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Pomba Gira and the Quimbanda of Mbùmba Nzila
A significant study on the cult of Pomba Gira, this is the most comprehensive work in the English language on the Devil’s mistress, whose Brazilian cult has bewitched so many. It is a book that those seeking congress with the current of strong female magical sexuality have long desired. A beguiling spirit, Pomba Gira gives solace to the broken hearted, vengeance for the wronged, and a fierce path for those that would take her as muse.
In Pomba Gira & the Quimbanda of Mbùmba Nzila Frisvold gives explicit workings, baths and waters, her songs and chants. Her plant allies among the nightshades are described in a full herbarium. The attractions and dangers for both men and women who make cult to her are presented, as are her many faces. Pomba Gira has origins in the witchcraft of Portugal, the Basque Country as well as Congo and the native influences of Brazil. The witchcraft fusion makes her cult particularly accessible to Westerners whose own traditions share much ground with Quimbanda. Frisvold carefully unravels the skeins, revealing her origin in historical figures such as Maria Padilha, but more deeply still through archetype and myth to the very essence of her skin shedding nature. He finds the origin of her name in Congo, the cult of divine possession amongst the slave camps of Brazil, and brings us through to her more modern manifestations and his personal work with the Queen of the Fig Tree in Hell. As an initiate and devotee, he gives an insider’s view with the same respect and experience he demonstrates in Palo Mayombe: The Garden of Blood and Bones. We walk through the Queendoms of Lyre, Cemetery, Sepulchres, Streets, Crossroads, Wilderness, Soul, Oceanshore and Calunga.
The workings of twenty four different Pomba Giras are given, from Cigana the gypsy to the split skull face of Rosa Caveira. Through the razor blades in honey, the cigarette smoke and the sweet anisette spilt in the graveyard, Pomba Gira takes seductive shape.
In Pomba Gira & the Quimbanda of Mbùmba Nzila Frisvold gives explicit workings, baths and waters, her songs and chants. Her plant allies among the nightshades are described in a full herbarium. The attractions and dangers for both men and women who make cult to her are presented, as are her many faces. Pomba Gira has origins in the witchcraft of Portugal, the Basque Country as well as Congo and the native influences of Brazil. The witchcraft fusion makes her cult particularly accessible to Westerners whose own traditions share much ground with Quimbanda. Frisvold carefully unravels the skeins, revealing her origin in historical figures such as Maria Padilha, but more deeply still through archetype and myth to the very essence of her skin shedding nature. He finds the origin of her name in Congo, the cult of divine possession amongst the slave camps of Brazil, and brings us through to her more modern manifestations and his personal work with the Queen of the Fig Tree in Hell. As an initiate and devotee, he gives an insider’s view with the same respect and experience he demonstrates in Palo Mayombe: The Garden of Blood and Bones. We walk through the Queendoms of Lyre, Cemetery, Sepulchres, Streets, Crossroads, Wilderness, Soul, Oceanshore and Calunga.
The workings of twenty four different Pomba Giras are given, from Cigana the gypsy to the split skull face of Rosa Caveira. Through the razor blades in honey, the cigarette smoke and the sweet anisette spilt in the graveyard, Pomba Gira takes seductive shape.
232 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 13, 2012
This is a fantastic book about the Pomba Giras with a good amount of background information and practical ways of working with her without initiation. By far the best book I have read on the subject.
May 19, 2016
I just reread this book after a lot of intensive work with Pomba Gira and I liked it way less than the first time around. It still seems very solid and well researched, but it sounded much more sexist this time.
I've been reading the Exu counterpart by the same author and it's upsetting how narrow and sexuality-oriented the book on Pomba Gira is compared to that one. She's one whole half of all of it. It's so simplistic that it should all be about seduction and desire to this point just cause the spirit in question is generally portrayed as hot.
It seems so straightforward to me that, even if what you like the most about someone is their ability to turn you on, it doesn't mean that what they consider most important about themselves is exactly that. But this book fails to grasp that.
It keeps pushing this point of Man being a spirit of aggression and Woman a spirit of seduction, and I think the difference, if you want to put it in those terms, goes way beyond that. It's not about aggression vs seduction. It's about destruction vs creation. And way, way less about boobs.
The whole thing makes him sound a bit like a deluded john sometimes. I wonder if maybe the real book here is written by Pomba Gira herself, as a cautionary tale on what will happen to you if you approach her with your sexist notions unchallenged.
I've been reading the Exu counterpart by the same author and it's upsetting how narrow and sexuality-oriented the book on Pomba Gira is compared to that one. She's one whole half of all of it. It's so simplistic that it should all be about seduction and desire to this point just cause the spirit in question is generally portrayed as hot.
It seems so straightforward to me that, even if what you like the most about someone is their ability to turn you on, it doesn't mean that what they consider most important about themselves is exactly that. But this book fails to grasp that.
It keeps pushing this point of Man being a spirit of aggression and Woman a spirit of seduction, and I think the difference, if you want to put it in those terms, goes way beyond that. It's not about aggression vs seduction. It's about destruction vs creation. And way, way less about boobs.
The whole thing makes him sound a bit like a deluded john sometimes. I wonder if maybe the real book here is written by Pomba Gira herself, as a cautionary tale on what will happen to you if you approach her with your sexist notions unchallenged.
January 16, 2014
This is my second time through this volume. This is a great book, perhaps the best book in english to date on Pomba Gira. You get some history, and instructions on how to approach her in all her various guises. Plus a Grammar and a fair amount of Pontos to use with her. The only wish I had is that I wished he would of explored the Kingdoms and Lines and more of the individual Pomba Gira's than he did, which was quite a bit, but in all fairness that would easily double or triple the size of the book. So hopefully he will do this in another volume.
January 13, 2013
Educational study on Pombagira. Helped to demystify this Goddess I had been introduced to at PantheaCon.
March 16, 2016
This is an amazing book. I loved reading it and I also deployed a lot of the advice contained within it. I can't recommend it enough.
July 29, 2022
Just about everything the average person would want to know about the Brazilian spirit Pomba Gira.
September 23, 2022
Changed my life
April 30, 2020
Excellent read on Pomba Gira. It contains a variety of pontos and rituals to help cultivate a personal relation with Pomba Gira.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews