Editor's note: This is one of those posts where I am going wayyyyy out on a limb (sound of cartoon branch being sawn off); and if it's not to your liking, just pass on it and keep on going – it’s not for everyone, that’s for sure. And on some levels, I don't even know what I'm talking about here…
But that’s the great thing about wacky spiritual stuff: neither does anyone else, really. (A childhood friend -- now a world-renowned religion expert and college professor, but who I know from elementary, jr. high and high school, plus Sunday school for all those years -- sets the “religion status” on his Facebook profile to “confused” – because, frankly, who isn’t. Even the experts, really.)
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The collisions between the sacred, or spiritual world -- and the material world in which we typically feel more at home -- can be surprising and even sometimes humorous when they arise.
A previous "party hearty" roommate -- whose sophisticated, wealthy, and even extremely well-educated family on one side came from Latin America, on the other side, from the Indian subcontinent -- kept both traditions alive when she'd take off her religious medals, that she usually wore around her neck, and lay them face down on the dresser, apparently so they couldn't "see" what she was up to, when she engaged in any non-G-related activities with her, erm, gentlemen callers. I used to think this was pretty hilarious stuff -- who, after all, were they going to tell? -- but she was way superstitious about it, and not to be trifled with, on the matter (just in case).
Another friend, an African educated at fine schools in England and the U.S., who is now a college professor in the Boston area -- though not the religion professor mentioned elsewhere -- has a mother who is both a tribal elder who practices magic, and a more traditionally-trained M.D. Somehow, she has found a way to reconcile the two sides of her nature, or at least reach a meaningful truce between them. Andrew Weil, M.D., famous worldwide as a classically-trained M.D., (Harvard Medical School), studied ethnobotany and shamanistic cultures prior to dispensing advice on what's good for what ails ya -- because he understood that the modernized Western world is not really where you go first if you're interested in learning traditional spiritual wisdom, as indigenous cultures still practice it.
Ready to step off the spiritual cliff, or slide on the spiritual banana peel (though ideally with better consequences)? This is highly subjective stuff here -- not the white-washed church and steeple of your youth -- but that alone doesn't make it particularly wrong, or right, either. Try the garment on for size, so to speak, reject it if it doesn't fit you personally; and, as with most things in life -- to mix a metaphor -- be aware that "your mileage may vary."
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I was having a conversation the other day with a friend, telling her about a Vietnam veteran I know who has regular visitations from two of the many people he killed in combat.
(And by many, I mean more than 50, mostly at point-blank range. If that wouldn't mess with your head, I'm not sure what would.) Of course, the apparitions he experiences as nightmares and hallucinations are "visions" that drive him to distraction -- but he also experiences them as real people, who on some level he "knows," if only because of their regular appearance in his life over all these years. They seem to have attached themselves to him, personally, not where he lives, and have in fact "moved houses" with him several times over the years. He rarely gets any peace from them at all; except sometimes in church. These people who he killed in combat, now seem to appear to him in spirit form, where they menace and trouble him seemingly from beyond the grave. Their constant visits are a continual and draining reminder of dark days from his past long ago, and of course also a direct reminder that years ago, he took their lives, very personally for them (and for him.) Over the past four decades since Vietnam, he's spent so much time in their company, in fact, that he's given them names: we'll call them "the Dark Lady" and "Nguyen" here for our purposes.
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The Dark Lady was a cigarette smoker, in her time; not so sure I know much in the identifying characterist department about Nguyen, except that he was a good fighter, and dangerous. Both were highly treacherous individuals in life, and seem – at least in this veteran’s experience – to have carried those traits over into the afterlife (or into his hallucinations of same, since intrinsically it’s hard to clarify the difference between the two. The two states may be one and the same, after all Again, who will ever know.)
The friend I asked about his situation is from a different cultural background, a Caribbean nation in which the spirit world is considered to exist on a fairly parallel level to our own at all times, with frequent intersections of the two. I’ve seen her go through some experiences, which I won’t go into here, where strange and magical things were accomplished by specific spiritual interventions, that cleared up some amorphous but troubling situations in her and her family's lives, as well as that of close friends of hers, who I've also known or known about. She seemed like just the girl to ask.
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I laid out the situation as best I understood it, then asked her what people in her culture would do if they were faced with a situation like this. The approach she described was what we might call, in the Christian tradition, "setting a table for one's enemies" -- and as she talked, the wisdom of the approach became more clear.
Her culture's take on this would be, that evil spirits like the Dark Lady and Nguyen were still "hanging around," because there was something they wanted from the person, some business they still had to transact (I'm paraphrasing) with those they haunted. She said her culture would make an effort to "honor" these "evil" spirits, by essentially, trying to figure out what they wanted from you, and then taking pains to honor them, in as sincere a way as would be appropriate, under the circumstances -- choosing rituals, ceremonies or objects that would convey acknowledgement, honor or respect. (The goal, after all, is trying to get them to leave. You're simply (and sincerely) making as nice as you can, until they do.)
She said in her culture’s magical/spiritual tradition, called Santeria, that might mean laying out an offering to them, in a special location in the house, perhaps on a table. Lighting a candle for them (individually, I’m assuming); setting out a glass of water; doing something personal to dedicate the space to them; to acknowledge them in a way that might be meaningful. In the case of the Dark Lady, we’re assuming laying out a pack of cigarettes (no, we’re not joking. This is wild stuff – just roll with it.) If memory serves, just creating this “sacred space” to honor the spirits in transition, or whatever euphemism we choose to use here, apparently helps. It may need to be done a few times, over the course of some time, but apparently it makes a difference – if only, and we insert this phrase to satisfy the skeptics (except that they can never be satisfied, by definition, so what’s the point?!) – to calm and appease (and set at peace) the one creating the ceremony.
A lawyer friend, we won’t name names, has made a career out of bringing “ritual and ceremony” into the practice of law, which has frankly been bereft of those. It’s very right-brain thinking in a very left-brain profession, but think of the number of important areas of life where “ritual and ceremony” are completely devoid. Marriages, funerals, first communions, and school graduations are about it. Other profoundly meaning transitions -- divorce, the signing of a will -- have no ceremonies at all to mark their passage. The participants are left completely on their own to wing it -- and hope that the passage from one state to another, or the gift -- makes sense. That's how it is in America, but in much of the rest of the world, ritual and ceremony are cornerstones – and touchstones - for the community and its integrated life.
Ever eaten out at an Asian restaurant, and notice off in the background or a corner, a little shrine set up for the protective saints and spirits? (Okay, that's a nail salon in Florida pictured at right, but it's the same difference.)
Integrating the spiritual world with the tactile, experiential world is not a foreign concept to most of the world’s people, although it is to us. When all else fails, it might make sense to explore some seemingly wacky stuff that nevertheless brings comfort and even sometimes spiritual breakthroughs to people so much less sophisticated than we allegedly are.
Of course, said my friend, if this quasi-reverential approach doesn’t work, over time, to get the spirits to leave the premises -- which might happen if they are particularly strong, or particularly evil (though she suggests trying, first) -- it might be time to take it up a notch, and consult what amounts to a shaman, from her culture, who can do his “magic” at a little heavier level. Understood :-)
Time to call in the spiritual Mafia…who don’t take no for an answer. (They'll make the "evil spirits" an offer they can't refuse? Actually, it sounds more pedestrian than that -- sounding like wise negotiators and mediators, they interview the disturbing spirits about what it would take to satisfy them and get them to leave, and then clear the premises of any vestiges of them. Sign me up :-)
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For the rest of us, who aren’t familiar at all with the concept of “space clearing,” it was popularized in the West in the 1990s by authors like Denise Linn and Karen Kingston, who wrote the seminal (for this field) Creating Sacred Space With Feng Shui. Kingston learned her trade on the island nation of Bali, where spirituality is fully (and some say, beautifully) integrated with everyday life. (Read the New York Times bestseller, Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, for further confirmation of this. The author spends a third of her book in Bali, and can hardly pry herself away it’s such a marvelous experience. Neither could the famous religion professor, mentioned above, who recently traveled there as well.)
Energetic space clearing is based on the principles of Feng Shui – another litmus test for people’s beliefs, either pro or con. Feng Shui is well-known in Asia, particularly China and Hong Kong, where it has been practiced for centuries. (Think of it as a form of environmental acupuncture, moving energy and getting rid of blockages.) There's ritual and ceremony involved: hands claps, bells ring, sage bundles smudge, and what's happening, in theory, bad energy is cleared out, and a protective "shield" of good energy is created around the subject and/or his or her family's living environment or work space. Like the taste of cilantro or the scent of Patchouli, of course, this concept isn't for everyone -- but it has its adherents, as casual or as dedicated as they may be.
The idea seems to be, in short and very abbreviated/non-expert fashion here (read the Kingston book for more details on how it's actually done) -- do a spiritual perimeter walk, cleanse the living environment of energetic blocks (though specific means detailed in the book, etc.), and "clean" or "clear" the energy in the environment to create a more peaceful, harmonious atmosphere within the space.
In mild situations, and maybe just as a precursor thing to do even in more severe situations, it could be interesting to try on an experimental basis, being careful to follow the suggested instructions. For all we know, it might produce a positive change. Certainly its adherents believe that it does:
Denise Linn says she “cried out” excitedly upon entering a room at a conference where both she and Karen Kingston were to speak, adding, “I was startled by the profound change in the energy” that had taken place in the room, since she had last set foot into it, a short time before. She explained,
"The room no longer felt heavy and depressing. Even though none of the physical objects had been moved, the entire room [now] sparkled with light and energy. It was quite remarkable. Karen very quietly stepped forward and explained that she had been Space Clearing the room. ‘The energy shift is incredible,’ I told her. [To which Kingston responded, essentially, “but I’m only halfway through it!”]
A few years ago, I had the chance to stay for an extended period of time in a house which had a marvelously calm and peaceful “energy” about it, and which provided many soothing nights' sleep. Unbeknownst to me initially, after talking with the owner I learned that Karen Kingston herself had “space cleared” that particular house, soon after the current owner had just purchased it -- both to "clear" the negative energy associated with the previous owners, as well as to establish a calming, positive, enhancing energy for the house's new inhabitants. Real or imaginary, the “results” were incredibly pleasing, soothing and restful -- and noticeable.
The principles of space clearing, which can be learned from Kingston’s book, are perhaps too New Agey for some – but here’s the interesting thing – they’re also considered quite ancient to others, in other cultures. Who knows who’s right in this equation – the important thing is finding out whether these concepts have any validity in your own life. Proceed with all necessary caution and wisdom, but don’t fail to look into them, either, just because they’re unfamiliar or not what you grew up with. You might just be missing out on a better night's sleep, or more peaceful surroundings for you and your personal life, or your family life. And to that we say, "good night!"
