The spiritistic influence on yoruba religion It is vast today, the result of a wide process of syncretism and transculturation through which African slaves in colonial times, adopted some rituals to worship spirits or egguns.
The greatest exponent of the spiritualist beginnings in Cuba in the XNUMXth century is Allan Kardec, a French scientist and pedagogue who dedicated himself to the study of certain paranormal phenomena.
In 1857, his first work titled "The Book of Spirits" became extremely popular, where he presented in an analytical and orderly manner a series of mediumistic experiences or spiritual contacts collected in fifty notebooks that were sent to him from different parts of the world.
He was referring to the spiritistic perception on the table:
"The science that deals with the nature, origin and destiny of spirits, and their relationships with the corporeal world."
Allan Kardec, contact with the deceased
The spiritual investigations of Kardec They also arrived in Cuba, which at that time was characterized by the presence of a varied group of cultural manifestations of a religious nature, especially by the syncretic cult between Catholicism and the Yoruba religion.
Thus, the Afro-Cuban culture and the identity of the Island were also filled with elements linked to the spiritual exercise that began Allan Kardec and new modalities emerged in Afro-Cuban cults, fostered by the conceptions of the Kardecian spiritism.
Afro-Cuban variants of Kardecian spiritualism
Some of the variants kardecians that reached the Afro-Cuban culture were cordon spiritism and the crusader.
Crusader spiritualism, above all, joined the elements of Catholicism, Santeria and Palo Monte, and once integrated, they structured a different way of exercising cults.
The core element of cross spiritism It is the communication with the spirits through the mediums, who are in charge of establishing contact with the spirits of the deceased.
And from this, the beliefs of African roots in Cuba adopted spiritualistic ritual forms such as the crucifix, the liturgy, the so-called spiritual vaults, the exercise of masses and in general the cult of the Eggunes or spirits of the deceased.