The Earth is a market. Heaven is home. - Yoruba proverb

Prove it!

According to this Associated Press news item entitled "Federal court rules against military's gay policy", the appeals court judges disagree with the ban against out gays in the military.

The ban has been controversial from the beginning because, not only does it lack factual data that proves that being openly gay is 'bad for the morale', as they often cite, but also because it does not allow for open and honest discussion on the deeper problem of hostility against gay soldiers, who have often been harassed by fellow soldiers and even been the silent victims of hate crimes. If a gay soldier is attacked, he must fear discharge if he or she speaks up.

The ban was challenged by a lesbian nurse who sued after being discharged without pay by the Air Force for being gay, after serving for eighteen years. Her discharge took place during a shortage of flight nurses. Her law suit was dismissed, and she then appealed before a federal court. The opinion of the court is as follows:

"When the government attempts to intrude upon the personal and private lives of homosexuals, the government must advance an important governmental interest ... and the intrusion must be necessary to further that interest," wrote Judge Ronald M. Gould.

The article closes with the following remarks by the nurse:

"I am thrilled by the court's recognition that I can't be discharged without proving that I was harmful to morale," Witt said in a statement. "I am proud of my career and want to continue doing my job. Wounded people never asked me about my sexual orientation. They were just glad to see me there."

Religion justifies genocide

When one person suffers from insanity, that is known as madness. When many people suffer from insanity, that is known as religion. - Robert M. Pirsig

Gay marriage victory in Cali

The California Supreme Court has just approved gay marriage, and become the second state in the union to legalize it.

Several years ago, several months after Massachussetts approved gay marriage, columnist Deb Price wrote in her legal blog entry The sky didn't fall in Mass.:

Bay State voters now overwhelmingly support gay marriage, 56% to 37%, according to a Boston Globe poll in March...

"People find out that when Adam and Steve marry next door, it doesn't hurt them, but it does help Adam and Steve," says pollster Bob Meadow of Decision Research, which, like The Globe, found that voters have warmed to the reality of same-sex marriage...

While the outside world debates how to treat its gay couples, Massachusetts sees that fire-and-brimstone predictions didn't come true.

Religious institutions haven't been forced to bless the civil marriage of any gay couple, though many have done so voluntarily...

Julie and Hillary Goodridge, one of seven couples who sued to marry, are awed by how quickly obstacles can vanish for couples with marriage's protections.

Exhibit A: The night-and-day difference in how they were treated during two medical emergencies. Nine years ago, moments after Julie gave birth to their daughter, Hillary rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit. Once Hillary realized baby Annie was fine, despite having inhaled fluid, she circled back to reassure Julie.

A nurse sternly blocked her way: "Immediate family only." When Hillary, in tears, tried to return to her newborn, she met with the same indignity.

The couple wed last May 17. Soon afterward, Hillary split her lip trying to free Annie's toy parachute from a tree. A hospital nurse asked Hillary whether she lived with anyone. "I said, 'Yes, I live with my spouse and daughter.' He said, 'Is he with you?' And I said, 'She is here, in the waiting room with our daughter.' He was so sweet, and said, 'Of course. Would you like your family with you?' "

Running away from Allah

"O Father,
if you never wanted to hurt me
why am I running away?"

- Madonna

According to this article entitled Young Muslims begin dangerous fight for the right to abandon faith:

— 14 passages in the Koran refer to apostasy

— According to Baidhawi’s commentary, Sura 4: 88-89 reads: “Whosoever turns back from his belief, openly or secretly, take him and kill him wheresoever ye find him, like any other infidel. Separate yourself from him altogether. Do not accept intercession in his regard.”

— The hadith, tradition and legend about Muhammad and his followers used as a basis of Sharia, tells of some atheists who were brought to “’Ali and he burnt them. The news of this reached Ibn Abbas who said: ‘If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Apostle forbade it . . . I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Apostle, ‘Whoever changed his [Islamic] religion, then kill him’.”

— According to hadith, a special reward in Paradise is reserved for the killer of apostates

What is the logic behind this monstruous, primitive and backwards tradition? Does it really make sense to force a fearful or angry apostate to LOVE God? How can love and trust of God be a commandment under threat of death? ... I leave you with the most perplexing and asfixiating verse in all of the Qur'an ...

And slay the heathens wherever you may come upon them, and drive them away from wherever they drove you away - for heathenry is even worse than killing... - Qur'an 2:191

Pale Blue Dot

Chant and be happy!

So, old man river,
don't cry for me;
A-have got a running stream of love you see.
So, no matter what stages
oh stages
Stages
stages they put us through,
We'll never be blue
No matter what rages,
oh rages,
Changes
rages they put us through
We'll never be blue
We'll be forever, yeah!

(We'll be forever loving Jah) We'll be forever!
(We'll be forever loving Jah) Forever, and ever, yes, and forever!
(We'll be forever loving Jah) 'Cause there is no end.

- Bob Marley, Rasta prophet

Your history is not your destiny. - Alan Cohen

Jazzin

Thousands have died today in China
in an earthquake
only days after a cyclone
killed thousands more in Myanmar

May the Spirit of the Creator
lead those souls
to the light
and to peace

Hari Om

Superhero Mythology

The Heroic Self

Yesterday I watched the movie Iron Man. I've had a curiosity about Iron Man for some time. Superhero mythology mirrors Paganism in ways that are fascinating, as in the case of the warriors Storm (from X-Men) and Oyá (the Yoruba Goddess), the Lady of the Winds. With Iron Man, our collective awareness gets visited by the archetype of the collective unconscious personified by the God Ogun / Hephaistos.

Superhero mythology also fills spiritual thirsts in people that no one talks about, and this is attested by Jungian spirituality and psychoanalysis. In the movie, we see a normal scientist discovering the mask of his inner Hero, which by the Greek Pagan definition means 'man-God'. When he dons the mask (well ... really, an entire suit), he becomes possessed by Iron Man, whom I identify as his spiritual and psychological Patron, Hephaistos the inventor. This is pure psychological alchemy. The hidden, shadow self is discovered through this process. Everyone has an inner Hero and a patron Deity, but few people tread the inner landscape enough to make these discoveries.

Hephaistos is a lonesome, suffering God. By learning about the God, we learn about the psychological history of his followers. In the Hephaistos myth, the God was rejected from a very early age and took refuge in his workshop, where he transmuted all the negative energy that he held within into beauty, into art and creativity. He taps into the creative unconscious, symbolized by his volcano or his forge. The character in the movie Iron Man also transmutes his frustration into creativity, by using his scientific genius.

In the Vaishnava Hindu tradition, Iron Man reminds me of Kalki Avatar, the future Christ, the final incarnation of Sri Krishna. He will come at a great time of peril, say the Vedic prophecies. Specific signs will be given, including one that is eerily similar to the Book of Revelations: both the Christ and Kalki will come to Earth mounted on a white horse, with a sword. The reason why Iron Man reminds me of Kalki is because Kalki's name has been translated as 'the Man of Iron', or 'the Iron Avatar' ... Iron Man. And so, again, it is inescapable that with superhero mythology we are visited by the archetypes of the collective unconscious.

Speculation on who or what Kalki will be abounds. I am not a huge believer in scriptural prophecies, but the notion of Kalki intrigues me, not only because the authors of Revelations seem to have copied ideas from the Kalki shastras (scriptures), but also because of the likelihood that Kalki will be a cyborg: there is a strong science fiction element which places Hindu mythology here firmly in future history, raising the possibility that a great Hindu scientist may produce Kalki at some point in the future history of mankind, just like in superhero mythology there is usually a great scientist behind the epiphany. Kalki is the future Christ, who will come at an age so advanced for human civilization, that he will usher in the next race. He may even be a machine, a (living) robot, or a Savior ship.

The notion of an intelligent, biologically engineered entity that serves as a ship for interstellar travel, produces our food, and recycles all waste material effectively, exists in modern myth in the works of Octavia Butler, a Black science fiction writer who won a Nebula Award for her work. Her novel Lilith's Brood is one of the best, most interesting and elaborate science fiction works I've ever read.

With modern advances in genome deconstruction of all species on Earth, this notion of a living ship in the far future, serving as our ecosystem and developing a symbiotic relationship with our race is not so farfetched - this model exists in nature in the lemon ants, who colonize a lemon tree and naturally produce a herbicide to ensure that no other plant will grow around their host and that their host will have sunlight all to itself: both species benefit. Octavia Butler proposes that a much more complex macro-organism can be created to host humans and other creatures in outer space. Perhaps a ship such as this one may serve as Kalki Avatar, and would literally be a Savior of the new humanity in the case of a world war or great cataclism.

The Heroic Universe

This year we are seeing more super hero movies than we've had in many years, starting with The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger's final movie. The mythical transcendence of a Bat-Man is well known: his habitat is the cave, a recognized universal symbol of the collective unconscious, and then there's the Joker who is a Trickster figure.

We also have Iron Man, Hulk, Spiderman and a new Wonder Woman movie. Wonder Woman's mythological origins in ancient Greece are evident in her own storyline: She is Princess Diana, that is, a modern incarnation of the Apollos' twin sister, the huntress Diana who, in the ancient version of her myth, was also a feminist who remained unmarried and who protected the defenseless and the weak.

The sudden reemergence of superhero mythology in our collective awareness appears to stem from a concerted effort by these industries to make a comeback. It may also signal a thirst for the mythological in those of us who grew up with these superheroes and wish to re-Member them, and the need for a renewed national and global mythology to help us to define ourselves as we enter the upcoming election. This year's election is important, for the purposes of our myths, because it will determine whether the country sees itself as being on a continuous battle with certain other countries, or decide to pull our troops from Iraq and find new and more intelligent ways of promoting democratic values abroad. Defining the enemy also helps to define and strengthen the self, and to this end the stories that we tell are valuable treasure maps.

Clearly, comics have always been used by Americans as a tool in their ideological battles, a trend which is now also being imitated by others. Superheroes battled the Nazis, the Japanese, and now they're battling terrorists.

There's also a feature in superhero universe which lends itself to the evolution of our body of collective legends in a way in which the traditional mythological media of the past did not. The Marvel and DC universes (really a metaphor and a map for our collective conscience) provide a sense of continuity and coherence, a shared space and a shared history where superheroes may interact with each other and the world, they change, they evolve, they die, they even procreate, and these universes are only going to expand in the future.

Last year, Marvel Comics decided to kill Captain America, a move which shocked fans of the genre and patriots. It was clearly a political statement, a recognition of the waning influence that the US has on the world stage. I suspect, too, that with the death of this character, MC also was making plans for a new superhero or gang of superheroes to replace Captain America, perhaps one that is more diverse and representative of the new American values as we undergo this year's election. Perhaps these superheroes will be more concerned with the environment than with terrorism.

Either way, the death of Captain America illustrates the organic development of this media, and its awesome ability to mythmake, versus the relative inertia of past mythologies, which often must have taken numerous generations to evolve and change by word of mouth. Today, one issue of Marvel Comics, or one big screen production instantly and effortlessly becomes part of our shared folklore.

Humans also want a mythology that mirrors their reality: ancient Olympus looked like a great Greek polis or city, while Gotham City looks like a modern urban setting, a dark, mysterious city with skycrapers. It looks like the average American city at night, where the shadows of our unconscious can be easily projected against it.

Art becomes life

Myth and science fiction are slowly becoming part of our reality. With the generations, as new movies have been made, the storyline, places and science become more real. Eventually, cyber-reality and objective reality will inevitably look very similar.

In fact, the X-Men series introduced the notion that super heroes may be a future reality: it explains that they are mutants, humans who have started to evolve into something else. It's just a matter of time before this happens, but the process of evolving into a separate species (known as speciation) requires isolation of a particular population under particular conditions for very long periods of time, which is unlikely in this globalized world except with the possibility of a great cataclism which would exert enormous evolutionary pressure on the race, or in the case of terraformation and habitation of Mars or some other planet. In that sense, the X-Men scenario is not very likely. The process of evolution will probably incorporate all the continents and all of humanity ... EXCEPT IF science is used to expedite and direct evolution.

Transhumanists are seriously looking into the development of real super-heroic human races by incorporating biotechnology, genetics and other sciences into a process of actively guiding the evolution of the race. Far-fetched as it may seem, progressive minds often cite the three stages of Truth

1. Ridicule
2. Violent Opposition
3. Acceptance

The notion of man flying was mythology 300 years ago: people feared we would be trying to be like God by doing that. Today, no one imagines a world without planes.

The same may happen with genetic engineering and biotechnology in the future: there are people and organizations who are already beginning work on bionic humans, transhumans and cyborgs: today's athletes with prosthetic legs are only the tip of a very big iceberg. In the future, especially for people in certain fields (such as military), having a certain set of artificial organs will probably be more advantageous than having only the normal, biological set of organs. Humanity will spawn what would be seen today as a race of superheroes. Perhaps, if the Kalki prophecies are true, the future avatar will arise out of them.

A Kemetic Prophet

Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge; approach the unlettered as well as the wise.

- Maxims of Ptahhotep

After snubbing a U.S. aid offer, Myanmar indicated Friday that it wants foreign relief to help recover from a devastating cyclone but not foreign workers.

MSNBC article

Are people really surprised that another country won't accept U.S. "workers"? ... particularly when there was mention of the U.S. using its military to aid another country? Can the U.S. Government really be trusted with militarizing another country, perhaps for all of eternity, like it did Iraq? Is it not legitimate to fear and distrust the interests of a country that does not seem to respect the sovereignty of smaller, vulnerable countries?

Slavery in Islam

I am surprised by the levels of dishonesty that Muslims use when they talk about everything from Islam's treatment of gays and women to the issue and the history of race in Islam. It is one thing to say that today all (non-gays) are welcome or that today all are equal in Islam (not true, but anyhow): it is another thing to misrepresent history. Here I would like to present the reasons for my respectful disagreement with Nation of Islam members and sympathizers. Many NoI converts are African Americans with very strong racial and anti-American political views, who see Islam as an alternative to Christian and White racism.

My main point of argument has to do with the idea (prevalent in the Nation of Islam) that former slaves should turn to Islam, that it is their ancestral religion, not Western Christianity. While it's true that Islam was the religion of the Malian empire during the 14th century, none of these two religions are ancestral to Africans. This argument makes Islamic and Arabic civilizations look like they do not have a history of exploitation of blacks and slavery. To this day, many or most countries where slavery is still practiced are predominantly Muslim. In the African country of Sudan, where there is a very big slavery problem even today, it is the Arabs from the north who go on slave raids in the Black south and engage in human trafficking.

But let's begin from the beginning: Muhammad had slaves. In his Qur'an, he recited verses where he not only approves of slavery as an institution, but approves of the practice of raping slaves (Muslims believe that he was channeling the word of Allah). We have to imagine he and his associates engaged in this behavior, if he believed Allah made it lawful to them. Most Qur'an translators either avoid or are embarrased by these verses. Browsing through the various translations of the Qur'an I found that M. Asad's translation is the most dishonest and misleading version of the Qur'an in this regard:

23:1 TRULY, to a happy state shall attain the believers ... 23:5 ... who are mindful of their chastity, 23:6 [not giving way to their desires] with any but their spouses - that is, those whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock]: for then, behold, they are free of all blame

No mention of slavery. But Yusuf Ali's translation is a bit more plain:

23:6 Except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (in their case) they are free from blame

And the sixth verse is made even more clear by Picktall's translation, even if it still places the word (slaves) in parenthesis:

23:6 Save from their wives or the (slaves) that their right hands possess, for then they are not blameworthy

Most people in the Americas who are descended from slaves probably have female ancestors who were raped by their masters. The Qur'an considers this not only legal, but entirely appropriate. Black Muslims, particularly the Nation of Islam brand of Black Muslims, need to understand this. Had America been a Muslim country during the 400 years of slavery, black women would have still been raped, even by the mullahs, with Qur'an in hand, and Islam teaches that no crime would have been committed.

Is it not fair to surmise that the same thing happened in Mali, Sudan, Morocco and elsewhere in Africa where Muslims colonized the local populations?

Furthermore, anyone who has read 1,001 Nights knows that the history of Arabic anti-Black racism goes back to the dawn of Islam, where black slaves were castrated for fear that they would rape Arabic women. African sexuality, in medieval Arabic literature, ellicits both fascination and distrust, with Black slaves in particular being objectified and denied their full humanity.

Even to this day, in East Africa, there is still the perception that it is somehow wrong for a Black man to marry an Arabic woman, but it is okay for an Arabic man to possess a Black wife. There is a clear correlation between racial, cultural, and gender domination in the mindset and culture of the Islamic-influenced people of East Africa.

The Gnawa people of Morocco are yet another testimony of the presence, and the harsh realities, of slavery under Islam. The Gnawa are descendants of enslaved Blacks who were taken to Morocco, where they developed a distinct Afro-Moroccan culture and spirituality. Much of their ancestral music deals with the bitterness of slavery.

What better example of the irony, the absurdity and the madness that is the racist ideology of Nation of Islam, than a living, vibrant community of Black survivors of slavery in Morocco who are as bitter as they are?

For a more enlightened instruction on how to deal with the spiritual problems that arise out of of racism, I say look to the holy man of Nazareth who said:

For if you forgive men when oppress you, your Creator in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Creator will not forgive your sins. - Matthew 6:14-15

The Spirit of Destiny

In the African Traditional Religions, as well as in the New Age movement, there are frequent references to Ori and the mighty I Am Presence, the Christ-like Divine immanence within each individuated soul. The sacred science associated with this Spirit entity is unfamiliar to most people, however this is a very ancient concept found in many religious traditions.

Knowedge of this Spirit existed both in the prophetic tradition of the Bible, as well as many or most other religions. People have intuited it since time immemorial. Santeros and other practitioners of ATRs call it Ori, which translates as head, or Inner Divinity. Zoroastrians know it as Fravashi, and ancient Egyptians knew it as Ba. In all cases, this Inner Divine was responsible for directing us toward our pre-chosen destiny, was our Guide and Protector, and our personal Guardian Angel.

In the Bible, the I AM Presence is introduced in Exodus 23:

See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. - Exodus 23:20-22

In this spiritual dispensation, God's name is I AM, hence this angel who bears God's name is what the New Thought movement today knows as the I AM Presence. This also means that it acts in lieu and with the authority of the Creator, as its functionary. In these verses, its role is diluscidated: this angelic Presence guides devotees to their hightest destiny, to their promised land, to the things that were prepared for them from before their incarnation. The same belief is held about Ori, Ba and Fravashi. This is why the Inner Divine must be heard, followed and obeyed, and so it is understood that this Angelic Being is constantly communicating with the devotee, guiding him or her to his highest destiny.

This entry in Spanish from a blog by an Argentinian babalawo by the name Awo Irete Yero, further explains Ori:

Para los Yorubas, Ori es la cabeza interna de la persona, el Espíritu de Conciencia, el cual cada uno de nosotros recibe en el cielo. Es el símbolo del discernimiento. El destino de la persona, es decir el éxito o el fracaso, depende en gran medida en el tipo de cabeza que se escogió en el cielo ... Cada Ori es reconocido como el Dios personal, quien siempre está presente acompañando e interesada en resolver los asuntos personales que el destino de la persona enfrenta.

Translation: "For the Yoruba, Ori is the inner head of the person, the Spirit of Awareness, which each person received in heaven. It symbolizes discernment. The destiny of a person, that is his or her success/failure, depends greatly on the kind of head that was chosen in heaven ... each Ori is known as the personal Godhead, which is always there and takes an interest in solving the personal matters that each person must confront."

In the same way that the physical head governs the body, Ori is the leader of the body and of our life current. That is, the head symbolizes, the mighy I Am Presence within the body, and it is through the head that the I Am Presence makes itself known and manifest, as we will see later. In fact, in the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, when Ba is depicted, it's in the form of a bird that leaves the body through the head at the time of death.

It's also interesting to note that Ori, the Spirit of individual destiny, literally means head. Our destiny is born out of the quality of our thoughts, and so are the decisions that we make: they are made with the head. This means that the Yoruba concept of destiny has a lot to do with choices, it's not a fatal concept which involves mostly pre-determined fate. It may at first seem that this notion of destiny that is pre-chosen before birth denies freedom of choice to the person, or that it's unchangeable, but the notion of Ori really teaches that the same head that makes decisions after we are born was making decisions before we took birth! And that's why we're here. Destiny is composed of the designs and choices made by Ori both before and after birth.

In Santeria, Ori is the representative of God within each person, the inner Christ, it possesses all the ashe, medicine, grace, blessings, provision and resources that we'll need in order to accomplish all of the duties associated with our present incarnation. A traditional Yoruba prayer says: "If there is a better place for me than that in which I am in presently, may Ori not fail to take me there". The sacred oral scripture and oracle of Ifa also includes these verses:

Where Ori is rich, may my Ori be included.
Where Ori has many sons, may my Ori be included.
Where Ori has all the good things in life, may my Ori be included.

This article on the notion of Fravashi in Zoroastrianism also sheds light on its role. It says "Fravashi is the spiritual guide, the active presence of Ahura Mazda (God's Persian name, literally means 'Wise Lord') in every human being. It guides and helps the soul but does not interfere in the decision making. The soul is free to choose what it wants to do with its life on this earth and the Fravashi is that inner voice that warns the soul of evil and guides it away from spiritual danger."

Fravashi was known and revered from antiquity in Persia as the inner Deity. It was represented as a bird, a winged man, or sometimes as a winged solar disk. The symbol of the winged man is, to this day, the most important symbol in Zoroastrianism.

The Egyptian notion of Ba finds its highest scriptural expression in Berlin Papyrus 3024, known as "The Discussion between a man and his Ba". The best English translation of this papyrus was the book Rebel in the Soul: An Ancient Egyptian Dialogue Between a Man and His Destiny, by Egyptologist Bika Reed. It includes very interesting clarifying comments. In this document we see all the subtleties of Ba as well as the very sophisticated metaphysical concepts that the Ancient Egyptians used to entertain.

The papyrus relates that a man is depressed and considering suicide, and argues with his Ba - which Bika Reed translates as 'destiny', but in the papyrus, this Ba is clearly personified and even has marked differences of oppinion with the mortal ego, so that it is more appropriate to translate Ba as the 'Spirit of destiny'. One metaphysics teacher once called it 'the Future Self'. The responsibility of Ba in this account is to ensure that the man fulfils ALL of his destiny until the day of his death, which is appointed from heaven, and so Ba must not allow suicide to take place. It is Ba who decides the time of death, not the mortal ego: and so, there is a distinction between ego and Ba where Ba is wiser and superior because it is far more ancient. It is the pre-existing Self who acts as the Guardian of man's destiny.

In the Book of Urantia, an Aquarian Bible, these agents of the Creator are known as Thought Adjusters, but again their role is similar.

"They were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words"

It's fair to imagine that men of great destiny, like the prophets and great souls, must have very strong heads and a very strong intuitive connection with their inner Divine, which is evident in the writings of the prophets, particularly in the book of Jeremiah, who was a very introspective prophet. He was able to articulate in his book, subtleties that normally are only observed in shamanic traditions.

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.' - Jeremiah 19:15

The above cited verse from the book of Jeremiah resonates with many shamanic traditions around the world, where the back of the neck is considered one of the most prevalent ports of entry for information from the spiritual world. It may sound strange, but it is a constant in many traditions. In the Yoruba and other African traditions, the nape is used by the Orisha, Loa and spirits to enter a body and mount it (aka possession), and to communicate with mortals. Among the Sikhs, members of one of the most recent monotheistic religions from the Punjab region of India, covering the head is a commandment, as through the head it is believed that all kinds of subtle energies enter the body and mind.

In non-verbal communication, the neck communicates, in our species as well as among dogs and other species, the idea of pride vs. submission. One who is stiff-necked, or who 'holds his head high', is said to be proud. One who lowers his head, is said to be humble, docile, and perhaps most importanty for the purposes of this article: receptive. That is, power dynamics affect the neck.

In shamanic spirituality, the neck is extremely important. The above cited Jeremiah verse diluscidates why. A person of stiff neck is considered untamed, arrogant, and unwilling to submit to God. The verse implies that such submission is required as part of the process of prophetic revelation. Prophet Isaiah, in his first chapter, speaks of reasoning with God, which means that this is a two way conversation, but clearly submission is ultimately required of the prophets, and the notion of direct revelation in the head of the worshiper was accepted as legitimate.

Even if some of us may be inclined to discard the menacing tone of the verse, and even if we imagine that this is not God's word but perhaps the Jews of that generation were dealing with peculiar karmic entanglements which felt like divine punishment, we can still see a certain correlation between the process of revelation which takes place in the prophetic tradition of the Bible and the one that takes place in shamanic religions elsewhere. Even Prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 9:9) stated that there is, in essence, no difference. The religion practiced by Jeremiah and his associates had very strong shamanic undercurrents, and even in the times of Jesus these elements were there: hence the speaking in tongues, the healings, the trance and shaking by people filled with the Holy Ghost, and the other spiritualist religious expressions among primitive (and many modern) Christians.

One may even argue that the practice of head rogations (refreshing, appeasing and sacrificing to Ori, or the Head spirit), which is prominent in Santeria and other African Traditional Religions (Haitian voodoo) in order to promote stability, serenity and clarity, are absolutely legitimate traditions per the Bible and are in perfect accordance with the Bible. There, the nape is also considered an important portal or chakra within the body, the place where revelation takes place.

In addition to head rogations, there is also a tradition of refreshing the back of the neck, the sides of the head and forehead with fresh water if we are ill humored, angry or confused, and that we then again take refuge in God. This is what the above cited babalawo said of head rogations:

Head rogation is done when Ifa (the oracle) marks it in a reading, as a result of lack of balance or misalignment between Eledá (the physical head) and Ori (the metaphysical head). This unbalance indicates that the person is not following the mission or direction (destiny) that the person chose in heaven (before birth), and so it is necessary to realign it. In this way, tragedies and even premature deaths are averted.

... which, again, coincides with the Berlin papyrus.

The fury of the Lord

I personally don't believe that the Creator experiences the neuroses that were attributed to him in ancient books, such as the episodes of jealousy, fury and the acts of violence in the Old Testament and the hadith of Muhammad. However, karma is an impersonal and all encompassing Law, and the karmic paradigms that we create are often perceived as divine punishment for previous crimes. As such, I believe that it is appropriate to interpret references to the 'ire of God' as instances where the karmic repercussions of our acts, when harvested, felt like divine punishment to primitive man.

But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word? See, the storm of the LORD will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand it clearly. - Jeremiah 23:18-20

Jeremiah 30:23-4 contains almost identical verses. Here, the wicked appear to be those who did not pay attention to the word of God which had descended upon them, the same ones who were stiff necked. Clearly, in this tradition, it was not only natural but imperative for people to be intuitively alert to God's word. In the times of the prophets (as well as in this age that we are now entering), people fully trusted their intuition. This notion of Gods communicating with humans instantly and naturally, making their will known to them and even sending down their fury, was not at all out of the ordinary.

The image, in the book of Jeremiah, of God sending down a whirlwind, sending down tempest, on the heads of misled devotees, is a perfect image: it communicates madness, disorder, lack of discipline, ill humor, all of these the products of minds that have gone astray from their spiritual paths, and those who love iniquity. It is these souls who need head rogations. They lack clarity. Obatala, who rules mental clarity, is also the Orisha that rules ethics, justice and righteousness. The correlation between crime (injustice) and mental illness is evident in every census figure available on the subject. Iniquity clouds the mind.

Which begs the question, we know from the Berlin papyrus that Ori/Ba has been arguing with us for thousands of years. Is it possible for our inner Divinity to rebel against us, to send down its fury over our heads if we are not docile in crucial moments, so that we may feel as though a tempest had entered our heads and stolen our peace? May we interpret confusion or even madness in this light at least in some instances, from a spiritual perspective, as a result of not just bad choices, but also lives that were misaligned with the naturally-intuited destiny that was chosen in heaven?

The above cited quote from the book of Exodus makes this seem like a possibility. There, it is said: "do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your rebellion".

And so, in conclusion, the book of Jeremiah seems to document that these early prophets believed that they exhibited very specific physical symptoms which they understood to be the fury of God, and that there were also physical symptoms of prophetic revelation which involved the neck and head, just as we see in shamanic traditions.

In Yoruba tradition, specifically, these symptoms are associated with how aligned or misaligned the individual is with his or her head Orisha, or Ori. A similar belief has been intuited by ancient practitioners of many world religions, who have called it by different names.

Vedic Santeria

I find it curious that so many Hispanics today are preserving the Catholic elements of Santeria along with the original, African layer of spirituality that was the earlier, original Yoruba faith. I don't criticize it, it just seems odd considering the history of slavery, brutality, defamation and domination by the Catholic conquerors in places like Cuba and Brasil, and the constant (and futile) efforts to erradicate Orisha Consciousness from the spirituality of Africans.

I find Orisha spirituality more in line with Vedic or Hindu spirituality. Both accept numerous deities which operate under the Creator. Both honor nature, and the feminine, as well as spirit and the masculine. In both traditions elders and ancestors are honored, and teachers (godparents or gurus) are honored. Both teach the importance of lineage (known as parampara in Hinduism) for the preservation of ancestral wisdom.

Having practiced Krishna Consciousness, and read the Bhagavad Gita from beginning to end, I can see many more similarities between the spiritualities of Africa and India, which are really different ways of articulating the same essential truths and teachings.

And it goes well beyond the saying Elegua is Ganesha: for these two deities are either one and the same, or two emanations or archetypal images originating in the same archetype. Both are eternal youths who mediate between the worlds, both are messengers of the Devas/Orisha, both are the first to be invoked in all endeavors and rituals, both are considered way openers and removers of obstacles, and the similarities don't stop there, they even coincide in the most trivial details: they both have a great sense of humor and like offerings of candy.

In Hindu myths, there is a constant struggle between the ashuras (demons) and the devas (gods). In reality, this is an eternal battle between the good and evil qualities within the human psyche, and some of the names of the demons in Hindu myth attest to the fact that they are personifications of qualities within the human character, as is evidenced from the list of names of fighters in the battle of Kurukshetra, which is detailed in the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. If we demythify these ideas, and if we read chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita, which deals with demonic and divine natures, we realize that the science of demonic and divine natures is a human science, that we humans exhibit these qualities, and these qualities make US demonic or divine. We are the Gods and Demons that inhabit our myths.

The metaphor of divine and demonic qualities in Hinduism is best translated as the duality of cool and hot in Santeria and Yoruba spirituality. Cool and hot attributes are given to the thoughts we think, the behavior we engage in and even to the foods we eat, based on how refreshed and spiritually uplifting (cool) versus how volatile and violent (hot) they are and their effects on our bodies, minds, and lives. Here is the introduction to chapter 16 of the Gita:

The Blessed Lord said: Fearlessness, purification of one's existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity and simplicity; nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger; renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion and freedom from covetousness; gentleness, modesty and steady determination; vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and the passion for honor--these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature. Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance--these qualities belong to those of demoniac nature, O son of Prtha. The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demoniac qualities make for bondage. - Bhagavad Gita 16:1-5

In Vedic spirituality, we are taught that the youngest person exhibits tamasic modes of nature (ignorance), the person in midlife exhibits rajasic modes of nature (passion), whereas the old person exhibits the sattvic mode (goodness). Of all the Yoruba deities, Obatala is the purest, wisest of the bunch, and he personifies all the aforementioned divine qualities. He is the compassionate, serene, wise old man. He is also the oldest of the Yoruba archetypes, which is why he is respected by all the Orisha. The youngest Orisha, Elegua and Oshun, personify tamasic qualities the most. Age is very important in Yoruba spirituality and social order, as hierarchy is based on age. And so, the study of these archetypes can also be understood as the study of how different personality types exhibit different modes of nature at different stages of life, as well as how these archetypes are inherent in different people as natural, predominant tendencies.

In this sense, the Santeria notion of each person having one or two head Orisha can also be articulated from a Vedic viewpoint: such a head Orisha embodies the predominant modes of nature and qualities in his or her life current. This is explained in Bhagavad Gita 7:20, where Lord Krishna explains, as he does again in Gita 17:3-4, that each person is endowed with certain qualities, under the influence of which each person chooses a certain mode of worship which is appropriate for him or her during this incarnation. This is also a fundamental Santeria belief.

According to one's existence under the various modes of nature, one evolves a particular kind of faith. The living being is said to be of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired. - Bhagavad Gita 17:3

But the Vedic sciences go even further in understanding human nature based on the three gunas or modes of nature (goodness, passion, and ignorance), to which Lord Krishna dedicates chapter 14 of the Gita. I won't go into the details of these gunas. Suffice it to say that the nature of the sacrifices offered to each Orisha is in line with the predominant modes which it embodies. By learning this Vedic science of the three gunas, we can in fact gain a much deeper understanding of Orisha spirituality.

The most important oracle of repository of Yoruba wisdom is the oral scripture of Ifa, which is used not only to determine a person's head Orisha but it even marks certain ebos or sacrifices, which help in solving different problems or situations that the querent may have. In Hinduism, these sacrifices no longer involve animals, but they did originally. They are known as pujas, or fire sacrifices. Offerings of incense, fruits, rice, grains, spices, etc. are cast into the fire with certain mantras. Here is what Lord Krishna has to say about them:

In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you all desirable things." - Bhagavad Gita 3:10.

This is exactly in line with Ifa: we are taught by our elders that, if we make sacrifice as prescribed, we will grow, prosper and evolve. The Gita explains that this is how it was done in the beginning, that is the ancestors did it, and so Santeria is part of an earlier layer of religion upon which Krishna Consciousness arises. Another example of this is:

When there is increase of unwanted population, a hellish situation is created both for the family and for those who destroy the family tradition. In such corrupt families, there is no offering of oblations of food and water to the ancestors. - Bhagavad Gita 1:41.

Implicit in this criticism of the destruction of family tradition is the belief that it is the responsibility of all righteous persons to pray for and offer food and water to their Egun, their ancestors, which is also a fundamental tenet of Santeria.

It was Baba Raúl Canizares, may he rest in peace, a Cuban Palero and Santero, who first proposed and organized a religious system that syncretized and incorporated elements from the Vedic sciences (such as bhakti yoga, or devotional practices, and other yogas and bodies of knowledge) into a universalist expression of Yoruba spirituality. He called it the Orisha Consciousness Movement. However, his efforts, while legitimate, only begin to scratch the surface when it comes to developing a body of wisdom that incorporates the shamanic and African traditions into the Vedic tradition.

It makes sense, then, that the syncretism of Santeria should be not so much with Catholicism but with Vedic spirituality - the most scientific, longest standing religious tradition on Earth, if there is to be any syncretism. Not only does it complement Santeria, but it even provides us with a deeper understanding and a fresh perspective of how Santeria operates. In the end, together they make up as universal and comprehensive a religion as any other.