Pomba Gira & Exu

Occult World: Pomba Gira

Pomba Gira is the scarlet woman, the sacred harlot, and the lady of crossroads and street lights. An Afro-Brazilian spirit, Pomba Gira derives from the intersection of Iberian, Gitano, and Central African roots. Pomba Gira is the crossroad where these traditions meet. She is a goddess of power, eroticism, death, and vengeance. She has dominion over sex for pleasure and power, not procreation. (That said, she can bestow fertility when and if she desires.) Pomba Gira is an oracular spirit who can reveal the past and future, but she can be a brutally plain-spoken truth-teller. Don’t ask her for information unless you are ready to hear unvarnished truths.

Pomba Gira’s origins are mysterious. She is not worshipped in African traditions, only in Brazil. (It is possible that devotees did not survive elsewhere.

Sometimes when people refer to Pomba Gira they really mean Maria Padilha (or vice versa). The names are frequently used interchangeably but there are many Pomba Giras. These may be multiple paths of one goddess or Pomba Gira may name an entire category of spirits.

Maria Padilha may be the Queen Pomba Gira. It’s possible that at least some of the other Pomba Giras are vestiges of the Fairy court of beautiful female spirits who serve as the entourage for Spain’s Maria de Padilla. They may have accompanied their queen on her sea voyage to Brazil. As she transformed into Maria Padilha, so they too transformed into Pomba Giras.

Pomba Gira or Pombajira and Exu

by "VAMZZ" (Some nude statues in link)

The entity is worshipped by a Zelador, in most cases a woman, who gets possessed in trance by Pomba Gira during gatherings or celebration days, cares for her with offerings, let her speak through her mouth in a specific cackling way and performs rituals in which the entity solves problems (trabalhos espirituais) for her clients.

Dama da Noite (Lady of the Night)
Maria Molambo
Maria Mulambo das Sete Catacumbas (literally, Lame Mary of the Seven Tombs)
Maria Padilha (Queen of the Marys)
Maria Quitéria
Pomba Gira Arrepiada (Creeping Pomba Gira)
Pomba Gira Cigana (Gypsy Pomba Gira)
Pomba Gira das Almas (Pomba Gira of the Souls)
Pomba Gira das Sete Encruzilhadas (Pomba Gira of the Seven Crossroads)
Pomba Gira dos 7 Cruzeiros da Calunga (Pomba Gira of the Seven Crosses of Kalunga)
Pomba Gira Mirongueira (Enchantress Pomba Gira)
Pomba Gira Mocinha (Young Girl Pomba Gira)
Pomba Gira Rainha (Queen Pomba Gira)
Pomba Gira Sete Calungas (Pomba Gira Seven Kalungas)
Praia (Beach)
Rainha das Rainhas (Queen of Queens)
Rainha do Cemitério (Queen of the Graveyard)
Rainha Sete Encruzilhadas (Queen Seven Crossroads)
Rosa Caveira (literally Rose Skull)
Pomba Gira das Cobras (Pomba Gira of Snakes)
Pomba Gira Maria da Praia (Pomba Gira of the Beach)

Pomba Gira, like the ancient goddess Hecate,  is often associated with crossroads, probably because the crossroad belongs to the traditional liminal zones, i.e. zones where the material dimension borders the astral realm or underworld.  See also our article Hecate, the calling of the crossroad goddess. Statues in a wide variety of Pomba Gira are easily purchased on the Internet. There is also a shop with Pomba Gira astral powder to make a connection.

AFAICTell the full movie has been delayed but even this teaser is pretty informative ->

Unknown Artist - Exú (1976)
From Album ''Compilation Amazônia - Cult Music Of Northern Brazil''

FESTA DO CALDEIRÃO DE EXÚ - QUIMBANDA

Wicked Women and Femmes Fatales

Kelly E. Hayes, excerpt from her book Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality, and Black Magic in Brazil

This entity that was incorporated in her was gargalhando[cackling] horribly and saying, “She is mine, I am going to take her to the cemetery, I am going to take her to the grave, to the sepulcher, she is mine!” She was grimacing and gnashing her teeth and we were trying to get her to go inside, but she wouldn’t, she had a force inside of her and she wouldn’t budge. But finally, we succeeded in getting her inside, and she was cursing me and glaring at me and it wasn’t her in there. And I became terrified at that, by that thing that had dominated her.

And this is something that I knew if I told anyone outside, they would never believe me, but she broke all the bottles in the place, as she was passing by, they just exploded. She never touched them, but they exploded. And then she sat there on the ground, in the middle of the temple, and began to light cigarette after cigarette and to eat them— lit cigarettes. She ate them one after another, and at the time she didn’t smoke. She grabbed a bottle of cachaça[rum] and guzzled the whole thing down

Nazaré, who had been sitting silently throughout Nilmar’s account, interjected, “I heard from my own mouth, but it wasn’t me talking, that what [the spirit entity] wanted was luz [light].” Following the leader’s instructions, the couple purchased the various items necessary for a complex ritual work, or trabalho, that would help Nazaré to “develop” the spirit, a popular incarnation of Pomba Gira named Maria Molambo das Sete Catacombas (Raggedy Maria of the Seven Catacombs). After this initial trabalho, Nazaré began to frequent Umbanda ceremonies, gradually learning how to ritually control what she and Nilmar came to under-stand as episodes of spirit possession and to limit them to the appropriate times and places.

Chthonia Episode 46 : Pomba Gira

Brigid Burke

This week we look at Pomba Gira, sometimes a single term for a powerful female spirit, at other times the title of a group of spirits. A spirit with many avatars, most notably Maria Molambo (Maria of the Trash), Pomba Gira is a highly sexualized and sometimes dangerous female figure in the Afro-Brazilian rituals of both Umbanda and Quimbanda. We look at her origins in powerful African earth mothers, and her role as a power figure for the oppressed.