A group of priests from the Cuban Santeria prophesies for 2021 “firm and secure health”, as well as an increase in natural disasters, migratory flow, political tensions and criminal acts in the world, among its traditional predictions “Letter of the Year”.
The message, prepared by babalawos (Ifa or Santeria priests) members of the Yoruba Association of Cuba, contains a series of predictions and advice for the new year awaited by many believers of Afro-Cuban religions and by curious people who consult them mainly through social networks. .
Due to the health emergency caused by the contagious coronavirus pandemic, only a number of priests were called to the ceremonies to prepare the “Letter of the Year” which did not exceed one hundred, as explained by the Association, which has its headquarters in Havana.
Leadership of deities, warnings and councils
In 2021 will reign the powerful deity Olokun, queen of the oceans and linked to death, who provides health, prosperity and material evolution and is considered among the most mysterious in the Yoruba pantheon.
His companion will be Ochún, an orisha who is syncretized with the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba for the Catholic religion and who for Santeria is the queen of freshwater, streams, springs and rivers and the personification of love and fertility.
The text of the “Letter”, based on a divinatory system of Afro-Cuban cults, warns of the increase of infectious-contagious, gastrointestinal and nervous system diseases.
In the social order, it also warns of increasing problems such as political, social and religious tensions that can lead to conflicts, criminal acts, deaths due to illegal emigration, territorial, legal and sexual violations and false consecrations and desecrations. religious.
In their list of recommendations, the priests of Ifá call on the world society to analyze the high level of corruption that exists in all spheres, and to instil in families “respect, education and love” for work.
Its projects also recommend maintaining the established hygienic-sanitary measures, complying with the laws of each country in order to avoid problems with justice or raising internal economic planning.
For more than three decades, the priests of Santeria Island met in December to define in the “Letter of the Year” the guidelines that will govern next year and will advise the population, especially against bad presences.
The Afro-Cuban religion, one of the most practiced syncretic cults in Cuba, arrived on the island with African slaves in the late eighteenth century and was passed down through the generations through oral tradition.
Prayers, rituals, spells, dance, music and sacrifices are part of the religious heritage, which has one of its main components in divination.