation and Suicide: An Interpretation of Jim Jones, the Peoples

David Chidester and Edward T. Linenthal, editors, American Sacred Space , John R. Fitzmier, New England’s Moral Legislator: A Life of Timothy Dwight, 1752-

Reform, 1842-1846 ,

Thomas D. Hamm, God’s Government Begun: The Society for Universal Inquiry and

Thomas D. Hamm, The Transformation of American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907

Jean M. Humez, editor, Mother's First-Born Daughters: Early Shaker Writings on

Women and Religion ,

Carl T. Jackson, Vedanta for the West: The Ramakrishna Movement in the United States David Kuebrich, Minor Prophecy: Walt Whitman’s New American Religion John D. Loftin, Religion and Hopi Life in the Twentieth Century Phillip Charles Lucas, The Odyssey of a New Religion: The Holy Order of MANS from

| New Age to Orthodoxy Colleen McDannell, The Christian Home in Victorian America, 1840-1900 Ronald L. Numbers and Jonathan M. Butler, editors, The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth Century Robert A. Orsi, editor, Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape Richard W. Pointer, Protestant Pluralism and the New York Experience: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Religious Diversity Sally M. Promey, Spiritual Spectacles: Vision and Image in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Shakerism

Stephen Prothero, The White Buddhist: Henry Steel Olcott and the NineteenthCentury American Encounter with Asian Religions

Kay Almere Read, Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos .

Russell E. Richey, Early American Methodism A. Gregory Schneider, The Way of the Cross Leads Home: The Domestication of American Methodism Richard Hughes Seager, The World’s Parliament of Religions: The East/West Encounter, Chicago, 1893

Ann Taves, editor, Religion and Domestic Violence in Early New England: The Memoirs of Abigail Abbot Bailey

Thomas A. Tweed, The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent

Valarie H. Ziegler, The Advocates of Peace in Antebellum America

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1.15. Birthday throne for Chango tn Union City apartment bedroom (August 1/, 19560). Corresponds to the tloor plan shown tn figure 4.12.

oricha of coolness and purity, who is associated with San Manuel. Elaborate thrones of satin, vases of flowers, and statues are erected for the house’s annual October 4 misa palera (Palo mass) for Adolfo’s Siete Rayos, the

| December 4 feast day of Santa Barbara/Chang6o, the December 17 feast day of San Lazaro/Babalt Ayé, and the January | feast day of San Manuel/ Odta/Obatala Yecti-Yecti. The hybrid béveda-throne in figure 4.6, which elevates an image of the Virgin of Regla over the table of water goblets and images, was erected in mid-June 1986 for a misa dedicated to the spirit of Ramén’s deceased mother, who “had a tendency” toward this Virgin and her oricha counterpart, Yemaya. These thrones orient ritual attention and performance in the living room space, converting it from a simple social gathering place or consultation waiting room (sala) into the igbodtin/cuarto de santo itself. Prayers, tributes of gifts and money, and physical submissions to the floor (moforibale) are rendered to the room’s enthroned orichas. Draped in purple or red cloth, the throne constructed for Siete Rayos doubles as a Spiritist “white table” for the dramatic misa palera held annually on the evening of October 4, in which the apartment is transformed into a Spiritist center filled with pungent cigar smoke and the aromas of Agua Florida, cologne, and aguardiente rum. The white table form and the ritual of the Spiritist mass not only shaped, but also flexibly accommodated, local spirit cosmologies wherever it was adopted in the Western Hemisphere, whether in Puerto Rico, Cuba, or Brazil (see R. Ortiz 1989; Bermudez 1967, 1968; Castellanos and Castellanos 1992:192—202). In Cuban practice, the misa

espiritual becomes the misa palera when it is focused to attract and facilitate the work of muertos whose vocation in life was in service to the nganga. The misa espiritual and misa palera are typically conducted by two espiritistas—in this case, Adolfo and Ramén— seated at the table’s two

outer corners. Those attending sit in straight-backed chairs facing the

, table. Participants cleanse themselves before the béveda with water containing Agua Florida and flower petals, and throughout the evening they “pass” spirits (become possessed and speak) and participate in detailed spiritual inquiries into the lives and problems of all those present. The evening reaches its climax as Adolfo is possessed by his principal muerto (Francisco), who works with the energies of Siete Rayos to clean spiritually and dispense advice to each participant (see below).

Adolfo’s Spirits: A special small boveda for a cluster of spirits associated with Adolfo’s cuadro espiritual occupies the far left corner of the living

room, adjacent to a large corner wing chair, behind which sits the huge nganga cauldron of Siete Rayos. This end of the living room has become a

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sively withhree a core groupBeautifully of three spirits. Beautifull n , 3 FOU spirits. dressed, adornes and carefully positi | | : ing “iv oF positioned, the Jy are always present inl th livi : : y on y | | € ilving room OF

peEaToOoOIM — aepending upo t V | d cif . eNaines Upon we preferences theth reg5 ularh eee om — depe I gularly and vociterOn the adaor DIrese “dd piritist for Nally . T ad | ‘ -| press. y| |.OTmMda Xxhey oeresented |are | med . piritist meésd a misa: palera. They are (1) Francisco Siet iyvos |hen t@Td. i ney are | rancisco Siet Bra | "Fuerte ) Adolfo he i gives Adolf Ljht AS olete WaVOS DIaZo (£Tancisco Seven Liightning Bolts Strong Arm), (2) Maria Antoni

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LD. se. He carries the signature staff of Con spirit h h k d branch called lu I h i : key,: atural atural é constitugowa. The lungowa staff, one of the|key natural consti

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