Umbanda angelic and spiritual-guide practices in Brazil

Record summary

Umbanda ritual involves mediums receiving entities such as caboclos, pretos-velhos, crianças and other guides, with some practitioners also incorporating angels, saints and Christian cosmology. Scholarship and participant accounts from 1990–2009 provide a substantial comparison set for intermediary beings, healing, moral instruction and ritual verification. This is a religious tradition rather than evidence that entities objectively possess mediums. Researchers should distinguish Umbanda houses, regional vocabularies and competing lineage claims, since no single doctrinal account represents all Brazilian practice.