Baba Who? Babalú!

The COVID pandemic rages on. While the indicators suggest that we are all doing better at the basics of masking, hand washing, and physical  distancing , people are still falling ill. Many people have asked me about ceremonies and offerings to honor  Babalú-Ayé  and request protection and healing.    This simple ceremony is what I would call old-school. It is not flashy. It does not require a  lot of  people or animals. Rather, it is uses simple ingredients that please the  oricha , and it focuses on the most important ingredient of all—devotion.   Please note that this offering is primarily for those people who  Babalú-Ayé   Lucumí  and whose pots are not sealed.  Arará  vessels and those in some  Lucumí  lineages are sealed at the time of initiation. You can learn more about the different forms of  Babalú   here .    Go before your  Babalú-Ayé  and greet him. Say your  moyuba  to invoke the ancestors and the  orichas , and tell him why you have come.   In a basin, mix coconut water,

 Last fall, my goddaughter Phoenix Smith—Olá Otón Adélele asked me to participate in first activities of the Alliance for Ecotherapy & Social Justice . She asked me to explore how oricha religion provides us with a robust model for nature religion and healing as part of a video series called Ecotherapy for Everyone: Healing with Nature for Peace and Justice.   My presentation focused on three major aspects of oricha religion and how it links individuals to the natural world. First, the presentation explored the idea of the sacred forest as the source of divinity within the religion and how different ceremonies channel that divine energy back into human life. Then, it looked at many of the ways that specific religious ideas and practices link individuals to ecosystems or natural phenomena; this section of the talk also explores how the Arará deity Dandá-Jueró can be understood as a model for ecological connections that lead to wellbeing. Finally, the presentation introduces Babalú-