In this article,
Blavatsky under the pseudonym of “Tau-Triadelta,” reveals some aspects of the magic that is practiced in
Africa:
Before we enter into the subject of
the occult art as practised on the West Coast of Africa, it will be well to
clear the ground by first considering for a moment what we mean by the
much-abused term "Magic."
There are many definitions of this
word; and, in bygone ages, it was simply used to designate anything and
everything which was "not understanded of the vulgar." It will be
sufficient for our purpose to define it as the knowledge of certain natural
laws which are not merely unknown but absolutely unsuspected by the scientists
of Europe and America.
It is a recognized fact that no law
of Nature can be — even for a single moment — abrogated. When, therefore, this
appears to us to be the case — when, for instance, such a universally known law
as that of the attraction of gravitation seems to be annihilated, we must
recognize the fact that there may be other laws at present unknown to Western
science which have the power of overriding and suspending for the time being the
action of the known law.
The knowledge of these hidden laws
is what we understand by the term occult science, or magic. And there is no
other magic than this, and never has been, at any period of the world's
history. All the so-called "miracles" of ancient times can be and are
reproduced at the present day by magists when occasion requires. An act of
magic is a pure scientific feat, and must not be confounded with legerdemain or
trickery of any kind.
There are several schools of magism,
all proceeding and operating on entirely different lines. The principal of
these, and on whose philosophy all others are founded, are the Hindu; the Tibetan,
the Egyptian (including the Arab) and the Obeeyan or Voodoo.
The last named is entirely and
fundamentally opposed to the other three: it having its root and foundation in
necromancy or "black magic," while the others all operate either by
means of what is known to experts as "white magic," or in other cases
by "psychologizing" the spectator.
And, a whole crowd of spectators can
be psychologized and made at the will of the operator to see and feel whatever
things he chooses, all the time being in full possession of their ordinary
faculties. Thus, perhaps a couple of travelling fakirs give their performance
in your own compound or in the garden of your bungalow.
They erect a small tent and tell you
to choose any animal which you wish to see emerge there from. Many different
animals are named in rotation by the bystanders, and in every case the desired
quadruped, be he tiger or terrier dog, comes out of the opening in the canvas
and slowly marches off until he disappears round some adjacent corner.
Well, this is done simply by
"psychologizing," as are all the other great Indian feats, such as
"the basket trick" "the mango tree," throwing a rope in the
air and climbing up it, pulling it up and disappearing in space, and the
thousand and one other similar performances which are "familiar as
household words" to almost every Anglo-Indian.
The difference between these schools
and that of the Voodoo or Obeeyah is very great, because in them there is a
deception or want of reality in the performance. The spectator does not really
see what he fancies he sees: his mind is simply impressed by the operator and
the effect is produced. But in African magic, on the contrary, there is no will
impression: the observer does really and actually see what is taking place. The
force employed by the African necromancers is not psychological action but
demonosophy.
White magists have frequently
dominated and employed inferior spirits to do their bidding, as well as invoked
the aid of powerful and beneficent ones to carry out their purposes. But this
is an entirely different thing: The spirits which are naturally maleficent
become the slaves of the magist, and he controls them and compels them to carry
out his beneficent plans. The necromancer, or votary of black magic, is, on the
contrary, the slave of the evil spirit to whom he has given himself up.
While the philosophy of the magist
demands a life of the greatest purity and the practice of every virtue, while
he must utterly subdue and have in perfect control all his desires and
appetites, mental and physical, and must become simply an embodied intellect,
absolutely purged from all human weakness and pusillanimity, the necromancer
must outrage and degrade human nature in every way conceivable.
The very least of the crimes
necessary for him (or her) to commit to attain the power sought is actual
murder, by which the human victim essential to the sacrifice is provided. The
human mind can scarcely realize or even imagine one tithe of the horrors and
atrocities actually performed by the Obeeyah women.
Yet, though the price is awful,
horrible, unutterable, the power is real. There is no possibility of mistake
about that. Every petty king on the West Coast has his "rain-maker."
It is the fashion among travelers, and the business of the missionaries, to
ridicule and deny the powers of these people. But they do possess and do
actually use the power of causing storms of rain, wind, and lightning.
When one considers that however
ignorant and brutal a savage may be, yet that he has an immense amount of
natural cunning, and his very ignorance makes him believe nothing that cannot
be proved to him, no "rain-maker" could live for one year unless he
gave repeated instances of his powers when required by the king. Failure would
simply mean death. And the hypothesis that they only work their conjurations
when the weather is on the point of change is only an invention of the
missionaries.
The native chiefs are, like all
savages, able to detect an approaching change of weather many hours before it
takes place. And is it at all likely that they would send for the rain-maker
and give him sufficient cattle to last him for twelve months, besides wives and
other luxuries, if there were the slightest appearance of approaching rain?
I remember well my first experience
of these wizards. For weeks and weeks there had been no rain, although it was
the rainy season. The mealies were all dying for want of water; the cattle were
being slaughtered in all directions; women and children had died by scores, and
the fighting men were beginning to do the same, being themselves scarcely more
than skeletons. Day after day, the sun glared down on the parched earth,
without one intervening cloud, like a globe of glowing copper, and all Nature
languished in that awful furnace.
Suddenly the king ordered the great
war drum to be beaten, and the warriors all gathered hurriedly. He announced
the arrival of two celebrated rain-makers, who would forthwith proceed to relieve
the prevailing distress.
The elder of the two was a stunted,
bow-legged little man, with wool which would have been white had it not been
messed up with grease, filth and feathers. The second was rather a fine
specimen of the Soosoo race, but with a very sinister expression.
A large ring being formed by the
squatting warriors, who came — for some unknown reason — all armed to the
teeth, the king being in the centre, and the rain-makers in front of him, they
commenced their incantations.
The zenith and the horizon were
eagerly examined from time to time, but not a vestige of a cloud appeared.
Presently the elder man rolled on the ground in convulsions, apparently
epileptic, and his comrade started to his feet pointing with both hands to the
copper-colored sky. All eyes followed his gesture, and looked at the spot to
which his hands pointed, but nothing was visible.
Motionless as a stone statue he
stood with gaze riveted on the sky. In about the space of a minute a darker
shade was observable in the copper tint, in another minute it grew darker and
darker, and, in a few more seconds developed into a black cloud, which soon
overspread the heavens. In a moment, a vivid flash was seen, and the deluge
that fell from that cloud, which had now spread completely overhead, was
something to be remembered. For two days and nights that torrent poured down,
and seemed as if it would wash everything out of the ground.
After the king had dismissed the
rain-makers, and they had deposited the cattle and presents under guard, I
entered the hut in which they were lodged, and spent the night with them,
discussing the magical art. The hut was about fourteen feet in diameter,
strongly built of posts driven firmly into the ground, and having a strong
thatched conical roof. I eventually persuaded them to give me one or two
examples of their skill.
They began singing, or rather
crooning, a long invocation, after a few minutes of which the younger man appeared
to rise in the air about three feet from the ground and remain there
unsuspended, and floating about. There was a brilliant light in the hut from a
large fire in the centre, so that the smallest detail could be distinctly
observed. I got up and went to feel the man in the air, and there was no doubt
about his levitation.
He then floated close to the wall
and passed through it to the outside. I made a dash for the doorway, which was
on the opposite side of the hut, and looked round for him. I saw a luminous
figure which appeared like a man rubbed with phosphorised oil; but I was glad
to rapidly take shelter from the torrents of rain.
When I re-entered the hut, there was
only the old man present. I examined the logs carefully, but there was no
aperture whatever. The old man continued his chant, and in another moment his
comrade re-appeared floating in the air. He sat down on the ground, and I saw
his black skin glistening with rain, and the few rags he wore were as wet as if
he had been dipped in a river.
The next feat was performed by the
old man, and consisted in several instantaneous disappearances and
reappearances. The curious point about this was that the old man also was
dripping wet.
Following this was a very
interesting exhibition. By the old man's directions we arranged ourselves round
the fire at the three points of an imaginary triangle. The men waved their
hands over the fire in rhythm with their chant when dozens of tic-polongas, the
most deadly serpent in Africa, slowly crawled out from the burning embers, and
interlacing themselves together whirled in a mad dance on their tails round the
fire, making all the while a continuous hissing.
At the word of command they all
sprang into the fire and disappeared. The young man then came round to me, and,
kneeling down, opened his mouth, out of which the head of a tic-polonga was
quickly protruded. He snatched it out, pulling a serpent nearly three feet long
out of his throat, and threw it also into the fire. In rapid succession he drew
seven serpents from his throat, and consigned them all to the same fiery end.
But I wanted to know what they could
do in the way of evocation of spirits. The incantation this time lasted nearly
twenty minutes, when, rising slowly from the fire, appeared a human figure, a
man of great age, a white man too, but absolutely nude. I put several questions
to him, but obtained no reply. I arose and walked round the fire, and
particularly noticed a livid scar on his back. I could get no satisfactory
explanation of who he was, but they seemed rather afraid of him, and had
evidently — from the remarks they interchanged — expected to see a black man.
After the appearance of this white
man, I could not persuade them that night to attempt anything more, although
the next night I had no difficulty with them. A most impressive feat, which
they on a subsequent occasion performed, was the old custom of the priests of
Baal. Commencing a lugubrious chant they slowly began circling around the fire
(which said fire always is an essential part of the proceedings), keeping a
certain amount of rhythm in both their movements and cadences.
Presently, the movement grew faster
and faster till they whirled round like dancing dervishes. There were two
distinct movements; all the time during which they were gyrating round the
circle, they were rapidly spinning on their own axes. With the rapidity of
their evolutions their voices were raised higher and higher until the din was
terrific. Then, by a simultaneous movement, each began slashing his naked body
on arms, chest, and thighs, until they were streaming with blood and covered
with deep gashes.
Then the old man stopped his erratic
course, and sitting down on the ground narrowly watched the younger one with
apparent solicitude. The young man continued his frantic exertions until
exhausted Nature could bear no more, and he fell panting and helpless on the
ground. The old man took both the knives and anointed the blades with some evil
smelling grease from a calabash, and then stroked the young man's body all over
with the blade which had done the injuries, and finished the operation by
rubbing him vigorously with the palms of the hands smeared with the unguent.
In a few minutes time the young man
arose, and there was not the slightest trace of wound or scar in his ebony
skin. He then performed the same good offices on the old man with the same
effect. Within ten minutes afterwards they were both laid on their mats in a
sweet and quiet sleep. In this performance there were many invocations,
gestures, the circular fire, and other things which satisfied me that some
portion, at all events, of the magical processes of West Africa had been handed
down from the days when Baal was an actual God, and mighty in the land.
(Lucifer, November, 1890, p.231-234)
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