Exu Gira Mundo is the name of a guardian exu that has appeared in Umbanda literature since at least 1989 and is sung in its own ponto (sacred song) in a house in Curitiba. In the research by sociologist Sulivan Charles Barros with pais and mães de santo in Brasília, he is one of the seven exus who command the seven lines of Quimbanda.
What does not exist is a complete profile of him. Which orixá he is from, which pombagira he works with, what is the color and what is the greeting: no published source answers. Below is what is recorded, with the origin of each statement, and what circulates without any record.
Who is Exu Gira Mundo
Exu Gira Mundo is a spirit of the left line of Umbanda and Quimbanda. In Umbanda, exus are understood as spirits of deceased people. It is in this line that pombagiras are also situated, according to the research of Juliana Carvalho and José Francisco Bairrão, from USP in Ribeirão Preto. He is not the orixá Exu of Candomblé. The orixá is the messenger and the lord of the paths, worshipped in houses of ketu with its own foundation. The difference lies in who is Exu.
What the sources sustain: the name exists and is used | belongs to the left line | commands other exus | is read as a name of movement
Before the profile, a context that changes the reading. The word Quimbanda consolidated as a category of accusation, with records dating back to the 1940s, when Umbanda sought to present itself as a religion with its own doctrine. A large part of what is read about guardian exus was born from this movement, and not from the practice of the houses.
Where the name appears recorded
There are three independent records, and it is worth knowing what each one is.
The first is the correspondence table that Reginaldo Prandi summarizes in the article "Exu, from messenger to the devil," based on Umbanda books by Fontenelle, Bittencourt (1989) and Omolubá (1990). In this table, Gira Mundo appears in the stratum that remains under the orders of the generals and that commands other exus. Here lies the most important caveat of the article. This table is the work of the first consolidators of the Umbanda doctrine. They sought a name from the Christian hell for each quality and invocation of Exu. It is a historical record of the stigma, not a description of the identity of the spirits.
"There was no lack, among the first consolidators of the Umbanda doctrine, who would give themselves to the work of identifying, for each of the countless qualities and invocations of Exu, one of the known names" of the Christian hell.
Reginaldo Prandi, Revista USP n. 50, 2001
The second record is from a royal house. The apostila of pontos of Exu from the Terreiro de Umbanda Pai Maneco, in Curitiba, has a specific section for Exu Gira Mundo. The ponto announces that he has arrived and that he will spin in Quimbanda. This separates a name from a book list from a name that the people of santo sing.
The third is the research by Barros, which follows.
Chief of one of the seven lines, in the Brasília research
The sociologist Sulivan Charles Barros researched pais and mães de santo in Brasília. In the model he describes, the seven ritual lines of umbanda correspond to seven lines of quimbanda. Exu Gira Mundo is one of the seven that command them. The other six are:
- Exu Sete Encruzilhadas
- Exu Pombagira
- Exu Tiriri
- Exu Tranca Ruas
- Exu Marabô
- Exu Pinga Fogo
In the same model, each of these seven commands seven legion chiefs in his spiritual plane.
It is the strongest source that exists regarding his position. And it is necessary to say what it is: one model, described in the field in a city. Other houses organize Quimbanda by kingdoms and peoples, as seen in kingdoms of quimbanda. The two coexist, and neither of them is the rule for all houses.
What the name says
Exu's name is not an ornament: it usually describes the field of action. The anthropologist Vagner Gonçalves da Silva, from USP, shows that the majority of the names of the exus of Umbanda do not come from the Bible. They speak of points of passage, such as crossroads and gates. They also speak of intercession between the world of the living and the dead, of intermediate states of matter such as mud and shadow, or of the duality of things. For him, this shows that these exus continue to be beings of mediation, like the African Exu.
Silva speaks of the set of names, not this one. But the method works. "Gira Mundo" is a name of movement, and the ponto cantado (sacred song) in Curitiba says precisely that he will spin. From there, to read that he is the exu of movement, as if it were a registered foundation, there is a distance that no source covers.
What is said about him and has no source
This is the part that is missing from the texts that occupy the first page of Google. Seven attributes that every exu profile usually brings do not have a published source in the case of Gira Mundo:
- Which orixá he belongs to. Internet texts say Xangô (Shango). No open source says so.
- Which pombagira he works with. None of the sources in this research cite a pair of him with any pombagira. What pombagiras are is in who is Pombagira.
- Own color, drink, and offering. No record.
- Own greeting. There is the general form, with the name of the spirit in its place. There is no record of a greeting of his.
- Own ponto riscado. No registration, and a ponto riscado is not published as a recipe, for the reason explained in pontos riscados de Exu.
- Number of his falanges. Only the number of the Barros model, which is of the model and not a field count.
- Specific function. In the same passage where Prandi lists the division of work among the exus of that board, ten names receive a function and Gira Mundo receives none.
The gap is not sloppy research, and it can be measured. Two academic ethnographies of houses that name exus one by one, one of 365 pages and another of 134, were scanned page by page. Neither of the two brings the name. The Wikipedia entry also calls Gira Mundo an exu linked to movement. In the same paragraph, it carries the marking that it lacks sources, dated August 2024.
This does not prove that the name is not worshipped. It proves that there is no published record of the attributes, and that whoever claims color, day, and orixá is filling the gap on their own.
The day and the gira
There is no source for the day of Exu Gira Mundo. What exists is a field record about the day of the line. Researchers from USP accompanied a ritual in a house in the rural area of Ribeirão Preto. There, Friday on a full moon night appears as the recommended day and time for the work of the left. It is the custom of that house. This changes from house to house. How the gira works is in gira de quimbanda.
Whoever is from the house follows what the leader determines. Firmeza and assentamento are done in the house, with the pai or mãe de santo, and this article does not teach how to do it: the subject is treated, with the care it requires, in assentamento de Exu.
If your house asked for a candle, cigar, or statue and you have doubts about the material, Joia Mística checks via WhatsApp. The shop is located in Extrema, Minas Gerais.
Frequently asked questions
Which orixá does Exu Gira Mundo work with?
There is no published source that answers this. Texts circulating on the internet say Xangô, without citing a source. The Umbanda table that Prandi summarizes does not place Gira Mundo under any orixá. In practice, the answer varies from house to house, and the one who answers is the leader of your house.
Which pombagira does Exu Gira Mundo work with?
None of the open sources consulted mention a pair for Exu Gira Mundo with any pombagira. Pairs of exu and pombagira exist and are common in houses, but in his case, there is no published record. To claim a pair without a source is to invent foundation.
What does Exu Gira Mundo do?
What is recorded is position, not function. He commands other exus on the table that Prandi summarizes and commands one of the seven lines in the Barros model, in Brasília. In the passage where Prandi describes the function of ten other names, Gira Mundo does not appear.
What is the ponto riscado of Exu Gira Mundo?
There is no ponto riscado of his published in an open source. A ponto riscado is drawn by the spirit during the gira, with the pemba, and is not a drawing that the seeker copies from a website. The subject is explained in pontos riscados of Exu.
References
- Reginaldo Prandi, Revista USP: Exu, from messenger to devil, Catholic syncretism and demonization of the orixá Exu, 2001
- Sulivan Charles Barros, Caminhos (PUC Goiás): Umbanda x quimbanda, the eternal dilemma between the left and the right, 2007
- Terreiro de Umbanda Pai Maneco: handout of Exu pontos, 2017
- Vagner Gonçalves da Silva, Revista de Antropologia: Exu do Brasil, tropes of an Afro-Brazilian identity in the tropics, 2012
- Juliana Carvalho and José Francisco Bairrão, Psicologia USP: Umbanda and quimbanda, a black alternative to white morality, 2019
- Emerson Giumbelli and Leonardo Almeida, Revista de Antropologia: The enigma of quimbanda, 2021
- Pablício Jorge Santos Barbosa, UFRB: Exu and the marginal memories of a samba in umbanda in Feira de Santana, 2022
