I had two dreams of chango and I was hesitant to light a candle for him because i heard there were so many rules to start like initiation and/or then first ask eleggua for permission to work with an orisha as he opens or closes communication with them…I had to contact someone that helps me at a local botanica shop to get confirmation they confirmed with shells that he contacted me to help my family…I am very grateful and thankful of him and his help 
…I definitely did my research on his favorite food,color,number, and prayers for him.Can any1 share how they started?
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I’m going to give you a really unpopular answer, based on my experience with working with the Loa, few here on the forum work with Orisha’s to my knowledge, but those that do will likely disagree with me, same as the Voodoo practitioners do. I don’t however practice the religion of Voodoo, nor do I intend to, I’ve studied it read about it and it’s not for me. I am the operator and Voodoo doesn’t align with my practices or spiritual beliefs. No religion does.
Official initiation only matter to humans and religions. When the gods come to you and want you, human things don’t matter and heritage can be discarded. For one, most of us can’t trace our ancestry back past a few hundred years, so there maybe unknown heritage. For two, some of us have past life interactions and relationships with entities, and they come to us based on who we were, who the sum of our entire being is, and not who we are today.
If you’ve done the research as you’ve stated, you’ve confirmed that Chango is interested in helping you then yes. I would go through the proper channels, similar to how I did with the Loa. I was invited to the current by Baron Samedi and Met Kalfu, but I still felt like it was important to take the proper steps. Basically I got the verves for both of them and Papa Legba. I meditated until I was in a trance, deeper than a light trance but not as deeps tgs.
I then I opened the verve like it was a sigil. After several minutes I reached a point where I felt confident I had connected to the energy of Papa Legba. I told him why I was calling upon him, and asked that he opened the gates to the Loa. I then had a two hour automatic writing experience. About two weeks later Samedi appeared to me, outside of my boyfriends home with a test so to speak, but it was one of my first encounters with a spirit that had very audible and visual impressions. In fact I thought I was crazy, until I tossed my cigarette butt in our ashtray and went inside. The boyfriend asked me what was out there with me, and I was like… I didn’t say a word out loud so how did you know? The short answer is he felt the shift, but didn’t feel I was in danger so left me to it. He already knew I worked with spirits and had finally answered the Loa’s call. (Took me over a year to finally accept.)
So I’ve read about the orisha’s but I’ve not attempting calling upon them. I am familiar with Elegua being the gateway spirit, but not with the best method of calling upon them.
As such, my advice is to Yes go to Elegua first, out of respect for the spirits and the way they operate, ask him to open the gateway/crossroads/whatever you feel led to call it, and explain that you want to connect to Chango.
I would however expect challenges along the way. My understanding is the Orisha’s operate in a similar manner to the Loa, and expect an operator and not someone who will merely ask how high when they say jump, so it will be important to know what your personal boundaries are, and to keep them, if you are ever asked or a proposal is given that seems a bit far fetched for what you are willing to do. They tend to respect an operator that doesn’t allow the spirits to use them as merely a prime energy source.
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I totally second it. Indeed the priests and priestesses are called by different deities. Religions are money mechanism, money machines. Normally should be so that each group has a mage, witch, priest or priestess which naturally shows that is the one to resolve the problems of the group and being a true intermediary between the spirits and the people.
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I’m not sure I understand the way you wrote some of that, but yeah. I mean you can go through the proper human channels, become a worshipper and get an occasional favor from the spirits, maybe even learn a thing or two, but if they call you. There’s a reason and I don’t think humans should hold spirits to human standards.
If the Orisha’s are anything like the Loa, they will teach you how to operate in your own power, aid and guide you, challenge your thinking, occasionally make you prove your worth before moving to the next stage and things like that, rather than just brokering deals where it’s a tit for a tat, or tasking them in exchange for an offering.
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I wouldn’t say all religions are money mechanisms one doesn’t need to go to church or give money to even be in a religion. However, the Orisha are beautiful spirits, and if they’re reaching out to you already try looking up their sigils, like the Loa they use those interesting symbols and many of our ancestors were initiated by these spirits personally there was no middle man. It started somewhere.
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And these mages, witches and priests should not earn any money for their work?
I know lots of christian pastors who genuinely do their work to help the people, not only for money.
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But of course they need to live. The point was actually that other systems work better or at least in the past they did perfectly.
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Yes I can understand…I’ve had practitioners over charge me for certain things like removal of hexes for like $600,I ended up removing it on my own…The one I go to now I can tell they do it for good intentions and not greed I didn’t even get charged sometimes for certain things when I make other purchases.like a get a reading charged but get a statue free or a bath half off.
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Yes sometimes I wonder if he came to me partially because the person I am with was actually initiated or maybe because of my blood line or because he is attracted to dancers because he is one himself among other attributes, he was a charmer with women and is associated with drums.
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You’ll have to ask him yourself, but with the Loa it took me over a year to get an answer. I also found that others were placed in my path that the Loa were interested, as time went by so. You could try divining it and asking when you get around to going through the proper channels to reach him, but the answer may be elusive or cryptic until it’s time for you to know it.
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I strongly agree with the comments above me. I briefly encountered Chango and his energy was very powerful. Papa Legba, Baron Samedi and Yemaya all reached out to me and I worked with them briefly. Very nice deities.
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How did they reach out to you and since you don’t agree what is your take on it ?
I just said that I agree with the comments above
While I was praying they began communicating with me
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Oh ok miss-understood the first part then sorry about that. Read it to fast
I somewhat disagree / agree and that is due to some specifics. Yes - I am an initiated priest. Yes - I am actually heer to try to help, if in no other way then to be a voice of reason and fact checker as it relates to Santeria. I see alot of this “spirit, Orisha, Demon, god appeared to me in my dream”. My first question is How do you know? How do you know it was Chango? Cuz he said so? If you work with spirits you know that there are those that will decieve you. Did you confirm this? In traditional Orisha communities, if you have dreams of an Orisha, it typically is viewed as something that needs to be investigated. It could be good, it could be bad…so they go to get checked. The Orisha that regularly visit folks can cause problems, medical, emotional, physical, etc. because they are calling you to be initiated into their mysteries.
Yes, people can get messages from spirits and that includes Orishas in dreams, chance encounters on the streets, or even signs in nature. But to us that means that you go to a preist and get checked to verify and confirm, see whats up, what you need to do, etc. If you don’t there is too much guess work.
There is nothing wrong with challenging a spirit to prove who they are and what they say. This is where proper intent / heart comes in…if you do it with disrespect, Chango might just say “I’ll show you in six days” and later that week your F’in house burns down. All in the delivery - as they say.
The problem Ihave with this whole “I don’t need initiation to do this” is the arrogance. You mean you are so badass in the cosmos that you can just invoke Ellegua and he is going to do what you want, but you don’t have the cojones to test him? It is disrespectful to both the Orisha and the priests - you know, their workers here on earth that they gave license to. Not everyone needs initiation, and can petition and get consulted and do ebbo every now and then and their stuff is great. Some only need some things and NO- INITIATION IS NEVER THE FIRST STEP!There are so many misconceptions and misinformation out there…yes you can pray and make an offering. Yes you can have a dream, but you can also do some research. Which is way freakin’ easier these days, by the way. There are many people, most in fact, who consult a priest for their issues, do the work, make the sacrifice (no- not always the blood of a chicken) and get fantastic results. That is what you do. You go to the doctor to get medicine. You go to the counselor to get advice. Yes- there are charlatans and rip-offs out there, but that research I mentioned, is the best defense against getting ripped off. There are literally FAQ’s online now. If you know the basics of who and what the Orisha are, the basics of what a legitimate divination session entails, can ask around, look online, observe other clientele, godchildren, etc.that goes a long way. So in today’s worls, if you go in blind - you get what you get - Caveat Emptor.
I am not Cuban or black, am not fully fluent in Spanish or Yoruban, do not make my living off of the religion andgot started by the referral of a friend/ co worker.
This is not just a “religion” it is a way to live your life to stay in sync with your destiny. Have you dreamed about what your destiny is? Or is spiriot trying to get you to wake up? Ican’t speak for Goetia, Luciferianism, Hellenism, Wicca, Vodun, Voodoo or Hoodoo, but I can say that there are legit ways to work with spirits (and they can be VERY particular which means no guess work allowed) and it is kind of like gun safety. Learn the rules of the range, practice good range safety and you won’t get F’d up!
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I think you misunderstand, the thing is you don’t need a priest to initiate you, you can very well be initiated by the spirits themselves, and while going to a priest to verify is a good thing to do it’s not the only thing to do as priests are not the end all be all of dealing with the Orisha or any spirit for that matter, priests may hold the title but there are many who are not priests who can do just the same.
Also please better space your text it’s hard to read when it’s jumbled up like that.
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Keteriya, I would ask for a few clarifications, if you please.
I will tell you, and if you have ever been exposed to a legitimate possesion by an Orisha, Initiation matters to them - VERY MUCH. Orisha worshippers do beleive in reincarnation so that line of thought is not entirley inconsistent. But it will come out in your life eventually that you have that leevl of interaction with them. You can not just mark a sigil and get Ellegua or Chango to come to you, it don’t work that way. If you knew what it would take and the effort involved you would understand. We would mark Odu or an Ajitena - not a Veve or POntos REiscado, or a Patipemba.
If you want to call out to Ellegua - go to a crossroads or the woods or a dump and ask for your ancestors, all of the spirits that walk with you and the orishas to hear you. You woulkd say who you are, what you want and show them it is from the heart. Leave them a token offering - a small bottle of rum and cigar in this case. leave three pennies and turn and walk away confident that at least you did that right.
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Well thats why after I had the dreams I confirmed with local practitioner/priestess at my local botanica of why he came to me they used divination of shells and they told me why he came to me in my dreams and if its okay to work with him they said yes since he came to me in a dream…I’ve also work with the 7 african powers way before I even had this dream.But I understand where your coming from as to why I was hesitant and had to confirm.
Yes, I guess Iwas responding more to the comments of the other posters, moreso than yours. But, you did it the correct way. May Chango bless you today and every day.
Kabiosile!
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Thank you…The only thing I’m concerned is i heard offerings are offered daily or weekly is that only for initiates? Can non initiates do it on occasion just to say thanks on any of the days they prefer I know chango is for wed and fridays…I kinda wish the person who confirmed with me was more informative with me as i suffer from anxiety.