Sangraal's Posts - RealPagan- Paganism for the Real World

Coffee with Death: An Atypical Dialogue

2011-01-15T19:30:00.000Z

"Here's your coffee, Brav."

Like many people, it has become my morning ritual to brew a pot of beautiful, exquisite coffee. Coffee is evidence of resurrection, I think, because it stirs me from the dead. How appropriate, I muse, that it's a standard offering to one of my lwa, Papa Gede. Papa Gede is the lwa of the first dead, the grand psychopomp of Vodou, standing at the crossroads to take the departed to the Underworld. He also stands at my personal crossroads, too, so I give service to him so that I may turn down the correct avenue in my present and future trials.

Although he is foremost among the blessed dead, the Gede, he is also the Lord of Life. Maya Deren, choreographer turned Manbo, speaks of him poetically in her book "The Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti" :

"If Legba was the sun, at first young, then growing old, Ghede is the master of that abyss into which the sun descends. If Legba was time, Ghede is that eternal figure in black, posted at the timeless cross-roads at which all men and even the sun one day arrive. The cross upon a tomb is his symbol. But the sun is each year reborn. If Carrefour is the night death which attends each day, then Ghede is the night sun, the life which is eternally present, even in darkness. The cosmic abyss is both tomb and womb. In a sense, Ghede is the Legba who has crossed the cosmic threshold to the underworld, for Ghede is now everything that Legba once was in the promise and the prime of his life. [...] Ghede is, today, the phallic deity also. If Legba was once Lord of Life, Ghede is now Lord of Resurrection; and the difference between them is Death, which is Ghede."

I am seeing myself in that Resurrection, in the coffee that I sip with him in the small service that I hold each morning. You see, I used to serve the lwa far better than I have been over the past 1.5 years. Life has given me some heavy hands. In some situations, it wasn't feasible to carry my altar to the new environment. That was no excuse to remove the sevis lwa, however, but other factors made most religious observance to be difficult. Those factors were mainly internal strife.

I was serving the lwa when my life was at its highest. I stopped almost everything when at its lowest. I see that circle is coming back around now, finally, after the worst year of my adult life. The lwa came back around through dreams, coincidently (perhaps) with the onset of the previous lunar eclipse. It's the first internal sign that I've seen in ages that things are coming back to as they should be.

Brav is insatiably hungry. He is Death-- death never stops consuming, you know? I have his altar in my kitchen, something of which I am certain was subconsciously motivated by him. In working with the spirits, intuition is heightened. Everytime I am preparing food, now, I feel a looming presence until some of it goes to his altar and upon his plate. As such, his service is not bound to Saturday's only, his traditional day of the week, although those are the larger ones. But, I see that in feeding him, I feed myself. Knowledge is not free; it almost always entails handing over something of which you've previously worked to get: food, ego and previously held convictions are all energy, and energy is capable of change. As are we.

But, I've not always been particularly fond of change. I resist it, sometimes. I abhor it during other times. It's pointless to fight it, I KNOW THIS!, but, I still do it. I am a glutton for punishment, a true situational masochist. It's this contrast of serving Papa Gede, I think, that I find the middle grounds. Death is both static and dynamic. It is something that will always occur, but it is a change within itself. You see it even within the Gede.

The Gede are SCANDALOUS and relentless tricksters! They'll arrive in a feast for other lwa and take their food. They'll play fight, trip, tell dirty jokes, emulate sexual gestures in dance and otherwise irritate the hell out of the most powerful lwa. "What the f**k you gonna do, kill me?" one might say. He'll arrive and, upon mounting a person, take a pair of sunglasses, poke out one of the lense and don it. Some say that this suggests the Gede sees both worlds: the living and the dead, the above and the below. But, one Gede told Deren "This is so I can keep one eye on my food."

But, if showing himself as Death's Head, Gede begins to emulate the sound of the gravedigger's pick as it hits stone in the cold, uncaring Earth. He's serious business, but it's just not the way he would prefer to reveal himself.

Although death, they remain the epitome of life. The life of the party, some say with a sense of grinning irony, because even in the gravest of change, life can become the most apparent. I am seeing that now. Finally. Just as there is life beyond death, and a Death that is life-- conversations with Brav Gede, affectionately the Papa of the Gede, is showing me that you can feel like you're a corpse deep in the ground, but if you'll just doing something contrary to your being, something absurd--- don't get even, get ODD-- those actions will flip your circumstances around. Whether it is seeing it in a new light, or the crossroads open up new doors, you'll find it. I'm finding it now, in being alive while serving death.

Mwen renmou ou, Papa Gede, ayibobo.

An encounter with a fraud

2011-01-10T02:00:00.000Z

I would like to share an experience with everyone regarding an encounter with a fraud many years ago. Other than the pseudonym by which he used, the names have been changed, but the story is 100% as I tell it. My hopes is that by sharing this experience, it might help prevent it from being replicated among anyone here.

In the Autumn of 2001, we used to enjoy staying over at Luna's house, situated in the quaint rural surroundings of Lincoln County, NC. Luna was a member in our circle, a pleasant and level-headed lady (or, so I thought) who shared many common interests of my girlfriend Jenna and I.

Occasionally, we would have special guests and speakers visit the region, coming through our sister circle and over to us, or vice-versa, so picking up new ideas or perspectives was an occasional treat throughout the warmer seasons of the Wheel. It was through this network that I met both the houngan that would introduce me the Vodou, and the gentleman that would be my first experience with Reiki. It was also where I bumped into a man that identified himself simply as "Cherokee".

To me, it immediately seemed a bit pretentious that a First Nations man would go by that name. Unfortunately, his story was far more brow-raising than his choice of names. Ney, his story was rather fantastic.

According to him, a member of the "Western Band" of the Cherokee Nation. This did not raise a flag immediately. I have ancestry to the Eastern Band, so I assumed the Western people were those that settled in the northwest following the depressive "Trail of Tears"...it seemed logical enough, so I did not research further until his stories improved. And, not very long thereafter, he mentioned that he was their "stone-carrier".

Wait...stone-carrier? The guy entrusted with going from place to place to gather knowledge of the lands and the people? Traveling amongst pagan circles utterly irrelevant of his spirituality?

Hmmm... Well, I am supposed to be honored by his presence, I suppose. That staff he carried everywhere and the plethora of dreamcatchers he sold out of his truck TOTALLY verified his first nationness...

Luna became immeditely attached to this fella. She even moved him in for a couple of weeks into her house to learn of his ways, I suppose. Immeditely, I began warning her about him. His stories seemed very incredible and the scent of bovinefeces permeated his very name. I asked her, in likely less friendly words: "Seriously, you are going to let guy move in, knowing nothing more than a pseudonym and some incredible story?"

"He promised me he would teach me and, before he leaves, initiate me as a medicine woman."

IN TWO WEEKS, people. I flipped. We had an exchange of words and, upon calming down, invited me to a circle he was hosting at her home. I accepted. I would not miss this for the world.

Saturday night arrived. I was with Jenna and we trampled back to the clearing behind her house, where a large fire was roaring. There he was, holding his staff, that she previously mentioned was too heavy to lift except by the "true stone-carrier", in some outfit that looked as if it had been an extra costume left over from Dancing with Wolves, although closer inspection would have likely included a tag that read "Made in China".

He began with a prayer spoken in simple Tsalagi, of which good memory graced me with the recollection to type into Google (probably his learning aid) to verify, and then an invocation to the Goddess. Sigh. From that point forward, he shared the cliche peace-pipe after offering it to the four directions. I was enjoying this. And, it got better. He started the "laying on of the hands" routine reminiscent of a Jim Baker prayer/deliverance convention. Oh yes, to include the spontaneous seizures upon being touched. I had not seen this since my early teens in the pentecostal church. Luna was touched. Luna convulsed to the ground. My eyes rolled to the back of my head, although I assure you that it was a voluntary reaction. Jenna succeeded in maintaining consciousness, too.

The circle came to a close. We went back inside. He laid his staff in the corner and went to the restroom. I went over, picked it up, glared at her with the sentiments of "enough said", took Jenna by the arm and left.

The following day, I was able to make contact with some people working from the office of the Eastern Band chief on the reservation in Western NC, verified the obvious and took names and numbers. I tried to talk more pose into her, and she said she had been warned by him that I would try to talk her out of further contact with him. How cult. After a few more moments, I severed our friendship. In a nasty email days later, I was told that my ceremonial sword was ritually burned by him in a fire, in order to remove my influence from there and, I suppose, an attack against me. A week later, I heard through a neighbor of mutual friendship, they were doing a ritual to invoke the "hounds of hell", and the ritual attire was black roads. Oh, so traditional.

Another two weeks passed and she emailed me saying she had been misled. You think? I ignored it. I was done.

Seriously, you would think that the details of this story would raise flags to any person. Think again. When offered the irresistable, even some of the brightest will believe the most heinous nonsense. This is why educatiion is important. This is one reason we push for truth here.

Tantra-- Not Sex Magic

2010-12-17T04:21:42.000Z

This has been a blog a very long time in the making. I've meant to write this up numerous times, and while this is not an issue here (as it tends to be elsewhere), it's something that I need to vent. :)

The modern Western world has a tendency to exploit things. Anything, really, especially if there's the potential for income. Whether it's the New Age cultural misappropriation of Eastern ideas, from karma to Tantra, to the mass-marketing of authentically fake items from African cultures. But, I am specifically going to aim my ire at the perversion of Tantra- literally and figuratively speaking.

Tantra isn't sex. It has very little to do sexual positions, orgasm delay or as a method to quicken kundalini. There's a whole market out there based upon 'tantric massage', or the proper way to massage your partner's yoni (vagina). You know what that's called? Diddling, or mutual masturbation if someone else is giving the helping hand. It has *nothing* to do with anything remotely tantrik. It has everything to do with fooling the naive out of hundreds of dollars. It's the same thing with these 'Sacred Sex' institutes. You pay them money so they can show you some sensually erotic form of foreplay, and sometimes watches you do it- to make sure it is being done right, of course. If you're an exhibitionist or want to add some romance to the bedchambers, it might be perfect for you. If you are wanting to learn tantra, rest assure that you are going to be screwed.

So, what is Tantra? Tantra is a form of Eastern practice, associated with a number of mostly Hindu sects, that deals with the reconcilliation of perceived opposites to a state of Oneness. Because Hinduism is panentheistic, the idea that all things exist within Deity, it is believed that no natural thing is bad/wrong/evil. And because Hinduism is henotheistic, believing that Deity is One, to announce that this is good or that is bad presents a dualism. Therefore, Tantra places an emphasis on the ritualistic breaking of taboo, of which sex for worship is but one, to delineate the boundries with the objective in raising the sadhana (practitioner) to that state of Oneness, samadhi or nirvana, and eventually liberation from the cycles of life-death-rebirth.

The most infamous of the taboos are known as the tantrik panchatattva, the five elements of parched rice, meat (to include animal sacrifice), intoxicants (alcohol or bhanga/cannabis), fish and, yes, sexual intercourse. These are culturally notorious because Brahmanic tradition, your 'mainstream Hinduism', has long had a emphasis on ritual purity. Any meat, including fish, was inappropriate for use in worship AND outside of worship (despite there being no actual Vedic edict) because violence brought about the end of the animal's life. Intoxicants are forbidden, especially alcohol, because it inebriates the senses and there's two stories where incidents occurred from the influence that both Brahma and Krishna placed a curse on it. Cooked rice was considered the damaging of the traditional offering of something that is both fruit and flower in one, yet incapable of reproducing itself- something emblematic of Oneness. Sex was wrong because worship was to Deity alone, with no division of thought to your lover.

The tantrik sadhana feels otherwise. He, or his mate (called a shakti), believes that because such things are good enough for us, then it's good enough for God/dess. Some schools, such as the kaulas, take the five elements as literal and may incorporate one or all of them in a tantrik puja. Others consider them more transcendent in nature, as personal sacrifices to achieve Oneness with Deity. I follow a kaula path as closely as I am allowed.

I mentioned something earlier about sex for worship. This is sex of tantra. Goddess is worshipped through the shakti, the female partner. Without going off on a tangent, it's assumed and traditionally a female, but there's nothing forbidding a male to assume the role, scripturally speaking. Anyway, it is Goddess that is worshipped, not the representative. This begins with an elaborate set of rituals seating Goddess into the shakti. Unrobed, veneration is given to her sex organ via mantra, mudra, and the offerings given in a traditional offering. Actual penetration may occur afterwards, however it's actually less common than assumed. Does some of that sound familiar to some of you? What if I mentioned that one traditional ritual was to meet her at a crossroads, trace a moon tattva on her forehead and invoke Goddess?

The act is not for sexual gratification. It is for uniting with Goddess to become One with Her. That goddess may be one of the ten tantrik goddesses, the Mahavidya, most of whom you would do well in not ever offending.

This is not a very common practice. Tantra suggests that you do not do anything more often than you do. Too Much and Too Little were two demons slayed by Goddess. Moderation is the key.

These are not the only Tantra elements. The ritual I posted, Bhuta Suddhi, is one of high importance. Nyasa, an action involving the placing of mantras on parts of the body to facilitate a bringing together of the sadhana with Deity, is intimately tantrik.

If it serves to unite yourself with Deity, irrespective of ritual taboo, it is Tantra. If there is a shock to your system when you do that no-no, and that shock elevates your consciousness to Deity, it is Tantra.

Otherwise, it is not.

Tolerance is terrible!

2010-12-11T01:43:45.000Z

Would Christians approve of fellow congregants believing Jesus to be a were-hippo? Would Buddhists admit one that espoused Buddha was an alien from Nirbiru, into their temple as a monk? Would Rastafarians shake their head in agreement to another that said the herb was merely symbolic? That Parsley was an appropriate substitute? How about First Nation folks? Would they pat the head of another person that wholeheartedly believed that High Diana was the only deity worth worshipping and that others have been misled due to centuries of patriarchal oppression?

No. Times Four.

Then, why the explitive does a significant part of the pagan community approve of some extreme form of ecumenical acceptance under the guise of the terrible t-word... Tolerance.

What's so terrible about it? Originally, the word came into use medically. It referred to the body being capable of adapting to both medicine and disease. Your body has built up a high tolerance for the pain relievers, so we're going to up the dose. Your body tolerates the flu virus because it has built up significant antibodies against it. Congrats. You have people in your community that thinks they are part dragon and phoenix. Deal with it.

No, I will not.

I might very well, however, associate them with either a severe mental illness or suffering from the disease of stupidity, but I will not 'tolerate' it in this body. I might even see this overbearing notion of acceptance as a condition of the body (of paganism) that has dealt with so much external nonsense that it has lost the tool of discernment, and therefore can no longer differentiate fact from fiction within its own ranks. Still, I will not 'tolerate' it, numbing my senses further with more drugs of delusion.

I've said it countless times. The pagan community is its own worst enemy. It's not the Big Bad Church or some right-wing conspiracy to keep us down. It's this obscene idea that we should accept everyone as they are, regardless as to how it may affect the community. And while paganism IS a considerably broad-spectrum term that covers a number of religious identities, there still remains some historical footnote of non-fiction. Vampires neither have been nor ever will be a part of paganism. It is a purely foreign- and fictional- concept. One is free to believe that one is such a creature, but do not expect it validated as anything remotely pagan. One may believe themselves genetically related to any other creature, mythological or zoological, but DNA tests will absolutely prove you wrong. Besides, your DNA has nothing to do with any of it, so why make mention of some absurd impossibility in order to fit into a community? You cannot even be born a witch anymore than babies are born Christians. The minimal effort to become a witch is to practice witchcraft. To believe you are born with a witchcraft gene is just as ludicrous as Original Sin.

So, to you were-creatures, vampires, half-orcs and babies born with a silver wand in your hands, if you stop trying to push your ideologies as being an integral part of paganism, I will stop treating you like a disease. Because, quite frankly, my tolerance levels are dropping and I am developing an *ACHOO* allergic reaction to bullshit.

Ridden (A Poem)

2010-11-16T21:00:00.000Z

This was something I wrote up around three years ago.

Mystery O Mystery, in your Name BABALON, I compose

A thorn of CHAOS, my finger was pricked from your rose

Into Your Cup, flows now my blood well spent

Into Your Cup, flows unrestrained sacrament

Red Lion and White Eagle, 156 ways do I adore

The jewel in the lotus, the Sophia, Great Whore

O Ruby-toned Night sky, Mother of Abomination

Though ridden, demands You, take no subjugation

Queen with Seven Worlds lying beneath Your feet

Valley of Da'ath, Stooping Dragon, they cry Defeat

I rapture from Thy City, becoming dust in Thy Chamber

My self merged Higher Self, a marriage, no remainder

Come away, come away, the earthly shepherds do decree

Reaching from the roots, blind- they cannot see!

They have not Wisdom, impotent are their rods

No equilibration in the Equinox of the Gods

I spin, I dance, trance the Aeons with great mirth

From Scarlet, from Crimson, I am given birth

From Thy loins, Mysteries, O Lady of Seven Stars

The repair of the world, the mending of the scars

Into the Circle of Stars, I plunged for Your embrace

The Wine of the Adepts, Drunken, I beheld Your face

I cannot write anymore, I cannot express any doubt

But tarrying forward with Understanding, there is no more bout...

Ave Babalon!
-Sangraal

Understanding Henotheism

2010-11-16T20:30:00.000Z

There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding the ideological "all gods are one god" summary of henotheism, so I wish to clarify them with this little blog post.

Henotheism is the theological perception that all gods emminate from a common point of divine origin, popularly known as "the Source". Unlike monotheism, it eliminates the notion of a single deity that is supreme to all others, negating the idea that other gods are inferior at best, false (or demonic) at worst. It suggests that all gods are quintessentially the same just as all humans share a common genetic makeup, however that is where it ends. It does not say that they should be seen or worshiped as such. Nor should they be. Henotheism may be monotheistic in essence, but it is polytheism in practice.

Let's look at the best example of it in practice: Sanātana Dharma, more popularly known as Hinduism. The Dharmi, of all sects, share this idea, that God is One, known by many Names. That is one of a handful of ideas that unites the sects, as Hinduism is more correctly a confederation of many religions rather than just one. Short of some practical aspects, that is the beginning and nearly the end of what I, as a Shakta, share in common with a Vishnaivi.

So, we are henotheists. God is one. Ever been to a Hindu temple? Unless it is dedicated to a single deity, and they are very rare outside of India, you will always see multiple gods, usually between five and seven, sometimes many more. Each of these gods are treated differently, they have their own prayers and rituals, and while some folks will pray to one, you will very often see them pray to more or all of them. We also have what is known as an ishtadevata, personal gods- the one of which we identify as Deity for the duration of our lives. We understand the gods as personal revelations of the One, and we know that the ishtadevata of another is also the Same, but they are still treated differently. I do not pray to my ishtadevata, Durga, as any other god. I do not confuse Her with Krishna, Ganapati, Chandra or Radha. Nor do I pray to those gods before Her image or in Her temple. Yes, they may all originate from some vast, formless abode, but this is not how henotheism works.

Henotheism should not be used as an excuse to marry various pantheons. Although the idea of Oneness extends beyond our religions, you will never, ever see a representation of Aset, Jesus, Hekate or Marduk within the temples, although some Shakta altars, post-Ramakrisna, might display emblems of other faiths and some Vishnaivi may worship Jesus as an Avatar like Krishna, that is pretty much the end of it. We understand the gods of other cultures as revelations to those people. No matter how strong our faith might be in some Divine Singularity, and no matter how damn close Dhumavati might resemble the Morrigan, we do not say they are the same anymore than a Greek recon will say that Aphrodite and Venus are the same. They are not the same goddess, so marrying pantheons to suggest they are the same disrespects both the deities and the cultures from which they were revealed. And, crossing vastly different energy signatures might just carry some rather chaotic consequences...

Even in Sanātana Dharma, the gods interact with one another. In the Devi Mahatmyam, a canonical puranic text of Shaktism, Devi (Goddess, called Durga and Ambika within the text, and identified as the first comprehensible form of the Source- Brahman), a small number of goddesses are kicking the ass of a massive army of asura forces. When confronting Sumbha in Chapter 10, he taunts Devi and says that although She may be strong, she cannot take him by Herself. She replies: 'I am all alone in the world here. Who else is there besides me?', absorbs the others and precedes to stomp him. So, although they may have originated from a single source, Durga, they still were treated as individual deities as Kali, Indri, Kaumari, etc, that was bashing heads, drinking blood, and otherwise smacking down tens of thousands of asuras. And so should they be treated as such.

So, please stop exploiting henotheism to cater to some foreign idea that all gods are the same from start to finish. It is not a viable doctrine when seen this way. This is not what defines henotheism. The Source is ultimately beyond most human comprehension and therefore manifests as a polytheism when it comes down to actual practice. Yes, I firmly believe that they all share the same origin beyond space-time, but in a world of finite experiential dimensions, we do them justice by giving them proper theological and cultural respect. Thank you.