Mission
At Casa Hechizos, our mission is to destigmatize traditional BIPOC healing practices and make them widely accessible to the community.
Our Name
As seen elsewhere around the world, women who practice magic in Latinx, Indigenous and African Diasporic cultures have been demonized for our practices all throughout history. To this day, we are still sometimes pejoratively referred to as hechiceras, or sorceresses. As descendants from a long line of hechiceras, we intentionally chose the name Casa Hechizos — which roughly translates to house of spells — in order to reclaim a term long used to oppress and stigmatize us.
Our Logo
The Casa Hechizos logo features a jícara, a sacred bowl made of the dried calabash fruit which plays a prominent role in many different Santería ceremonies and rituals. Beyond its use in ceremony, the jícara is used for everything from collecting herbs during harvest to holding water to making musical instruments like sonajas, marakas and shekeres.
The jícara in our logo also represents the womb, a sacred symbol in our practice (after all, birth is the first ceremony we ever experience). Our logo pays homage to the mamás, abuelas, bisabuelas, tatarabuelas and other femme ancestors who have passed down their magic, intuition, spirituality and wisdom to their descendants.
About Santería
Santería is a religious practice originating in Nigeria that was brought to Cuba in the late 19th century, containing elements of both Spanish Catholicism as well as indigenous beliefs and customs. While the religion has long been misunderstood and misrepresented in popular media, it is, at its core, centered around honoring and venerating earth’s energies, personified as deities called orishas.
A few key orishas in the practice include Yemaya, the energy of the ocean and a maternal figure depicted as a Black woman; Obatala, the energy of the mountain and wisdom depicted as an older Black man; and Chango, the energy of fire and lightning depicted as a warrior with an axe.
Each of these energies have dedicated songs, herbs, prayers and foods associated with them. Through these practices, we are able to channel the orishas to shift energetic frequencies and vibrations for the purpose of healing.