Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Temple >

message from Ogun

14:58 / 21.01.02

Recently, a volcano erupted in the Congo. More on that here.

From that, came this message from Ogun, through the usual channels (no pun intended), of a possessed babalaow:

quote:Ogun says:I have poured forth the stone from my heart, like water pours form a gourd, upon the Lands where men were born into spirit and I once lived. By this sign I give back to all creatures born of woman my love and protection. By placing a piece of this, my heart, on every altar, I call together in brotherhood and marriage all my lost and stolen children of many lands, so that I may live again as one with all mankind.

Translaton: "a piece of my heart" is something volcanic, like obsidian, pummice, metamorphic rock etc. Its protection for an expected year of turbulance, war, disase, etc.

So, FYI for those into that end of things. This is making the rounds in the communities.

On a directly related note, I was at my first ebo this weekend. That was more neat than I can describe, energy wise or otherwise. Intense. I felt like I was tripping for hours afterwards. Still digesting the whole thing.

18:00 / 21.01.02

It's damn hard to find volcanic rock in Florida....

Hmmm.

18:17 / 21.01.02

Um, who is Ogun exactly? And in what way did he/she communicate this message (to you or whoever received it)?

I'm fascinated, but isn't it a big leap to say that "a piece of my heart [of stone]" must mean volanic lava? (I'm not being snide here, just a healthily skeptical chaos magick practicioner.)

18:56 / 21.01.02

Ok, more detail:

Ogun in the Afro-Carribean pantheon is the god of metal, elementally fire and earth. He is one the big warrior loa. He's rather like Thor, hammer and all, if Thor was earth and fire rather than more air and fire. He's the god of blacksmiths, and in the modern translations this is extended to technology in general by some. Any working involving Ogun will be blunt and as straightforward as a hammer to the head. Elegba opens the door and Ogun clears the way. Thus, he makes way for change, often sudden and drastic but in a more positive aspect than Osun who also does this. That's what I've gotten of him, from my somewhat limited study in this area.

As for the heart, voodoo is pretty loose about interpreting this sort of thing. They're a bit chaos oriented in that respect. If it seems to work and you think that's what the loa move you to do, then it is. Voodoo is big on adapting to new areas. They have a saying, "Voodoo is everything, but not everyting is Voodoo."

Anything volcanic seems to be appropriate for this one, but really anything related would do. A big chunk of iron, for example. the Santeria branch is more strict on exactly how things are done. Voodoo from my experience and study so far is pretty much whatever works, in a very chaos magic sense.

As for the message, it came in the usual way. A babalow was possessed, and wrote it out. A number of syncronicities surrounded it as well, but that seems to be pretty normal for this bunch. It's quickly been circulated around from there. I figured I'd post it here as well, as I know there are some folks here who practice or are interested in this.

It basicly amounts to this: put Ogun on your alter, and he'll look after you. This year is said to be a nasty violent fucked up one full of war, disease, broken families, broken promises, and death by water according to the letters drawn for the year by both the Ifa prests in Cuba and from the Palo path.

Sorry if I'm not terribly clear, this isn't normally my paradigm. I do have translations of the letters if anyone wants to know how many chickens to kill where and for who, but I figured I'd spare that bit as its only useful if you're in it religiously.

20:56 / 21.01.02

quote:Originally posted by cusm:

It basicly amounts to this: put Ogun on your alter, and he'll look after you.

I don't know, that is not what I read into the message. What it sounds like is that Ogun wants to become part of humanity, like God becoming man in Christ: "...so that I may live again as one with all mankind."

But then, I wasn't there.

-Rev. Jesse

14:57 / 22.01.02

It may also be a reference to the historical cooperation going on right now between the different sects of Ifa. I've seen a voodoo veve set off during an Ettana Egun, which as far as people have checked into (which is pretty far at this point) simply hasn't happened before. That being the reference to all the "lost and stolen children".

Of course, he is still a godform, and they do historicly tend to want to become one with everyone once they get big enough. So, you might be right there, Rev.

01:10 / 23.01.02

Looks like this is Ogun's way joining Horus out on the gameboard.

13:31 / 25.01.02

Interesting point - are there any correspondences between the voudoun/santeria godforms and their egyptian/hellenistic/nordic equivalents?

The point about Ogun being Thor, for example, puzzled me, since I've always thought Chango was more like Thor - y'know, god of thunder and everything...

Possibly Ogun could just be the voudoun/santeria equivalent of Horus, and this is just their people picking up on the aeonic current...

Possibly.

15:22 / 25.01.02

Ogun is also probably the voudoun/santeria equivalent of Vulcan. Cause of the whole fire and iron thing.

15:43 / 25.01.02

quote:Originally posted by velvetvandal:
are there any correspondences between the voudoun/santeria godforms and their egyptian/hellenistic/nordic equivalents?

Yes.

But don't look for one on one comparisons, Loki is not the same as Mecury who is not the same as Legba but they do share similar correspondences. Thor may equate with Ogun in terms of the Nordic's authority as a nature god but he is also analogous to Chango's authority as an adventurer-warrior deity.

For example, Christ is very similar to Mithras, Odin, Baldur, Bacchus, Osris, Prometheus, Lung, the celtic deity with the magic well that heals people who's name I can't remember for the life of me, Krishna, Shiva, Orpheous, Apollo and Ra. But Christ is not completely the same as any of these.

Interestingly, the Adversary also borrows heavily from the above list. I see at least 4 or 5 of those deities used as templates for the devil.

-Rev. Jesse

16:41 / 25.01.02

the celtic deity with the magic well that heals people who's name I can't remember for the life of me

*puzzle*

Cerridwen? I think that's the one.

In personality, Ogun is a bit closer to Thor than Shango, who's more the shiny fast talking tactician sort. Ogun has a hammer, and every problem is a nail. He's more like that

I find the Ifa dieties to be pretty compatable with the Norse in general. In feel, if not so much in direct corespondence. Though there's some of that, too.

16:48 / 25.01.02