Aché

The force that makes things happen: life force, capacity and passage.

Aché in Santería is the force that makes something actually happen. It is life force, but also authority and passage: a person can have aché for a particular task.

The word comes from the Yoruba àṣẹ, which also appears in other Afro-American traditions, such as Candomblé in Brazil and Haitian Vodou. In Yoruba cosmology àṣẹ is the power with which Olodumare created the world and keeps it in motion. People, plants, stones, words and orishas all have aché, to a greater or lesser degree.

Aché is also used as a greeting and blessing: whoever says something good often gets aché as a reply, like amen. An initiated priest or priestess has aché for certain acts, and an orisha gives aché to those who serve them. The word itself carries power too: what you speak with aché can come to pass. That is why the tradition is careful about what you say, including about dreams.

In dream interpretation attention goes to where aché flows and where it is stuck. Images of movement, growth and open roads point to flowing aché; images of blockage, standstill or a closed door to the opposite.

Aché can also be lost or weakened, for example through neglect, conflict or broken promises, and strengthened through prayer, offerings, song, dance and good character. In the everyday language of Cuba and the diaspora the word is known outside religion too: whoever has aché has charisma, luck or flair.

Aché is not simply acquired. Within the tradition it is passed on and confirmed, and that happens in a house, not in a dream.