loss of parents—resulting grief and pain opens a vortex that
sucks one in as if to remodel the familiar into something unfamiliar.
must allow oneself to be reborn.
nonlinguistic area of the self—psychic/spiritual part of us
undergoes metamorphosis into something perhaps higher or lower, to get one to a
new dimension.
loss calls attention to our possessiveness, good or
bad/dysfunctional.
when that thing is removed, creates immediate vacuum.
connection between grief and water.
water is element of reconciliation, peace-making,
purifier/cleanser.
every loss produces
crisis that calls for reconciliation.
how do I reconcile myself with the loss?
“the amount of grieving I’ve done is not adequate to get to
the other side.”
a whole lot more needs to be done to get to the other side.
a common/universal state.
water as an opportunity for further shedding—a different
kind of grieving.
water as a principle element of our own genesis.
we lived in water in womb sea before birth.
what is it that water can touch in me? to turn moist, and
liquefy, and remove from me?
beyond idea of cleanliness, seeking psychic bath.
village shaman in august when rivers are full, takes money
into clay jar, walks into water, disappears for several hours, then comes out
with clothes dry.
something in the water that is not just about drowning.
maybe this is the other home that we have left that we go to
when we enter water.
“water people” to ensure there is peace and reconciliation
within community.
also fire clan, earth clan, nature clan, mineral clan.
“the grand deal”/the great purpose inscribed in us before we
were born—that we MUST fulfill it, stop at nothing.
we all want and look forward to giving our life to something
bigger than us.
sacrifice—the cycle of life and death so ingrained in us
such that dying and living intersect.
desire that death is connected with something grand.
exiting this world also means entering another world where a
huge welcoming committee is waiting for you.
dagara people hold immense ritual for 3+days when someone
dies.
escorts into other world.
the deceased becomes a sacrifice to the greater go.od of the
community.
animal sacrifice—hard to explain, not to romanticize african
culture.
not devaluing animal.
trees are most advanced beings—a consciousness that
supercedes all other beings, wider and bigger—they look still—not going
anywhere.
after trees, come animals, and humans are third or last.
the higher the consciousness, the more eager you are to
offer yourself to the next layer of consciousness below, in order for it to
rise.
lifting otherwise wanderer csns allows self to go further—a
contradiction.
sacrifice repairs human mistakes.
no chicken killed just for food, but to repair something not
working well—an offering.
sacrificed body is shared with spirit—certain key parts
given to shrine of spirit, eg liver and heart—connected to main seat of csns of
animal.
fabric of modernity makes it difficult to understand sacred
killing.
csns associated with animals is source of inspiration behind
mythical stories that sustain communities.
through these stories children are taught community
mythology.
in malidoma's culture, those with deformity/infirmity/chronic
impairment highly valued and sought after—permanent living shrines.
they need mobility in community as reminder that they are
surrounded by something bigger than themselves.
they provide a sense of humility.
thermostat to prevent overheating of one’s grandiosity.
desire to marry disabled person—because you live permanently
with the sacred.
a natural attraction.
modernity has ruled out the sacred—we can stare at the
otherworldly and not see it—the sacred has been de-sacralized.
cause for grief—getting rid of something most important to
us.
very strong excavators needed to go to the places sacred has
been buried and dig it out.
simple rituals of honoring trees, plants, offering tobacco
etc harness enough power to open a few more eyes to sacred around us.
struggle in day to day life—difficult to build shrine today
for ritual tomorrow.
our own conditioning makes us blind to sacred, makes us
rigid—we need to stay in the water for a few weeks to soften up!
the inner preparation
is a personal duty/assignment.
is it possible for each of us to meet privately and
concertedly with the trees and plants with the purpose to excavate the interior
of self?
looking for those elements inserted by culture that do not
belong to us.
when the time comes, we can then carry that which does not
belong to us to water.
then give it to the sacred, because the sacred as a csns
will know what to do with it.
we define all offerings as good—but not always true.
the earth can take all trash, water can liquefy filth,
plants can take energy away from us to purify.
all are offerings.
think of something grand you want to act on behalf of,
someone struggling, think of self as an offering to something bigger than
yourself.
become a sacriicial
element, there is dignity in giving yourself to something grander.
do not seek perfection in the immediate.
“here I am, I know
nothing, but I can show up”—qualifies you to be hired by the spirit to do the
impossible.
learn as you go, don’t need to gain expertise first.
eventually you get most of it by the end of your life.
each of us present here may have been woken up by an
ancestor and placed on this path to try to do something grand.
the nature of this may not be delineated now—because of
difference between conscious and unconscious, and info lost in the middle.
as long as we’re driven by this humble thought, nothing else
will matter.
not about another tradition imposing on another—color
doesn’t seem to matter eventually in the eyes of spirit, because something else
is going on.
very uncivilized to show up for something like this.
nothing lost in suspending disbelief, tho this is probably
hardest thing to do.
why should we want to do the easy thing?
before you go to divination, you take ash and go to the
shrine of the ancestors with the problem bothering you.
say to ancestors “take this ash and produce a shield, take
cowry shell payment, and ingest all” to lead me to the answer.
ancestors will tell the diviner what to tell you.
if you have access to one ancestor, they will share it with
others in spirit world.
can resolve many issues this way.
not about us posturing as beggars.
also go to trees to hang out, not just when we have trouble.
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