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well M*rdant Carn!val,
it's kind of a little joke, but basically the only term that i could come up with which described my practice. to me the term is a bit of an irony, like "jumbo shrimp". lot's of pure land buddhism just really boils down to treating the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and demons, gods, goddess, immortals, and fairies the same way voodooists treat their loa. as immediately present in the world around them, on an everyday basis.
most pure land buddist practices, when not falling into the category of devotional practice; i.e. prayer and worship, falls into the category of folk magic, generally incorporating many of the elements of local folk tradition, in china being tons of taoist superstition.
the general practice of voodoo, or most west african derived faith systems, can fall into two similar categories that of a. devotional faith practice and b. folk magic; associational magic and rootwork.
a lot of people would correct me on my usage of the term voodoo, generally as a vulgar misapplication of pejorative colonial terminology. but hey, i'm a vulgar guy, and i'll do what i want, that being the whole point of magic. i also use the term hoodoo in the same context, labels changing on my mood. in this description i extend voodoo to encompass all of the african derived faith systems based on the the model of anthropomorphized concepts of nature (condomble, palo mayombe, umbanda, quimbanda, lucumi, macumba, etc.)
both folk practices of voodoo, both haitian and other west african derived faith systems, deal with anthropomorphized concepts, relating to a variety of entities which are generally relative to the everyday life of the individual practitioner. in their classic forms, for voodoo and pure land buddhism this entails dealing with concepts relevant to nonindustrial, or semi-industrial, rural living. i find it quite productive to keep this mold but refill it with concepts relevant to my life and experiences. i.e. comic book characters for interpersonal workings, and trance quides, intermingled with a little bit of classical voodoo that just strikes me, as well as touch of pure land buddhism.
having grown up in the hypersaturated american media environment of new york in the 1980's, i was heavily influenced by buddhism and voodoo as deeply as they where imbedded in the mythological framework of the media at the time. raised on bruce lee movies, i imprinted the asian wise man as an archetypal wisdom motif. after doin a little digging on that issue took me to pure land buddhism. in many really poorly made horror films in which voodoo is involved, the practice of it is synonomous with "black magic" and "witchcraft", which in turn means "satanism", and i never really bought into that.
in regards to voodoo, i always wanted a magic structure that packed a punch, but never really got the entire enochian demon/angel magic kind of thing. though potentially powerful in its own right, for me it involves to much warding and guarding and ridiculous memorization of associations. as i came to understand chaos magic, my view on that only strengthened. I mean regardless of whatever working I want to achieve, if it means invoking demons I'm out. I have enough problems, and the last thing i want to to push deep down inside of my subconscious is some sort of archetypal manifestation of terror, destruction, pure evil, whose all encompassing goal is to corrupt or devour your soul. I like what Sir miles said in the last story arch of the invisibles, while speaking to Orlando, "I'm sorry sir, but I make it appoint to never speak to demons without an agreed circle." Faust always gets devoured by his own demons in the end.
Don't get me wrong, a loa can totally ruin your day if you mistreat it, but most loa don't start a relationship off with the intent of eventually damning your soul to unending torment. At the end of the day though, a loa who you've kept your promises to can be the best thing to go to sleep next to.
It wasnt too long in my experimentations with voodoo before i tried applying it to other things. Turns out treating Shakyamuni buddha like a loa is the best thing I ever did. For me, Shakyamuni is the buddha-loa of astral travel, watching over those in trance, protecting their bodies, and the parts of the soul the sorcerer self leaves behind when traveling. Buddha-loas work amazingly as medicine buddhas, watching over different organs and different humors, as well as allowing for the practices of enacting their different provinces as a dedicated ritual to them. Hatha yoga becomes a ritual enaction of the buddha-loa who you've correlated it to.
I'm not to big on Legba, I use Maman Brijit as my point of penetration into the greater mysteries. |
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