It was not until the Cuban Revolution of 1959 that Santeria became a known element in American society. As Cubans fled their island, the initial wave of santeros - priests and priestesses of Santeria - carried their orishas to another new land. During the 1980 Mariel boat lift, the second wave of Santeria followers entered the United States.

Consequently, Santeria practitioners have become a regular part of many urban American landscapes. It is estimated that currently as many as 2 million individuals dabble in Santeria in the United States and that there are as many as 75 to 100 million devout practitioners worldwide. (Erickson, 1988:13.)

Indeed, significant numbers of Santeria followers reside in the urbanized sections of Florida, New Jersey, New York and California. Miami officials estimate that as many as 50,000 practitioners live in their city. (Paulhus seminar, August 16, 1989.)

The basic foundations of Santeria beliefs are described in the accompanying box. Religious participation occurs in both ceremonies and rituals whereby magical powers serve as "a functional strategy of conflict resolution, both at the individual and interpersonal levels." As such, magic "provides an outlet for repressed hostilities and offers a set of symbolic performances that lead to intrapsychic and social stability."(Martinez and Wetli, 1982:32.) While ceremonies occur with more than two persons present and are always conducted by a santero, rites are performed alone by an individual practitioner or in the company of an initiated santero.

In contemporary American society, the Santeria practitioner recognizes four ritualistic practices: divination, sacrifice, spirit possession and initiation.

* Divination occurs when orishas speak to human beings, diagnose their needs and "open their destinies to fulfillment".

* Sacrifice occurs when human beings give their orishas the ashe that is the sustenance of life.

* Spirit possession involves fully opening the channels of ashe when human dancers merge with divine rhythms.

* Initiation involves ceremonial rituals which show to the devotee and to the community the depth of the devotee's commitment to the orishas and his or her mastery of the techniques of invoking ashe. (Murphy, 1988:134-140.)

In essence, "Santeria magic functions as a supportive system that offers its members culturally meaningful symbols that contribute positively" to the life of the practitioner. (Martinez and Wetli, 1982:37.) Thus, the occult activities involved in Santeria are at best positive in nature and at worst, neutral. In contrast to this primarily positive magico-religious system is another Afro-Caribbean belief system, Palo Mayombe, where the magic is often used for evil and illegal purposes.

Palo Mayombe

Palo Mayombe is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean belief system that combines the cultural and spiritual belief systems of the ancient African Congo tribes with the religious practices of Yoruba slavers and Catholicism. It uses magical rituals that manipulate, captivate and/or control another person most often for the practitioners malevolent purposes. Like their brothers from Nigeria, the Congo slaves were forcibly brought to the Caribbean and subsequently adapted their cultural and religious belief system to the culture and Catholic religious traditions of their new home. Through their assimilation process, the Congo slaves also incorporated some of the beliefs, symbols and rituals of Santeria. The result of this particular syncretism was Palo Mayombe, derived from the Spanish palo meaning "wooden stick" or "branch" and referring to the pieces of wood practitioners, the Paleros or Mayomberos, use for their magic spells.

Although the origins of the Mayombero and Santero share similar roots, it is important to note two features that distinguish the rituals and beliefs of these different and individualistic belief systems.

* First, while many Mayomberos were first initiated into Santeria, very few Santerians also practice Palo Mayombe. Florida law enforcement officials estimate no more than 10 percent of Santeria practitioners in their state are also involved in Palo. (Paulhus lecture in Cypress, CA on August 16, 1989.) Indeed, most Santeria practitioners fear the Mayombero, claiming he practices a sinister form of Santeria which they call bruleria, black magic or Witchcraft.

* Second, the rituals of Santeria most often focus magic on positive actions designed to improve one's personal position or please an orisha. Palo Mayombe, on the other hand, centers its rituals around the spirit of the dead, often using magic to inflict misfortune or death upon an enemy. In fact, the Mayombero does not use the orishas but rather invokes the evil spirit of one specific patron who resides in his nganga, the cauldron used during most rituals.

Practitioners perform magic by controlling the spirits who mediate good and evil in the natural world. According to Migene Gonzalez-Wippler, a Santerian scholar and practitioner, Mayomberos are divided into two distinctly different categories: those who practice benevolent or neutral magic, the Mayomberos Christiano (Christian Mayomberos); and those who practice malevolent magic, the Mayomberos Judios (Jewish Mayomberos.)

"This differentiation is made by the paleros because the 'Christian' cauldron in which their secrets are kept is sprinkled with holy water and the 'Jewish' one is not. To the practitioners of Palo, who, like the santeros, are steeped in Catholic tradition, anyone or anything that is not baptized is evil and does not belong to God. Be-