The Day I Was Invited to Join a Mediumistic Circle in an Umbanda Terreiro

Waiting to be called

For a long time, my place in that Umbanda terreiro was in the assistência — the area where visitors sit during the spiritual sessions.

I sat, observed, and listened.

I watched people arrive with their problems, their doubts, their stories. I watched the entities work, offer guidance, and sometimes call someone forward to speak more privately.

Over time, a quiet expectation began to grow inside me.

I imagined that, at some point, the chief caboclo — an ancestral indigenous entity in Umbanda — would point toward me and ask that I be called.

But that did not happen.

In fact, something curious happened instead.

Many times he pointed… but not at me.

Sometimes it was someone sitting next to me.
Sometimes someone a few rows behind.

In that moment, the same thought always came to mind:

“Me?”

No. It was someone else.

This happened several times.

Until one day he pointed again.

After so many false alarms, I looked to one side, to the other, then behind me…

And this time it really was me.

At that moment I did not yet know it, but that simple gesture — someone pointing from the other side of the terreiro — would mark the beginning of an important part of my life.

The first meeting with the chief caboclo

When I approached him, it was not the first time I had spoken with an entity through that medium.

During my first visit to the terreiro, the one who received me had been Joãozinho.

Now it was the chief caboclo of the house.

He introduced himself simply:

“I am Caboclo Tupinambá.”

Even though I already respected the spiritual leader of the house, to me he was still just one among many entities working in that place.

Only much later would I understand the importance of that encounter. At that moment, however, I had no idea how much Caboclo Tupinambá would become part of my own spiritual journey.

An invitation — and a task

After speaking with me, Caboclo Tupinambá said that I could join the mediumistic circle — the group of mediums who work during the giras.

But before that, I had to complete a task.

He asked me to attend twelve sessions.

Four were in what the house called “Kardecist table sessions”, meetings inspired by Kardecist Spiritism, centered on prayer, spiritual readings, and reflection.

Four were in healing sessions with the Mestres do Oriente — “Masters of the East” — sessions focused on spiritual healing, especially related to physical illnesses, where mediums incorporated entities often perceived as doctors or traditional healers from different traditions.

And four were internal development giras, reserved for the mediums of the house.

There was also an important condition.

During that entire period, I could not miss any public gira — the open spiritual sessions of the terreiro.

In practice, this meant organizing entire weeks around the life of the house.

At the time I did not think of it as a test.

Today I see it differently.

Before making any spiritual commitment, one first needed to be present. To observe. To take part in the life of the terreiro.

Only then decide whether that path truly belonged to you.

Discovering the rhythm of the house

Later, along my spiritual journey — including outside Brazil — I realized something important: every terreiro has its own rhythm.

At that time, I did not know that.

For me, that was simply how an Umbanda house worked.

But the rhythm of that terreiro was intense.

There were meetings during the week, specific spiritual works, public sessions, and also internal gatherings.

In practice, this meant that some weeks I was at the terreiro twice.

The following week, three times.

And so it went throughout the year, with only a short pause around Christmas.

That was when I began to understand something that is not always visible to those who remain only in the assistência.

Working in a terreiro does not mean simply showing up for a gira.

It means participating in the entire life of the house.

Seeing what happens when the curtains close

The internal development giras were the ones that awakened my curiosity the most.

It was the first time I could see what happened in the center of the terreiro when the curtains closed during public giras.

The work began with defumação — the ritual cleansing of the environment with sacred smoke — followed by simple prayers.

After that, the more experienced mediums prepared specific points of spiritual work in the terreiro.

At the time I did not fully understand what this meant.

Later I learned that, in that terreiro, these mediums were called compromissados — people who had gone through a deeper process of commitment and initiation within the house itself.

During these development sessions, some people were called individually to work with specific spiritual energies alongside the entities present.

Not everyone participated directly.

Some were called.

Others simply observed.

And of course, I was there waiting to discover something that had followed me since my first days sitting in the assistência:

Would I feel something different?

But, to my surprise, I felt nothing.

And I was not called either.

What it really means to work in a terreiro

After so many sessions, something became very clear to me.

Working in a terreiro does not mean only participating in spiritual moments.

It also means taking part in everything that makes those moments possible.

It was during this time that I saw something that marked me deeply.

People from different professions, different social and educational backgrounds, different life stories — and also different identities and orientations — working together without distinction.

Before the giras, everyone helped prepare the space.

Organizing the terreiro.
Cleaning the bathrooms.
Taking care of the outdoor area.

There were no small tasks.

Everything was part of the same work.

Everything served the same purpose.

Charity.

The moment I understood

At the end of that period, something inside me had already become clear.

Umbanda was no longer something I only observed from the outside.

That was the moment when I entered the mediumistic circle of that terreiro.

At the time I had no real sense of what that would mean.

To me it was simply a step inside that house, alongside those people.

Only much later did I realize that this moment also marked the beginning of something else.

The mediumship that began there did not remain confined to that terreiro.

With time, life would take me to other places, other contexts, and other encounters.

But in some way, that first step is still present.

Today I am far from that moment — and also far from that terreiro — yet still connected to the same current that began there.

Entre mundos.

And perhaps some spiritual paths begin exactly like this.