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# 2021-01-19 - The Healing Wisdom of Africa by Malidoma Patrice Somé | |
This is an important book that gives a valuable perspective on | |
healing. It contains thought-provoking reflections on Western | |
culture. I was surprised by the familiarity of the indigenous | |
perspectives. I have heard similar sentiments from other writers and | |
ritual leaders came from Asia, India, and North America. This book | |
clearly expresses its ideas. I get the feeling that the author has | |
invested a lot of life force into making friends with the enemy and | |
building bridges. | |
I liked the point about individuality versus individualism. Much is | |
said about individualism and the hazards of getting stuck in our | |
problems. The author repeatedly emphasizes that the key is to escape | |
isolation. Confronted with polarities, we need to find positive | |
activities that we can do together. In other words, the more energy | |
we invest into having fun, the less energy we will invest in fighting. | |
I also liked the point about doing work out of fullness, focusing on | |
fulfilment rather than prosperity. In other words, doing your work | |
in such a way that it charges you up rather than draining your energy. | |
Below are salient quotes. | |
> Everyone is gifted. This means that everyone has something to | |
> give. Sometimes we are the last people to recognize our own gifts. | |
> So many people in the modern world, caught between their | |
> commitment to survival and their intuitive allegiance to a genuine | |
> life purpose, find themselves forced to sacrifice their purpose to | |
> make a living... Their very livelihood undermines their reason for | |
> being. | |
> In the West people usually translate the problem into some type | |
> of either/or duality, where someone is right and someone [else] is | |
> wrong, someone is a winner and someone [else] is a loser. Conflict | |
> becomes an opportunity for instant polarization. Wherever polarity | |
> exists, there is a state of competitiveness that does not serve to | |
> meet the needs in a community, since it tends to separate rather | |
> than unite. | |
> Indigenous societies conceded the existence of conflict but view | |
> it as something of importance and of interest to the community. | |
> The conflict is some sort of message to the entire community--but | |
> expressed through the individuals embroiled in the conflict. | |
> The purpose is not so much the desire to get the job done but to | |
> raise enough energy for people to feel nourished by what they do. | |
> You are nourished first, and then the work flows out of your | |
> fullness. | |
Below are excerpts and [notes] for my own future reference. | |
# Introduction | |
School, to us, was a place where we learned to reject whatever native | |
culture we had acquired as children and to fill its place with | |
Western ideas and practices. This foreign culture was presented as | |
high culture par excellence, the acquisition of which constituted a | |
blessing. Going to school was thus a radical act involving the | |
sacrifice of one's indigenous self. For the white Catholic | |
missionaries who were building a Christian empire, such a project was | |
necessary for survival, a consequence of the decline of Christian | |
faith in Europe. | |
Consequently, they created a diaspora of struggling people adrift in | |
the vast sea of cultural anonymity. This gave rise to what has now | |
entered the canon of nationalistic literature known as négritude, | |
spearheaded by figures such as Léopold Sédar Senghor, former | |
president of Sénégal, and now a member of the French academy. | |
Négritude is the owning of being black in the face of white | |
rejection of blacks. | |
Literacy was literally beaten into us, and to avoid pain we had to | |
quickly master European languages. | |
The grave problem related to this manner of education is that its | |
fanaticism breeds fanaticism in the student. You can't beat someone | |
into enlightenment without fearing that this violence will be | |
returned to you someday. | |
Exposure to the magical can be as dangerous to a person as exposure | |
to high levels of radiation. Without proper protection one runs the | |
risk of losing one's self to the very world that radiates these | |
energies. | |
In the West, one can find indigenous cultural elements embedded in | |
American culture if one knows where to look for them. The widespread | |
fascination with antiquities, adventure travel, and tribal artifacts | |
reveals a culture hungry to connect with indigenous roots. | |
I remember a conversation in which a student, bemused by the fact | |
that I came all the way from Africa to study at a prestigious school | |
in America, asked if Africans preferred to sleep in trees. When i | |
told him that, in fact, the American ambassador slept in the biggest | |
tree in the capital, he became visibly upset with me and walked away. | |
[I truly appreciate this story. *grin*] | |
I noticed that some people, particularly those who were most | |
enthralled by the game of consumerism, found mention of indigenous | |
wisdom especially irritating and sometimes would lash out at me, just | |
as a child entranced by a Nintendo game reacts with tantrums to any | |
disturbance. ... Time and time again, I have been faced with angry | |
questions like, "If Africans are so full of wisdom, why are they | |
shooting each other? Why can't they stop famine?" | |
I ask in response, "Where do these weapons come from?" Colonialism | |
weakens a native people by, among other things, sapping its economy | |
and creating scarcity. Everyone knows that scarcity results in the | |
loss of human dignity. A person whose identity has been violated | |
becomes subject to control. If a gun is then given to such a person | |
to use as a way of restoring his sense of dignity, chances are he | |
will use it. My people are frustrated by the lack of credibility | |
they experience from the modern world, and many have lost hope that | |
anything but the gun will be heard. This book is a response to and a | |
reaction against such thinking. | |
This book will probably challenge your beliefs. I do not expect that | |
you will come to agree with me on every point. But perhaps you can | |
understand how the beliefs in this book form a coherent system for | |
understanding the world. At the very least, the beliefs deserve a | |
respect and reverence they seldom receive. | |
You will find instead some ways of looking at the human being and at | |
society that you may not have considered before. My goal is not to | |
convert you to an indigenous point of view, but to offer and | |
recommend that view as a potential enrichment to your present life. | |
It is possible that we have been brought together at this time | |
because we have profound truths to teach each other. | |
# Chapter 1: Healing, Ritual, and Community | |
What the indigenous world offers to the modern world centers around | |
the understanding of the concepts of healing, ritual, and community. | |
Healing is central, because it was learned very early that human | |
beings are vulnerable to physiological and biological breakdown, and | |
that this general instability touches all aspects of their existence. | |
They have also learned that the natural environment in which they | |
live is made up of subtle invisible things that, if manipulated in | |
certain ways, can affect the conditions that they intend to heal. | |
Ritual is the technology that allows the manipulation of these subtle | |
energies. Community is important because there is an understanding | |
that human beings are collectively oriented. The general health and | |
well-being of an individual are connected to a community, and are not | |
something that can be maintained alone or in a vacuum. | |
Ritual in the indigenous world is something aimed at producing | |
healing, and the loss of such healing in the modern world might be | |
responsible for the loss of community that we see. The problems | |
experienced in the West, from the pain of isolation to the stress of | |
hyperactivity, are brought on by the loss of community. | |
When we talk of ritual here we are talking about something much | |
deeper [than the ceremonies found in certain organized religions.] We | |
are talking about the weaving of individual persons and gifts into a | |
community that interacts with the forces of the natural world. We | |
are talking about a gathering of people with a clear healing vision | |
and a trusting intent toward the forces of the invisible world. | |
The indigenous understanding is that the material and physical | |
problems that a person encounters are important only because they are | |
an energetic message sent to this visible world. Therefore, people | |
go to that unseen energetic place to try to repair whatever damage or | |
disturbances are being done there, knowing that if things are healed | |
there, things will be healed here. Ritual is the principle tool used | |
to approach that unseen world in a way that will rearrange the | |
structure of the physical world and bring about material | |
transformation. | |
That we connect with unseen realities, the realities made visible in | |
our symbols, is crucial to the well-being of our psyches. A person | |
who walks through a ritual and ends up feeling charged and | |
invigorated is a blessed recipient of healing waves of energy that no | |
one can see but everyone can benefit from. The full head of a person | |
blessed in this manner overflows into the needy souls of others... | |
I finally decided that I needed at least to justify why indigenous | |
people do ritual grieving, even if I failed to make it apply to | |
modern people. So I spoke about grief as a cleansing practice that | |
purifies the psyche just as a bath purifies the body. I stated the | |
dangers of unexpressed grief, quoting an elder who once said that a | |
man who can't cry is a social time bomb. | |
I sent them to find each an object among the trees that represented | |
the loss they needed to grieve. This much they did without | |
resistance. | |
What was it that urged these people to search for healing? My sense | |
is that the West's need for it is rooted in crises of personal | |
identity and purpose. | |
Our own confirmation or acknowledgment of ourselves is not enough. | |
The need to be acknowledged by the society is so primal that if it | |
does not happen in the village, town, or neighborhood, people will go | |
out searching for it. [In other words, they need to feel a sense of | |
belonging.] | |
A crisis of identity and purpose is an inner burning that is rarely | |
extinguished by a visit to a career planning office, by graduation | |
from a prestigious school, or even by years in a successful career. | |
It is a hollowness, a void that threatens to erase meaning in | |
everything people do. | |
Initiation is simply a set of challenges presented to an individual | |
so that he or she may grow. Consequently, the troubles we encounter | |
in our paths in the modern world are, in essence, initiatory to the | |
extent that each one of them is life changing. | |
What is lacking in this rich life experience is a community that | |
observes the individual's growth... the mere act of seeing and | |
responding, which enables a person, in powerful periods of growth, to | |
behold voices within confirmed by voices from the community without. | |
I would like to stress at this point that where mentors and elders | |
are lacking, where initiation in one form or another is not | |
recognized, there can be no support system capable of curbing the | |
intense sense of aloneness that haunts the psyche of the modern | |
person. | |
Another form of this illness is the inability to accept or even | |
tolerate those who are different than us. | |
Ritual is aimed at increasing our awareness, for awareness of the | |
existence of the reality beyond the palpable world that we live in is | |
one of the keys to transforming an individual. ... If something comes | |
into our lives and we deny it by labeling it impossible, an | |
indigenous elder would interpret this way of thinking as a | |
manifestation of our own rigidity in the face of new possibilities. | |
Eventually such awareness becomes an honoring of the shadowy and | |
hidden parts of ourselves, those parts of ourselves that are | |
invisible ... more often than not the physical being is so detached | |
from the spirit that one feels split inside. Awareness should often | |
lead to an attempt to bring these two parts of the person together to | |
become one. | |
Inside ritual and sacred space where energies are being woven, | |
people's imagination and consciousness can be moved through time | |
backward or forward. It is as if the awakened psyche is pulled | |
toward those materials it was not able to recall otherwise. This is | |
a shamanic journey... The kind of memory that we are talking about | |
here is something very personal, very compelling, and very | |
transformative. | |
Purpose begins with the individual, and the sum total of all the | |
individuals' purposes creates the community's purpose. | |
Being born into this world is a trying experience. Whatever | |
enthusiasm you bring with you here can be tamed down and radically | |
edited simply as a result of being here. | |
Making ritual a part of daily life will help to rekindle the | |
intensity that keeps us on the path of our purpose. | |
Ritual is not a rigid thing. Simply by virtue of being a human | |
being, one is an authority on creating ritual. | |
If people know the problem that they are confronting, they are | |
capable of devising a ritual that will handle this problem. ... If | |
you start by trusting yourself and your ability to address an issue | |
symbolically, you are likely to deepen your experience in designing a | |
ritual. Rituals never like to be done the same way twice, for they | |
would rather reflect the versatility of human imagination than its | |
corresponding power to create stagnation and rigidity. | |
In order for ritual to manifest its full power, it must be connected | |
to the world of nature... | |
# Chapter 2: The Healing Power of Nature | |
Our relation to the natural world and its natural laws determines | |
whether or not we are healed. Nature, therefore, is the foundation | |
of healing, and the type of nature that surrounds a community at the | |
time of doing a ritual determines the types of ritual that are | |
appropriate... So if something in us must change, spending time in | |
nature provides a good beginning. This means that within nature, | |
within the natural world, are all of the materials and tenets needed | |
for healing human beings. Nature is the textbook for those who care | |
to study it and the storehouse of remedies for human ills. | |
Being born into this world in a particular place is like having the | |
signature of that place stamped upon you. | |
Had I not encountered beings like them [the kontomblé] many more | |
times as an educated adult and conversed with them while taping their | |
voices with their permission for my own record, I think I would have | |
dismissed my original experience as a kind of hallucination. | |
It has made me wonder, every time I am walking in nature, about who | |
is looking at me, who is observing me, and how many eyes are seeing | |
everything that I do without my knowing it. | |
After the experience with the green lady, I couldn't get myself to | |
cut a live tree, because I never knew what I was cutting. | |
A community is held together by emotional ties that result in a | |
conscious feeling of connection... It is more important to heal our | |
relation with nature by doing our own emotional work rather than by | |
seeking extraordinary experiences that appear supernaturally powered. | |
For those of us who are not called to work directly with the | |
spirits, our work consists in healing relationships where we | |
experience separation and brokenness. We can begin this work by | |
reconnecting, in the first place, with the natural world. | |
# Chapter 3: Indigenous Technologies | |
In the West, technology is usually defined as applying knowledge to | |
serve a purpose; among the Dagara and many other cultures, technology | |
is what keeps the individuals and the relationships between | |
individuals and nature healthy. Technologies in the indigenous world | |
do not enslave people, because they include the world of Spirit. | |
What indigenous and Western peoples have in common is the desire to | |
understand the intricacies and complexities of the world we live in | |
and to harness the power of nature for certain practical purposes. | |
In the West, technology is oriented toward industry, commercial, and | |
military uses; among indigenous people, it serves to heal and help | |
people remember and fulfill their purpose in life. | |
In order to exist as material beings, we have to take a form, and | |
then in the sense among my people that to be in material is not the | |
most familiar or suitable form for us. The contracted form of our | |
volatile spirit is the body. The adventures of the body prepare the | |
spirit for the leap into its next phase of growth. | |
There is a reciprocity here that really cancels out the whole sense | |
of hierarchy. If Spirit is looking up to us, and we are looking up | |
to Spirit, then we are looking up to each other, and human beings | |
should take from this a certain sense of dignity. The industrialized | |
world and the indigenous world need to look up to each other. | |
Peoples attraction to material things is proportional to their thirst | |
for the source from which things come. To indigenous people, matter | |
is the skin of Spirit, a permeable boundary between the dimensions. | |
This is an extremely important subject, for we cannot assume that | |
people either have or do see the same things. However, if you are | |
looking only for shadows you will see only shadows; to see Spirit you | |
must revert to your spiritual sight. This is similar to what in the | |
West is called ecstatic perception. | |
For instance, when women get together to make pottery, they are | |
acknowledging that their ability to create is part of nature's | |
design, a part of their purpose. Before a woman participates in the | |
work with clay, which is the earth, she will first gather the signs | |
and images she has seen in nature, and she will bring these signs | |
into the circle of other women. In the interest of producing | |
something that is an extension of their wholeness, the women will | |
begin by chanting and singing together, echoing one another. The | |
work is not in the form of a production line, even though a | |
production line would have yielded more than enough of these | |
practical containers. Nor do the women work alone. Each person has | |
clay. They are seated in a circle, and they chant until they are in | |
some sort of ecstatic place, and it is from that place that they | |
begin molding the clay. It is as if the knowledge of how to make | |
pots is not in their brains, but in their collective energy. The | |
product becomes an extension of the collective energy of the circle | |
of women. | |
I have watched this process unfold countless times. The women can | |
sit all day in front of two dozen mounds of clay, doing nothing but | |
chanting--until the last hours, when in a flurry of activity all | |
kinds of pots come forth. Imagine a job where two-thirds of the time | |
was spent chanting, and one-third was spend in production! The | |
product of work here, the pot, embodies the intimacy and wholeness | |
experienced by the women over the course of the day. The women | |
understand that it is necessary to reach that place of wholeness | |
before they can bring something out of it. | |
As a result of our work practices, the indigenous notion of abundance | |
is very different from that in the West. Abundance means a sense of | |
fullness... The purpose is not so much the desire to get the job | |
done but to raise enough energy for people to feel nourished by what | |
they do. You are nourished first, and then the work flows out of | |
your fullness. | |
I remember my mother uttering very moving, poetic chants as she | |
milled grain, grinding for six hours to fill only a small bucket. | |
The meal that came out of her work contained tremendous energy, the | |
spiritual energy of the poetry and music as well as the physical | |
energy contained in the grain. All of her work was a work of art, | |
done so genuinely, with total devotion, that it contributed to a | |
profound sense of fullness in the family. | |
What I must emphasize here is that the energy required to sustain the | |
harmony we are talking about is so delicate that it can easily be | |
destroyed by the slightest intrusion, and such intrusion has clearly | |
taken place through colonialism. | |
# Chapter 4: The Value of a Healthy Community | |
As Carolyn Shaffer and Kristin Anundsen point out in their ambitious | |
and detailed book, Creating Community Anywhere, Americans have | |
defined themselves in terms of individual freedom: a people breaking | |
away from old, limiting structures, dogmas, and attitudes and pushing | |
forward to new frontiers. But with every gain there is a loss. | |
Individuality, not individualism, is the cornerstone of community. | |
Individuality is synonymous with uniqueness. | |
These examples suggest that what is required for the maintenance and | |
growth of a community is not corporate altruism or a government | |
program, but a villagelike atmosphere that allows people to drop | |
their masks. A sense of community grows where behavior is based on | |
trust and where no one has to hide anything. | |
To produce beauty consistently requires a healthy community. | |
Therefore the artist is the pulse of the community; her or his | |
creativity says something about the health of the community. | |
In such a place of struggle, the longing for the sacred is so | |
enhanced that people are collecting and storing art objects. From an | |
indigenous point of view, the isolation of self and community from | |
Spirit appears to have translated into the imprisonment of art. The | |
museums of the West, from an indigenous perspective, speaks | |
poignantly of the sharply felt longing for spirit experienced by | |
modern people. | |
The difference is that in the modern world, errant behavior in a | |
person is regarded as a personal problem, concerning only that | |
individual. The possibility that there is a larger meaning to be | |
found in the person's expressions, which might be transformed into | |
something meaningful for that person's community, is rarely | |
considered. | |
In an indigenous community, each person is precious. No one is born | |
on this earth without a reason, a special purpose. Failure or | |
inability to perform one's function in the village places a person in | |
a constant state of crisis. So crises from either of these two | |
sources--the embodiment of a new spirit wanting to emerge, and the | |
impossibility of doing what one came into the village to do--must be | |
addressed by the community. | |
# Chapter 5: Mentors and the Life of Youth | |
There are certain things without which young people cannot survive | |
and flourish, and mentoring is one of them. At the core of mentoring | |
is the understanding that genius must be invited out of a person. | |
People carry to this world something important that they must | |
deliver, and mentors help to deliver that genius to the community. | |
Because genius is sacred, originating not in this world but another, | |
it must be approached ritualistically, that is, symbolically--with | |
respect and even reverence. ... genius understands the language of | |
ritual better than any other language. | |
Indigenous people tend to approach emotion, and sometimes even pain, | |
as a sacred thing because they think it means that something in the | |
person is moving out in order to let something else come in. The | |
tension between the incoming and outgoing energies produces pain. So | |
the pain involved in bringing genius to birth evokes ritual. The | |
stretching of the body's physiology out of its normal parameters, | |
which is what allows the shift to happen, is supported through | |
ritual, as a serious and sacred thing. | |
Literacy represents a kind of clairvoyant knowledge that diviners | |
think does not agree with magical knowledge. Their approach may be a | |
reaction to colonialism, for the brutality perpetrated on indigenous | |
people under colonial rule came from literate people. So it is easy | |
for indigenous diviners to conclude that literacy is a violent | |
knowledge bent on attacking any nonliterate knowledge. | |
Therefore the first form mentoring must take is simply seeing the | |
presence of genius in a young person. It begins with paying careful | |
attention to the young person. The best medicine for a young man in | |
crisis is listening [being listened to]. Listening equals respect | |
and recognition. Recognition begins with supportive attention. | |
As long as someone is in crisis, mentoring is called for. The | |
violence that cripples so many lives is a tearing consequence of a | |
call for mentoring that has met no answer. Yet to mentor requires | |
some giving of the self, some willingness to compromise in the | |
interest of establishing a progressively healthy psyche and spirit in | |
the other. This includes the willingness to be vulnerable, to learn | |
gently about the world of the other, instead of jumping to | |
conclusions about the plight of the other, and it also requires | |
finding a way into the emotional world that produced the crisis. | |
The mentor exists, in the West, in the counselor and the therapist. | |
# Chapter 6: Elders and the Community | |
The full blossoming out of youth requires taking risks. It demands | |
that one be safe enough to respond to the urge for growth. That | |
safety comes from the hands of older generations. This is where | |
young and old intersect. Here, old means someone who is dry, solid, | |
lasting. Thus the old and the elders embody stability, | |
dependability, and wisdom. In this capacity, they become a frame of | |
reference, a resource, a research center. | |
The wisdom I am trying to point out here for Westerners is obvious. | |
I am trying to say that a retirement house is the wrong place for old | |
people to be. While they are there waiting for their end, the entire | |
society loses a great opportunity: the opportunity to be anchored and | |
thus blessed. | |
Elders, like the ancestors, are expected to identify and address what | |
is not working in the village, not to give compliments and praise | |
behavior. Thus elders do not express energy, they hold it. When | |
they speak, everybody listens. They often don't speak directly to | |
the person whose situation they are addressing. They don't even name | |
the person. The reason for this indirectness is linked to a rather | |
peculiar understanding of shame and the effect of shaming. | |
Shame is seen in Dagara culture as a collapsing emotional force that | |
paralyzes the self, and therefore, like grief, shame should be | |
experienced only in a sacred, ceremonial context. In the context of | |
ritual and sacred space, the repentant "sinner" is said to be more | |
capable of deep humility than in an ordinary context. When suffered | |
in daily life, shame compresses the psyche dangerously. The result | |
is that one experiences crippling rejection and ostracism as one's | |
self-esteem is almost exterminated. A person in power and respect | |
who uses it exposes himself and the other to danger. | |
Distrust, suspicion, and discord are the offspring of shame and | |
attacks against self-esteem. Therefore shaming someone as a way of | |
making that person accountable without the sacred endangers the whole | |
community. The heaviness of the shamed person will in the long run | |
and in subtle ways affect everyone and everything. | |
Accountability in the form of punishment is debilitating: it | |
encourages concealment, secrecy, and even distortion of reality. | |
The greatest responsibility of the elder is leading rituals. | |
In the culture of the West now, it is easier for someone to become an | |
elder to their grandchildren than to anyone else because a grandchild | |
spontaneously listens to and respects a grandparent. But I would | |
also venture to say that there is something of an elder in any person | |
whose words are listened to and who commands respect and attention. | |
Elders also appear as people who have profoundly changed the lives of | |
others through their teaching or writing. | |
There is an elder in the making in everyone, but it is most visible | |
in those who have the receptivity to listen to the stories of others. | |
The ability to listen, and the willingness to support others in | |
different situations, are at the heart and soul of elderhood. | |
Everyone who solicits the services of an elder-to-be is looking for a | |
container to unload some problems. | |
Similarly, anyone who attends to the sorrows of another person and | |
does not feel overwhelmed or frightened is a person who nurses an | |
elder within. | |
Above all, to be an elder is to be able to come down to the level of | |
the person you wish to listen to, not with a mind to tell that person | |
what to do and what not to do but to share similar experiences you | |
have had in the course of your own life. | |
If a culture rejects the sacred, it rejects elders. If it rejects | |
elders, it rejects the welfare of its youth. You can't have one | |
without the other. | |
We must learn how to sit quietly with our youth and to listen quietly | |
to what they have to say. This is the job of elders. This calm, | |
almost meditative approach to youth can also be a model for | |
self-calming to other people who are too troubled to be quiet. | |
Calmness is the beginning of the ability to hold the space, the | |
beginning of an elder's contribution to the community. | |
# Chapter 7: The Elements of Ritual | |
Every time a gathering of people, under the protection of Spirit, | |
triggers a body of emotional energy aimed at bringing them very | |
tightly together, a ritual of one type or another is in effect. In | |
this kind of gathering people primarily use nonverbal means of | |
interacting with one another, thereby stimulating the life of the | |
psyche. | |
There are two parts to ritual. One part is planned: people prepare | |
the space for the ritual and think through the general choreography | |
of the process. The other part of ritual cannot be planned because | |
it is the part that Spirit is in charge of. The unplanned part of | |
ritual is spontaneous, almost unpredictable interaction with an | |
energy source. It is a response to a call from a non-human source to | |
commune with a larger horizon. It is like a journey. Before you get | |
started, you own the journey. After you start, the journey owns you. | |
It is important to recognize what ritual is not. It is not | |
repetitive or compulsive behavior, like having a coffee or cigarette | |
in the morning. Nor is it an everyday formality, like greeting | |
another person with a handshake... Ritual... is gathering with | |
others in order to feel spirit's call, to express spontaneously and | |
publicly whatever emotion needs to be expressed, to create, in | |
concert with others, an unrehearsed and deeply moving response to | |
Spirit, and to feel the presence of the community, including the | |
ancestors, throughout the experience. | |
From an indigenous point of view, ceremonies are events that are | |
reproducible, predictable, and controllable, while rituals call for | |
spontaneous feeling and trust in the outcome. | |
Symbols are the doorway to ritual. Just as our bodies can't survive | |
without nourishment, our psyches cannot sustain themselves without | |
symbols. | |
Two types of rituals are commonly practiced among the Dagara. The | |
first one is called radical ritual since it involves major repair of | |
the broken or damaged human psyche or spirit. In such a ritual, the | |
physical body is pushed to the extreme in order to create a situation | |
of tension favorable for the removal of unwanted energetic debris at | |
the restoration of a much more acceptable self. The second one is | |
called maintenance ritual. It is a nonstressful yet regular practice | |
of acknowledging an existing connection with the Other World, the | |
world of Spirit. | |
Types of Ritual: | |
* Radical Ritual - body is pushed to the extreme [induce catharsis?] | |
* Maintenance Ritual - regular practice [stay connected to spirit] | |
* Personal Rituals - keep self in harmony with surrounding world [a | |
sub-set of Maintenance Rituals] | |
There are four components of a ritual: | |
* Prepare the ritual space | |
* The Invocation: a form of prayer that formally invites Spirit, or | |
any kind of personal deity, to join or participate in what is about | |
to happen. | |
* Healing: [Without healing, a ritual is not successful.] | |
* The Closing: an expression of gratitude for what the presence of | |
Spirit has allowed to happen. You can't simply say thank you; it | |
is very important to itemize the things that you are thankful for. | |
Because of our tendency to assert control, we need to be aware that | |
our controlling self may try to kick in during ritual. One signal | |
that this has happened is the feeling that the ritual has become more | |
like theater, with an embarrassing superficiality. In a play, people | |
go into scripted rage and weep synchronized tears. It is the duty of | |
the ritual leader to rid the process of any such pretense... | |
This is not to say that acting is always bad in ritual. The key is | |
genuineness of purpose; every action needs to be focused toward the | |
pure intention of seeking healing. | |
Ritual is necessary because there are certain problems that cannot be | |
resolved with words alone. The pain of abuse that someone carries | |
within, the trauma of unfulfilled dreams, and the sorrow of loss are | |
not the kind of feelings that go away over time. Whether we deny | |
them or not, they remain as part of the weight that keeps our bodies | |
tensed and our spirits constricted. They fuel our drive to violence, | |
and they eat our spirit. When they are addressed in ritual, however, | |
we get the chance to heal them. Complex problems plague and cripple | |
entire communities; by actively involving the member of the community | |
in seeking solutions based in ritual, a community can achieve a | |
deeper solution than words and rhetoric alone can provide. Breaking | |
the spell of circular arguments through the power of ritual is an | |
area where indigenous people can provide effective help to the West. | |
# Chapter 8: Dagara Cosmology and ritual | |
Cultures define themselves in terms of the ways their people perceive | |
the cosmos. [I think that this is inescapable.] | |
# Chapter 9: Preparing for Ritual | |
Anthropologist Victor Turner has given us an instructive picture of | |
the difference between indigenous and modern approaches to ritual. | |
In The Ritual Process he refers to ascending symbolism as opposed to | |
descending symbolism in order to clarify the distinction between | |
indigenous ritual practices and Western ceremonial practices. | |
The Western view of authority as something that comes from above | |
dramatically affects one's perception of the source of transformation | |
and change. The assumption is that if anything transcendental is | |
going to happen, it has to come from above and descend to humans. | |
Ever since Christianity unearthed the gods and goddesses and sent | |
them far away above the clouds, many people in the West have been | |
left standing on the ground feeling abandoned, staring longingly at | |
the sky wondering when God will come. In contrast, indigenous people | |
see the divine as arising from below. Indeed, the ancestors, who | |
dwell under the earth and form a vast pool of energy, allow us to | |
walk upon them. Thus the divine is right under our feet and directly | |
connected to us through the earth. This perception calls for a | |
significantly different attitude that encourages spontaneity and | |
trust of one's instincts, because it sees redemption and healing as | |
rising like heat from the divine below. Ritual therefore follows an | |
ascending principle, presuming that healing rises from under the | |
earth and overtakes us. | |
Participants need to understand that success in a ritual is | |
proportional to the level of surrender that one can achieve. | |
Surrender is a difficult thing to achieve; it is impossible to do it | |
with words or discourse. | |
In the West more than anywhere else, the lack of community has | |
increased the need for personal rituals. Personal rituals are | |
generally done to keep oneself in harmony with the surrounding world. | |
Personal rituals are for the most part maintenance rituals. | |
Ancestor rituals help to heal the ancestors themselves and our | |
connections with them. | |
Another form of personal ritual is that which honors and develops our | |
connections to spirit allies. | |
The first thing to recognize is that in community ritual, one is | |
required to give something to the gathering. It takes the combined | |
energies of many givers to make a ritual work. | |
The most destructive thing one can do in a ritual is to become a | |
passive observer, thinking that your physical presence is enough. In | |
ritual passivity results in a significant and sometimes dangerous | |
draining of energy. Yet it is frequently seen in community ritual, | |
and it is the issue from which conflict most frequently and | |
predictably arises. When passive participants are reminded that they | |
are not being productive, their usual response is to take offense. | |
I must reiterate the idea that conducting ritual begins by being | |
acquainted with symbolic objects and gestures. If the psyche cannot | |
be educated to embrace symbolism, people will have difficulty | |
understanding and appreciating rituals. Ritual transcends language | |
and enables us to communicate and interact with the Other World. It | |
is important when conducting ritual that people move out of literal | |
and dwell as long as possible on the metaphoric and symbolic regions | |
of human experience. This is where the soul and spirit reside. This | |
is the place where people abandon argument and when superficiality | |
does not intrude. In the world of metaphor and symbol, a simple song | |
and a little rhythm produce far greater results than a panel | |
discussion by articulate experts. Here one experiences true | |
collaboration and learns how to give the attention that all people, | |
all spirits, and all ancestors need. | |
# Chapter 10: Fire Rituals | |
We begin with rituals of fire, because fire is the first element in | |
the Dagara cosmic wheel. Fire is the element that keeps people | |
connected to their purpose and to the world of Spirit. | |
However, it is extremely dangerous to suggest a fire ritual to people | |
in the West, because Western society's essential characteristic is | |
fire, and Westerners therefore need to understand the power of fire | |
more than they need to perform rituals of fire. Positive fire, as we | |
saw in the earlier chapter, emerges as vision, dream, and intimacy | |
with the ancestors. Negative fire is speed, restlessness, radical | |
consumption, and eventually death. Because the attributes of fire in | |
the West are predominantly negative, people need to attend to that | |
which can stabilize their fire before they move on to exploring fire | |
as the warmth of being, creativity, and life. Therefore, before most | |
Westerners interest themselves in fire rituals, it is crucial that | |
they make their peace with water. | |
Fire is the rising force that makes us do, see, feel, love, and hate. | |
The inner fire is a rope that connects us to the world we abandoned | |
when we were born into a human body. | |
A fire ritual is a place where things that interfere with our | |
connection with our soul's purpose can be surrendered and where fire | |
can serve as a point of focus. | |
# Chapter 11: Water Rituals | |
... water ritual is an attempt to unite things that must be united, | |
to reconcile things that are meant to be together in the interest of | |
community. Water rituals tie up loose ends. These loose ends are | |
obstacles to our balance and reconciliation, our peace and serenity. | |
Until grief is restored in the West as the starting place where the | |
modern man and woman might find peace, the culture will continue to | |
abuse and ignore the power of water, and in turn will be fascinated | |
with fire. Grief must be approached as a release of the tension | |
created by separation and disconnection from someone or something | |
that matters. | |
To villagers it looks as if the West is uncomfortable with tears | |
because one cannot argue verbally, logically, against this kind of | |
emotion. Villagers also believe that Westerners are afraid of | |
emotion because they are afraid of loss of control. Emotions have | |
the tendency to spread from person to person, and therefore social | |
control, to the Western mind, is being risked with any display of | |
emotion. | |
The end of the domination of one's life by such emotions requires an | |
outpouring of liquid. You cannot truly grieve within and remain | |
composed without. | |
In order to do a water ritual effectively, one needs a community. | |
There are few personal water rituals, as the Dagara people don't | |
comprehend the idea of private grief. Grief is a community problem... | |
It is sometimes useful for them to get together in small groups of | |
eight to twelve people to tell one another what causes them grief. | |
This is because grief does not necessarily come on demand. It is | |
something that must be evoked through stories and images. | |
It is not permitted to cultivate solemnity in the village, because | |
solemnity encourages withdrawal and suspends participation. The | |
village is a place where energy must flow, and stillness opposes that | |
flow. | |
A final and even simpler ritual involves simply maintaining a bowl of | |
water someplace where you spend time, such as on an altar, in the | |
house, or at an office. Placing a bowl of water in a room where a | |
difficult discussion or meeting is to take place can have a | |
remarkable effect on the tone of the interaction. The mere presence | |
of water near us is calming and reminds us of the peace and | |
reconciliation we desire in all aspects of our lives. | |
# Chapter 12: Earth Rituals | |
Earth rituals greatly emphasize the sense of belonging, self-worth, | |
and community, including all forms of relationships. They serve as | |
an opportunity for a group of people to demonstrate their ability to | |
give attention, love, and appreciation, and caring to an individual | |
who needs it badly. This is how certain psychological illnesses are | |
healed. | |
One aspect of earth ritual that people in the West are clearly in | |
need of involves touching. Human hands carry a huge amount of | |
healing energy, provided one is aware of the kind of mental alignment | |
that must accompany their touch. ... The lack of touch is the | |
greatest source of grief in modern culture. Poor self-esteem and the | |
shrinking of a personal sense of identity can be traced, in part, to | |
the lack of touch. | |
It is not possible to engage in a productive earth ritual without | |
proper touch. Earth is the archetypal symbol of giving. Indeed, the | |
earth teaches us that touching must take the place of taking, or the | |
modern world will continue to destroy itself by devouring everything | |
that is consumable. | |
# Chapter 13: Mineral Rituals | |
Mineral rituals aim at restoring lost memories. One of the key | |
memories that mineral rituals evoke is the life purpose linked to | |
each human being. | |
Everyone is gifted. This means that everyone has something to give. | |
Sometimes we are the last people to recognize our own gifts. | |
So many people in the modern world, caught between their commitment | |
to survival and their intuitive allegiance to a genuine life purpose, | |
find themselves forced to sacrifice their purpose to make a living. | |
It is for these people that mineral rituals must be done. Their very | |
livelihood undermines their reason for being. There is no greater | |
harm done to a person than the harm of a life activity that competes | |
against, or contradicts, their purpose. | |
To the indigenous, healing has a lot to do with knowing where you are | |
in your life journey. ... Behind these tales, wrestling for a place | |
to live, are countless memories that have been frozen in the cells of | |
people's bones. This is why every mineral ritual must include a | |
period of listening, for listening is the complement of storytelling. | |
To further the awakening begun by attraction to a symbolic object, | |
frame your attraction in a series of ritual dialogues in which you | |
speak to the things you are attracted to. In the dialogue, it is | |
important to speak to the object as though it is animated by a spirit | |
and is alive, not as tough it is simply a symbolic representation of | |
something in the distance. | |
Then, as you engage in dialogue with the object, describe to it as | |
clearly as possible the feelings and images that arise in you as you | |
associate with the object. ... The attraction is an invitation to | |
respond, whether or not one knows exactly how to proceed. The simple | |
act of having heard the call is enough. | |
The elders say that the rocks can speak, but their voice is so tiny | |
that it can barely be heard. The rocks remind us to be still and to | |
listen carefully, to stop searching outside of ourselves for that | |
which we already hold within. | |
# Chapter 14: Nature Rituals | |
Human beings are most of the time unaware of the extent and intimacy | |
of their connection with nature, especially the world of plants and | |
animals. | |
It is hard to separate nature rituals from water, fire, earth, and | |
mineral rituals. Since every ritual is an attempt to change our | |
relationship with the Other World, and since nature is all about | |
change and transformation, there is some sense in which every ritual | |
pertains to nature and aims to reveal, heal, and reinstate our own | |
innermost nature. | |
Nature rituals, like mineral rituals, help people remain focused on | |
their true purpose. | |
Indeed, while it is possible to do a ritual in an amphitheater or in | |
a hotel ballroom, this same ritual will generate greater energy if | |
done in the woods. In the modern world, as in the indigenous world, | |
ritual is best done out-of-doors, surrounded by the elements of the | |
natural world. | |
The indigenous believe that healing comes in giving more than in | |
getting. So in order to remain energetically healthy, and to reduce | |
the danger of loss, individual as well as collective lives are | |
punctuated by periodic sacrifices, gift giving to Spirit, and | |
countless giveaways. This conviction has given rise to the invention | |
of an enormous number of rituals that are meant to bring something to | |
oneself, and each of these begins by giving something meaningful away. | |
In the West, when nature is neglected, people often wear masks in | |
order to survive. The mask may be a professional role; it sometimes | |
comes with a suit or uniform and is a refuge, a place of anonymity. | |
Those who don't wear a mask in their culture risk being hurt, and | |
thus many are driven to find one. The problem is that as people hide | |
behind these masks, they become defined by them and unable to tell | |
the difference between what is natural and what is not. Sometimes | |
they become so profoundly disconnected from their true self that they | |
think that their mask is their true nature. | |
Nature rituals aimed at unmasking the true self need to begin by | |
addressing the theme of change. The goal is to allow people to | |
relax, which will allow people to let go of their masks and to find | |
how it feels to be without a mask for a moment. Healing begins when | |
the mask is released from the self, for people can't transform when | |
they are hiding behind them. | |
An indigenous person can easily identify the mask someone carries by | |
watching that person dance or play a drum. Music and dance are | |
diagnostic tools that bring out of hiding parts of the body that are | |
masked... | |
Actual mask-making rituals are another way to unmask the self. | |
[Reminds me of a story i heard about Joana Macy's workshop The Work | |
That Reconnects.] | |
# Chapter 15: Initiation: A Response to Challenges of the West | |
Rites of initiation are aimed at including the young person in the | |
community and recognizing her or his genius, and moving the youth | |
toward maturity and adult responsibility. Through initiation, a | |
young person gains access to dynamic and purposeful living. While | |
initiation as it takes place in African indigenous culture would not | |
be appropriate in the West, since we are by definition located in a | |
different place and culture, some aspects of initiation would, I | |
believe, speak to particular challenges that Western societies are | |
facing at this time. | |
Initiation focuses on and is responding to some basic existential | |
questions faced by human beings since the dawn of time. Everyone | |
wonders, Who am I? Where do I come from? What am I here for? Where | |
am I going? | |
But troubles do not befall individuals because of their failure to | |
avoid them. Rather they are milestones of one's journey toward | |
maturity and responsibility. Their aim is to help people better | |
understand what life is, and who we are. They are a necessary | |
ingredient in the removal of whatever stands between us and our | |
essential self. It is as if there is a natural pull toward | |
challenges and ordeal in the interest of gaining inner strength and | |
living a responsible life. Hardship and ordeal therefore initiate a | |
change from within. One emerges from them with a profound sense of | |
having undergone a real education. Those who understand this may | |
even come to welcome adversity. | |
Every bump in a person's life is an opportunity to grow and change. | |
Thus, it is not enough to simply regard problems as unfortunate | |
events. One must deliberately attempt to see the potential for | |
growth inside trouble. | |
Because initiation experiences are part of every life, the immediate | |
issue for Westerners is perhaps not initiation itself but how one may | |
bring closure to initiatory pain and suffering. People who want to | |
be recognized as survivors are attempting to seal off an initiatory | |
experience so that they can get on with something else, because when | |
suffering is met with recognition, it passes. It is the absence of | |
radical and genuine recognition and acknowledgment that makes | |
suffering grow larger. | |
There is an endless series of unresolved initiations in the modern | |
world due to isolationism and the personalization of trouble. In | |
addition, there is a tendency for many to ostracize people who seek | |
to have their suffering acknowledged. | |
Community is key to closing initiation. | |
The absence of a community to recognize and end suffering is also | |
visible in Westerners' prolonged grief over their parents' | |
inadequacies. On numerous occasions I have seen men and women in | |
their 30's and 40's still grieving that their mothers and fathers | |
weren't there for them the way they should have been, that they had | |
abandoned them. This crisis in midlife is the result of the person's | |
sense of anonymity and lack of belonging. Indeed, it is important | |
for these people to recognize that their parents were not experts at | |
rearing children. But to hang onto this for many years is | |
symptomatic of a spiritual paralysis. It reveals the isolation of | |
individuals and families from a wider sense of community. When | |
children are raised by a whole village, they do not grow up expecting | |
their biological parents to provide for all their emotional needs. | |
Attributing blame to someone else can never bring closure to a | |
problem. On the contrary it keeps it alive, near enough to affect us | |
deeply but just too far out of reach for us to solve. | |
If we begin by accepting the possibility that problems occur because | |
we make them occur--that hardships such as broken relationships, loss | |
of a job, financial troubles, and even sickness come because we need | |
them for our own good--then many healing opportunities become | |
available. The question of why I would have invited such a hardship | |
is a good place to begin the journey through initiation. The issue | |
is not how to get out of the hardship as quickly as possible, but how | |
to read the message of change embedded within the hardship. Trouble | |
means that the psyche must move on. | |
Three stages of initiation: | |
* [beginning] -- The trouble or ordeal has just started | |
* [middle] -- A period of extreme disruption | |
* [end] -- The end is in view, but it is as hard to reach as the | |
disruption was to endure. | |
Wherever one fits in these three stages of initiatory journeys, the | |
key is to escape isolation. | |
# Chapter 16: Maintaining Community Through Ritual | |
Any community that begins with a mission statement and a set of | |
bylaws, any group that believes that it has an identity and purpose | |
before it has ever even asked anyone to join, will fall short of | |
serving the true needs of each of its individuals. Any group that | |
demands that its members follow a pre-existing set of rules and | |
bylaws can therefore never be a true community. The character of any | |
true community can be seen only when each of its members has been | |
awakened fully and allowed to reveal her or his innate gifts and | |
genuine self. The sum of all these unique identities then becomes | |
the character and identity of the community. A healthy community not | |
only supports diversity, it requires diversity. | |
In the West people usually translate the problem into some type of | |
either/or duality, where someone is right and someone [else] is | |
wrong, someone is a winner and someone [else] is a loser. Conflict | |
becomes an opportunity for instant polarization. Wherever polarity | |
exists, there is a state of competitiveness that does not serve to | |
meet the needs in a community, since it tends to separate rather than | |
unite. | |
Indigenous societies conceded the existence of conflict but view it | |
as something of importance and of interest to the community. The | |
conflict is some sort of message to the entire community--but | |
expressed through the individuals embroiled in the conflict. | |
Conflict becomes an occasion for people to enter into a ritual | |
intimacy. Real friction is aimed at deepening the communal sense. | |
There are dire consequences in an indigenous society when problems | |
that are intended for a collective solution are held personal and | |
private. When an individual nurtures a problem... that person | |
carries the family conflict out into the community, where he or she | |
is likely to continue the conflict with others. | |
The indigenous alternative offers an opportunity. In it | |
accountability means something like a deepening of the connection | |
with the thing or person you wronged. If you cause harm to someone, | |
accountability means doing something that brings you close to the | |
person on a regular basis for as long as you live. | |
I am deliberately trying to stress here the necessity of ritualizing | |
conflict. It is acceptable and proper for individuals to have | |
conflicts with others, as long as their arguments are voiced within a | |
space that is considered sacred. This space in a village culture is | |
maintained by an elder who mediates. | |
The Dagara creation story says that the planet we are on is a frozen | |
extension of a much brighter and more harmonious spiritual world. If | |
we don't maintain this world, something [bad] will happen to the | |
Other World. Our relationship with the Spirit World is a two-way | |
stream, and we need to fine-tune and maintain the lines of | |
communication between the two worlds. The wisdom of the Spirit World | |
offers us guidance, understanding, and healing. Our purpose in this | |
world is linked to a job that returns critical material into the | |
spiritual world. ... this is why when we come here we are not at | |
peace until we find ourselves useful, wanted, and needed. We do not | |
come to this world on vacation. We come here for service, and we | |
have to remember what service is. | |
author: Somé, Malidoma Patrice, 1956- | |
detail: https://malidoma.com/ | |
LOC: BL2480.D3 S65 | |
tags: book,non-fiction,ritual,spirit | |
title: The Healing Wisdom of Africa | |
# Tags | |
book | |
non-fiction | |
ritual | |
spirit |