Ecotherapy and Ecospirituality: A Video Presentation on Oricha, Nature & Healing

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-Ayé as the deity of the earth and healing. There can be no question that oricha religion provides a clear model for how humans can relate to the natural world to find connection and healing.

Rather than begin with a simplistic description of the structure of the religion and some idealized hierarchy of gods and spirits, the talk uses the metaphor of a walk through the sacred forest to explore how divinity has many faces in this tradition and how people engage the divine through ceremonies. The sacred forest, what Afro-Latinx elders in Cuba call el monte, immediately makes us think of Osain, the oricha of herbs. And practitioners frequent the forest to honor Osain and harvest herbs used when we “sing Osain,” the ceremony in which we consecrate omiero, the herbal concoction used to purify and bless objects and people.

As we continue in the forest, we often encounter the river, the dwelling place of the oricha Ochún. In fact, the elders have taught us many ceremonies for purification and revitalization at the river, but the most famous is the aptly named the ceremonia del río, which begins most priestly initiations.

We also encounter the ceiba tree, where the elders say that the ancestors gather. Superstition in Cuba precludes the cutting of these trees, and people will often go to the ceiba to speak to their ancestors, especially when they cannot visit the graves of the departed for some reason. (It is no accident that the classic book by Lydia Cabrera is called El monte and has a chapter on the ceiba.)

The key idea here is this: The sacred forest contains the natural forces that animate nature and human beings.

The last two parts of the presentation explore how these natural forces animate people.

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