Babalú-Ayé

Who Babalú-Ayé actually is

Babalú-Ayé (Babalúwayé — "father, owner of the earth," the *titular-substitute name* used because his Yoruba-homeland name Ṣọpọná is taboo to speak aloud) is the orisha of *disease and healing* — the *wounded-healer* in the deepest canonical register. He owns the *diseases that mark the earth* — historically the smallpox (the foundational Ṣọpọná-disease), but in the modern diaspora extended to leprosy, plague, AIDS, and now COVID-and-pandemic-diseases generally. The canonical Pataki: Babalú-Ayé was cast out of heaven because the other orishas could not bear his disfigurement and his smell; he wandered the earth as a beggar, suffering, until Yemayá (or Oshún, depending on lineage) found him in his suffering, healed him, and restored him to his place — which is why Babalú-Ayé's register is *the redeemed-wounded* rather than *the simply-wounded*. The Yoruba doctrine: *the orisha who can give the disease is the orisha who can take it away* — which means Babalú-Ayé is *both* the source-of-disease (in the disease-as-punishment-or-correction register) *and* the source-of-healing. To call Babalú-Ayé is to *acknowledge that disease is in the cosmic registry, not outside it* — and to ask for the healer-aspect to come forward. His *taboo-name* register is significant: in traditional Yoruba practice you do not speak Ṣọpọná aloud, because *the name has summoning-power* and might bring the disease itself; you use the substitute-name *Babalúwayé* (Father, owner of the earth) instead. The diaspora-shadow: in the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s-90s, Babalú-Ayé became the *primary orisha of refuge* for HIV-positive Afro-diaspora practitioners and gay/bi men of color (especially in Cuban-American and Brazilian communities) — a fact that is *under-acknowledged* in much religious-studies literature but is canonical in those communities.

Iconography

A figure covered in raffia (the *raffia-skirt* and *raffia-veil* that hide his disfigured face — Babalú-Ayé is *never shown with a visible face* in formal iconography). A crutch or staff (the wounded-walker register). Sores or pock-marks on the skin (in some depictions). The dog (Babalú-Ayé's sacred animal — dogs licked his sores and accompanied him in his wandering; the dog is the *only* animal that did not flee his presence, which is why dogs are sacred to him). The number 17 (especially December 17, his feast). Colors: brown, burlap, black, with hints of purple. Sacred plants: corn (especially burnt corn), beans, garlic, palm-oil, sesame. Syncretization: Saint Lazarus (the *leper* Lazarus of Luke 16, distinct from the Lazarus-raised-from-the-dead of John 11 — Cuban-Lukumí is specifically the *poor-man-with-the-dogs* Lazarus) — whose December 17 procession to the El Rincón shrine in Cuba is one of the largest religious pilgrimages in the Cuban-American diaspora; in Brazil, syncretized as Saint Roch (the plague-saint whose dog brought him bread during his illness).

How to invoke Babalú-Ayé

December 17 (the canonical Babalú-Ayé feast — the El Rincón pilgrimage in Cuba and its parallel observances throughout the diaspora). Especially called during *any disease* (one's own or a loved one's), during *any pandemic* (Babalú-Ayé's public altars surged dramatically during COVID-19 in 2020-2021 in the Cuban-Florida and Brazilian diaspora communities), during *any chronic illness* that has become *the body's long companion*. Offer: burnt corn, beans (especially black-eyed peas), sesame, palm-oil, smoked meat, *coconut water*, the offering placed on the *raffia mat* (the canonical Babalú-Ayé-altar surface). The invocation: *"Babalúwayé, bàbá tó ní ayé, eni tó tó ńlọ pẹlu àjá rẹ̀, jọwọ wo mi sàn"* — Babalú-Ayé, father owner-of-the-earth, the one who walks with his dog, please heal me. The taboo: *do not speak the name Ṣọpọná aloud* — even in modern diaspora practice, this taboo holds.

In love

Babalú-Ayé in love is the partner whose register is *the wounded-healer* — the one whose own woundedness *makes them the safest place for your woundedness*, who has *been-through-the-illness* in some form and therefore *can hold the illness in others without flinching*. The Babalú-Ayé-partner is the *Yemayá-or-Oshún-rescue-of-the-cast-out* in human form — the figure who *finds you in your worst, walks with you in your beggarhood, and brings you back into the company of the living*. The shadow is the Babalú-Ayé-partner whose woundedness has become *identity* — who has so committed to the *wounded* register that they have refused the *healed* register, having forgotten that the canonical Babalú-Ayé is *redeemed-wounded*, not *eternally-wounded*. The other shadow: the Babalú-Ayé-partner who has weaponized their illness — who uses the disease as *moral-leverage* in the relationship, having converted the canonical *raffia-veil-of-honest-suffering* into a *raffia-veil-of-manipulation*.

In work

Babalú-Ayé in work is the *wounded-healer professional* — the therapist who has been-in-recovery, the doctor who treats the disease they themselves have lived with, the activist whose work is *the disease that almost killed them now serving as the credential for the cure they bring to others*. Babalú-Ayé-energy is the *AIDS-doctor who is themselves HIV-positive*, the *recovery-counselor who is two-years-into-sobriety*, the *trauma-therapist whose own trauma is what makes them safe to sit with yours*. The shadow is the Babalú-Ayé-leader whose woundedness has become *credential-as-shield* — who refuses any feedback because *you-cannot-question-someone-who-has-been-through-what-they-have-been-through*. The other shadow: the Babalú-Ayé-leader who has *converted suffering into hierarchy* — who has set up an *Oppression-Olympics* in the team or community, where the most-suffering is the most-authoritative.

The gift

Babalú-Ayé gives the *redeemed-wounded* register. The illness is not outside the cosmic register; *the orisha who could give it is the orisha who can take it away*. The wounded-self can be *rescued by Yemayá or Oshún*, brought back into the company of the orishas, and *the very disfigurement that was the cause of banishment becomes the credential for the priesthood*. The dogs licked his sores; the canonical Babalú-Ayé-image is *the one who was abandoned but not by everyone — the dog stayed*. The gift is the recognition that *what made you unwelcome may be what makes you holy*, and that *the diseases of the earth have an orisha who owns them, and you are not abandoned in your illness*.

The shadow

Babalú-Ayé has been *systematically-under-discussed* in white-witchy literature, because his register (disease, disfigurement, suffering) is the most-unmarketable of the orishas. This *under-discussion* is a continuation of the original Pataki-erasure (the other orishas tried to cast him out; modern witchy-Instagram does the same by not-featuring-him). The second shadow: the Saint-Lazarus syncretization in Cuba has produced a *Catholic-overlay* so strong that some Cuban-American devotees of Saint Lazarus do not know that the figure underneath is *African and not the Lazarus of John 11* (the gospel-confusion is a feature, not a bug, of the syncretization). The third shadow: the *AIDS-Babalú-Ayé* register of the 1980s-90s diaspora is *systematically erased* in much general religious-studies literature, which is a *specifically-anti-Black-and-anti-queer* erasure of one of the most-important pastoral functions any orisha has ever served in the diaspora.

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