lukumi

I haven’t spoken to a friend in eleven months, nothing happened, it’s just we’ve been busy. Suddenly I get a facebook message “I’m holding a misa. Want to come talk to dead people with me?” Now if you don’t know what a misa is (which I didn’t before I was invited) to simplify it, it is a séance of sorts in the spiritualism/espiritismo tradition, and used and performed by people in the Santeria community. Said friend is a priestess in Lukumi and was running the event, so getting to talk to dead people and getting to try something new, of course I was game.
Being part of the spiritualism tradition it was fairly Catholic, so I ended up saying my first Hail Mary ever…about 30 times over the evening. When trying to decide where to sit my friend says “I know, sit at the other end of the table, you can be the anchor.” “The anchor?” “Yes, if the spirits are going to come through or possess anyone it will be the anchor.” We smirked and I took the position, unfortunately no possessions occured. After a long period of prayers to angels, guides, relatives, and whatever else we sat there silently waiting for messages to come through.
Slowly I got the sensation of communication, weaker than when I talk with things in most ways, but more visual than I get unless I’m skrying. Then the fun and annoyance happened. It was largely going to be my friend and my self talking to the spirits, they might communicate with others, but we were more of the focus point. My friend started talking, and internally I started cringing because she sounded like a TV medium “I’m getting the sense of an Aunt, or a Great-Aunt, some relationship like that. She says…” I didn’t know if my friend was cold-reading (which isn’t her style), making it up (which is possible for anyone on accident), or actually communicating with something.
Unfortunately my communications came through similar in the beginning, names that shifted in my head, messages vague enough to apply to six different things, so I was very reluctant to talk about what I saw/heard because it all sounded like a vague medium scam. But after the first two or three, I was in the space, as was my friend and stuff started coming through clear. It was an interesting experience; I talked with, delivered messages from, and accurately described people’s family members, or known spiritual companions. Part of it still had that TV medium feel as we pass what information we can back and forth trying to figure out who the spirit is. That’s something I’d love to figure out how to navigate better.
It was weird for me. I work with the dead, and I talk with the dead, but I’ve rarely talk to the dead for someone else, and it was awkward at times. Both feeling what the spirit is trying to relay emotionally, and in one case describing the one spirit who I could only describe as “a stereotypically sassy black older lady” which felt so odd to see and describe, but she gave me her name, and the person knew exactly who she was. She also said this person really was that stereotypical. Usually my confirmation of talking with the dead involves research and such afterwards, but it was nice to be able to talk with someone, describe the spirit, say the name, and have them know exactly who it was. Also everyone else at the misa is involved with Santeria, except for me, so their spirits are often from that tradition. What surprised me was a few times I would relay something a spirit had said to me, which made no sense to me, linguistically or spiritually in different cases, but apparently made perfect sense in the Santeria system. Instructions that felt silly or bizarre to me, turned out to be real practices.
Not surprising to me in the slightest, but none of “my spirits” came through, which surprised my friend. All in all it was an interesting evening, and I liked the chance to try my hand at working with the dead in another system. It might not be a method I’d use on my own but I’m glad to have a chance to try it, and another opportunity to flex those psychic muscles. If you’ve never been to a misa and are invited, I’d suggest checking them out. I doubt they’d change your world, but they are an interesting experience if stuff is actually happening.