Oral hygiene, the mouth, divination and working with the dead

Spiritual hygiene such as cleansings was given an introduction in a previous blogpost.
As well another blogpost covered how the dead can affect a living persons physical health.

Looking at the liver of a sacrificed or animal killed to divine a physical illness, often the entrails or gut and liver of the animal was looked at. This often would show negative energy removed from a person or divinatory information. Likewise the gut, liver and intestines of a person are often affected by negative energy.
Bowels have been related metaphorically to lower realms or "hell" where there is the stench of sulfur, feces/excrement and to lower energetic frequency.

The other area is the bones and teeth related to saturnine aspects of the dead, the material and death...a skeleton.
Omens such as dreaming of teeth falling out is said to portend a death in the family.

The mouth and teeth are related to digestion and our ability to nourish ourself for health and life to eat to take in energy. If we do not eat we do not live and will waste away as if something was feeding on our energy. As well as to express and defend ourself "tooth and nail". We may not be literally biting people but if we look at symbolism and how that plays out on energetic realms such as with totems and the use of animal parts in folk magic such as horn and fang in protection and warrior traditions, it also relates to being a human/animal in warfare or fight and flight.

With divination in the ATRS (african religions) many refresh their shells used for divination with coconut water and cleanse the instruments with cigar smoke. The devices are instructed that the mouths of the shells, or tarot cards used speak truthfully and accurately. This is done in some Yoruban faiths because misfortune causes the divination devices to be inaccurate unless they are cleansed. One Espiritismo Cruzado prayer of tobacco, asks that may the spirits that speak through the sacred smoke of this tobacco... and through the spiritual fluids communicate as such with purity.

In Palo, a communal drink of chamba is used for several reasons. One being practical to decrease illness by cleansing the mouth, sickness believed to be caused by bad spirits. The drink contains antimicrobial substances like alcohol/rum steeped with ingredients such as hot peppers, ginger and garlic. Some recipes contain bone powder and sticks from different species and is made or human consumption or for feeding items and spirits only. It is buried in the earth, a tomb to absorb the energies of the universe and the ground. Chamba again has many applications, but it is believed the dead can cause cavities and residue from their energy can rot inside holes in the teeth. Coconut products were also possibly used as daily routine in personal care, such as with oil pulling in the mouth which is spat out after swishing for minutes.

Despite not having modern dentistry many areas of the world with tropical climates did not have as many dental problems as we see in modern cities. Natural products like these were used in traditional medicines and preventative remedies....
Still, it is a good idea to be up on your regular care and appointments.

Chamba drink is swallowed and is also a form of internal cleansing against witchcraft affecting the body, or if injested in our food that someone laced with witchcraft. In days of slavery poisons, insects, dirts etc were often put in rivals and slavemasters food and drink. Popular today is a love spell where women put heir menstral blood in their mens food like spaghetti sauce to try to dominate them and ensure fidelity. So be careful about who you accept food and gifts from! This is why some will not accept or have prohibitions on leaving drinks around especially dark drinks that can mask what people have put in.

My post on Mama Juana describes a Caribbean native medicinal drink made to also cleanse the body of witchcraft as well as detox the gut, liver and gallbladder area, and can help many disease process. Detox of the body is a good idea in general to help elevate your energy, increase spiritual faculties and health.

You can also do this with coffee fixed how you like or dandelion root tea sweetened with honey, as it is bitters and a digestive tract cleanse. It is dark in color and therefore is good for "banishing" or cleansing. Speak and pray over it to intend to cleanse your digestive intestinal organs and body, to remove any negativity, sorcery, witchcraft and stagnation before drinking. To make a ritual of it light a white tea light candle along with your beverage.

Myself I spray rum with my mouth to clean areas and feed and connect with spirits and use my energy, there is a great supply of personal power of Ashe upon the saliva. Often times sweat/scent or unbrushed mouth has a persons energy connected to it so spirits can find you faster with Vodou, or with bad spirits, which is why we change our clothes, linens and do spiritual breakings and cleansings with worn dirty clothing.

But also make a point to brush my teeth before misa or when I know I will be speaking during spiritual readings so that I too may speak via spirit and work cleanly and speak accurately to remove obstacles to our work with higher entities.

The mouth is a gateway or portal. The holy spirit and gift of tongues are mentioned many times in the bible, and about the mouth of God, and even in genesis how the spoken word leads to creation or manifestation from the spiritual to the physical world. The mouth is an opening and energy center of the body, blood circulation under the tongue supplies ready energy to the breath, along with the lungs during speech to create a vibrational current, and in the use of breath in spiritual works to charge and awaken such as blowing Vodou powders to the 4 winds.



For what is the language of the birds? It is not literally understanding a bird chirping..hahaha The birds carry our prayers to the spirits in our ceremony, the feathers and wings are metaphors of airy spirit flight.
It is to speak and communicate with spirit(s). And there are much deeper secrets than these.

Mar 16:17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

John 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them,and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

I will also wash my hands if a bath for some reason was not performed with florida water.
There are certain Lwa who will not touch earth in their horses, nor interact with the community unless strict cleanliness has been observed.

Hope that these words have been illuminating for you,
until next time,
Sancista Siete Enruzhiladas

The dead can feed off the living

Recently I have seen some pretty irresponsible "blood magic" in which individuals give their own blood to various spirits such as the random dead.

In one of these public cases their apprentice suffered organ failure and left as one of the reasons. In another case the person practicing hoodoo and supposedly Haitian family Voudou lineage doesn't believe that the dead can decrease your life force, but published conversations with their neopagan friend stating how they are an energy vampire feeding off others, and church functions. As well this person who works with the general dead had situations where a spirit held down their husband in bed. In another case, a well practiced individual does this responsibly with Goetic spirits and has a way to seal this connection off involved in contracts. So what is the mechanism for attack besides a malevolent dead slapping, tripping or scratching a person directly or just influencing their mind? If we believe a living human can take others energy why cannot the disincarnate.

It is generally well documented how ghosts can physically manifest and attack the living. Rarely deaths are attributed besides manipulating the victim. Some people claim they have white hairs at a young age from ghost fright. It is also a widely held belief that ghosts can feed off of negative energy or emotions and thus provoke fear in the individual. It has been evident that ghosts can use electrical equipment, or batteries as a power source to grow stronger and use this energy to manifest or communicate. So the dead can also use neutral or positive forms of energy such as a candle, or an excited crowd at the stadium.

While this post is not about blood offering, animals are given in african traditions and I have never seen or heard of people otherwise using their own blood. I have seen a video of a man who sung to a chicken in West Africa and it died as the spirit was taken. Personally I know that there is a song sung in Palo for the spirits to come and take the rooster without having to cut it in sacrifice over the nganga spiritual cauldren, also called a prenda. Pets that inadvertently touch it have been known to occasionally die. This is a taking of life and thus life force.When blood or food is offered to spirits, they eat the energy of it, not physically unless in physical mediumship of the body of the practitioner, but I have seen water glasses appear as if they have been drank from. The community then may eat the animal that was sacrificed if it has not been used for cleansing a person.The spirit does not necessarily drink blood like water, but the life energy on it, such as bringing life to or raising the dead.

Voudou is not for cursing as it is a religion of light, but there does exist an african practice of what can be considered folk magic of sending out the dead: known as envoi mort, expidition expedite to the Haitians. This can be done for any number of reasons both positive such as healing, somewhat neutral such as information gathering or negative. This is usually done under one of the Barons of the ghede, the more congo sorcery based Bokor traditions, the nfumbe in Palo or working with the anima sola or intraquil dead.

Taken from the bohemian blog

Oya/Yansa with Chango

As afro spiritualism such as Espiritismo combines the foundation of Kardecian euro spiritism, there are shared philosophies. It is believed that the soul can seperate from the personality. The spirit if earthbound is desperate and needs an energy source to maintain itself or face dissolution, and is unlikely to receive veneration. The energy field or peri-spirit envelope of the medium is used or some borrowed or siphoned by the dead to better come through and be able to communicate made up of spiritual fluids from the universal fluids of which the ghost and incarnate is made up from. Mediumship can be an exhaustive practice such as very active dreams or physical trance mediumship aka"possession". There is a saying of 3 drops of blood, that some of your life is taken by this practice. Healing hand passes also work on the principle of magnetism and adding or removing energy on ones body.

 Marefun Shango

Some people, especially physically active projective men have an abundance of virile magical life force or what they call in the Yoruban traditions "ashe" and may not notice this slow drain or as it becomes replaced or as some have an energy work practice of a way of storing and raising it in their spiritual bodies. Keeping the central channel strong, clean and centered or balanced also affords one some protection, as part of many cultures energy practices. The young, elderly, household animals or sick are thus more vulnerable.This could be partially why there are some taboos against working with certain spirits while woman are menstruating as the blood is attractive, a ready source, and prolonged bleeding or pain can result.

When one is said to have a spirit attachment what then is the mechanism of attack? Ill health is said to result from attacks such as diagnosable or especially undiagnosed or unimproved medical conditions as the underlying problem. The teeth have to be properly cared for, such as using good oral health care and coconut pulling to prevent this opening via cavities and gum bleeding. The teeth are symbolic as a mechanism of defense, and the ability of an organism to take in sustenance, feeding or nutrition for life. Any conditions such as mental problems can result or be aggravated impacting daily life.

The intestines or gallbladder and liver area may show signs of attack. The visceral organs of sacrificed animals were removed and divined as a seat of spirit after sacrifice by the Babylonians, Grecoromans, and Britons by reading the messages, energies and conditions. The Chinese also view this as an area symptomatic of spiritual attack. It is known to the Vedics as the solar plexus and point of distribution of life and spiritual energy. The Nahuatl in MesoAmerica view this energy as solar and linked to the parts of the soul, temperature and heat, life force in the blood, disease, aging and death called tonalli which resides and is divided into several areas of the body, such as the crown of the head, the heart and blood, the liver, and every living thing as well as ritual objects. Nicholas Frisvold on his blog serpent shed states, "and ihiyotl, the life force, resides in the liver, and is very much the province of La Negra", referring to an aspect of La Santisma Muerte. As the victim loses the ability to sustain themself, they lose energy, are lethargic, and further lose the ability to defend themself if the disease state and vampirism progresses. It can be difficult, especially for the lay person to remove a serious spiritual attachment.

The "aura" or energy shield around a person can indicate vitality, energy type and health of a person by those who have clairvoyance or the sight. It can be developed and strong, or weak. We actually have layers of energy bodies, but most people have heard of the astral body or dream body. This moon area is corresponded to the genital area. Although the dead are not strictly astral, some of them can hang out in the lower realm of it. Some cultures do associate the moon with the dead, as it is the heavenly representation at night, the opposite of life; the sun by day.

Sleep paralysis might just be part of a abnormal process of the sleep state. However many report presence of an entity or entities or implied malevolent spiritual source such as shadow people. This has been mythologically associated with succubus and incubus or witches sitting on the chest. It is viewed as spiritual attack and domination. The spirits can also feed off of sexual energy. Poltergeist activity is enhanced around sensitive people, repressed negativity, and teenagers when their hormones and sexual energy is potent and they are still relatively open and undeveloped. Life and life force is undeniably linked to sexual energy. The shape-shifting astral or dream attack can be symbolized as a bat, a vampiric, night flying creature. Some may say, these are not necessarily living or dead humans, but there is little spiritual difference. The dead can change their appearance at will. What some call demons are just different classes of spirits, including the dead who are misunderstood or angry, appearing and acting daemonic.

Some people have felt cold or hot energy spots or chills in the environment, and attribute this commonly to presence of the dead. Spirits actually show up as hot spots using heat readings of ghost hunting equipment. Like when you put on your jacket too long before going out in the winter, or coming out of a hot shower, the surrounding temperature feels colder than it is. The ghosts draw off energy and it feels cold as you lose energy like condensation of water of the outside of a cold glass in warmer ambient temperature like swamp coolers. When you feel hot or agitated the spirit is actually even more very close to you and overlapping your energy fluids and body.

When there is ritual tattoo, scarification or cutting, it impacts the spiritual body as a marking. There needs to be an opening or a carving or hollowing out of a space for something to be placed within. And such is also true on crowning or when the head is opened and then closed for spirit placement in initiations. The Yorubans have this Orisha and concept of the head and consciousness as Ori as a seat of luck and guidance, also connected to divination of the kola nut Obi. Later some people changed this to the coconut shell rounds instead.

By creating an open wound or cut upon the body, and then inviting and opening oneself up to the malevolent dead, disastrous consequences can result. Some people want to give their blood to their ancestors, but are often not informed to cleanse and dedicate the space to only the good elevated ones. Connecting to the ancestors I suppose can be done someway with blood safely, but as a continual practice of offering, I personally feel it is inappropriate. There needs to be a trained way to close the door to the random unelevated dead, and their access to you. Banishing pentagrams are seen as an astral practice as I was taught in ceremonial magick, and thus ineffective against the dead.

Malevolent dead can masquerade as other spirits, and even advanced mediums can be wrong. Giving your own blood to spirits is a European idea in terms of pacts, and would as offerings also historically sacrifice animals. Human blood is not given to the Lwa in Voudou, or our spiritually evolved disincarnate spirit guides in spiritualism or Espiritismo, such as La madama commission group of spirits. Traditions where this was possibly practiced in the past have now taken vows against this or evolved to now take animals or plant substances as sacrifice. I cannot speak for Palo Mayombe, but if this is done it is likely the very very extremely minuscule small minority, such as sporadically seen in South America with drug lords and not a standard practice. Like dogs that have to be put down once they have killed and tasted human blood uncommanded, why do you want to look like a tasty cheeseburger to the spirits? We bear responsibility to our spirits as well as ourself for elevation. In spiritualism we believe negative spirits are suffering and need charity and compassion as well as a firm hand and personal boundaries.

Intranquil dead, anima solas"lonely souls", zombie astral, or earthbound spirits can be increasingly demanding and cause harm to you and people around you, and working with them at all is very dangerous unless you are highly trained to work with them. They are the dead who likely died in violence or suicide, or cannot move on due to perceived wrongs or willful placement. Most highly trained people who do this will not do this work in their home lest they become a haunted person or have items or their house contaminated. Novices who dabble in such dirty work or neopagan authors who put out superficial information do not even know or teach how to cleanse themselves or teach safety about the cemetery or necromancy for prevention around these acts. Being baptised or initiated in these african traditions, and having the head sealed and connected to higher spirits affords us a measure of protection, or an understanding with the dead. We still take precautions and have our good spirits as protection. Some people are born or have anima solas in their spiritual court or frame that aren't necessarily evil, but they must be assisted and dealt with.

Note: I am not a Palera nor an initiate in the Lucumi faiths, I am trying to illustrate the spiritualist viewpoint, specifically afro spiritualism of Espiritismo and Sanse using my interpretations of these cultural expressions, so please ask a priest/ess in those aforementioned traditions for more religion specific questions or clarifications.

Until next time,
S7X