The Journey of a Young Espiritista chapter 1

Luz y Progresso, I am Hermano "Brother" Luis also known as Brujo Luis. I have been practicing variouse traditions of Caribbean Brujeria Witchcraft for over 20 years, since my late teens. I have also been reading Tarot, doing palm readings and giving Spiritual Consultations since the age of 19 to my hispanic community here in Massachusettes.
I was born with the sight of clairvoyance as I have seen shadows and felt other worldly presences ever since I could remember. I am a Medium of the Mesa Blanca tradition and baptized a Sancista, and a Santerista all of the Puerto Rican traditions. I also underwent various initiations into the Cuban Santeria Lukumi tradition in the early 90s, receiving my collares and guerrilleros, but I never felt quit comfortable with that Religion, so shortly afterwards I returned to my Puerto Rican eclectic roots and heritage. A spiritual and occult traditions that is as colorful and beautiful as its people. Sance also known as Zancie, Zance, Sanses, Puerto Rican Voodoo or Puerto Rican Umbanda and Mesa Blanca Espiritismo and Santerismo all traditions of the Puerto Rican people.
My late Abuela "Grandmother", Que en el Reino de Papa Dios descanse, was a well known Espiriritista and Yerbera in her hometown pueblo of Comerio, Puerto Rico. In a time when Catholicism was the predominant religion in her town, she practiced her Taino and Spanish Gypsi occult herritage secretly. Every summer my parents would escort me to Puerto Rico, and stay a week or two, and I was left under the care of my grandmother for the summer. As a young boy I would aid her in collecting herbs in her garden or in the woods behind her house for spiritual work, and secretly watched her as she told fortunes with a spanish deck of cards. My abuela would always tell me I had el Don to work la obra espiritual, and that I had the sight to see Spirits and that my Guia Principal was to come to me, when I would suffer "un gran susto' a time of great distress. But being a child I paid no mind to what she said, as it was normal in my eyes to see the spirits I saw, since they appeared like any living person.
At a young age I could see the Spirits but I had not fully developed my spiritual faculties. I could feel the presence of the Dead and see them, but I could not hear them nor communicate with them.
The time of great distress that she fortold came to me shortly after I returned from Puerto Rico to the states in late August of 1978. I was 7 years old, being a child I loved the out doors in my innercity neighborhood. One day while playing outside I heard the ice cream truck comming down the street, and like any 7 year old I ran towards my house to get money from my mother. Being a normal child of 7, I ran frantically across the street without looking both ways and got hit by a moving vehicle. The only thing I remember from that incident, was being under the car that hit me, black out, on my mothers plastic covered couch, black out, my mother crying frantically, as Doña Fela, the neighboorhood witch prayed over me, black out, and being inside an ambulance. It was in the ambulance that my Guia Espiritual came to me. I remember being scared and my mother crying, but all I could focus on was the red cross on the window of the door to the ambulance, and how the lights ontop of the roof flickered, through the glass. Then one of the lights from the window appeared to come to me, and take form. and there buy my mothers side stood a male figure, whom I had presumably assumed was Jesus Christ, but with a much darker completion than the Jesus I had seen on the fotos of every wall in the homes of Puerto Ricans.. He put a hand on my mother as to console her and set his deep brown eyes upon me and spoke to me in a language neither Spanish nor English, but somehow I understood him. From what I remember he said. "There is no need to worry Luis, your time on this earth has not come to an end, I am here with you and always will be.". I looked up at my mother, who had been crying all along, praying her Rosaries, and oblivious to the Spectre that was in her presence. I put my hand on hers, to calm her down from the "ataque" she was suffering, and calmly told her all was going to be fine. Then as quickly as the apparition had come, it had left. I remember being disappointed for never knowing his name. I would not come to know his name until my late teens.
After my short stay in the hospital, I had returned to life as normal. With the exception that before getting hit by a car and surviving, I had been a popular kid with many friends, but after my hospital visit I had become an outcast. I secluded myself from the other children and began to "talk to my self and my imagery friends.". To me not only could I see them, but now I could hear them and talk to then as I would converse to any other living person. The kids that had once been my friends began to taunt me, and the teachers made comments to themselves of the boy who spoke to himself and answered questions to the void of space around him. This worried my teachers and soon they contacted the principle who then summoned my parents and adviced them that they should seak counseling and therapy for me. My mother being Puerto Rican did not believe in Anglo medicine or their way of doing things, so she sent me to Puerto Rico for a year, where she believed I would receive the best help I could get in the care of my Abuela and family on the island.
The Year I spent with my abuela and family in Puerto Rico and my spiritual growth, and denial of the Spirits, will be saved for the next blog. Que Papa Dios, La Virgen y tu Cuadro Espiritual los Bendiga. Mucha Fe, Esperanza y Carodad.