Blessing to those
of the Silver Star…. This is the record of a rite that came to me to
carry out at the Babalon Rising Festival.
The record is composed of
four parts: 1. Apologia 2. Outline of the Rite 3. MR 4. Rough Notes on the rites
construction; essentially a conversation with my self concerning the
need, if any, for the rite.
In retrospect, the beauty
of such a rite is best measured by its ability to unite the
divided. Love takes many forms and these forms may take the
ritualist back to a Self of immense proportion.
The purpose of this Working
is to create a space in which the ritualists will be able to see
through the eyes of an entity they fear or one that causes them horror.
Ritualists are asked to
consider the value of constructing a mask or a veil impregnated with
the aspects or attributes of this entity. Preferably a veil or mask
that occludes but does not blind the eyes. Some materials will be
available before the rite. If the use of a mask or veil is not to
the participants will, then any magickal link they choose to use is
proper.
The hands and feet will be
buried in the earth allowing the Ancestors, Guedes, and Barons to act
as a stabilizing influence while the ritualists undergo this
experience. Your ancestors will stand with you.
That which horrifies us,
that which we fear we embrace in one of the strongest forms of
union. This ritual will explore that union. The key words for
this Working are Respect, Territory, and Understanding.
We do not see what is
“really” before us. Through selective perception, we see what best
allows us to survive. In seeing through the eyes of the target entity,
the ritualists will see what best allows the target entity to survive.
Great understanding can come through this.
This is also not a
psychological exercise in which one calls up one’s fears and overcomes
them any more than entering a cage with a rabid bear is a psychological
exercise. One respects the power of the bear and actively
acknowledges its territory.
Ritualists sit on earth
about 5 feet apart. Offerings made. Ritualists take a bit of
earth from where they are seated and hold it. Evoke an awareness of the
earths sacredness as ancestors and of being a company of brothers and
sisters bound together by facing the dangers of the rite together. The earth held by each
ritualist is imbued with the particular line of ancestors of that
ritualist. Ritualists place the bit of
earth they hold into a pot taken around. This joins the particular
lines of each ritualist. That earth is mixed with
the mound of earth used to cover the hands and feet to bring all of the
ancestors together. Ritualists hands and feet
are covered with the earth to form a company of brothers and sisters to
face the dangers.
Part 2
Ritualists eyes are covered
by the gauzy cloth and the cloth is draped behind the ears. This begins the Sight. Go around and do what is
helpful for each ritualist and what is necessary to keep each as safe
as possible. Very individual. Subtle body field mostly. When each ritualist is
done, each ritualist removes the gauze. The ritualist then gets up
and burns or buries the cloth with some rice and sugar and red pepper
as a offering to the spirit in thanks.
Or
The cloth can be carried
away to be used in other similar rites and rice and sugar and red palm
oil thrown upon the earth as an offering to the spirit in thanks.
8 ritualists performed the
rite. I acted as the ritualists
familiar during the “seeing.” Moving overly intrusive flies, etc.
Standing ready with the rice, etc. for when the ritualist removes the
gauze from their eyes.
The idea is to see through
the eyes of an entity that is not too strong as to overcome the
ritualist or too easy as to not provide benefit. A middle path here
produces the most fruit.
To see through the eyes of
an omnipotent God/dess that creates suffering but Itself does not
suffer would have been too strong for me.
The entity for me was
Mademoiselle Katrina. Earlier, I had performed a similar rite and
surprisingly saw that Msl. Katrina was calm. This confused me till I
realized that the eye of any hurrycane is still.
During the rite in Babalon,
I further saw that the winds were Katrina’s swirling cloths.
Amazing.
After the rite my mind
stream was clearer that it had been in quite a while. I had a fairly
weak mind stream with repeating thoughts concerning a house we were
bidding on in New Orleans. The power of the rite stopped and cleansed
the rush of thought about the new house.
The earth to be used will
be blessed by not only the Priest or Priestess but by all ritualists.
Each is as powerful as the Priest or Priestess and they are
forming a unified battalion going into battle. As brothers
fight you.
I know that there are
entities out there that could totally shred my aura. Not MOST feared.
But an Entity that you. The question is “Why” do a working such as this?
The earth is the ancestors.
Each ritualist would put their particular ancestors into the earth used
with all of the ritualists before the earth is used. Very
powerful.
Also, the earth is
important so that people do not move around. People moving around would
be an overly confused ritual situation.
Immediately before the
ritual we will call the highest form protection that individual
ritualists know. There is no way that to do this as a group. We would
do this individually as in the New Orleans Voodoo Order of Service.
As a drummer being
possessed is usually a dishonor to one’s teachers and to oneself,
breaking free from the Ancestors is a dishonor to oneself and to one’s
teachers. Now, there is no problem with dishonor. I have been
dishonored a number of times and it is still a dishonor.
It’s important to explain
that this is not possession and also not to necessarily call the entity
that occasions the “most” fear or horror. Each participant
chooses that level at which they find an opportunity to benefit, the
level of emergence. Not too much / not too little.
Not too much and not too
little. Here we have an application of the Middle Path. The
ritualists make the masks. We do not make the masks. We do not place
the masks on the ritualists. As Crowley said, know your limits.
Experiment and know your limits. Revolve the situation in your mind,
minutely examine it and your Self from all angles.
This is a group ritual
because we come together out of love. It is the love of warriors
for one another before they go into battle. As Mac Rebenac said
“spiritual warriors.” They depend on one another. The earth used
contains all of our ancestors.
The point is that it is
dishonorable to break ranks out of fear or hubris. We are warriors; an
anarchist brigade. We each pick our position in terms of the amount of
fear / horror we can experience and derive benefit.
Only a fool breaks ranks ;
only a fool goes running pell mell at the adversary and in
so doing creates more danger for all the other warriors around them and
jeopardizes the outcome of the battle itself. It is the responsibility
of each warrior to care for the safety of those who fight by his or her
side as they go into battle together as well as to care for themselves.
An important distinction
must be made here. The “Fool” steps off the cliff alone. If he was
depicted as tightly holding the hands of his fellows while leaping he
would simply be a “fool.” There is much to admire in a “Fool” and
little to admire in a “fool.”
There is a natural kind of
selection going on here. Those that apply the most will in creating the
mask and in preparation will be the most experienced sorcerers
therefore able to handle the most amount of power. Those who simply
throw something together with a minimum application of will get that
level of result and be able to handle it.
That which does not destroy
me……. I personally would probably be somewhere in the mid ground of the
ritualists in terms of tolerance for fear / horror.
The entity that evokes the
most horror for me is an omnipotent God who creates suffering and It
Itself does not suffer. As my emergent level, I would choose to see
through the eyes of the God that creates/allows suffering and does
Itself suffer. That’s a middle way for me. The God that created
Hurricane Katrina an Itself suffers is monstrous enough for me right
now. The eyes of a God that does not suffer and created Hurricane
Katrina would overwhelm me. The eyes of a God that got drunk and
created Katrina would be a bit too shallow for me. I do not fear
Katrina herself so much as the Entity that created her.
Do these entities exist. An
omnipotent God/dess that suffers / an omnipotent Goddess that does not
suffer. Both having created suffering. Given multiverses; how can
they not exist?
The entity that the
ritualists see through the eyes of, is individual to each ritualist.
But as a sentient being it shares a great deal with all other sentient
beings. It lives, it will die, it will be reborn in an infinite number
of forms.
Also, most assuredly, the
person seeing through its eyes will be reborn in its form. They are
already in union.
I don’t like the word
“healing” it's over used. It’s an awe full process. Something to speak
of quietly and with reverence. As Priest Oswan Chimani taught
“healing is the process of decreasing the distance between you and Bon
Dieu Bon.” This rite is a part of the process of healing. Mishlen
Linden called me a couple days ago and spoke of healing as a series of
small steps, not so much a single event. This can be one of those small
events.
We are migratory beings.
Like it or not, we will see through the eyes of this entity sooner or
later. Given an infinite number of migrations. Within an infinite
past to an infinite future we will become this creature. A benefit of a
rite such as this is to experience a part of this migration in a more
lucid manner. On the street you hear “it is what it is” the Tibetan
refugees talk of the Wisdom of No Choice. We will all not only see
through the eyes of but also take on the body of this entity. We have
done it in the past and we will do it in the future.
There was a rite in
Montreal where I was asked if it was safe to do this and I replied
“no,” that we must all be willing to die in the rite. This is not quite
that type of rite. But close.
This is along the lines of
the large rite Mishlen and Linda Falario did at Starwood about 10 years
ago. They called the Tunnel entities and fed participants to those
entities. The idea there was that what could be lost was not real and
best left behind. Or its like the rites in the Temple where the
ritualists were tightly bound and placed upon the web to be fed to the
spider loa. The big difference is that
this is a large rite and we are not calling one very powerful entity.
Each ritualist is trusted to choose that level of entity he or she can
enter into this kind of union and benefit.
