Facebook Essays July 2015

VODUN: SO SAITH THE "HOLY BOOKS" VS. SO SAITH THE "SPIRITS"
I would like to begin this writing by making it clear that I have the utmost respect for the Bible, the Quran and any other religious writings that are deemed holy or precious in the sight of their devotees. My purpose is not to criticize these works but to help readers understand that direct access to the spirits, through authentic and ordained traditional divination systems, regardless of culture, is a much more direct way of understanding the nature of the divine coupled with an even more explicit understanding of what our ancestors and divinities desire of us. It is my belief that many of these writings, while said to be inspired and written by men of God, having been filtered through the imperfect beings who penned them, contain not only the invisible hands of the spirits but much of humankind's cultural prejudices and/or biases. Yet, regardless, these writings have been given to us as alternatives for those who no longer possess direct access to the spirit realm...thus the underlying reason for many of our modern day religions. It is also my belief that traditional spiritual systems, who continue to employ ordained methods of divination, should not to be viewed as outdated or inferior forms of worship but, rather, systems that contain our best chances for an understanding of ourselves and the rest of humankind. And, in many instances can also help us determine our ancestral origins, if we do not know them, and put us in direct contact with our departed loved ones.
As someone who grew up in the church I quote the Bible a great deal as a teaching mechanism, in my writings, because most, in the diaspora, can relate to it and its teachings. Much in it has been proven to be true, to me, as I deal with spirits on a daily basis. And, as for the Quran I have read it from cover to cover with the same findings. So, because of these holy books, and other such writings, I am convinced that the hands of the spirits are in every organized spiritual system that exists today. And what I now understand is that many of my own ancestors crossed over to the other side serving the voduns and at least one of the aforementioned spiritual systems...Islam. As an example of their respect, for its holy book, these particular ancestral spirits often ask us to read from it, to them, in the temple...the Quran. But there are those spirits that created our universe and all it contains. They existed long before our modern-day religions came into being and were the ones who actually sent the prophets to teach us their ways. In examining the journeys of the children of Israel, one of my favorite things to do, we can witness the actions of these great divinities. Throughout the Old Testament writings we witness historical accounts depicting how the divinities dealt with their children; and, these same behaviors, of the divine, can be observed in our world's traditional spiritual systems today. As we move from the Old to the New Testament writings, however, we are confronted with a more skewed view of who God is and his nature. He is depicted as an all loving God where the need for the discipline of his children is largely left out until death and the judgement. This leaves us with a view that God is all sweet, fuzzy and cuddly, thus, resulting in those who misunderstand the true nature of God (the spirits) and continue to ask the question...why is there suffering in the world? In addition, we observe that the man called Jesus, whom the spirits say was simply a reincarnation of an earlier prophet, is elevated to a divinity by way of manmade propaganda for the promotion of a new found religion. While I have no particular expertise in the teachings of the Quran I do know that, originally, its prophet had respect for the people of the Book... Christians.
My point here is that when we are able to go direct to the source..the spirits themselves...we, in effect, cut out all human biases and prejudices. No one then can claim that someone gay, transgender or whatever else, for instance, can be denied access to the divine. After all it is these same divinities that breathed life into us; but, rather, let each person come before their own spirits so that they, themselves, can espouse what they deem proper or improper about how one lives his or her life. And, when they do one will generally find that the spirits, themselves, could care less with whom one sleeps with or any other such thing and such a thing might just be one's own personal choice. And choice is what the divinities have always given humankind. However, it is the consequences of those choices that become the stickler.
I thoroughly enjoy the reading of theological texts and holy books. From a historical perspective they give you a bird's eye view of a particular time, place and how humankind dealt with that which is holy. But I also know that whenever a writer sits down to write, as the spirits inspire his or her words, one's own personal story, with its cultural and personal prejudices, can seep through if allowed. One cannot help but be affected by the cultural context which helped mold them. And that is why I feel that it is a mistake to elevate such writings above the direct words that come from the spirits themselves. I was once told, by a young man, that the prophet Muhammad was the actual patron for his own personal spirit...a great and mighty Dattatreya. He couldn't have been more wrong! This Dattatreya breathed life into him and probably lived before the world was even formed. I mean no disrespect; but, the prophet Muhammad was not even a twinkle in his father's eye when this Great Spirit was already of great age. Yet, this is what happens with impulsive youth, a lack of true spiritual understanding and subscription to doctrines rather than spirits.
In my own writings I constantly struggle with keeping the focus on writing "per saith the divine" (that which I have directly learned from the voduns) versus my own opinions. I am a southern belle raised in a Jim Crow south. Racism repulses me to my very core. I am constantly railed against, by many of my own people, because I refuse to let prejudice affect my willingness to be of service to those who may not look like me. Many are of the notion that African spirituality only belongs to them! It does not! It is for all humankind. And such prejudiced behavior is not the way of the spirits. How do I manage? While I cannot claim to be anything close to those who have penned theoretical texts or Holy Books I do know this....that I must keep my eyes on "So saith the spirits" rather than "So saith me". This is the only way that I can be of service to all of humankind regardless of race, creed, color, gender or anything else. Can I get a witness?

VODUN/ORISHA AND SPIRITUAL WOMEN OF POWER
In general it isn't easy being a woman in African spirituality...especially a woman who wields power. Yet for the diaspora-born woman it can get even trickier. Black women, in general, are often characterized as bossy, lewd and/or loud, no nonsense, argumentative, trash talking, and to some just a bit difficult to get along with. I, for instance, fit that bill perfectly. However, in all fairness, if folks respected us more and understood and/or appreciated what we, as women of color, have had to endure to keep our race from being completely annihilated in these, originally, foreign lands then we wouldn't have to be this way. Our tools of adaptation have been passed down from generation to generation and have always proven useful when our people have been the most tested.
As our men were being brutalized during the slave era, as well as in a Jim Crow south and even today, as we witness many being killed in our city streets or occupying our many prisons, the African American female, in particular, has had to step out in front in order to keep our tattered families together. She has developed necessary skills that have enabled her and her brood to survive. So, when many of us
discover, through divination, that while we are physically female we are spiritually male it is of no surprise to me. It is my belief that such women are unique on this planet. This is an individual that embodies the spiritual strength and power of a male yet the physical body and build with the capacity to engage in the miracle of childbirth. No man anywhere can top that!
Women found with this type of spiritual power, due to their being born to their seat, duly initiated and thus seated should not be viewed as just any ole' "Sally Sue" just because they are female. I contend that they, while possibly complicated in nature, are unique in their own right. Their passion for what is correct and just in the spirit realm, if apparent, should be admired. They should not have to argue or raise their voices just to get someone to understand them. Obedience to them should be the same as to their male counterparts. After all they too possess two hands of Ifa, they too are diviners in their own right and sit on priestly thrones. Essentially they are male spirits walking in female bodies and should be taken seriously.
As I have walked this path for some time now I have found that I have had to raise my voice far too often. As I stand only 5' 2" tall; and, I am a woman there are times when I am not taken seriously. And when I do become angry and proceed to put a piece of 'cussin' on folks I am accused of being emotional, angry about something trivial or some other such nonsense. But if the person, often being of the male persuasion, would have listened and taken me seriously, in the first place, then I wouldn't have had to become "emotional" in order to be heard. Our men must come to understand that, just like an infant which cries to be fed, we don't have to 'go there' if we aren't 'taken there'.
As I have crossed the threshold of sixty years of age I, personally, am no longer interested in arguing or having to employ the female tricks of the trade (a raised voice, verbal threats etc.) that sistahs have come to learn throughout our lives just to be heard or taken seriously. I am devoted to finding ways to teach diasporans (male and female) and others how to approach, deal with and respect spiritual women of power. But I am finding that I must first begin in my very own house. What say you?

VODUN AND FEAR
There is much fear associated with vodun. Most of it comes from media sensationalism that has influenced us over the years (movies of zombies, bad juju, hexes and spells etc.) and folk's genuine misunderstanding of it. But like anything else fear can be a healthy fear...one associated with reverence and the appreciation of the power and authority surrounding a particular thing or a fear based in an irrational misunderstanding of the "other" or that which one deems different. And of course this can be related to a number of things in our everyday lives. However the fear I am addressing is the fear of vodun that comes specifically from one's lack of knowledge as to how spirits work. And that pertains to most of us.
I'm forever being approached by folks who constantly speak of their loved ones being taken away, from them, by another because that person is employing bad juju to do so. Or someone may come claiming that a person has put something bad on them because their lives are falling apart. Then there are the ones who, because they happen to know someone who serves the spirits, attribute their misfortunes to that person when strange occurrences began to happen to them. Now please understand, I am not saying that these claims may not be absolutely true. Only the great Ifa or a spirit that has come on a
person, during a vodun ceremony, can uncover these realities; however, in a majority of the cases it is the person's own "stuff" as to why they may be having problems. That man or woman may have left simply 'cause they don't want you no mo'. Or your life may be messed up, at the moment, because you haven't fed any of your ancestors or the spirits are pushing you to go for divination for communication with you or, if you have already had divination, you have not followed through on any of the things they requested of you. And for the latter case, where there is a vodun association hence they are the cause of one's immediate problem, can be attributed to just plain ole' paranoia and a lack of spiritual understanding.
What people are not taking into account is the fact that inside of each of us lives spirits; and, these spirits are active and communicative. No outside spirits can just roll up on you to harm you and your own spirits just sit back and let it happen. If it happens it is attributed to three things, either you are guilty as heck and your spirits agree, or they are too weak to fight off the bad...which in that case they will lead you to someone who can communicate with them in order to help repair it...or your own spirits are causing the problem because of your own bad behavior. In any event looking within before you start looking without is always the best option.
African vodun is indeed powerful! In dealing with it you are dealing with ancestral and divine beings of ever kind. Many of these spirits are the creators of the universe and all it contains. If an African vodun wants to harm you. They will not do it with trivialities. They will simply take you out of here. For it is they that created us. However, these spirits love us and are very long suffering. They only act when they are ready to act and not until. No matter how angry I may get with a person, for instance, these divine beings only respond when they and they alone see the need to. I, nor we, control them...they control us.
I am not saying that there are not people out there who are employing the dark arts. There are! And to each of them the spirits will deal in their time. However, to blame the spirits every time something goes wrong in your life is to trivialize vodun. Take stock of yourself! Examine what is happening in your own life...that which lives within...before you automatically attribute your misfortunes from something that may have originated or been sent from without.

VODUN: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BORN TO ONE'S SPIRITUAL SEAT
I was recently asked the question of what it actually meant to be born to one's spiritual seat; and, I answered the person. However, it dawned on me that others may appreciate a clearer explanation of this terminology as well. So here goes...
My expression that one must be "BORN" to one's spiritual seat, as opposed to someone "buying into" it, refers to one's personal destiny where they actually came to this earth with the explicit mission to serve the spirits by being an ordained vessel for them in the service of humankind. In other words it was agreed upon, before the person's birth, that the voduns coming down with them would lead them to serve the spirits in some capacity toward fulfillment of some part of the divine's master plan. The capacity for which one would serve is chosen long before the person's actual birth and thus the person, after birth, is put on a journey of discovery where one is hopefully led to discover who and what they are, in the spiritual realm, and what specific spiritual mission is it that they came here to fulfill. In African vodun we understand that the birthing process as we are entering the physical realm causes us to lose this spiritual understanding. So the spirits have put a mechanism in place to help us to make these discoveries. That mechanism is the great Ifa. This Great Spirit, intimately connected, to the spiritual realm reveals who and what we are in the spiritual realm and what our spiritual mission is. That is what I mean by being born to one's spiritual seat.
Diasporans must, in dealing with African spirituality, not attempt to view it through a Eurocentric lens. If one has any hope of understanding African spirituality at all you must come to understand that it is the antithesis to Eurocentrism. It is not only a part of a pre-colonial Africa, but, in a sense, it is older than creation itself. For many of the spirits, within the spiritual realm, are actually those who created the universe and all that it contains. To look at African spirituality as you would a college course where you go pay a fee and study your way up the ladder is the furthest thing from the truth. Those born to their seats came here with innate abilities to be activated by their personal spirits through the process of initiation. Therefore, those who claim spiritual "gifts" are only looking at a shadow...the tip of the iceberg... of what they can accomplish spiritually. It is imperative, therefore, to find the correct teacher, go through the process of authentic African divination; and, if discovered of the priesthood, initiate. As I mentioned in my last post those disembodied souls (our ancestors and kin) are in more need of our assistance than any amount of people, within the physical world, that we could possibly help in a lifetime. So, if you discover you are to serve in this capacity but refuse all of your ancestors may began jumping on your back making your life a holy hell until you relent. They brought you to this earth to be of service to them and humankind not to be busy serving your own wants and desires. It is not that they do not want you to be happy and prosperous; but, that will only come if they are properly fed and cared for with the appropriate ceremonies performed on their behalf. The African priesthood is one where a person comes to know selflessness not one to where one delves in the promotion of selfishness or the chasing of other gods meaning....money and material gain. THEY, the spirits themselves, are your Gods. Serve them; and, they will give you the desires of heart. This is not to say that folks can't make money. Everyone has a right to make a living and support themselves; however, true wealth is spiritual not material.
But let me take a moment and speak to those who have already made these discoveries through Ifa. Follow through! It is always good when we discover things about ourselves; but, if the spirits have given you specific instructions get busy working on them. And for all of those who have discovered, through Ifa, that they came from royal families here is the deal. There are many that will discover this in the diaspora. The slave catcher was not discriminatory. Until you perform the ceremonies to find, take or sit on these royal seats, simply think of yourselves as HEIRS to royalty. Because until you actually do the ceremonies needed you ain't sittin' on nothing! Get off the self-aggrandizement and make it a reality then you can talk! Remember, for example, the Queen of England only became queen after she went through ceremony and ritual to sit down on that throne. It is the same for us. Ifa reveals the realities of what was loosed in the heavens and what we were born to be; however, until you do the ceremonies and make it so you are just another everyday "Joe Schmoe" or "Sally Sue". So stop talking or looking for praise about who you are and simply save your pennies and get the work done.



VODUN AND WHY WE SERVE
Many in the diaspora assume that to serve the spirits is more about self-aggrandizement rather than attending to the spiritual ills of humankind. Too many, plagued by the generational psychological vestiges of the transatlantic slave trade, use the priesthood as a step up to self-importance or value while others use it in an attempt to 'buy into' it's powers for the making of financial gain. However, neither of these is why we serve. The obvious reason that we serve is to be of assistance to humankind. After all the African priesthood is a pivotal cog within the larger spiritual plans devised by the divinities. However there is an additional reason why we must serve that is not often understood or mentioned in the diaspora. While I have mentioned it on other occasions; I would like to reiterate it in this writing.
We serve, and indeed we must serve, for all of those who came before us. Those of our clan (from the oldest to the newest of these ancestors) who have died of unnatural deaths must be allowed to rejoin their ancestors and rest in peace. And for the African American, specifically, this is a formidable task and one that we must take on. Unnatural deaths separate the dead from their ancestors. And only the appropriate ceremonies, given to us by the ancestral spirits themselves, will allow them to rejoin them. In African vodun we know that ancestry begins our spiritual journey on this earth. And our hope in this worldly journey is to complete whatever mission we came here to fulfill and then rejoin them upon its completion. Inside of us is that which must return to them and that which will return to the spiritual realm of the divine. With us, walking hand in hand, therefore are those divinities which breathed life into us and that group of ancestors that continually intercede for and protect us. Therefore one cannot serve the spirits effectively without them. Why? Because much of who and what we are spiritually and physically comes directly from them. We inherited, even the divinities that breathed life into us, from them. Therefore our ancestors deserve to rest in peace; but, without the appropriate ceremonies they cannot and are forever separated from their ancestors.
It is our duty, therefore, in addition to the daily duties of a servant of the spirits, to have these ceremonies done. There are more disembodied souls behind us that need our help, than we will ever be able to rescue in this physical realm. But, it is to those who died on the slave routes, inside of Africa, who never made it to port that we must serve. It is those of our clan who died in the hulls of the transatlantic slave ships or were thrown overboard that we must serve. It is those that were raped, sold on the auction blocks, whipped and beaten unmercifully that we must serve. It is those who died in the cotton, tobacco, rice and sugar cane fields, those who were lynched or murdered, those dying in our country's wars, those gunned down in city streets, those who died in prisons, on chain gangs, at the hands of corrupt city cops as well as all manner of diseases and other unnatural deaths that we must serve. It is to them that we owe our allegiance and must serve. THEY are our blood, THEY are our kin, THEY are the ones who brought us here, who maintain and intercede for us daily before the divine. And ain't no JESUS or nobody else by no other name among 'em! Your ancestors were stolen from their lands, humiliated in death; so, they need your help! Serve THEM instead of all this other worldly nonsense; and, let them rest in peace!



AFRICAN VODUN: THE DO'S AND DON'TS IN REFERENCE TO UNINITIATED DIASPORANS AND THEIR COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE AFRICAN PRIESTHOOD
In Africa, because of its culture and the fact that it's citizens understand the sacredness of its traditional priesthood, vodun etiquette is something that most are familiar with whether they serve the spirits or not. And, of course, when one is going through the initiation process, itself, they learn even more as to how they are to behave and the consequences of one's misbehavior. But in the diaspora...chil' you've got some disrespectful NEGROES! And, I'm talking black, white and everything in between!
I have observed folk, online, conversing with African priests like they got some authority on something, but, don't know 'jack' in reference to the spirits. I have had folks talk to me any kind of way as well! These folks done read a couple of books, done been in somebody's divinity or theology school or been dealing with some jive time wanna be priest and figure they got it going on! They, knowest or unbeknownst to themselves, subscribe to the Eurocentric notion that they are educated so therefore they know. Chil let me tell ya'll something... A person truly hooked into the spirits, meaning someone born to their spiritual seat, initiated properly and actively serving the spirits with integrity ain't got to have a lick of formal education. In fact, most of them don't! Educated priests, in vodun anyway, is a modern phenomenon. Yet these folks got some vodun that will knock your foolish head off or strike you done right where you stand! These folk's spirits are being fed regularly while yours are not! Therefore they have the full protection and power of their ancestors as well as the personal divinities into which they were born. So, you should not be talking to those of the African priesthood any kind of way. These folk's spirits can retaliate against you without them even knowing. Then those spirits will return and tell that person 'bout it later that they have smitten one of their enemies. Those of the priesthood must remain calm when folks are disrespectful towards them; and, many that I have observed do! But me? Chil' I was born in this diaspora; and, I haven't achieved that kind of patience yet. So, my spirits spend much time trying to calm me down through my gentle husband, because, they know that many of you simply do not understand. 'Cause Lord Dattatreya knows that if it was up to me...it'd be some hurt up folks! For I am only human. And every spirit that I possess is a warrior.
While in Africa I had a lovely friend whose temple was on the beach. She was a Mami priestess, a slip of a thing, with a very gentle spirit. But her spirits would come on her head with great force. She had to be held by several strong men as she would kick and contort as that Great Spirit would appear. One day she had been walking on the beach. Somehow an argument ensued between her and a man as she was trying to defend the man's wife from his beating. The man disrespected her verbally as her and others tried to give the wife safety in her temple. Later that night, when I came to visit her, the man showed up demanding his wife. My friend resisted. As the man continued to scream out curses and insults her mighty spirit took her head; and, it took an army of men to contain this young woman and that spirit from going out of the temple and killing the woman's husband. The man understanding what was happening started running down the dirt path. But when he closed his eyes that night he breathed his last breath. When I left Africa the man's wife was still living in my friend's temple and had begun to serve the spirits.
Be careful how you approach an ordained one who is actively serving the spirits.


VODUN AND SPIRITUAL PEDIGREE
In African Vodun, as well as in most of our world's spiritual systems, a person's spiritual pedigree is most important. In other words how one came to be whom and what they are, in a particular spiritual system, has its relevance. This relevance has to do with legitimacy as well as proficiency in the ability to help those to whom one wishes to serve. Therefore one who hangs up a shingle and proceeds to practice yet hasn't the skills or proficiency to do so is akin to a situation where a client is in need of a heart operation but ends up being serviced by a plumber. And as such, the unskilled practitioner, equivalent to the plumber, ends up doing more damage to the person than good. Therefore when the person finally arrives at a legitimate and proficient priest too much has to be cleaned up and the cost exorbitant due to the numerous ceremonies that it will take to reclaim the person's spiritual life.
In Vodun if a person was not born to his or her seat, has not been initiated according to the tenets of their personal spirits, by a legitimately ordained priest or priestess, and properly trained to serve in the capacity of the priesthood, then, they cannot initiate you into anything! Anything that they claim to do for you is waste of your money. The unordained cannot ordain another. Only the voduns can do this by a person yielding to THEIR tenants and not those of humankind. And if the person claims to be of the African priesthood but no one in the African priesthood leadership is aware of them, then, more than likely they are not legitimate. In Africa the leaders of each of the pantheons of vodun are invited to the initiation ceremonies of new adapts as a matter of course. It is they that must give their blessings and make sure that the initiations are done properly. If somebody calls themselves initiating you in secret and there are no big ceremonies to put you at the scrutiny of the vodun elders with drumming, dancing, singing, spirits riding folks, eating and celebration accompanied by many vodun leaders and elders of that pantheon of spirits then something is up! They are in secret because it is something they are not doing correct. Then you show up, after a few weeks of vacation and claim you are the grand pooh pa of the pooh pa and get offended when I tell you it isn't so... Believe me! I'm not trying to throw off on yall...just tryin' to save your life. The many ruined lives that Temple Behumbeza has to clean up, in this diaspora, could be partly avoided if folks would just listen and stop being so proud. Kinda hard being proud when you don't know nothin'; but, many of ya'll be giving it a try anyhow. I've got folks screaming at me, "I've got mighty ancestors!" Of course you do; but, wouldn't it be good to first find out who they are? "I've got gifts, they say." Yeah, me too; but, I know the spirits that gave me my gifts, do you? And it would be even more wonderful if you could find out what they want. I know what mine want. In the meantime the person's soul is sittin' in a tree somewhere or their voduns are bound and/or all manner of things have happened; but, they busy talkin' trash! Hey, I ain't out here trying to be all fabulous by myself! You folks are fabulous too! All I ask is that you do your stuff right! Prevention can be much easier than a cure. And who gave me this authority you ask? The voduns! It is part of my spiritual mission; and, like all y'all I'm tryin' to please my bosses too! 'Cause like anybody else I wants to look good on my throne...problem is...I've got to earn it first!
So here is the deal. Before you put your spiritual life in the hands of another check out their spiritual pedigree, because, if theirs is illegitimate, tarnished or messed up in any way yours will be too!