Cascarilla
Cascarilla is powdered eggshell, white and fine, and it is one of the standing materials of Lucumí and of Caribbean folk healing: it cleanses, it marks, and it is used in the preparation of the orisha and of a person's head.
The English word covers two different things: cascarilla de huevo, the eggshell powder, and cascarilla bark, the aromatic bark of Croton eluteria used in perfumery and in older medicine. The Caribbean magical material is the eggshell, and a supplier selling 'cascarilla' powder may be selling either.
Symbols and forms
- Alternate Names
- CascarillaCascarilla de huevoEggshell powderEfun (Yoruba)
Practice
- Purpose
- To cleanse and cool, to mark what is sacred, and to prepare a person or an object for the orisha
- Tools
- Bowl
- Magical Uses
- PurificationProtectionHealingConsecration
Nature and meaning
- Kind
- Substance
Details
- Region
- Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and their diaspora; also used in Mexican-American healing
- Era
- Continuous in the Caribbean; colonial in origin
- Background
Cascarilla is powdered eggshell, white and fine, and it is one of the standing materials of Lucumí and of Caribbean folk healing: it cleanses, it marks, and it is used in the preparation of the orisha and of a person's head. Its Yoruba counterpart is efun, the white chalk of the same family of meanings - white, cool, sacred, the colour of the orisha of peace - and the shell's own symbolism, the thing that held a life, is part of why it works. In Mexican-American practice, ground eggshell is used in the same cleansing family as the egg limpia.
- Practice
It is rubbed on the skin, blown or sprinkled on a person, an object or a room, used to mark the body and the head in initiatory contexts, and added to preparations for the orisha. In cleansing it is applied to the hands, the chest and the head and then brushed or washed off, and it is often used together with a cologne or a herb water. In Lucumí the marking of the head belongs to initiation and is not done casually.
- Materials
- Florida WaterCamphorCoconutBasil
- Keywords
- CascarillaEggshellEfunWhiteCleansingLucumiObatalaMarking
- Ethical Note
In Lucumí, cascarilla is used on the head in rites that belong to initiation, and marking another person's head is not a thing an outsider may do; the material is sold freely in every botánica and its ritual use is not thereby open. Its association with Obatalá, the orisha of peace and of white, means that casual use of it in a mixed 'spell kit' is a misreading of what the substance is.
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Referenced by 11
Every entry that names Cascarilla, grouped by the system it comes from.
🧿 Folk magic 11
- Louisiana Voodoo Materials
- Curanderismo Materials
- Brujería Materials
- Espiritismo Materials
- Santería (Lucumí) Materials
- The Atlantic Crossroads of the Folk Traditions Materials
- Limpia Materials
- Novena and Velación Materials
- Florida Water Materials
- Blueing Balls Materials
- Camphor in Folk Work Materials
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