Quimbanda: The Cult of the Red and Black Flame

This book is so freaking great and I'm happy that Martinet Press was the one to publish it. It really is amazing how big this book is for the price and how much information is in it. As someone who presently just works with his personal Exu and Pomba Gira, reading it lit a fire under my ass to push even further along this path. Even if you're just a curious seeker, the history presented in this masterpiece will not disappoint. Laroye Exu, Laroye Pomba Gira!

Excellent. Excellent. Excellent! Best book I've read on a line of quimbanda. Wish Amazon would get more of these kinds of books translated from Brazilian Portuguese to English.

it's hard to find english version, yes lots of information,

With such a vast and varied way of practice it would be impossible to fit it all into one book. This is a great book and highly recommended. Hopefully in the future more works like this will be written in English. I can't thank author and translators enough for putting this out. Thank you!

A wealth of information here...almost too much! The book is great but there is so much information it is hard to take in and digest. I believe that this book is a direct translation of the Portuguese version. Worth the $25 I paid for it.

Thoroughgoing and quite thick book, not without its flaws but valuable for a field in which there is not a lot of accessible material. Would've rated it lower due to its often difficult or poor translation (it seems to either have been translated from Spanish/Portuguese, or been written by a non-native English speaker) but it is obviously a labor of love. A second edition, better edited for grammar and English usage (by someone other than the author), would be very welcome, however.

So far I’ve learned a lot... I must take a trip to Brazil then I will feel completely in tune with POMBA GIRA ...

Interesting with a lot of information, but incomplete in some ways which are misleading. Exu Rei das Sete Encruzilhadas (Astaroth when syncretized, "Exu King of the 7 Crossroads" - note not 7 Cruzeiros, which is another) appears to be absent, while this one would normally be one of the top 3, each heading up a lineage, with the 3 themselves under the Maioral. This seems a very large lapse in the structure of how the Exus are usually organized, leaving out a very key one. I have never met a Brazilian familiar with this subject who did not know this Exu, even if they were familiar with very few, since he is so important. It's a little hard to see how this would have been missed, unless perhaps the author has worked with a group where this Exu somehow does not appear. I haven't read this book cover to cover yet, having just received it, but with a lapse like this, it might be wise not to regard this as a completely authoritative work. The books by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold including "Kiumbanda - A Complete Grammar of the Art of Exu" would be good to compare, as well as Brazilian books which are in Portuguese and perhaps not as accessible to many. Oddly enough, the author lists de Mattos Frisvold's book in the bibliography. I know it's traditional to warn people to be careful with these sorts of things, and saying this is often meant to spook people, but in this case it's very, very wise advice, whether you view this sort of thing as objective or purely psychological.

Cet ouvrage présente de manière plutôt exhaustive et pédagogique cette religion singulière. La Quimbanda est la religion des esclaves afro-descendants qui avaient réussi à fuir dans la jungle sud américaine au tournant du XVIe siècle. Là, ils abjurèrent la religion que leurs bourreaux leur avaient imposé pour retrouver leurs tradition d'origine. Dans la sécurité relative de cet exil dans l'enfer vert, les anciens esclaves s'allièrent avec les indiens et furent bientôt rejoints par d'autres fugitifs : ceux que les autorités religieuses avaient envoyé en exil en raison de leur hérésie. Ceux-ci transportaient dans leurs bagages les grimoires de sorcellerie médiévaux. S'ensuivit un joyeux métissage de traditions détonantes pour donner naissance à la Quimbanda. Cette religion "sorcière" se caractérise par des pratiques de contact avec les esprits et une forte opposition ontologique à toute pensée liberticide. Les figures principales sont les esprits féminins Pombagira qui ne sont pas sans rappeler la figure de Lilith, figure puissante et rebelle qui hante mon univers et beaucoup de mes écrits. J'ai donc trouvé ce livre fort instructif.

Book on Quimbanda, Absolutely Fantastic book on the praxis of quimbanda!!! I'll let this MSS speak for itself

Très bon livre pour decouvrir la quimbanda

Brilliant book. All you want to know about Quimbanda. Recommended

Whilst it is not the best English language book on the subject and is poorly translated, it does have unique information even if that information is not traditional.