The Cult of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Gods in Brazilian Wicca: Symbols and Practices

This paper is a field report based on ethnographic data collected at two Brazilian Wicca meetings held in March and July 2014, in São Paulo and Brasilia, respectively. Both meetings celebrated Brazilian goddesses. This paper analyses this use and adaptation of local religious elements by Brazilian Wiccans. The religion arrived in Brazil during the 1980s, and today there are many Wicca covens and local traditions. This research focuses on one of these, the Brazilian Dianic Tradition. Led by Mavesper Cy Ceridwen, today this tradition has forty-eight priests and priestesses. Its magical family runs Abrawicca, a civil association that holds public Wicca rituals in five different Brazilian cities. They also organize the gatherings described in this paper. I present some of their practices, with a particular focus on the adaptation of Afro-Brazilian and native Indigenous gods and rituals by Brazilian Wiccans.