(for Africa, and for all humanity)
by Nemesis Fixx
Introduction
This brief essay is written in defense of Witchcraft (not just African Witchcraft), and any other apparently “primitive”, “repulsive”, “uncivilized”, “noninstitutionalized” forms of Magick and Spirituality, especially, as explored and practiced by apparently “primitive” cultures, some consciously deviant, free-thinking and or otherwise curious human beings in our day and time. These systems of faith have been under attack, in the face of mainstream, popular and predominantly western systems –the Abrahamic faiths being the worst culprits, and yet, to many of those who engage in them, especially we as native Africans still in touch with our ancient, collective unconscious, they hold the same or even more potency than what mainstream systems can offer. This essay is not an attack on mainstream faiths, but is instead an exploration of the principles that might help see to a more harmonious, more liberal and more progressive co-existence of the many faiths and spiritual systems – old and new; how and why we need to embrace a bold new world, in which spiritual diversity is not only tolerated, but greatly encouraged, without fear and without favor.
As at this moment, the summit of my philosophical understanding, and based on which I discern or attempt to color Truth is this: Relativity seems inevitable, and it probably is legitimate, but in any relative reference frame, the most optimal truth is that which yields the most utility to those concerned, and which is additionally pragmatic at that. The big question then concerns who defines the utility function by which one truth is ranked relative to another. In my system, the concerned party ought be the ultimate authority, and if I am to limit my ideas to a humanist perspective, then it is whichever human is concerned, but otherwise, any authority that the concerned freely chose to delegate their judgement to (which could make sense for those with less developed faculties of discernment such as children) – a deity, an algorithm, another human, doesn’t matter; the important thing is that this authority is granted such power by the concerned. We might be infinite and absolute beings – nothing in my current understanding negates that, but it’s more prudent to assume we aren’t: pessimism often yields more truth than not. The best a relative being can do is to seek the best approximation of the absolute, as much as they can, and anything else is otherwise very rudimentary, or is too much of an illusion (though, not all illusions are void of utility, approximations are practically better than naught – the reason even scientific fantasy holds more weight than random day-dreaming.) With my philosophical underpinnings exposed, I can then comfortably and sincerely enter into a fair exposition of my ideas on this most critical matter. We are spiritual beings – anyone that would challenge or ignore this, needs only exhaustively seek the answer to the question: „What Am I?“ or the lesser, „Who is I?“ Attempts to explore this critical question using any paradigm that best lends itself to one’s current faculties of contemplation and understanding, especially when sought earnestly, patiently and with persistence – not as a race to out-think the other person, or as a means to impress others with pompous oration and arguments, but as a sincere, solemn pursuit of one’s True Self – for one’s own illumination and empowerment, will finally lead you to this Truth (or some close variations of it). This is very critical to anything else we might ever have to ponder or concern ourselves with – as individuals, as communities and the entire species as well, and it ought to be the gist of any truly transformative, constructive work we engage in. Okay. Then let’s talk about VooDoo & Magick. Yes, we need not just VooDoo, but actually – and this is true of all humans, regardless of whether they are colored, white or black: we need not just abstract spiritual freedom, but we need to be able to freely, openly explore and express our spirituality as we deem most fit. If VooDoo were the predominant system of spirituality globally, then undoubtedly, there would be a minority somewhere, seeking to assert or practice their own system – possibly even trying to impose it onto the majority. It’s only natural. Everywhere there’s a majority, by necessity, there is a minority – this is true of spirituality, and all other human activity, as well as any system that doesn’t contain a unity of elements (and which also isn’t void). Imbalance and inequality isn’t unnatural, and neither is it good or bad – it just is. In the face of current dominant spiritual sentiment and expression, some minorities would best be left to openly explore or leverage the alternative, less popular systems of VooDoo and what other innovative systems of spirituality that magicians and theologians have conceived of or been inspired to develop, and it doesn’t have to necessarily become mainstream – I’m talking about spiritual liberation here. Let’s first abandon entire states, black or white races, creeds and universals, and come down to YOU. The simple question is this: Are you capable of exercising your powers of discernment and free will? Can you take independent, conscious action? Then, what best holds utility for you? Who should define what holds utility for you? If something holds no more utility for you, then why not adopt or develop an alternative? Unless, you consciously admit to being helpless and impotent – in which case it would truly be vile to want to exorcise you of your self-inflicted predicament, you need freedom. But, if you are a being capable of consciously exercising your faculties of discernment and free will, and if for some reason, you are compelled to use something that doesn’t or no more holds utility for you, then at that point, you choose to sacrifice both your freedom and power. It is this sort of thing that is the problem with the dominant spiritual systems of this day (or any time in human history and possibly for all the times of our future, assuming we don’t evolve for the better in this regard – some philosophers have analyzed human history, and concluded that all true progress is indeed an illusion!) It’s not a new problem – it’s been with us from the very moment two humans first disagreed on an otherwise internal, subjective, and essentially spiritual matter; is the ghost inside or outside of me? Faith is a tool – a very powerful one at that, with which any being capable of exercising powers of discernment, can accept as true, something for which they have no proof. This is true of humans especially, and doesn’t depend in any way on one’s intellectual or cultural biases – faith is exercised by humans, possibly universally. Faith, applied practically, makes possible such incredible things to manifest in seemingly limited humans, such as; healing by placebo; constructive contagion; potent optimism even in the face of dire adversity; irrational powers of persistence and perseverance – irrespective of recurring failure; the ability to tap into and leverage otherwise censored parts of the unconscious; the ability to develop and exploit vivid imagination; the resolution of otherwise intractable existential and subjective enigmas, that could otherwise render a person impotent, etc. And I haven’t even mentioned the obvious side-effects of practically exercising this faculty, especially in conjunction with the imagination, to make possible the creation of the most majestic, “divinely” inspired forms of art, architecture, music, and fashion – which are the things that actually end up defining much of what a culture is or isn’t. Faith is bigger than most like to admit, and it’s possibly at par or even higher than the imagination – or it compliments it the most. Faith gives every human the license to dream, and as we know, only dreamers can create! But, as with all power, it is either abused or misused from a point of ignorance or pure greed. In and of itself, faith just is – just as with faculties of reason, the imagination, memory and the other external and internal tools of our being; it’s the effects of its application that possess color – mere accidents, itself, remaining purely colorless and indifferent. What then makes faith, or its application, as in the various forms and expressions of our spirituality, such a problematic aspect of the human creature and the entire race? Look to the age-old religious wars the planet has dragged through, especially some of the most bitter, meaningless ones – many of them still on-going; and then add to this, the numerous, often suppressed inquisitions and persecutions various mystics and explorers of their own subjectivity, have had to suffer at the hands of the prevailing authorities of their time. What’s wrong with faith or the application of it? It’s not that Christianity or Islam or Hinduism or whatever, is bad or impotent – don’t forget, utility is relative. These spiritual systems have their true merits, and have potency, for those who know best how to leverage and milk them – even when we strip them of all their fancy ceremonial, accumulated heritage and political authority – leaving them nothing more than just “yet another system of exercising faith.” The problem is, their utility isn’t universal – it isn’t even absolute, as far as I know, and that’s what the cynical fanatics and blind messiahs of any spiritual system you know of, get wrong or deliberately choose to ignore. Within the context of a system of faith, it definitely makes sense to assert infallibility and even claim absolute power – that’s much of what makes faith potent (both to the believers and those presiding over them.) But, once you decide to step out of the subjective arena, the spiritual arena, and start to talk objectively and universally, then no one can claim with authority, concerning the absoluteness or superiority of their beliefs or expressions thereof. As far as I currently understand, it is plain absurd for anyone to claim as universal, any matter that is essentially of a subjective nature – of which spirituality & faith have the worst offenders! This is the sort of stupidity that has plagued our species, leading to much conflict and stagnation of progress, and the reason we need enlightenment and some sort of renaissance and or spiritual revolutions every once in a couple of generations. If you, as an individual or as a group of individuals (a family, a state, a nation, a race, or even the whole of humanity), were to delegate the answering of our most fundamental questions to an alien or external authority, no matter how incredible it were, or how pathetic you are – you my dear would no more deserve of any legitimate freedom and power. You would have lost not just freedom and power, but also identity as well; at which point, even the purpose and meaning of existence, for those concerned, would make no more sense. The individual might dissolve into the whole, or the whole might dissolve into nothingness. You would essentially cease existing. It’s possible, this is the grand scheme of things – but that’s not proven as of now, and I doubt it can be universally proven, but it holds more utility in my opinion, to regard that we have within our domain, both the power and responsibility to be the authorities on who we are, what we are, and what we ought be. That’s how serious the matter of spirituality is to us. And that’s also how empowered and divine, we, humans, are. Without the ability to pause, seek and answer such questions as „Who Am I?“, „What is The Purpose of My Existence?” You have no business seeking any form of emancipation, rights or freedom – be it financial, political or even physical freedom. You basically are as good as dead. If the power to define who we are is the ultimate power, then indeed, not only is Might is Right, but additionally, only those with this power deserve to live. But this would be unfair, especially if such a situation were to be reached, at the expense of others, whose spiritual freedoms have been consciously, systematically suppressed or obliterated – especially by institutionalized, coordinated spiritual dictatorship. Who are the real saviors of our race, and who are they? How does this relate with my defense of witchcraft and the battle to liberate Africa and all of humanity, from our current spiritual slumbers? The situation is so bad, that besides being asleep, many humans today are sleeping in chains, so that, even though they were to be awakened, they wouldn’t have any real means of movement or progress spiritually. It’s not just with Africa, but it is worst, when it comes to us – most don’t seem to want to be free, or they’ve been programmed successfully, to be so. But this need not be the case, and it is bound to change. If we can’t define and build our own spiritual systems – right from the individual level, all the way up to the highest levels of society (note: you can’t expect individuals enslaved spiritually, to define or build a society that’s spiritually liberated), then we won’t have any right to claim a thing of free existence – anything already granted us, whether by indifferent nature, or by other humans, is but pure philanthropy, not our right, since we can’t even start to claim any of it in a real way – until we clearly know who we are, and why we ought be. We can’t claim anything as ours; we are as pathetic as a newborn, entirely at the mercy of its parent – who could as easily choose to dump it into a pit. The survival and wellbeing of those who are spiritually enslaved, is but a clear illustration of the generosity of those who aren’t. It’s a problem of the entire race – the enlightened, the awakened, the spiritual elite are only few (and the laws of large numbers dictate this for any natural population.) But, what I would consider fair, is if the opportunity or freedom can be granted to whoever desires to awaken unto the light, to be able to seek it freely; a human is only free, if he has the freedom to be or not to be. The sun shines upon all, even though only few dare tap its real power – but none is hindered from doing so. Those with the light, ought to emulate the sun, relative to those who don’t. If someone else – the priest, the politician, the judge, the parent, etc., is going to define for us what we are, why we are, then they might as well dictate what is right and wrong for us; what we are entitled to and what we can’t have. Basically, real enslavement starts with enslaving you spiritually, then intellectually, and then physically (or some mixture of these to the same effect.) If one is still free spiritually, then they can essentially liberate themselves everywhere else. All tyrants know of this, and guard this knowledge secretly, and they apply it covertly, but deliberately. Even in seemingly secular societies and institutions, it’s not uncommon to find sanctions on certain spiritual expressions or to punish, ridicule or discourage them openly or not. What or who did you last frown upon? In the case of Africa, we have suffered what all the other civilizations of the past suffered when they were being vanquished by new tyrants and conquerors. We have been systematically or deliberately driven to abandon the source of our real spiritual power, and which source of power has a lot to do with tradition; age-old practices, beliefs and specific worldviews, that have been with us for eons before new, alien spirituality systems were imposed on us in the last couple centuries. Modern advances in psychology, in particular, the works of such psychoanalysts as Jung, illustrate what has been true for us Africans, for ages (even without formalizing it using such forms as are typically western). We have always known and believed that we are not only influenced, or animated by just our currently held conscious ideas and ideals, but by a cascading, self-reinforcing cacophony of preexisting psychic forces as well – many of which originate not just in our own subconscious mind or our immediate environments, but also from those parts of our unconscious that we’ve inherited or soaked up from the cultures and environments we and our ancestors have lived through for ages, all the way back to prehistoric times! How much of your current personality and experience, isn’t tainted by ancestors you don’t even want to acknowledge? Ancestral worship, or the acknowledgement of ancestral influence on us, is not an idea only limited to ancient Christian mystics and thinkers, but also one that’s been very much alive in the traditional systems of witchcraft and sorcery as practiced in the many, varied forms all across Africa and the rest of the world. The dead are not dead – even as mere memories, archetypes, ideas and artifacts carried over from their past existence into our present. They can still have impact on our current and future actions; Plato is dead, but his spirit lives on in his works, and his influence is apparent even on this very page! The actions that led to this sentence being written here, and which actions have led to this dwelling inside of your mind right now, are very much seemingly “dead” or they are now in the past, but have they not succeeded in impacting some form of alteration upon you – even as mere stimuli to some sense in you, in the present? And can you entirely exorcise yourself of the past? Such is the power of spirituality that we risk losing, as we stupidly throw out the baby with the water! The past, and what experiences our predecessors went through; the things that informed their choices of words, actions, symbols and relation to nature when exploring spirituality, carry much more potency for us, today, than concepts we might adopt from an entirely alien culture or foreign system of spirituality. Ultimately though, all humans share a common ancestry, and starting from that premise, one might argue that any current spiritual system can readily be swapped for another, and they would be true. But then, this is not a matter of absolutes – it’s more a matter of degree! To what extent would the reading of a poem about the Great Fire of London evoke sentiment in a classroom of kids somewhere in Masindi, when compared with an ordeal about how hundreds of peasants were driven out of their homes, and some of them burned to death, when entire villages suffered as colonial invaders applied scorch earth methods all over Bunyoro-Kitara? Context does matter, so that, witchcraft and sorcery do carry much more weight in some cultures and circumstances, than stale, commoditized, mainstream faiths imported from the west or east.
But, as some might argue, it’s not that we have lost all spiritual vitality – more to the contrary (especially in contrast to the prevailing western ideals and sentiments, which are pathetically plagued by dehumanizing materialism and some destructive forms of nihilism.) Instead of entirely loosing spirituality, what has happened to us, is that we have been compelled to abandon our ancient, traditional, powerful spiritual systems – systems which carry with them thousands of years of symbolic potency and meaning, that many Africans would immediately be able to relate to and tap into, and in their place, adopted alien spiritual systems – themselves thousands of years old, but which in the collective unconscious of the Africans (or at the individual level – in our subconscious minds), carry little or no potency at all. Definitely, and this I have seen with my own eyes, when some alien, and fascinating concepts or artifacts are introduced to a gullible people (or for that matter, any humans), and claimed to possess magical potency, surely, at least for a time, they are bound to possess some real, transformative power over them. Novelty (and anything that challenges the past or present) always brings with it some power of mesmerism, to a less or great extent. This is true, even of such domains as technology and art or any information for that matter. If you want to see a quick example of this, notice how powerful emerging scientific theories possess this sort of mesmerizing power on the majority of western minds today! So, yes, to introduce new, alien spiritual systems into “primitive” cultures might be a means to revitalize their spirituality or add more wood to the fire – mesmerism serves a purpose closely tied to the successful exercising of faith. Those who know, have leveraged this systematically, for ages – many witchdoctors and even western magicians advance by adapting or incorporating many alien symbols and concepts into their systems – and it works wonders on their less exposed subjects and clients, to the benefit of all. Change is only caused when something is either added or removed from a system, and information, which is the carrier of potential change, is only effective or influential on a system, relative to the magnitude or quality of change it can impart on its current state. What do we need the most? Stasis or change? By now, it should be very clear, that I’m not concerned with the impotence of alien spirituality. Instead, I’m concerned about the imposed stagnation and limitations to our spiritual evolution and exploration in general. For African spiritual practice in the current generation for example, the following might illustrate my point clearly: without being able to freely buy a rosary from a priest, add a horn from a cow, introduce incense from India, mix it with a song from their jajja, and thus form a personal, but potent spiritual amalgamation that carries the most utility for their current work, the progressive, adaptive spiritualist is doomed. Ever wondered why sortilege is one of the dominant divining systems in most African cultures? This is the sort of power and freedom our ancient fathers enjoyed, as they travelled the continents. We haven’t evolved from hunter-gathers that were ignorant of the need to gather and utilize diverse spiritual concepts as well, no. Our predecessors were likewise gathers of wisdom and ideas from each culture and system they encountered, and they incorporated these into their own existing paradigms. This is what shamanism was and is – it worked well for us, and it still can, even in this fast-paced digital age. For those who still explore, it still does work. To expect that a single religion or way of expression can accommodate all the spiritual needs of a people, for hundreds or thousands of years to come, is a very anti-African way of approaching spirituality. Why should it have to be this way? We were not just gatherers of fruits and roots, nor mere hunters of game; we trekked the jungles, sometimes even raided or took each other hostage, just so we could discover what powered the other tribe’s magick, and how we could assimilate those elements into our own pantheons. That is the sort of freedom and adventurous spirituality we risk losing. If we can encourage our children to travel the world (even if virtually, via the internet), gathering ideas and knowledge of science and the arts, why not likewise extend this ability to the free sampling of and explorative mixing of spiritual ideas? This is how cultures evolve; it is how the collective gets transformed; it is how consciousness expands and it is how we grow as a spiritual species. If you want some evidence that this is how the natural, collective African soul has navigated spirituality for ages, look to the way the Africans that were taken into slavery, especially in the Americas, evolved their new, potent, spiritual identities while in exile; by intermixing Western and African ideas, to form the amazing systems of VooDoo, Palo Mayombe, Santeria and the others. Some exiled people did wholesomely embrace the systems of their hosts and new masters, but those were mostly the weak or the servile types. Should we sacrifice or fear to exercise these freedoms anymore? For us, especially on mainland Africa, where it is our birthright to practice magick and witchcraft, should we continue to talk about these things only in whispers, behind closed doors and only in metaphors? Or is it only from the various cults, orders and variations of the Catholic faith that we are allowed to sample and mix ideas? To the elite, who by necessity need to preside over their mundane, powerless subjects, it makes all sense to keep the majority from realizing how powerful spiritual freedom is. Unfortunately though, many of the elite of today, are themselves weak spiritually – but this doesn’t directly affect their status, as in today’s social systems, it’s not wisdom and enlightenment that make one powerful or an elder in their social class, but instead money and fame. It’s pathetic. Yes, some elite have even chosen to redefine spirituality in terms of money and fame – Mammon is back in style, under new names and symbols, but still, the majority of these are only living shallow, artificial lives. In the more distant past, and more commonly here in Africa, to be considered a leader or elder of the people, required not just a mastery of your people’s culture and history, but also a deep understanding of the general human condition – including matters of the body, mind and spirit. How many of the rich and famous today, especially those who exhibit their clear ignorance and arrogance on popular media, can even talk about their history and knowledge of self, coherently, for even a minute? How many of today’s “elite” are truly elite? How many understand the consequences of a spiritually deprived or constrained populace, and how this can direly undermine their very power and status in subsequent generations if not sooner? I’m not claiming that we need philosopher-kings (although I believe we are more than capable to have them today than ever before), but what we need is the realization that the general spiritual body of us as a race – not just Africans or the minorities of the world, are endangered, and this is bound to have serious, detrimental consequences on our long-term survival as a species. It’s definitely bound to negatively impact our general levels of contentment, happiness and existential understanding, now and in generations to come – that is if, this, and other similar calls to see a reawakening of individual and noninstitutionalized spirituality, aren’t paid heed to. The populace is spirituality starved, who is limiting access to the food? There have been some radical changes to spirituality most definitely, and the contributions of science and rationalism have played a big role. Some have turned to science as their faith or authority on faith, and others have entirely abandoned all deistic faiths and claimed to be atheist. It’s undeniable change; for the better or worse, is another matter. Some have turned to humanitarianism, and others are seeing the future of our faith in data and intelligent machines – probability is replacing faith. But this, is what is important – that we have freedom to break free, to diversify, to reject, to remix, to add or subtract from what is available – so we can live our spiritual lives consciously, and as richly as we possibly can. For example, we are increasingly building machines that look and act like us, but this is no reason to sacrifice who we are, so as to become the machines we have made! If we ever lose our spirituality entirely, I have no doubt that sooner than later, it will be even easier, that machines should overtake us as the real masters of this realm and our fate – and I’m speaking as someone who is actively engaged in the pursuit of building more intelligent machines. The threat is there, and it’s real. Spirituality, the ability to exercise and tap into what is seemingly irrational or entirely chaotic, is an essential part of who we are. We need to explore it, we need to leverage it, in the most pragmatic ways possible, and in line with our current phase in evolution. It is a critical part of what makes us human, and very much what sets us apart from the “lesser” creatures we might otherwise be no better than. If there’s an ever increasing number of humans losing their religions or abandoning mainstream spirituality than ever before, it’s not because they find no more applications for spirituality, it’s because the religions and spiritual concepts of yesterday, no longer hold any real value for them today. Religions need to evolve, just as do languages, cultures and technology. It’s only in totalitarian, draconian and dogmatic faiths that stasis is plausible – and this is bound to be the unfortunate cause of their demise if not absurdity. In the more elastic, dogma-free, ad hoc or even entirely chaotic systems such as the meta-paradigm systems of modern chaos magick, stagnation and irrelevance of ideas, rituals or paradigms is unheard of; and that’s because, these systems have been built from the ground up, to not lock anyone in, but instead offer a mere framework upon which anyone can construct their preferred system of faith and spirituality – results being the only thing that matter. We are at a point when we can effectively apply the scientific method to religion – having the potential to conceive of, experiment with and evolve new forms of spiritual exercises and beliefs that deliver the highest utility for the practitioner and believer. Spirituality is at a point when it can become purely pragmatic, and this is a good thing. These are the only systems likely to stay alive for generations to come, and the only forms of spiritual expression to have relevance to future believers and practitioners of religion. Are you concerned about the future freedoms of your children? Would you rather limit their exploration today or not? So, for Africans, as for all humans everywhere, what is needed, is for people to realize they are spiritual and not just material automatons as is increasingly becoming the case. And that, there’s a possibility that our essence extends beyond what we perceive as our immediate, physical selves, possibly, into all of existence. This is most empowering in my opinion, that not. As we take on the manifest world, so we would seek to do so holistically – with our bodies, minds and spirits, not just limiting ourselves to what can be placed under the domain of reason or physical observation. If we can thus solve the spiritual problem, I trust, we shall readily find optimal solutions for our intellectual, economic and political problems. We need spiritual liberation from our current tyrants, in order to breathe and then begin to properly think and create. Needless to say, there are perhaps thousands, or millions, of Africans, who have managed to adopt, adapt and make Islam or Christianity „theirs“ – whether by modifying it in one way or another, or blindly accepting it with unwavering faith. Some of these kinds of believers, many of them clergy (who might be reaping, not because their faith works, but because they are part of a flourishing political and economic machine), have definitely gained much from it. Schools, hospitals, and industries have been built while tapping into these streams of faith. But, at the same time, many more – arguably the majority of believers, have been left stranded in clogged churches, and other kinds of mainstream shrines, incapable of thinking for themselves; incapable of finding happiness and contentment despite all the sermons and singing; incapable of finding lasting healing to their physical and psychological afflictions; many not even capable of reading or interpreting a single verse from their official books of faith, and even among those who can read and write, many incapable of deriving any value from their faith’s abstract concepts and metaphors. We don’t need new religions per se; we instead need to let people (those willing or wanting to), to take existing religious systems; including those still leveraging animism, pantheism, gnosticism or humanism; and let them isolate for themselves what works and what doesn’t work – with the freedom to pick a faith, learn it, use it, and then discard it once it ceases to make sense or deliver utility. For those with the ability and creativity to form entirely new paradigms, just as people are free to write books or create original works of art, they should be left free to start new shrines, invoke new gods or declare themselves divine – as long as it all fits well into the overall natural ecosystem, and serves the constructive advancement of humanity as a whole. Ultimately, as with knowledge, those with more maturity spiritually, have the responsibility to guide or help the less privileged. Any truly accomplished person is only accomplished in proportion to their utility to the rest of existence. There might be a need to keep institutionalized religion around, and it does serve a real purpose in a social and magical context, but for communities and individuals that have alternative, relatively more meaningful, more potent systems of spirituality of their own, it is only fair that they be left to explore and apply their spirituality as they see fit. If you would free a man from a physical chain, and yet threaten him to death (and in the after-life) for his internal, personal, spiritual inclinations, then you have essentially kept the man tied to the strongest chains of all. Such is not freedom, but a mere illusion of it. Yes, let’s explore and utilize them freely; VooDoo, witchcraft, magick and even those esoteric, truer aspects of Christianity, Islam and other ancient wisdom left for us by those great sages and mages that have come before us. Our past is our collective heritage, and we have all right to leverage and celebrate it now, and in the future.
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