Working The Voudon Gnostic Workbook

I picked up Michael Bertiaux’s book the other day, The Voudon Gnostic Workbook and started reading it. I’ve had the book for some time but have not bothered with it. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with the ideas he has. Although I have never been overly eager with the Atlantean Mysteries, mostly because there are so many people with so many different theories, and a lot of them a complete bunk (I was once approached with the solid belief that if you have an M formed on your palm from the lines, then you are a reincarnation of a person from Mu), his inclusion of the Atlantean Spirits in the Workbook have me intrigued.

Now instead of reading through this large 600+ page book and then starting from the beginning again, I have decided to work through it, as a Workbook should be I suppose. As I do, I will give accounts of my experiences, where possible, and impressions here and on my other blogs.

So, let’s get started. Last night I did the dedication ritual. A very simple little ritual that has some nice overtones to it. Once you have done the main section, you are to close your eyes and see how the Spirits come to you. I must say I am having a bit of a hard time with his mention of them being Hoodoo Spirits, as I don’t consider the Hoodoo practice itself to have Spirits. But anyway, let’s look past that for experiment’s sake. What I found was that a host of spirits came and stood before me, and not in a form that I am used to, or that which they normally appear to me. Mostly I couldn’t make out their form, because the one at the front had me captivated, but they stood in a wedge like formation with the front spirit looking like a slender, tall, watery, light figure, very beautiful. She is the one that spoke to me and in her speaking she did tell me that Michael is a very good and dedicated practitioner and his work can be trusted, so that was a relief. One thing that was interesting was that the wedge formation they were in at one stage turned into the image of an eagle’s head and then back again. It was an impression of all the spirits forming the body of Eagle. Now Eagle is not mentioned in the book (so far, I’m at the beginning), but I know Eagle from my Toltec/Nagualism studies, i.e. Eagle is that which consumes our Awareness upon death, the cosmos that brings us home. The Toltec (as mentioned by Castaneda that is) work to bypass the Eagle so that they are not consumed, in order to evolve into linear beings and therefore gain freedom through the giving up of Awareness during their life with the act of Recapitulation.

Having said all of that, I think this practice may prove to have some interesting aspects to it.