The Mystery of Possession

It was a time when I found the concept of possession alien, exotic and dangerous. We Westerners have come to see possession a something akin to what we find in movies like The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, The Serpent and the Rainbow and many other movies that feed the fear of the unknown taking possession of us. But these movies speak solely about the possession and obsession that might happen by the intrusion of hostile spirits upon ones being. 

The concept of possession means ownership over something or some faculty. We can say someone possesses a good or bad character as much as our friend can come into possession of a great heritage. When used as a verb, to possess means to reside in something or dominating something or someone, to be potent in one’s dominion, to assume master ship over something or someone. 

Possession is a good thing; it is gods touching the god within you as they move towards one another in beauty and from this knowledge and pleasure erupts in sweetness or in violence between the pillars of being. In this we make knot upon knot on the ladder that ties the worlds together and bring ourselves closer to everything. It is a good thing... In 16th Century witchcraft trials the juridical term ‘possession’ was used to describe the work of devils that had taken control over their votaries. Similar ideas were also found in Scandinavia from the 17th Century where good violin players that moved people into dance and frenzy were seen as being possessed by the Devil and this possession had a contaminating spread on the people singing, dancing and drinking. Nevertheless, diabolism and demonism has coloured

our understanding of what possession is and it is only natural that the very uttering of the word evokes nightmares, fear and terror in an understanding that our being has been vacated in favour of a hostile occupant. 

With the advance of African derived faiths, cults and religions the phenomena of possession has experienced a more nuanced understanding of what it is. The softening of the demonic colouring have perhaps been aided by the growth of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity that do practice possession of the Holy Spirit and in some countries, like Brazil, possession by angels and Biblical prophets. 

In my experience I would define possession as: “a condition where we are taken over by spirit resulting in an altered state of consciousness, and where we are allowing the higher and the Other to take us over” (Exu & the Quimbanda of Night and Fire). This description harmonizes with Cornelius Agrippa’s thoughts upon ‘divine frenzy’, which he sees as superior souls falling on our own souls. 

This means that possession do involve an element of being taken over, of vacating ones ordinary consciousness for something higher or other. But I believe that possession is never an intrusion of a spirit. Possession always begins within and moves outward in a resonance with something higher or other – and in this a merging occurs – on a wide scale of variation and intensity. This scale moves from dream and inspiration to vacating ones consciousness completely in favour of the other or higher consciousness. 

True possession is a form of prophecy. Prophecy in its original meaning of being a bridge between the gods and the world of men rooted in soul meeting soul. A connection with source is necessary for this to occur, we must touch the divine and allow it to cause ripples on the mirror of the soul for prophecy to occur. If we are out of touch with source, Self and nature the onset of possession can be a deceptive endeavour and be more like a hallucination, an aimless walk in the fields of the mind, than something benevolent that strengthens our connection with source, Self and nature. Possessions is about giving oneself over to one Self and allow a particular vinculum to unfold where we generate a myriad of connections within and without and returns to ordinary consciousness more whole and more wise. These prophetic connections, this divine vinculum, can show itself not only in prophetic messages, but in dance, in joy and in challenge as one soul dances upon the waters of another soul.

The onset of possession can be violent, like a volcano erupting or it can be kind as a summer breeze. In this possession mimics nature, the quality of spirits and the qualities of Self. It is a good thing and its first whispers are always heard in the tongues of spirits inspiring us to go outside what we believe we are capable of, to dig down in depths we didn’t knew we had. It is a good thing. It makes us more aware, it centres us and it widens our perception as we stretch out like a golden spider in the beauty of creation. 

To be filled with love is to be possessed by source through its messenger Cupid as being consumed by hate is to have made a malefic vinculum with an afflicted Mars. We know that the muses where nymphs of inspiration, they would inspire poets, musicians, heroes and scholars with their insistence on pleasure and knowledge, using dance and music as their medium for inspiration. And inspiration was for the Greeks and Roman a token of the breath of gods touching a person, like a feeling, and idea and an insight can ‘possess’ a person and set the soul aflame. Inspiration was seen as the subtle caress of one soul upon another – a merging – similar to what happens in a possession, but gentler. 

To be touched by gods and muses we need to have some sort of connection to reap their providence. Possession is all about connection with source and nature – while in its absence it will be an enigmatic walk in the unknown guided by illusions and confusion. 

Possession is a good thing; it is gods touching the god within you as they move towards one another in beauty and from this knowledge and pleasure erupts in sweetness or in violence between the pillars of being. In this we make knot upon knot on the ladder that ties the worlds together and bring ourselves closer to everything. It is a good thing...

Man; Mirror of God

“Do not attach yourself to any particular creed exclusively, so that you disbelieve in all the rest; otherwise you will lose much good, nay, you will fail to recognize the real truth of the matter. Let your soul be capable of embracing all forms of belief. God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, is not limited by any one creed... Wheresoever you turn, there is the face of Allah”

-   Ibn al'Arabi

Man is the form of God. Man is temporal, yet eternal. Man is God’s mirror as Man sees God when he turns inwards in contemplation. In this act God looks back upon himself and we contemplate God as Man. In this we find a path of deification. 

The idea of deification, of becoming divine, is subject to a host of understandings mediated by religious affiliation. The sufi saint Said al’Kharnlz as well as Ibn al’Arabi understood themselves as temporal fluctuations on the body of God. It was the temporal that drove man to contemplate the various parts of God’s body in himself as stations of life, mind and heart were attained. All of God’s names are beautiful, they hold, death, wrath, joy or blessing. Each state, it is deemed benevolent or malevolent invites an exercise in contemplation where we strive to understanding the inherent unity in what we see as paradox and oppositions. Faith, contemplation, reason and heart are the four pillars that will bring stillness to the reflective faculties and finally enable transcendence. Transcendence is a state of beauty where we touch truth in awareness. In this we realize who all opposition is united – and this unity of opposition is the Godhead. 

This means that we will find divine particles and rays in everything manifested and thus it is possible to worship God in a star, a plant or an eidolon of reverence. But we need to be mindful that these are solely parts and portions of the Godhead. God is limitless, which is why he made Iblis to serve as his limit, hence Iblis is the power that bring form to all things, material and immaterial. Iblis is the warden at the utmost perimeter and we notice his effect in the world where everything gains it shape, form and identity as much as he is the force that restricts our unfolding and imagination.

It does follows that religion does limit God and show particular facets of his body only and in isolating the hand from the eye parts of a beautiful truth is presented in limiting ways that exalt one part of god’s body as more important than other parts. In this we find the seed of separation and hatred and we find blindness for the unity of opposition the Godhead is. As religion is by virtue of its structural dynamic limiting it is only natural that the boundaries of religion is questioned, tested and rebelled upon. But the pilgrim of truth will never do this, rather, he or she will recognize the worth and values a given religion gives and retracts in contemplation and allow God to shine upon the mirror and provide understanding. Quite simply, if something is, it is because it can serve as a mirror of contemplation in manifesting a divine possibility, no matter how infinitesimal. 

The path of contemplation is the radical opposite of an eclectic path, and in spite of this much mysticism has been used to explain eclecticism. Eclecticism means to elect from available systems, beliefs, faiths, paradigms and dogmas what ones finds functional on a personal and social level. The path of contemplation, what I have called the Traceless path, is not occupied with electing what is functional on a personal or social level, but to understand every plant, beast, planet, human and situation as the rich variety of possibilities springing from God’s unity. There is no favouring of the sinister or dexter, the higher or the lower- rather there is an emphasis on understanding how all shades between darkness to splendour belongs to the unfolding from the source.    

Man is the form of God but deification is not found in emerging oneself in matter and social conflicts where ambition and hunger for power kindle a desire for enfleshing our godhood – this is surely to limit it... 

Deification was, is and will always be rooted in a profound understanding of the divine signature all over the manifested world, visible and invisible, that encourage us to ascend, through contemplation, so we can gain a deeper and more complete picture of the divine landscape and understand the importance in the distinction between the temporal and the eternal.   

Alas, today, when you take the word God in your mouth it is like taking a dump in a cathedral... So many of us want to accomplish the Great iconoclasm, to kill the God Nietzsche tried to burry just to find him staring back at him from the abyss. God is source, it is the beginning of wisdom, it is origin, it is not something we can describe. God is not what he seems and is and will always be the supreme mystery that moves us to question ourselves who we are and why we are here.  Perhaps the greatest problem is that God has become anthropomorphised into ridicule - and perhaps the mirror of ridicule is what we often use when we contemplate ourselves as God - and God as Man...

Salaam Aleikum!

Walking the Dance

You can walk down the main avenue

And you can laugh

Point fingers

And feel good

In the misery of others

Those who are in the same misery

Where you are

That misery you don’t see

Because you raise your head

Or drop your balls...

Or why not do both

Raise your head and drop

Your balls

Show some tits for

Good measure

And see who comes along

See who stay

There in the dusty crowds of your

Tap dancing

As you dance the world as

A tango

Or as a rumba

Until the rhythm hits you

As mirrors upon waters

Or as hammers of despair

Just to remind you that Life is a dance

One step honey

The next step wormwood

So you can raise your head in honey

And drop your balls in wormwood

Or not

You can also

Walk down the main avenue

And feel good

Sharing the same ship

The same canoe

With all the gibbering

And dancing

Down the road

As you turn misery into

Laughter

And lower your head

And secure your balls

In a gentle walk

Amongst people who share

Your journey

NdMF

The Starry Heaven of Little Albert

I am not doing many book reviews, but from time to time publications shows up that are worthy to bring some attention to. Hadean Press published two worthy volumes recently that for quite different reasons, but bound in a thread of commonality, make them well worth to read – and keep. The thread of commonality is about ‘tradition’. Traditionalism is also known as perennialism; what is eternal and timeless. We are speaking about words given voice and ink on basis of being rooted in this timeless truth that lies at the core of tradition proper. These two books unfold in the entire spectrum of celestial and infernal – and in this is found parts of their beauty. They demonstrate the importance of Heaven, Hell and Earth - not as categories of exclusion - but inclusion...  

The first book is Talia Felix’ translation of the French Grimoire Le Petit Albert, The Little Albert, that like many other French grimoires influenced the Western and Caribbean magic in dramatic ways. This book that came out in several editions from 1702 and into the early 19^th Century is now presented in its first published English translation, and I only wonder why it took so long. What is fascinating with this little volume is the range of recipes provided. We find here material originating from the Solomonic Tradition, Picatrix, astrological almanacs, but also material taken - and transformed – from Villanova and Clairvaux handbooks of health. We find recipes for making various forms of waters side by side with wine recipes, formulae’s of the thief’s vinegar, hand of glory and a great amount of material dealing with the celestial realms and the making of talismans and much material is derived from – or ascribed to - Paracelsus. Many of these formulas clearly inspired later hoodoo men and woman in the various ways of generating their mojo bags and other hoodoo workings, a factor also noticed by Felix who suggest that this work also influenced the Vodou Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau.  This book is not only interesting because of its arsenal of magical workings, but also because it gives us an idea of the traditional worldview the grimoires where developed within. The Petit Albert introduces us to formulaes of a practical, pragmatic, celestial and infernal nature – and I find this to be crucial for understanding the pre modern world. It was always about using the right tools for obtaining a given goal. Angels and ‘demons’ danced around in the same world and who we approached was mediated by pragmatic interest and a god-fearing disposition. It is a spell book absolutely, but it is also a little treasure in so many other ways and I hope this little volume will find a home in many libraries. It is truly a gem.

Speaking of the Traditional World View we find another book expounding on this theme in academic ways. Alexander Cummins’ The Starry Rubric in his post graduate thesis expands on the role of astrology in the 17^th Century Britain. In doing this he also brings our attention to the importance of practical and traditional astrology in the understanding of the Western Mystery Traditions. As he demonstrates; astrology was used as a reference for all forms of human activity. If it concerned the world, society or the man unique, astrology could always explain the fortune and misfortune – and held the remedy for thwarting both. In the 17^th and 18^th Century it was expected that any occultist or educated man (and the few woman of education) had a basic understanding of traditional astrology, because in an enchanted world, the movements of the stars and planets where god’s finger in action – and thus by understanding the divine script in the stellar heavens we could become more understanding in general. As a traditional astrologer myself I welcome this book, as a Traditionalist, I welcome this book because it presents the pillars of astrology and traditionalism is such clear and concise ways. I would say; if the ‘traditional worldview’ is a concept difficult to grasp, read this book, it will give a clear and lucid idea about the importance of astrology in how pre-modern men and woman understood the world and society. I can only congratulate Felix, Cummins and Hadean Press in making such treasures available for us.

So visit Hadean Press at:  http://www.hadeanpress.com/ and find food for mind and heart.

The Cult of Self Reverence

Dear Friend,

You wrote:

“In respecting and accepting our ancestors, there is a struggle in that for many of us, our ancestors come from diverse cultures. Within these cultures they worshiped various deities, and had diversity in beliefs on life and the afterlife. Many people's more recent ancestors were Christians, or some branch of the Abrahamic faiths. How can we ensure that we respect their traditions and cultures as we also try to revive the old beliefs? Do you think that people should incorporate the gods from all their ancestry?”

Reverence for ancestors consists in generating a connection across the veil that separates the dead from the living. This is commonly done by offering up light, incense/fumes and food and drinks the ancestor appreciated when they were alive. It is also helpful to place on the shrine dedicated to the ancestor’s tokens they were attached to and also symbols of their religious faith. In doing this we create a sacred space that will call upon the presence of the ancestors. For the Yoruba’s it is important to compose poetry and song in honour of one’s ancestors, it is in remembering our lineage of blood we become aware of whose shoulders we stand on. These poems typically speak of the character, quality and deeds of the ancestor, and here many people in the West will find conflict given the deep rooted social dysfunction the modern Western family often replicate. In this way, attending to ones ancestors with respect, poems and songs we also experience a call to understand where we are coming from.

I believe that in the afterlife religion is not such a big issue. We place a cross on the shrine if the ancestor in question was Christian, a Star of David for a Mosaic ancestor and so forth. These are tokens of recognition and do not hold any bearing on the religion the one performing the reverence holds.  After all, religion is a vestment for the timeless truth – a particular reflection governed by a set of norms, moral and laws that hold importance for the human life. When we pass on I don’t think these religious vestments are too important anymore. I believe that in death we are all the same, there is no rich or poor and there is no Christian or Muslim – it is just about the succession of tradition – hence we move towards the mysticism found at the heart of many religions.

So, respect for ancestors is done in a practical way by remembering them and to feed them in order to maintain a connection with the departed ones. Spiritist schools are of the opinion that a form of elevation need to take place in the other side and for them the shrine of ancestors will also serve this purpose. I believe some departed ones go through a sort of elevation, which the living can help them in, while others made this transition with greater ease. In succession of this it should also be mentioned that several faiths in the world is of the opinion that one’s religious preferences while living generates an ideal paradise shaped by the religious conviction in the afterlife. Likewise; untimely death or uneasy death can lead to one being situated in a state of hellish limbo upon ones passing. These are matters worthy of consideration, but I don’t see any necessity for incorporating ones ancestors’ belief, while a respect for them should be in place. After all; Heaven and Hell is of our own making. Yet another factor worthy to consider is what actually happens with the Soul upon death, when it leaves its shroud of flesh. Do we pass on completely intact or do we get dispersed upon death? Is our Soul singular or is it a collective gathered into uniformity through a life lived? There is much to ponder in these questions and many answers might be true.  

However, I don’t see any need for reviving old beliefs or ‘incorporate gods from one’s ancestry’ in order to cultivate ones ancestors. It is ultimately cult of Self, rooted in memory, it is about you and your blood and your legacy. And it is from this we need to measure the reverence for our ancestors and then see how the landscape widens up.  

Religious beliefs, virtues and vices make part of this long line of wisdom we stand upon, so respect and understanding for their religion can only be rewarding, but there is no implicit demand for conversation in this. Reverence for our ancestors is about Self knowledge through understanding one’s past. It is about becoming aware of the wisdom that brought us forth – and it is about understanding the role vice and virtue held in the formation of our legacy.