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.

Who Are the Gods?

Everyone is talking about the Gods, but who the hell are they? This obviously has many avenues available, and every one of us will follow, worship, praise, and believe in their own Gods, or set of Gods, or even just the one God. With so many cultures in the world, both past and present, we have a selection that encompasses a continent full of encyclopedias. But it is not just a case of which we select, or those that select us to work with them, but how we understand that relationship.

Before I start this discourse, let me scream from the rooftops that this is only an examination of possibilities. What I believe and what you believe will most probably be two completely different things, and we are all entitled to those beliefs. However, what I will be relating here may come as a shock to some, and will get that back hair raised, ready to attack. By all means, please attack. Nothing like a good ‘ol frolicking in the forest.

Many of us view the Gods as being separate from us. Some consider them archetypes, aspects of our own consciousness, and still others that the Gods are us, part of us, and we part of them. There is also the question of the nature of these beings that we call Gods. Are they malevolent or benevolent? I do consider that in many a case, these Gods are created in our own image. Let’s take an example here. Mildred worships Odin, and in her relationship with Odin she finds him to be loving, kind, helpful, always there to give advice and ready to be petitioned during spell work. Nothing wrong with that, except when we look at the older texts and the nature of Odin to his past worshippers. He was not a kind God, and being a War God, he demanded sacrifices in exchange for work done. So what is the real nature of Odin? Ah, therein lies the crux of this discourse. When looking at the European Gods in specific, they don’t really give a continental about us humans, except for Thunor/Thor, who is protector of Man and Gods. Do the Norse Gods come to our aid when we request it during our prayers? A sticky question actually. Considering they really don’t care too much for humans, I’d have to say no, but then it begs the question, who have people been contacting for so many centuries?

To delve into that question, let’s consider something first. No matter what religion you look at, when you delve deep enough, you will find a common theme. We are all connected. A lot of people may consider this statement to be in terms of our relationships, i.e. we are connected by love or even hate, but it is far more than this. Everything (as I always say) is energy. It doesn’t matter what you are looking at, whether it be your wife, husband, Aunt Agatha or the tree in your front garden, it is constructed of energy. What we see as tree with leaves and bark, is a construction of our minds, and we all see it through an agreement, a consensual reality that creates the tree. If however we were to See energy, then we would see lines or threads of pulsating power flowing up, down, in, out and around the tree. If it has been a while since you watched Matrix 3, then watch it again. Toward the end when Neo reaches the Machine City, in a state of blindness, he Sees everything as energy, lines of energy that move and flow. This is Reality. This energy, known in Anglo-Saxon terms as Wyrd, and in Kabbalistic terms as Avir and Ruchaniyut is never ending, it flows through, in and out of all things. In its form as Avir it is unformed and so it is that energy which is around you, whereas, when it enters you and forms the body you find yourself in, it is known as Ruchaniyut, i.e. realized form or potential. This energy, flowing in a constant flux and motion, connects everything, it is the same energy which flows through the person next to you, the cat in the room next door and the grass growing in your garden. Therefore, we all energy and the same energy, i,e, we are all connected and One.

So who are we talking to when we talk to the Gods? In my understanding, we are talking to ourselves, to a realized potential of who we are, and that which we are is Everything and No-Thing, God, YHVH, Old Dame Fate, The ALL, the Supreme Power that is All, Everything and at the same time, No-thing. We are all these things, but we also have individuality like cells in a body, all moving around and past each other, considering ourselves to be removed from everything, not seeing the Power that flows between us. We are the Gods, and they are us. And in that instance, we also create ourselves in the form of the Gods. Yes, they are as individual as we are to each other, but they are also us, connected, cells within a larger body, and if you consider that this larger body is possibly a single cell within a larger body of It’s reality, then the Cosmos just gets bigger and bigger. And through all these ever ending expanses of realities upon realities, we are all still connected, all being that energy which is flowing through everything imaginable.

Fate and Free-Will

This is one of those topics that are often greatly debated with everyone having their own personal opinion and sliding on the degree scale between the two extremes. If however we were to pull it all together into three divisions, we would have the Hard Fatalist, the Free-Willer and those that move between the two which bring more of a balance to the equation.

Hard Fatalist

These are those that believe that our lives are completely predetermined and fated. Every step we take has already been decided by the Primal Source or Force that is Everything and No-Thing. Although to many this concept seems a little debased because we get to decide what we do in life, it has many a good argument. For instance, in order to make a decision we first need to decide to make that decision, and subsequently, that decision needs to be decided upon, so on and so forth to a never ending string of decisions that need to be made in order to make a decision. This in itself would seem impossible if you were to follow this thread of decision making, and therefore it is believed that whatever choices or decisions we make in life are made for us. In other words the path that is woven before us is woven with Intent, but not our Intent, we merely step on that path and follow it.

Free-Willer

On the other extreme side of the scale we have the person who believes that they have complete autonomy over what we do in life. All decisions are made by ourselves and nothing, no force whatsoever has a say in the matter. In this argument a lot of self proclaimed Free-Willers will say that some form of Force or Source, God perhaps, directs their life, and then in the same breath will turn around and say that they make all choices. This is an obvious contradiction that is not well thought out. If a God of some sort is directing their life, then they do not have complete say over their life, for obvious reasons.

Balance

Most people in reality will follow a balance between these two extremes. Even the Free-Willer as seen above has a balanced aspect, although they wish to believe they are on the extreme of the Free-Will side. One example that I like to use, and which I have discussed quite indepth in my book The Reality of Things, is that of floating down a river in a boat. Whilst in the boat, we flow with the current of the river, and we sit there, travelling down stream. The Current is the force of life that directs our path, however, we can alter the general direction, but not to any extreme. We can take hold of the rudder and move it so that the boat is directed either right or left, but we still move with the general flow of the current. What we can't do is go from the position in the river that we find ourselves at any present moment, to the riverbank, moving in a straight line at a 90 degree angle. Some people try to do this, and they find themselves tumbling through the water being forcibly thrown with the current, no longer in the boat.

Another example would be a crowd of people moving in the same direction. Some people will walk faster than others toward the goal or the Centre, and so they will move to the left or right to pass people, but still moving in the same general direction of the crowd. Try and turn around or move in a severe angle through the crowd and you will be bumped and beaten and forced to move backwards or sideways, always in the direction the crowd is moving.

Of course my personal opinion is exactly that, and we all have our own way of looking at this subject.

Triangle of Art

Well I finished my Triangle of Art. Decided it would be better to use Hebrew rather than words that don't mean anything, so I have YHVH on the right, ALHIM (Elohim) on the left and ADNI at the bottom. Around the circle are the three Mother Letters; Aleph, Mem and Shin; Air, Water and Fire.

Comment - The Reality of Things

Please excuse me, I have to take a moment to brag :o)

I got an email out of the blue from Shaun Patrick. My book was given to him and his wife, and this is what they had to say:

"Thank you for writing a book that actually helped me and my wife.

"You did something great for us, so thank you

"We were both lost upon our path and didn’t know where to begin. You packed so much information into the book in such a way that it was easy to understand and it clearly leads you to your journey's beginning.

"Too many authors throw their views on you and bash any other view that doesn’t match their’s, you truly are unique in your way that is fresh and inspiring."

Are we being watched?

You know how you usually get those UFO videos and photos that are all blurry and grainy? Well try this one - http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3023819/ufo_france/

The Past Week

Well, I have been half deaf for the past week, my left ear is completely blocked and nothing is helping. I actually thought that it would be good for my meditations and practice seeing that I can’t hear everything on the outside, but it has actually been worse. I can hear myself swallow, and it is loud, can hear my breaths which isn’t such a bad thing, except that there is a constant ringing in my ear and external noises are difficult to distinguish and figure out where they are coming from, so it actually causes my attention to be more focused on them. So much for that idea then, now I just need to get my hearing back.

 

So what has been happening? Well, I finished the Meditation and Breath DVD Workshop, finally. Most of the practical part I had to redo numerous times because whilst taking the viewer through the practices and exercises I didn’t notice the noises in the background. I would then put them down for editing and then notice all the annoying sounds. But it is there and done now. Selling it R125, and if you would like to get a copy, just email me at mabonis@gmail.com

 

I also created a podcast which I put up this morning. Need to add it to Podcast Alley, but will do that tomorrow. The first podcast is about the DVD, covering some of the theory that can be found in there (but the DVD is much better by the way). Of course I can’t do the exercises in the podcast, but the basic theory is down. The next podcast I will do is about the Christos Technique, a method of putting someone into a dream state which I learned when I was in my early teens, but have found very few people over the years who have heard of it. Funny enough I found out recently that it is actually a Kabbalistic method of Pathworking.

 

Apart from that, and as I mentioned there hasn’t been much actual practice done because of my damn ear, I have been sorting out the Used Book section on one of my sites. Two dreams I have had whilst growing up, to become an author and to own a Used Book Store, so now to work on the second dream, although I won’t neglect the first, I have way too much to write.

 

I had Class with my students today, we tried our hand at crystal ball gazing, but unfortunately the room had too many things in which caused way too many reflections so the results were not so good. Everyone did ask why their eyes were getting so hot and watering though. We then spoke a lot about Sacred Plants, always an interesting topic.