BRUJO INCAICO

GHEDESAS

BRIGUEDA

El Papa Barón as he is often known and his wife Gran Maman Brigitte are the parents of many Lwa and Orisha that govern the Nation of Ghede, some such as Guedelia, Guedelina, Llegua, Filomena Lubana, to name a few, but the youngest and eldest at the same time is the Gede known as Ti Ghede also known as Piti Ghede.  In the new world she is synchrenized with Saint Brigette and also goes by the name Brighuede, Brigwueda, Brigeda, la Pequeña Brigite  or simply Maman Brigette.  Since her mysteries represent the eldest and youngest she is also known as Maman Gede.  This Lwa rarely manifests within ceremonies, but when she does, she comes as a coquette young adult that enjoys flowers, in other vueltas she manifests as an orphaned child, scorned by the hardship of life, and can be a bit quarrelsome and soft spoken at the same time.   But if she manifests as Maman Brigitte, she comes as the righteous judge of the living and the dead who wears a black laced veil and walks with a cane as she uses herbs, holy water, perfume liquor and potions to heal and protect all those around her from an untimely death.  

In other South American traditions she and her other vueltas come as Harlot gypsies, Jezibels and women of the night, that come dancing and are full of seduction, these manifestations often smoke cigarettes, drink anisette liquors, speak in crude tones, laugh and enjoy to dance in the bodies of the Casilla they mount. These female ghede spirits are often the souls of those women who in life were outcasts, such as prostitutes, harlots, alcoholic, drug addicts or abused victims.  In what ever manifistation that they come, which is limited to our human views of good and evil, these Ghuedesas come to offer their spiritual help and advice.  In whatever manifistation the Ghedesas come they come to offer help and place things in their natural order.  While the Ghede are ofren untamed, and uncantrolable masculine energies of the dead, the Ghedesas egsist through feminine emotions, all they do, and how they act, involves feminine desires and emotions, may it be sorrow, pain, fear, love, lust or grief, and it is only through the Ghedesas that the Ghede can be controled, dominated and tamed.  Ti Guede and her sister Guedesas who are on their way to becoming pure mysteries have the abilities by the grace of Buen Dios and watchful eye of el Gran Baron del Cementerio to help those in need, and they always meet the requests of those who come to them with pure intentions.  

GEDE ZAINA

If your are a Hispanic Espiritista, Santero or Sancista, there is no doubt that on your ipod or in your cd collection you have a music collection by Celina y Reutilio, Los Nanis, and of course the classic cd by the Legendary Cuban Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz.  Her album Homenaje a Los Santos is a favorite, and songs to the Orisha, Yemaya, Agayu, Chango and Babalu Aye are sung to Mambo and Salsa music from the late 50s and 60s.  But amongst the songs to the Yoruba Gods, "which is similar to the case of Celina and Reutilio having a song to the Lwa Papa Candelo amongst the Yoruba Orisha" one also in Celia Cruz' cd comes across a song sung to a Lwa from the Guede Division and sung in Haitian Kreyol, the song goes like this. 

 

Guede Zaina woy woy, Guede Zaina, Guede Zaina woy woy, Guede Zaina woy woy, Guede Zaina.
 

Guede Zaina, yo fè complo pou yo tchié moin woy woy, 
Guede Zaina. Guede Zaina, yo fè complo pou yo tchié moin 
woy woy, Guede Zaina
 

Guede Zaina, yo fè complo pou yo tchié moin woy woy,

Guede Zaina'

Guede Zaina or Gede Zaraignee in Haitian Kryol comes from the French word for spider which is Araignée.  So the Guede in the song is a Spider, then the song goes on to say.  'Woy Woy!" Which really has no English translation, but it is an expression of being surprised or caught of guard and in Caribbean Spanish we say "Ai ir Ui" while in English it would be.  "Wow!". Then the following line says.  "yo fe komplo pou yo touye mwen", which is translated to mean.  "They the enemy has comes to kill me.".   So the song is translated to say.

Guede Zaina, Wow Wow! Guede Zaina!
Guede Zaina, Wow Wow! Guede Zaina! 

They Have come to Kill Me. Guede Zaina!

  Guede Zaina, Wow Wow! Guede Zaina!
Guede Zaina, Wow Wow! Guede Zaina! (Repeted)

In Spanish.

Gede Araña, Ai Ai!  Gede Araña!
Gede Araña, Ui Ui!  Gede Araña! 

El Enemigo viene a matarme, Gede Araña!

Gede Araña, Ai Ai!  Gede Araña!
Gede Araña, Ui Ui!   Gede Araña! 

So in all actuality the song is an invocation to Guede Zaina for protection from those who wish you bodily harm and to free you from your enemies.  

 

WHO IS GUEDE ZAINA?

In the many branches of Vodou from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, there is a division of Spirits known as Sambi Division. These spirits are viewed as ancient serpent and snake Lwa of wisdom and magic, and amongst this division one finds Dambala, Ayida Guedo, Mama Chimbi, Papa Chimbi, Ochu del Mar, Gran Simbi Glo and countless other Lwa.  But snakes and serpents were not the only creatures viewed as divine within Vudu and its many branches.  Spiders where also viewed as Spirits, and often messengers of the of death..  This belief of Serpent and Spiders as divine spirits can also be seen in Ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures. One close look at the image of Tonantzin "Our Lady of Guadelupe" and one will see that at her feet one will notice her dress turn into a Serpent's head and below her praying hands one will see a bow of six ribbon which symbolized a Spider which was a messenger of the Dead. 

In many African cultures it was believed that the first two human souls, one male and the other female traveled to the earth on a golden thread which was symbolic of a Spider's web and then took human form.  They lived a long and fruitful life, but when they died, they became the first Ghede, that of Ti Ghede, and Ghede Zaina.  

Gede Zaina, Ghede Zaraignee, Guédé Zaranye or Guede Zariyen and also Gwede Aracne represents the spirit of the first human soul who became Guede, not all human souls will become Ghuede.  Unlike el Gran Baron del Cementerio who always has one foot in the world of the living and one foot in the world of the dead, meaning he can occupy two places at ones, human souls are unable to do this, so, one of the steps up the Spiritual latter and for those that follow the ancient African ways become Ghede. Of defied ancestors or the venerated dead.  Guede Zaina as a spider symbolizes that our legs our feet touches the earth and walks the paths our ancestors walked, and that our head, faces towards the heavens, towards Papa Buen Dios and the elevated Mysteries.  It symbolizes, 

"Asi come en el Cielo y en la Tierra or As Above, so Below."

This in itself represents that the codependency and interchanging between the living and the dead is needed for advancement and spiritual evolution and growth.  This concept is affirmed in Puerto Rican Espiritismo.  El Muerto Pario al Santo, or Antes de Santo avia Muerto.  Which is translated to mean.  The dead gave birth and rise to the Saint, and before there was a Saint there was the dead. This Espiritismo Criollo and Mesa Blanca Espiritismo concept reaffirms the concept that we are a product of our heritage our culture and that our decisions for Spiritual development must start with our dead and our ancestors.  The spiritual web is a symbol that all the universe is tied and connected by an invisible thread, both heaven and earth are connected and obtainable by those who search for it.  "Seek and it shall be found, ask and it shall be given."

ANANSI

 

 

If Guédé Zaranye is so ancient he would be known far and wide, this is true.  In Ghana the Spider is called Anansi or Ananse, a trickster, mischievous Spider Spirit, who enjoys music, and like the Ghede, Anansi is a lover and protector of children.  Anansi is as many Ghede, a cross between the Ghede Division and the Lebane "Legba" Division.   Although Anansi was a trickster, he was a messenger, and was portrayed as very wise and intelligent.   Anansi mischievous ways where not confined to Africa, in the Caribbean he became Ghede Zaiyna and many southern African Americans can remember their grandmother's story of the trickster spider.  Anansi.  For this reason Spiders should never be harmed, they should be respected as messengers of the Ghede.  Ghede not only feed of the energy of those alive, but of those demons from hell alike.  Demons are often symbolized as Flies, hence the saying Beelzebub is the lord of the Flies, and Ghede are the spider that traps them and feast on their very energy.  So the Ghede are great protectors, highly intelligent and mischievous tricksters, and the group of Lwa that are closets to us.  

WHAT IN FACT 

ARE THE GHEDE

The Ghede is a Division of Loa that is well respected not only in Haitian Vodou, but in 21 Divisions and Sance.  Many people confuse the Ghede with a Spiritual Guide, because of the very word Gede, Guide being Gide in Kreyol and Guia in Spanish.  Also many confuse the Gede with the Division of the Centinela, ones dead or other Spirits in the Comisiones.  This is not correct, and I am going to explain this in the view point of a Puerto Rican SanseSancista follower.  The Centinela are those Spirits that guard us and spiritually shield us from psychic attack and black magic, the Sances are the Ancestors and embasadors of other Divisions of Misterios or Lwa, while the Comisiones are Spirits that guide us and does not nessesarily mean that in life they practiced Vodou, Santeria or Candomble per say.  The Ghede are not our direct ancestors, or neither is it necessary that a Ghede that you honor necessarily had any blood ties with you, the only connection to us they have is Spiritual.  Know while both the Centinela, the Sance and many Spirits in the Comisiones can reincarnate or be reborn into life, the Ghede do not.  They are above the Centinelas, Los Muertos, las Comisiones, los Embajadores and los Sance but still very close to the realm of the living.  If fact they are viewed as Lwa or Mysterios, while the other groups of spirits I mentioned above are not.  Example the Sance are messengers of the Mistsrios, but they are not Loases.  The Centinela in Puerto Rican Sance are not Lwa, but Spirits that have a mission to protect in order to reincarnate or climb another step in the spiritual latter.  To make it more complicated some Centinela can become Ghede but no Ghede will ever become Centinela. 

Ghede in life where not evil they are those who in life where mischievous, pranksters, highly sexual and so on.  The same can be said about the Centinela, they were not evil but were soldiers, thieves, robbers, who in the after life in order to purge and elevate must protect us from those very things they did in life.  Example of a famous Centinela would be Dismas who was crucified next to Jesus on his right side, he was a thief who was forgiven by Jesus and in death became a Centinela to cleanse his soul in order to elevate, while Gestas on his right would be more a Ghede. 

The Ghede are a mystery that we as humans can not completely comprehend.  They can be both Saint and Demon, both healers and bringers of death.  

If the Ghede are to surround any human, they would surround no other more than they do human children, because children in their curious ways, in their tantrums and desires resembles that of the Ghede.  Generally speaking human children have a stronger psychic sense than their adult counterparts, and their young bodies are more accessible to death than those of an older individual.   The Ghedes are great healers as much as they enjoy the taist of death, something that is definitely not true of the Centinela and the Sanse.  But like the Comisiones and the Muertos they enjoy material offerings.  Again something that is not necessary for the Centinela.  The Ghede are also highly sexual beings, and the act of sexual human pleasures is one thing that keeps them grounded and close to the material plane.  The Ghede are Lwa and above those Spirits below them, but still they are below other Divisions such as Lebanes and Ogunes to name a few of the 21 plus Divisions but still they are as powerful and in many cases even more powerful than other Lwa because they still have the strongest connection to the material plane, where ever death is, at that very moment before life is absorbed from the body, Ghede are present.  This falls true for every living being and thing on earth, plant, animal and human.  

When Ghede are mounted in Haitian Vodou, they come dressed in their Gothic black attire, or top hat with cane, and they prefer their face painted as that of skull to demonstrate that they are both alive and dead at the same time, they like no other Lwa can ocupy two planes at one time, Life and death.  

The Ghede above all Divisions are the most feared, misunderstood and most respected of all the Divisions.  This is true for both humans and Lwa alike.  Often times the Lwa themselves fear and respect the Ghede, and ofren have little if any patience for the Ghedes anticts, and outbursts, and most often wish nothing more than to avoid their, cheerful, brash, obscene and mischievous ways while at the same time demonstrating poise, confidence and gracefulness.  The Ghede often enjoy their offerings of Rum spiced with Habanero peppers in which they vigorously rub on their eyes and genetils while wearing sunglasses at night with a missing lense, which often repulses the Metresa Division and the Nago Division, while at the same time entertains the Lebane division.  

While every human is born with a Spirit Guide, a Guardian Angel, each and every human being, may they work with them or not, or may they know it or not is born with a Legba, an Ogun and a Ghede,   This is why the Ghede are a highly respected Division within Vodou, 21 Divisiones and Sance.  No Houngan, Papa Boko, Mama Mambo or Sancista would work their tradition with out one of them in their daily work of consultation and traditional medicines.  The Ghede are honored, respected and venerated just as one would their Cuadro Espiritual and Santos.

GEDE SABALO ANOTHER VUELTA OF PAPA GED

GHUEDE LIMBO

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PRAYER TO

EL BARON OF THE CEMETERY

Baron, Selected of the Cemetery, three times I call on your holy name. With the help of the powerful strength of Sansón, you will give me your three selected spirits, so man or woman born may not do an act of treachery against me, and no injustice will condemn me. Let all evil and perverse ideas that ______ may have against me be revoked.  Make them come humiliated and repenting with all their hearts to me, by the order of the Baron of the Cemetery.  Aibobo, Amen and Ache!

 

 

 

ORACION AL

GRAN BARON DEL CEMENTERIO

GRAN BARON DEL CEMENTERIO

 

Barón del Cementerio ¡Oh! Patron elegido del cementerio, Barón del cementerio, Barón del Cementerio, Barón del cementerio.  Invoco tu Santo nombre 3 veces que ayudao por la potente fuerza de Sansón, me conceda de tus mis allegados espiritus, para que me concedan que hombre o mujer nacida, no haga acto alealevosos en mi contra o en contra de los mios, y para que en ningún caso la Justicia Terrenal me persiga y connden y otra, para que todas las ideas perversas que tengan ( nombre de la persona o decir : Sea cual fuera la persona en mi contra), se vuelva en contra de ellas, hasta que vengan a mis pies a humillarse. AMEN!!!