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BabalÃº and Caves

I have been thinking a lot about caves lately. In Cuba, BabalÃº-AyÃ© is thought to have lived in a cave at his nadir; in fact, the rare road of BabalÃº called KujunÃº is said to always live in caves and emerge at night with a lantern: BabalÃº as the light in the darkness. Many altars recreate this terrestrial abode. When giving BabalÃº, most lineages make a special, low-slung altar in a corner and cover the front with the climbing plant called cundeamor. BabalÃº and his family rest in this manmade cave during much of the ceremony, emerging only to work or eat. Many people keep their BabalÃº vessels tucked away and covered with plants or cloth, hidden from view. Some, like Rafael Linares and his widow, cover the vessels themselves in cundeamor. Of course, there is more than one story about how it is the BabÃ¡ came to live in a cave. There is the story of his exile that I have already told, and many people simply fill in the detail of the cave when they are trying to imagine or explain the desolate places. Having lived large and exalted his masculinity, BabalÃº is then thrown back into the dark, unknowable body of the Earth. Having indulged in his own hubris, he is reduced to utter humility. The story of his rehabilitation describes ChangÃ³ finding him in a trash heap or a cave, depending on who tells it.

The cave itself is an interesting thing, linking the Earth where we live to the dark inner life of the Earth, like a bibijagua colony. In fact, some lineages use the earth from the entrance of a crab´s cave in the jÃ¡. These crabs live by the water, come charging up on land and then disappear into the Earth. They move effortlessly from the water, to the world, and into the Earth. (Special thanks to Erik Daugaard for the great Cuban crab photo.)

Labels: BabalÃº-AyÃ© bibijagua cave crab cundeamor darkness Earth KujunÃº night Rafael Linares Raquel FernÃ¡ndez San LÃ¡zaro SanterÃ­a


