Being a Mambo
I am going to tell you a truth about the most secret and precious aspect of spirit work.
Every day I wake up and meet the new day by the side of my spirits, in the altar room with a cup of coffee and the soft candle light drawing in the new sun onto the sacred items I have for the spirits. I take a deep breath and feel the sunlight renewing my life force for this day, a day I am grateful for.
I open the prayers and listen to the whispering sounds of the chitter-chattering voices as they funnel through the veils of time to me. Deciphering the day’s work, readings, client needs and trainees’ problems. I open my mind and heart to the work ahead of me, performing the appropriate rituals for the day’s work.
I give readings, advise remedies, help loved ones and make spiritual baths. Come evening I will pray and protect myself and my family. Before I close down the magical work for the night, I make offerings to the spirits for their help.
In a day, I walk through the minds and hearts of so many. At nighttime I dream of everyone I am working for. Their pasts, their deepest fears, I will live their darkest secrets and feel what it is like to be them. This gives me compassion.
When the spirit needs to come through my body in possession to help someone, it feels like being dropped off a building. It can take up to three people to support me and several days to recover.
By the rite of the trail of spirits coming into our presence by passages performed daily for thousands of years, handed down from one magician to another in an unbroken chain, there is a line to the Divine and the spirits which follow.
As a channel, our duty is to perform the spirit’s will. Unwavering. Because we are working all the time, helping to elevate, clear and free people from the loneliest of places, we know darkness and we can see it everywhere.
Every day we wake up kissing the sunlight in the altar room, welcoming the voices that filter through. Those of us who are called to be spirit workers are proud of the spiritual path and all it has to offer.
This is our blessing, to live a life connecting to the Mysteries and our God.
May you be blessed as the Spirits and Mysteries walk with You.
Priestess and Mambo Shoshana
Supporting the Temple
People are always asking how they can support and help build the temple. This is a good question because when you support the temple you also support the spirits and they do give back. See, in the days of old, people would come into a temple and cook and clean for the Houngan and Mambo, this would give us the time we needed to perform our work, prepare our arsenal of supplies and offer ceremonies.
This connection and hands on training would build over time. The more you offered the more you would learn. Eventually you would develop an understanding of the spirit world and then were invited to perform mediumship for others. After some years you would be wise enough to help a priest or priestess in possession, a very important job!
During this period you would move from helping with the chores to mixing the herbs, making the lamps, collecting the foods for the spirits. By this time the spirits would begin to believe you respect them and they would start communicating directly with you. An asset to the temple you would have become.
It is my commitment to serve in the traditional ways. I myself moved 3000 miles to live next to my Papa for this reason. I gave everything I could and learned so much. Because of my dedication and service, I became a Mambo and Vodou Priestess.
Not everyone can make this kind of sacrifice for the spirits. But, here is a list of ways you can build your connection and serve in the community wherever you are:
- Take classes
- Become a member
- Send donation / supplies
- Come and spend time at the temple (we will put you to work)
- Tell others about the temple
- Know what we are doing. As a member you will be informed on work you can do during ceremonies that will benefit your life.
As always God Bless