Cacique Pena Branca

In 1929, the powerful cacique Pena Branca, leader of the Yaki Indians of Mexico, led a revolt against the oppression and injustice that victimized his people. From that moment on, in American lands, the myth of this great entity was born. Pena Branca is today a symbol of freedom, authenticity and fraternity. I once asked Brother Salinas, healer and medium of a Mexican spiritualist tradition, which were the main entities that he incorporated into his temple. The first name I heard was: White Feather. Then I commented that in Brazil, it also incorporated an Indian of the same name. He wasn't surprised and said that other "Feathers" also attended his healing session, nothing preventing them from being the same entities. Far away, in the Caribbean, there is a religion called Vinte e Uma Divisões or Vinte e Uma Linhas, which is similar to our beloved Umbanda. In the terreiros of this cult, fearless spirits of Indians, Pretos Velhos, Exús (here called Candelos) and other familiar spirits work. On the Índio Bravo line, one of the Twenty-One Lines, we also find our old friend Pena Branca! Then he goes down, firm and elegant, giving imposing shouts and cheers. With it, they also incorporate Águia Branca, Índio da Paz and other "Feathers": Blue Feather, Black Feather, Golden Feather, etc. In the southern states of the United States. there are some spiritist churches... Something very different, because on the outside it looks like an evangelical temple and on the inside a terreiro. Pastors are mediums and very intimate with the manifestations of the invisible world. The main spirit that heads these churches, sometimes called: "African Spiritualist Churches", is the Indian Chief Falcão Negro. When Chief Falcão manifests himself, he pulls other companions from the villages of the astral, such as Nuvem Vermelha, Àguia Negra (names of indigenous chiefs that existed) and among them is: Pena Branca. Some American esoteric fraternities, which worship the Ascended Masters, with Saint German, El Morya, and other well-known New Age ones, know a beautiful Master Healer: He appears as an Indian bathed in white and luminous light, giving wise advice and messages, its name: White Feather! In some Caribbean islands there is a cult called Obeah, of African origin. Within it, the mysteries of the spirits of Taino indigenous origin, a local ethnic group, are celebrated. There are many indigenous entities, most with very aloof behavior and names of animals, Cobra Verde, Pantera Negra, Jaguar Dourado and so on. When it incorporates the winged people's phalanx, it symbolizes birds and bats, one of which stands out in particular. This spirit appears serious, focused, uses very strong tobacco and a white feather on its head, and is called the White Feather Indian. We find it again in Venezuela, where there is a beautiful cult, similar in everything to Umbanda. It has Caboclo, Preto Velho, Exú, Orixás and everything good. It is the tradition of Maria Lionza, the Queen Mother of Nature. In Linha India, commanded by the famous spirit of Cacique Gaicaipuro, incorporate hundreds of Venezuelan and American caboclos. They work with pemba, different drinks, water, headdresses, maracas and all the Amerindian apparatus. They arrive shouting and greeting the people, who go to the brotherhoods every week in search of relief, material and spiritual help. One day in Bonaire, a small island close to Venezuela, I attended a Lionza service. Near the congá there was a boy incorporating a caboclo. Attentive, the Indian patiently listened to an old lady and cleaned her with a bunch of fragrant herbs. The lady was crying a lot and shaking. By the end of the session, her countenance had changed. Happy, she sat on the assistance pew and prayed gratefully. Curious, I approached and asked the name of the entity that assisted her. The old sister reverently replied: The Great White Feather Indian! Time passed, and the question was still ringing in my head: *Is it the same Pena Branca... *Has this caboclo known from Umbanda traveled so much... *After all, is he Mexican, American or Brazilian... * Who, after all, was born first, the Pena Branca here or the one from there... Concerns of a researcher, because the godchildren and mediums of Pena Branca are not, I believe, so concerned with their origin. One beautiful night, in a modest and peaceful Umbanda yard in the interior of São Paulo, a caboclo tour was taking place. The leader of the terreiro opened the work and incorporated it. His White Feather was on land, in all his splendor and strength. I was attentive. I remembered the Caribbean and I was thinking about all that I now write here. Caboclo Pena Branca scratched his point, asked for a cigar, gave some orders to the cambone and looked at where I was. I felt a strange energy run down my spine. He kept looking and waved. I got up and waved back. It was then that he said: - I was the son, remember... there's a bunch of herbs that smell good for me...