{"id":1204,"date":"2021-09-17T02:15:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T02:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2022-09-16T02:54:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T02:54:28","slug":"the-spiritual-foundation-of-black-lives-matter-umbanda-spiritism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/2021\/09\/17\/the-spiritual-foundation-of-black-lives-matter-umbanda-spiritism\/","title":{"rendered":"The spiritual foundation of Black Lives Matter: Umbanda Spiritism"},"content":{"rendered":"\nBy guest writer, Ivani Greppi: a former Umbanda Spiritist Medium<\/em>\n\nLike the Medium of Endor in 1 Samuel 28, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM-LA, attempt to call up the dead. The ritual is to publicly recite the names of black victims killed while chanting the African Yoruba term \u201cAs\u00e9\u201d after each name. Per the website Rooted Resistance<\/em>, As\u00e9, pronounced Ah-Shay, has multiple meanings but is mainly defined as \u201cthe power to make things happen, or so let it be.\u201d\n\n
\"\"

Patrisse Cullors, co-founder Black Lives Matter<\/p><\/div>\n\nAnthony Shintai’s Yorubaland<\/em> article defines As\u00e9 as the divine force, energy, and power incarnate in the world. \u201cAs\u00e9 is an affirmation that is used in greeting and prayers, as well as a concept of spiritual growth.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen we speak their names, we invoke that spirit, and those spirits actually become present,\u201d said Cullors during an interview on June 13, 2020, streamed on Facebook’s Fowler Museum at UCLA<\/em> page, \u201cSpirituality is at the center of Black Lives Matter.\u201d In response, Abdullah, who is also a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, added, \u201cWe become very intimate with the spirits we call on.\u201d The chanting of \u201csay his\/ her name,\u201d per Cullors, is more than a hashtag, \u201cIt is literally almost resurrecting a spirit so they can work through us to get the work that we need to get done.\u201d\n\nHebah Farrag, assistant director of research at USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, researches the \u201cnew spiritualities emerging from Black Lives Matter-affiliated organizations.\u201d If\u00e1 is the Yoruba religion or belief system of divination practiced by the BLM leaders. In her article \u201cThe Fight for Black Lives is a Spiritual Movement,\u201d Farrag writes how a protest on June 2, 2020, in front of Mayor Garcetti’s house demanding reductions in the city’s funding of police, \u201cbegan like a religious ceremony.\u201d\n\n

\"\"

Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM-LA<\/p><\/div>\n\nDuring this protest, Abdullah, who led a group of demonstrators, poured libation on the ground while the group chanted \u201cAs\u00e9\u201d after names of the deceased were called. The ritual of pouring libation, common in many religions, is an offering to deities or spirits of the dead.\n\nOn July 25, 2020, KCRW’s Jonathan Bastian, host of Life Examined<\/em>, asked Melina Abdullah, \u201cCan you talk about how you begin a protest? Names of ancestors evoked, prayers said for those who haven’t had a chance to participate. How do you characterize these moments?\u201d Abdullah responded, \u201cWe generally ask that people not film the openings of our events and demonstrations. And as part of that is the demonization of the way in which we acknowledge spiritual energy. So, I have seen some of those articles, some of those critiques of pouring libation, which is a centuries-old tradition among African people, acknowledging that when bodies are stolen, spirits still remain. So, there was that consciousness, but more than that consciousness, as we pour libation and engage in spiritual work, we actually don’t want that disrupted in any way by filming because we believe filming actually disrupts some of the spiritual energy. All Black Lives Matter meetings and protests begin with the pouring of libation.\u201d\n\nHebah Farrag’s article for Religion Dispatches<\/em>, \u201cThe Role of Spirit in the #Blacklivesmatter Movement: A Conversation with Activist and Artist Patrisse Cullors,\u201d points out how the BLM movement \u201cexpands the definition of ‘faith-based,’ and offers alternate notions of faith, self-care, and wellness as resistance to disrupt a martyr mentality and heal those within traumatized communities.\u201d\n\nDuring BLM protests, what stood out for Farrag was the \u201cimages of a white-clad black woman burning sage across a militarized police line. Altars using sacred images and symbols from multiple faiths placed to hold space for those murdered. Events ending with prayers for the oppressed. Protests called ‘ceremonies’ in front of Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti’s house, with attendees asked to wear all white.\u201d\n\nThe African spiritual rituals of If\u00e1 openly practiced by BLM in crowded city and urban streets of the United States may sound like an obscure, rare, and unique religion. But it is not. Many African Diaspora Religions, also known as Afro-American, and African-derived religions are practiced throughout the world. When African slaves were scattered around the globe, they brought with them their beliefs and rituals. Slaves were not allowed to worship in their faith and were usually forced to convert to Catholicism in the New World. However, they continued with their spiritual practices in disguise through syncretism.\n\nCatherine Byer’s article \u201cAfrican Diaspora Religions\u201d on the Learn Religions<\/em> website gives examples of African Diaspora religions with Yoruba and Catholic influences: Vodou (Voodoo) developed primarily in Haiti and New Orleans; Santeria also known as Lacumi or Regla de Ocha, developed primarily in Cuba; Candombl\u00e9, Umbanda, and Quimbanda developed in Brazil. These spiritual systems all worship Yoruba deities called orisas (orishas, or orix\u00e1s).\n\nWhat BLM activists now openly practice\u2014Yoruba If\u00e1\u2014is by no means a new religion. It is not a new type of spirituality. It’s been around for thousands of years. It’s practiced throughout the globe. Johnson Olawale’s article on the Legit <\/em>website, \u201cYoruba Religion If\u00e1 History and Interesting Facts,\u201d explains that If\u00e1 is a system of divination that plays a critical role in the culture and traditions of Candombl\u00e9, Santeria, Palo, Vodou, Umbanda, and many other Afro-American faiths and in some traditional African religions. The article also points out that If\u00e1 is not, in fact, a religion, but more of a spiritual system based on three components: Olodumare (the Creator of heaven and earth), Orisa (nature spirits, or gods), and the ancestors.\n\n

\"\"

Beyonce’ pays homage to the Umbanda goddess Oshun<\/p><\/div>\n\nBlack Lives Matter founders are not the only ones bringing these spiritual practices to the forefront of American society and culture. During the 2017 Grammy Awards, Beyonc\u00e9 paid homage to the Yoruba If\u00e1 goddess Osun (or Oshun). Pregnant with twins, wearing a golden gown, Oshun’s sacred color, Beyonc\u00e9 channeled the goddess of \u201clove, money, and waterways,\u201d or goddess of water and fertility as some headlines claimed.\n\nThe Ringer<\/em> website’s article by Taylor Crumpton, \u201cGlory B: Beyonc\u00e9, the African Diaspora, and the Baptism of ‘Black is King,\u2019\u201d describes Beyonc\u00e9’s visual album released on Disney+ that reinforces the ancestral lineage of black people as divine beings, born from natural and spiritual forces of the universe. In this video, Beyonc\u00e9 pays homage to Yemay\u00e1\u2014an orisa (orisha), or deity, who is the mother of water and all living things in the If\u00e1 and other Yoruba derived faiths. In this same article, Beyonc\u00e9’s husband, Jay-Z, is quoted to reference another Yoruba orisa\u2014Chang\u00f3 (Xang\u00f4 or Shango), the father of fire, lightning, and thunder, which he raps about.\n\n

\"\"

Jay-Z raps about Chango, the Umbanda deity of fire, thunder and lightning<\/p><\/div>\n\nAma McKinley’s piece on Huffpost.com<\/em> titled \u201cBeyonc\u00e9 Serves African Spirituality in Lemonade<\/em>\u201d describes her reaction while watching the visual album as being \u201cawestruck.\u201d McKinley writes that she is a practitioner of If\u00e1 and loves to \u201cpoint out pop culture occurrences of this ancient tradition and its pantheon, the orisha, right here in the West.\u201d She lists some examples: Ricky Ricardo’s 1940’s hit \u201cBabalu\u201d (a detailed ritual to the orisha Babaluaye), Gloria from Orange is the New Black <\/em>(a Santeria practitioner who worked in a bodega), and Jay-Z’s rap referencing his orisha. Beyonc\u00e9’s poem \u201cDenial,\u201d however, caused McKinley to \u201cstop breathing.\u201d The poem describes the requirements of the year-long process of an If\u00e1 practitioner to initiate into the priesthood.\n\nMcKinley explains the steps she took in 2012 to become a priestess: She spent 365 consecutive days wearing white (all white), three months of no sex, no looking in mirrors, and taking all meals on a mat on the floor. \u201cAnd for one year, I could not cut my hair.\u201d This is how she became an Iyawo, a Nigerian Yoruba word for bride. This title is given to those going through If\u00e1, Santeria, Candombl\u00e9 initiation rites to become a priest\/priestess.\n\nThe Dancers Group<\/em> website has an article by Mary Ellen Hunt titled: \u201c<\/em>Teacher, Priestess, Dancer: Paying Tribute to Blanche Brown.<\/em>\u201d Blanche Brown was the wife of former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown and began her dance career studies in New York with a Haitian teacher. She also participated in Haitian ceremonies in \u201cthe middle of Manhattan.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt really showed me how culturally African dance began, what it was for,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cIn that community, they were dancing for spirits. It could have been a celebration of a spirit; it could have been for somebody who needed to have that spirit come down and talk to them. But it was for something.\u201d This experience led Brown to the Yoruba tradition, and she was initiated as an If\u00e1 priestess in the early 80s.\n\n

\"\"

Iyanla Vanzant is the host of “Iyanla: Fix My Life” on Oprah Winfrey’s Network.<\/p><\/div>\n\nIyanla Vanzant is a lawyer, talk show host, best-selling author, and a Yoruba If\u00e1 priestess initiated at Ola Olu by the If\u00e1 Foundation of North America, Inc. She is the host and producer of \u201cIyanla: Fix My Life\u201d on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Vibe Magazine<\/em> recognized her as one of the \u201c100 Most Influential African Americans.\u201d Newsweek<\/em> featured her as one of the \u201cWomen of the Century.\u201d Vanzant’s website offers online workshops and events, \u201cAs Founder of Inner Visions World Wide, Iyanla is actively engaged in personal development courses and ongoing training programs for spiritual life coaches, and ordained ministers.\u201d\n\nMany other celebrities currently practice or have practiced this Yoruba spirituality, including Usher, Jennifer Lopez, Celia Cruz, Chaka Khan, 21 Savage, to name a few. Their status and fame significantly impact society and culture by glamorizing this practice through their seductive art. Black Lives Matter, however, has completely exposed If\u00e1 for what it truly is: an occultic spiritual practice that opens participants up to the influence of dark spiritual forces.\n\nIn Washington, D.C. in 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo awarded Ivanir dos Santos, a Brazilian Candombl\u00e9 priest and activist, the International Religious Freedom Award in recognition of dos Santos’s \u201clong and courageous battle for religious freedom and tolerance.\u201d Dos Santos founded CCIR (Commission to Combat Religious Intolerance). Ironically, because of this commission, testimonies of Christians who previously practiced and were delivered from Yoruba derived Candombl\u00e9, Umbanda, or Quimbanda are now legally banned in Brazil. This is based on the principle per CCIR that evangelicals are intolerant of Afro-Brazilian religions. These testimonies are deemed as hate speech, racist, and intolerant.\n\nOn YouTube last year, I translated from Portuguese to English the powerful testimony of Ivone Silva, an ex-Candombl\u00e9 priestess. Silva was famous worldwide while practicing Candombl\u00e9. Celebrities paid her large sums for consultations, including Sylvester Stallone and Gloria Stefan.\n\nIn April of 2019, YouTube notified me via email that they received a court order regarding my translated video stating it was blocked from view in Brazil. This email included an eleven-page annexed court order submitted by the Judiciary Power of the Federal Justice of Rio de Janeiro. The video is still available here in the U.S. but no longer in Brazil. Here is the link to the video with English subtitles: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=szlPhlopv94<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\n\n

\"\"

An Umbanda Spiritist group assembling for ceremonies<\/p><\/div>\n\nAt the age of fourteen, I was initiated in the Umbanda religion in Brazil. I, too, channeled and was possessed by Yoruba deities (which are actually false gods impersonated by demons). I often made offerings of libation, candles, and flowers. I bowed at the altar of the orisha gods and called upon the dead for divinations. I was baptized in a waterfall. I wore white clothing and beads around my neck. In 1997, I was saved by Jesus Christ and delivered from decades of spiritual deception and oppression. I know firsthand how dangerous the If\u00e1 Yoruba spiritual practice is, because opened me up to demonic influences and kept me away from encountering the true God. (You can read my personal transformation story at this link: https:\/\/www.thetruelight.net\/wp\/stories\/written-stories\/<\/a> )\n\nDon and Joy Veinot, on the Midwest Christian Outreach<\/em> website wrote an article titled, \u201cThe Occult Religion of #Black Lives Matter.\u201d The writers describe BLM as a \u201cdeeply occultic religious group ‘wearing political garb.\u2019\u201d They emphasized that \u201cfor the moment, we still have freedom of religion and freedom of worship in this nation, so celebrity actors, singers, entertainers, and their followers, as well as the leaders of BLM, have the freedom to believe and practice as they wish. However, the right<\/em> to believe and worship as one chooses is not the same thing as affirming that all beliefs are equally true or valid. Some beliefs are false, and some even dangerous.\u201d\n\nDivination and necromancy are forbidden by God in His Word:\n\n\u201cDo not turn to spirits through mediums or necromancers. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God”<\/em> (Leviticus 19:31, see also Deuteronomy 18:9-14).\n\nAn important question raised in the Veinot’s article puts the entire BLM spiritual movement into perspective: \u201cWhat sort of spirits are they which cause mayhem, pillaging, looting, burning down businesses and homes, and killing or throwing lethal objects at police officers, as well as brazenly calling for the death of police officers throughout the nation?\u201d\n\nMark Hunnemann explains in his book, Seeing Ghosts through God’s Eyes<\/em>, that spirits of the dead are not earthbound, and that \u201cghosts do not exist; they never have and they never will. However, demons do exist, and they love to wear sheep’s clothing.\u201d \u201cAnd no wonder! For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).\u201d The Bible teaches that \u201cAs it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27).\u201d So, what spirits are summoned during the BLM marches? What spirits are called on during the Yoruba If\u00e1 ceremonies? I agree with Veinot’s response to this question: \u201cThe spirits behind BLM are actual spirit beings, the ‘evil spirits’ condemned in the Bible, obviously the ‘negative disruptive forces known as Ajogun’\u2014demons\u2014referenced in Odu If\u00e1’s own (sacred text) literature.\u201d I do not believe participants realize this truth; they are probably very sincere in what they are doing (just as I was). So I pray that God will open their eyes.\n\nDr. Stella Immanuel, a Texas physician born in Africa, who spoke at the Supreme Court Steps regarding Covid-19 and hydroxychloroquine, addresses demonic possession and witchcraft in her Fire Power Ministries social media. In one of her YouTube videos titled, Exposing BLM Witches, <\/em>Dr. Immanuel prays for this country’s deliverance regarding demonic spiritual attacks.\n\nSadly, today many Christian pastors and church leaders are not equipped or interested in teaching about spiritual warfare. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War <\/em>teaches that \u201cif you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.\u201d\n\n\"\"In Christianity, we win the battle with love. Many of those in the Black Lives Matter Movement are hurting people who have very legitimate concerns about prejudice and instances of police brutality. I can sympathize with that and relate to the pain they feel (as I do with anyone of any race who is subjected to injustice). So, I am not protesting BLM leaders and their followers as such, but rather, the occult practices and beliefs which they promote (many of which were once the foundation of my life). In like manner, I am not against<\/em> the practitioners of any non-Christian religion. My heart goes out to them. I am against all false beliefs that derail a person\u2019s spiritual journey through this life. I long to see occultists and BLM participants discard their belief system by discovering the beauty of true salvation that is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nI feel a strong sense of spiritual responsibility for those involved in Umbanda Spiritism (or similar expressions like Santeria), not only because they are fellow human beings, but because I once embraced a similar belief system. All of us have a common enemy and that is the evil, the power, behind false and deceptive beliefs\u2014Satan and his demons.\n\nMy urging to any BLM participants or Umbanda Spiritists who may read this article is simple: \u201cSubmit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you\u201d (James 4:7). I also plead with you to surrender your lives to Jesus, the Savior of all people, who gave His life for all of us on the cross. You only need to call on His name with faith in your heart and ask for your sins to be forgiven. Then according to Ephesians 3:17, He “will dwell in your hearts through faith.” That is your answer. Then it will not be multiple spirits, but the Holy Spirit who comes to abide within you. Please open your heart to His amazing and everlasting love for you. You will never be the same.\n\nGod’s Word teaches that \u201cIf My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).\n\nIn the Berkley Forum<\/em> article by Farrag, \u201cThe Fight for Black Lives is a Spiritual Movement,\u201d Cullors said, \u201cThe fight to save your life is a spiritual fight.\u201d Cullors embraces ideas that I now know are false, but she is correct that this life is a spiritual fight.\n\nThis is spiritual warfare\u2014a battle against spiritual darkness\u2014only won through the power of Jesus Christ, by His blood shed on the cross. Christians must stand together against spiritual evil in prayer and fasting and reach out in love to those who do not yet know the Lord Jesus. Our nation needs revival and deliverance. Our country needs Christian pastors and leaders to equip their flock to put on the armor of God for spiritual protection against this very real invisible war and know how to bring deliverance to those who are yearning to be free.\n\n\u201cFor our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”<\/em> (Ephesians 6:12).\n\n\"\"Ivani<\/strong> Greppi<\/strong> was born in Brazil and is a former Umbanda Medium. Umbanda is a syncretic Yoruba\/Afro-Brazilian religion blending Roman Catholicism and spiritism. Her written testimony is available on the True Light<\/em> website: https:\/\/www.thetruelight.net\/wp\/ivani-greppis-story\/<\/a>.\n\nYou may get in touch with the author by email: ivanigreppi@yahoo.com\n\nBible Versions Cited: Modern English Version (MEV)\n\n \n\n \n\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By guest writer, Ivani Greppi: a former Umbanda Spiritist Medium Like the Medium of Endor in 1 Samuel 28, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM-LA, attempt to call up the dead. The ritual is to publicly recite the names of black victims killed while chanting the African Yoruba term […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1205,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ivanigreppi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}