Time isn’t real. It’s an illusion crafted by the living, a fleeting measurement that spirits transcend as they dance beyond the boundaries of seconds, centuries, and everything in between. To immortals, time is something that simply does not exist because it does not affect their reality. They can simply drift and exist as far and as long as they want. Time is something that only becomes real from the perspective of mortal beings because they have a fleeting experience and need to measure this experience. There is more to this conversation than just measuring how long one will live, there is also an understanding of how the universe works and how the mind perceives the universe around it. This can even be confirmed in many ways when we think of the living versus the dead and their interaction with time itself.

To understand how time is not real you have to understand that there are beings in this universe that are immortal and have no pre-determined end. There is something to be highlighted here because for all the belief and faith people may have in higher beings and the agreement in naming them higher beings, they still seem to attribute very mortal features to them and fail to grasp how different these beings truly are. This is due to most people only being able to perceive what their minds can grasp and since their grasp on the scale of the universe is miniscule, their understanding of these beings also seems to be miniscule. Think of higher beings that are not incarnated living beings, they are bodies of energy. These bodies of energy can just exist, forever, uninterrupted. There is no aging, there is no distance too far, there is no time too long. They can just go and be there. Some would say this is something that is exclusive to God and for the most part, we would agree. The difference is the understanding that God is not just a single energy, it is also the sum of all energy. To clarify, the source of energy is an energy itself but it is also all energy combined. With that understanding, now ask yourself. Have you ever seen electricity and thought “Nah this is old electricity, I want newer electricity?” Nobody gives the attribute of age to electricity because it is an energy and it does not experience time. One can attribute pulses, speeds of travel etc. to electricity and those are measured by someone that is incarnate and therefore mortal because mortals experience and measure these things.

Mortals measure everything, it is part of our mortality to always question and seek to understand our mortality as well as everything around us. To the extent that we have even become arrogant in our belief that everything revolves around us. We can observe these patterns on a smaller scale with smaller subgroups of mortals that have commonalities and believing that because they have these commonalities everyone else may have them. They simply cannot see outside of themselves. For example, a group of truckers can be robbed and from their experience can believe that every other car on the road is being driven by thieves. From their perspective, every other car is thieves. It cannot be helped, they cannot be reasoned with because this is simply their experience and they are unable to see beyond it. The same is true with mortals measuring time. We cannot see beyond the measurement of time because this is our experience and in our arrogance, we believe this to be the experience of everything else. To that end, we even believe time to be a universal thing that everything is held to. Spirits, for example, are not mortals. They are bodies of energy, they do not experience time, they do not age, they do not have a measurement for their own mortality because they are not mortals. So then what exactly is time? It is a measurement between moments that gives us an understanding of how much of our mortality has been lost to arrive from one moment to another.

So then if spirits do not experience time, why do they speak about time when they speak to us? Because they understand that in our current state as mortals, we cannot see beyond our own mortality and we cannot understand what it means to not have time. Their measurements of time are simply guesses as to what we experience as measurements of time. Their measurements are based on the passing of events, not the measurement of the loss of mortality. Think of everything you know as a flip book, they know all the pages and can guess what you experience as time between this page and that page. This is often why spirits give us times or timeframes and they may not be precisely accurate and we lose faith in their word. The spirits are absolutely correct, they are not wrong. Their understanding of our experience of time is what is wrong, or more correctly we should say our incessant need to measure mortality is what is wrong in the grander scheme of the universe. Not only is this measurement something that is flawed but our understanding of it is flawed and because it is, our perception of the universe around us is too. For example, we believe that when we move our arm, time has passed and our has moved. This is not what spirits see happening at all.

Our mind interprets the universe around us constantly. It does a lot of things that makes us believe certain things are this or that way for the sake of our understanding the universe around us, even when the things it is doing are obviously wrong. Like how our brain tells us that bigger objects are closer and smaller objects are further. So in films we can place shorter actors closer to the camera and taller actors further back, giving us this perception that they are the same height because our brains tell us this is true. One of the things our mortal brains tell us is that we are a solid being that only exists here and now. That is to say that there is no other versions of ourselves but the one we perceive. Yet spirits will tell you that there are many versions of us in many different realities and our mind shifts perspective between them constantly. What we believe to be our arm moving and time passing, is our brain shifting between the different versions of us that all exist in unison. The time that passed is how long we believed it to take our arm to move but it was actually how long we flipped the channel of different versions of ourselves and each version had that arm a little bit moved from the other. Once again, like a flip book.

We can confirm that spirits do not experience time by their inability to give precise time measurements but still being able to give precise descriptions of what will happen. We can confirm that the living only experience time as a measurement because we cannot do anything with it other than measure the passing of it but still being unable to describe in precise detail what will come to pass. We can confirm spirits see our lives as flip books by their ability to know the what but not the when. So they see the living as a series of memories of a life that has come and gone. We commonly call them the dead but they commonly call us the dead. Who is really the ones that are not living? The ones that cannot see beyond their mortality and only experience the universe from a limited perspective according to their measurements or the ones who are infinite and have no need to measure the infinite?

As an added bonus, we can even discuss the subject of timeline jumping because that is in essence what our minds are doing. Think of them as the camera that views and records the live event but that camera shifts from one movie set to another to create a picture. This is a jump in the timeline. These jumps happen involuntarily and are mostly just part of how our minds operate but they can be forced too. One can be experiencing a timeline that brings them grief and can force themselves into another timeline that releases them from this grief. This is where spiritual rituals come in to play. The tools of the universe and the immortals. The breaking away from the miniscule perception of our own mortality into a perception of the universe itself and the empowerment that comes with this. Rituals can force a mind to jump to an alternate view of a person for favorable conditions. Think of this as the explanation behind the placebo effect. The mind can be shifted, even when it is knowing that it is being shifted.

We will break the ice with how to deal with children in spirituality. In most African Traditional Religions there is a key aspect and even a spirit revolving around children and the protection of them. Legba, Elegua, Lucero, etc. This is indicative of the need to be inclusive of them, not exclusionary. In order to be inclusive of the children, the atmosphere needs to be safe for children. This is the why behind so many of our rules. It is important to understand that children in spirituality are not less than by virtue of being a child, they are equals. They are people with a complete spirituality, ancestors, spirit guides and spiritual gifts just like any other person, including adults. Where they are largely lacking is in the experience department, which they will hopefully develop as they grow older and practice. This makes it so the only way in which a child is treated as lesser than is the same as with all others, based on experience. For example, A 10 year old with 5 years experience is considered to be an elder above a 40 year old with 2 years experience. In this structure you can really start to see how children are complete people too, not partial people that are still forming.

The most complicated part about children in spirituality will always be teaching them. Children are constantly in a state of learning. Their minds are inquisitive and due to being overwhelmed, their behaviors can be erratic. As adults and possibly elders in traditions, we have to be the ones willing to extend patience and grace to others that are the most needing of it in our communities. Children are in a really hard place. They are filled with all these emotions, thoughts, having all these experiences but don’t know how to deal with it. That is still even without bringing in the spiritual aspect, which complicates things further. It is widely understood that children need structure, consistency and examples. The best form of teaching is by embodying what it is you want them to learn. There is no amount of explanation that will teach as well as showing. The providing of structure makes it so they know the bounds of how and when to move and what to do. The consistency helps them internalize these teachings because the repetition helps them view things from different angles and in different ways. If you hold to those three pillars while also remembering to give children grace to get a hold of this whole new world, they will learn quite effectively. These pillars are also extremely effective on adults, setting a golden standard for all.

Maintaining a safe space for children is vital to their growth, not just spiritually but in all aspects. In so many cases of people we consult we see grown adults with spiritual gifts that they have had since childhood but their parents did not nurture those gifts and instead pushed back on them saying they were the child’s imagination or simply did not happen. These experiences over the course of years can lead the child to ignore their own gifts and as an adult struggle to reconnect. Once they finally do, they feel this sense of lost time. It is also worth noting that this is one of the main factors behind why in most African Traditional Religions, there is no connection between spirituality and sexuality. The risk of children being abused by those who should be protecting them is too great. Once again, all of these things also apply to adults, without issues. The same risk children have, adults who are newer would have when sexuality and spirituality are intertwined in these traditions. In providing a safe space for children, we provide a safe space for all others. A safe space should be structured and based on equality, empathy and trust. Children should be regarded as equals in a spiritual sense because their spirituality can easily outweigh even that of many adults. One has to empathize with the members of their communities, even the young, if they wish to truly create a safe space. The final pillar is trust and without trust, there is nothing. It is critical that we stress the trust portion. If children cannot trust their surroundings, they will not grow, learn or participate in their spiritual path.

All of these things can be easily stated but application is always much more complicated than making statements. One has to understand that nobody is perfect, we are all figuring out life at every stage of life. Even the elders are learning how to be elders as they go. While we may know pillars and concepts, putting them in place can be a struggle and it is okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them and continue to improve and grow.

Most spiritual traditions and African Traditional Religions have long histories with taking privacy very seriously. Some would say that privacy was a newer addition to the traditions that came to be added right around where slavery entered the picture but they would be mistaken. When slavery was thrust upon the practitioners of these African Traditional Religions, the need for privacy was just emphasized but it was already a prevalent and understood concept. This is because there have always been levels of initiations, including priesthood. Priesthood is not something that should be taken lightly, the mysteries of being an elder come at the cost of a high degree of devotion coupled with extensive ceremonies. This high degree of devotion bestows upon a priest certain secrets that should be preserved because it is the role of a priest to guide, teach and protect others. As part of their role, they are supposed to know certain things that go well beyond the understanding of an average devotee of these traditions. A lot of this wisdom is kept private for the purpose of keeping the average devotee from having to carry any undue burdens as well as to keep the boundaries and roles between a devotee and a priest or elder clear and concise. When the slave trade was thrust upon practitioners of these African Traditional Religions, the need for privacy became even greater than before. This is due to the prevalence of persecution of religious beliefs that also came with slavery. In other words, they weren’t allowed to believe in whatever they wanted. So they had to use privacy to hide their beliefs behind whatever beliefs they were told they must have. But as we stated earlier, this was not the first time historically that these practitioners saw the necessity of spiritual privacy.

The differences between practitioners and their understanding privacy as well as their enforcing of privacy standards are different from one to another. This can also be greatly impacted by what exactly it is that they practice. It is important to note that while many people position themselves as spiritual leaders, some are firmly believers of the saying “spiritual not religious” and so their definition of spiritual privacy would be completely different than that of a practitioner of an African Traditional Religion that actually takes the religious beliefs to heart. It is important to note that if someone is not practicing a religious belief, there is no legal backing for their definition of spiritual privacy and they can be legally compelled to testify in court. Where someone that does in fact practice an actual religion as a priest or elder has a legal backing for their definition of spiritual privacy and they cannot be legally compelled to testify in a court. Due to this big difference and the fact that one is a structured and understood religion while the other is more of a free-for-all anti-religion, people who tend to lean towards “spiritual not religious” practices do not have a set standard, they come with a mixed bag of beliefs and so their definitions for concepts from one to another can be greatly different, even if both of them use the same terminology. This is not to say someone that is not a practitioner of a religious belief cannot hold your privacy to a high standard, this is to say that they don’t all automatically do it and even if they do, there is only so much privacy you can have because their beliefs as well as yours are not religious and so they do not have any legal protections. It is important to know these differences as they can mean the world to you and you wouldn’t even be are of these differences.

Even further there are concepts where privacy is actually used as a form of spiritual protection. You have to understand that the more people know about you, the more they know about how to bring you harm or cause you misfortune. This is a belief that is shared among many different African Traditional Religions. The response to such a thing is naturally to remain as private as possible in spaces and with people of whom you do not have enough trust. This creates a barrier that makes it so that not every stranger in the world has the ability to just randomly find all the information of your life so easily. They would have to search and move and hop over so many hurdles just to find what they need, which is basically like creating a barrier for entry in which only the people that are truly motivated and have experience can even proceed to cause misfortunes. It is important to note that some people, like ourselves, even go as far as requiring signed Non-Disclosure Agreements before we reveal anything sensitive. This is an added layer of protection that has become a necessity in the fabric of modern times because there are many people who would seemingly wish to partake in religious beliefs and may not be the right fit for the Temple. There have been many such cases where people are expelled from religious Temples for their bad deeds, their inability to stay within the rules of the religious beliefs, their poor moral character or a list of other reasons and are seemingly distraught by the rejection. Which would lead them to not only slander against whole religions and Temples but also to reveal sensitive information about practitioners, which is yet another bad behavior further proving that they were not meant to be part of those Temples or religious beliefs.

Seeing as how we use privacy as a form of protection, a person that is unable to keep with privacy standards is a person that is exceedingly unfit for the spiritual path and even more so when discussing African Traditional Religions. If you hear unverified rumors and gossip about spiritual people or priests and elders of African Traditional Religions from someone spiritual and close to you, the very first thing you should question is the person next to you and their capacity to actually be spiritual. You should also understand that their behavior goes directly against African Traditional Religions and some other non-religious beliefs as well. This is because back in the days, these kinds of behaviors could have been a death sentence and in more modern times can be used a weapon to persecute entire Temples and religions. It is also important to note that these behaviors when done against actual religious organizations can hold actual value of losses, such as damages and can lead to legal consequences, which you would want to stay away from. This is to say that gossip and slander are not acceptable behaviors or reasoning for exposing private information of others and never have been but someone that has a genuine issue and addresses the issue seeking help is completely normal. The line is in the difference between someone slandering, gossiping or genuinely seeking help. When someone approaches you making accusations and providing private information about others that they may have obtained due to their spiritual proximity to others but there is nothing to their claims, you should question how long before you have your private information being discussed by the same person because they are not capable of holding to the concept of spiritual privacy and once upon a time they were close to the persons or people they are now speaking about, just as they are now close to you.

In recent times we have seen a big rise in people walking away from Abrahamic Religions and becoming more involved in spirituality. Unfortunately this has lead to many falling victim to the predators that exist in spiritual spaces. These predators are motivated and experienced in convincing these people to believe in all sorts of things that may not necessarily be in their best interests. The most outstanding example is the chokehold the New Age Spirituality has, sweeping across social media and with many believing to have found the spirituality that they were seeking when they walked away from Abrahamic Religions. While many were seeking a community, needing guidance to navigate finding the light in dark times or even finding answers to questions that they may have had ancestrally, they ended up walking into the trap of New Age Spirituality, which is broad and has been the epicenter for appropriating beliefs from across the world in order to obtain and retain relevance among the masses. In short, New Age Spirituality is structured in such a way that it can touch on certain points that may seem like they are sound to someone that has no formal background in spirituality but the actual wisdom supporting the concepts is missing and the structure to even obtain that wisdom has been stripped away.

Behind this New Age Spirituality the concept of being a student has been retained but the concept of being a teacher has been heavily modified in favor of allowing anyone to claim to be a teacher. There is no substitute for a good teacher, there is no teacher that can properly teach what they do not know. This is because if you do not have the wisdom of the ancients, you cannot properly give it to someone else. The issue with this ideology is that it empowers social influencers to swoop in and claim the position of being teachers without formally obtaining it via training, ceremonies or any form of education. They can just start teaching things that may or may not be true and since the concept of being a student has been left in place, their following feel called to be students. As the students grow in their “understanding” and their following, they too can gravitate towards teaching others and becoming “teachers.” This creates a belief system where many people can learn from many people in very deep seeded ways but the source of the information was never qualified. The issue at hand has now created another issue where there are so many people that have adapted and wholeheartedly believe these things that they become widely accepted as correct and proper spiritual practice. For reference, New Age Spirituality has incorporated concepts such as Auras, Chakras, Karma, Higher Self, Indigo Children, Pyramid Power, Breathwork, Astrology etc. Most of these concepts belong to complete religious beliefs from across the world and have no business being isolated and then incorporated into another spiritual belief, this is clearly appropriation that was done by someone in particular and they taught this as the correct and proper form of spirituality that the masses would relate to.

While being a student is crucial to the spiritual journey, picking a teacher is just as crucial. Not all teachers are the same, they do not all have the same wisdom or qualifications and they do not all have your best interest at heart. It is important to keep that in mind when coming to a conclusion about learning from someone. The qualifications really do matter but something else to keep an eye on is the practice itself. Seeing as how New Age Spirituality and other adjacent spiritual beliefs are based on flawed mechanisms and ideologies that lead to appropriations and shallow surface-level wisdom, reaching to the source of where these ideologies come from is recommended. For example; If the concept of Karma is something that resonates with you deeply, you may want to look into the origin of Karma and possibly practice that versus some odd spirituality that appropriated that concept from them. If what you resonate with is an African Traditional Religion in particular, you will need to find a qualified elder that will properly guide you on the journey into that traditional religion and not some sort of social influencer that speaks as if they know something on the subject. Just as someone cannot attend Church one Sunday and then claim to be a Priest, one cannot pick up a single spiritual concept and claim to be a Spiritual Leader in any capacity. This behavior is mostly observed from someone who is not a qualified teacher and is purposely misleading newer people into following them and learning flawed concepts and ideologies from them. To walk away from Abrahamic Religions is not just a physical task, it is also a mental, emotional and spiritual one. Walking away physically but still being mentally, emotionally and spiritually beholden to the concepts in those religions is not what spirituality is. One cannot approach spiritual traditions and religions with a conquerors mindset, appropriating and violating procedures to their convenience as is being portrayed by New Age Spirituality and its adjacent sibling spiritual beliefs. One needs to really walk away and expand their mind, body and soul in order to actually even be spiritual and there are so many more steps to becoming a Spiritual Leader. Seek the truth.

Social Influencers need to stop falsely claiming titles, they are only serving to destroy that which they claim.

Spirituality has existed for thousands of years, possibly since the beginning of humanity. In our African Traditional Religion of Palo Mayombe or as it’s proper name, Nkisi Malongo, it has existed as a set of religious beliefs for thousands of years. Medicine is a more modern practice that only really began it’s journey somewhere about the 18th century (1701-1800). While many may not know the connection between the two, there is definitely a connection. In our past, we used to have a title of Priesthood that was also used as a title to describe a Doctor, this would be Nganga. This is because to us, the medicine man was the spiritual leader, they were two sides of the same leaf. At a certain point, the knowledge of the ancestors along with many others, was taken and documented, studied and improved upon in a scientific way. This would be the birth of modern medicine. This is to say that modern medicine is not some artificial wisdom that was imagined, it is ancient wisdom that was taken and improved upon. A lot of spiritual influencers have resorted to giving advice that directly undermines medicine by implying that spirituality can replace medicine. This is simply not true and is a dangerous belief being taught and held by people that have no formal teaching or guidance, just people learning from random people and books online.

First, I have to emphasize that in undermining medicine you are undermining the religious beliefs of many across the world that served as the foundation of medicine. This is evident even in the core concepts of medicine. In the past, to be an Nganga meant to train under an Nganga and to be observed until that Nganga felt that you were worthy of that title and only then can you claim that title. In medicine, to be a Doctor means to train under Doctors and showing your knowledge (dissertation & acquiring licenses) as a Doctor before being accepted and acknowledged as one. Historically, a lot of traditional religions held on to remedies and these are used commonly for smaller things but surgery, etc. are not something your spiritual healers engage in anymore because medicine stepped in and is available. Medicine was born, studied and advanced specifically for this purpose. You need to walk towards medicine for medical issues and walk towards spirituality for spiritual issues. That includes mental health issues and its critical that this be observed. People who claim otherwise are dangerous to everyone who looks to them for spiritual guidance.

Speaking of spiritual influencers, there are too many spiritual influences that are practicing dangerous things and teaching them to everyone who will listen. There is a new age spirituality spreading like wildfire across social media where people are just freelancing spirituality. There are no elders, they are just learning, believing and practicing whatever they want, completely unchecked. This has always been a dangerous practice and one that has been flawed and based off Spiritism and Spiritualism, which have been known to have appropriated beliefs from others and has created the void in which the need for elders and lineages are unnecessary for learning to be spiritual. When there are no elders, there are no boundaries and no lines that remain uncrossed. There is no wisdom of past mistakes to be observed, this means that people are really just taking their own imagination and the imagination of others as fact and religious belief but there is nothing stopping someone from writing a “spiritual book” teaching things that are completely dangerous and having thousands of people believing in these things and practicing them. For example, nothing stops a person from writing a book that says “to be spiritual means to avoid modern medicine at all costs, especially if you have schizophrenia.” This would lead someone suffering from this condition to isolation, in which they now believe that their hallucinations are spirits guiding them, in which those hallucinations can instruct them to do violent things against themselves and others. This is not okay, this is unacceptable. These elderless practices and traditional beliefs without lineages need to be disavowed immediately, they are a danger and them being as popular as they are only further amplifies how dangerous they are because people practicing these beliefs are growing large followings and then teaching their followings that these are correct and safe practices, putting everyone in danger.

It is important to remember that medicine exists for a reason, it may not be perfect but it is the best chance of survival for so many people. Medicine is not an adversary of spirituality, it is not something to be avoided, it is not something that spirituality replaces. Medicine is a form of spirituality that has evolved into its own category and has become a powerful force for saving lives. For someone spiritual to guide people away from medicine in favor of their spiritual beliefs is truly a dangerous thing. There are too many people that claim to be spiritual and are practicing the most dangerous things and are leading others towards danger because they themselves have been lead towards danger.

It is time to heal, to return to actual traditional spirituality and to let medicine heal medical issues.

Ignorance gave birth to Arrogance, Fear and Hatred. Each one of these three can only exist within Ignorance and so they return you back to Ignorance. This is why the worst enemy of Ignorance is Ignorance itself.

When someone is ignorant, they are their own worst enemy. When you get readings from ATR’s and they mention someone being their own worst enemy it is because of their Ignorance. Don’t fall into despair, someone ignorant can save themselves by simply releasing the need to be ignorant and seeking Wisdom.

It is not the Ego that makes you Arrogant, it is your Arrogance that fuels your Ego.
Your Ego is a delusion you make of yourself and then feed, causing the Ego to grow.
Wisdom limits how much you feed this delusion via Arrogance and so it remains harmless because you humbly see yourself as benign.
When Arrogance is not balanced by Wisdom, Arrogance fuels the delusion of Ego and grants it the ability to grow unhampered and gives birth to Cockiness.
When Arrogance is balanced with Wisdom, it keeps your delusion of yourself humble and benign, which then gives birth to Confidence.

Knowledge is the primordial urge to seek, which feeds your Wisdom.
When properly balanced with Wisdom, it gives birth to Power.
When not balanced by Wisdom, it creates the Illusion of Wisdom.

This is why it is that those who seek knowledge from all the wrong places will surely remain foolish and will hurt themselves in the process.
There is a saying that “too much knowledge is a dangerous thing” which reflects that simply acquiring knowledge leads to nothing but trouble and danger because with all this knowledge you are still a fool but you create the Illusion of Wisdom and this illusion feeds your Ignorance which feeds your Arrogance and that feeds your Ego. In this process, your illusion also deceives others own perceptions and you lead them astray into danger and trouble.

So why is Knowledge both the act of seeking and the knowing?

Knowledge is the act of seeking or the urge to seek information to feed your Wisdom because Wisdom does not simply stay static, it is a living thing inside of you. It can be fed and it can grow but it cannot stay static. Yet Wisdom cannot be fed via your mouth, it must be fed via your ears and eyes. In another sense, it is the experience of seeking information that creates Knowledge and that experience is what feeds your Wisdom.

Knowledge is also the information you seek because that which you seek you will find. In seeking information, you acquire the experience of seeking information and that specific experience is itself the information you seek.

Knowledge is the only thing inside of your mind that is what you seek, what you find and what you use.

Applying Knowledge in combination with Wisdom creates Power, the act of using your knowledge is the act of creating Power. The more you use your knowledge, the more power you create. This is why Knowledge changes in purpose as your stages of life change. When you are born and even as a child and young adult, you seek Knowledge to feed your Wisdom. As you grow older, you find that Knowledge which then makes you truly Wise. Once you are Wise, you apply that Knowledge and create Power. When you become an ancestor, you use this Power to Guide.

Ancestors Guide us via their Knowledge, Wisdom and Power.

Ignorance is its own worst enemy and the Illusion of Wisdom is the worst enemy of Wisdom.

There is so much depth to secrets and mysteries hidden from the plain eye in the world of the living. The living only have to live and they complicate even that. Its no surprise that divination and readings are such a staple in most African Traditional Religions. These ceremonies in and of themselves are life altering by way of the insight they offer us but they can also offer the information on things we can or should do in order to progress spiritually and physically too. This article is not one to convince people that they need these services, its one to enlighten on the dangers of these services. There are so many dangers associated with these services that the general public is not aware of. The first danger is addiction. People that lean towards surrendering and having others make every decision for them tend to get addicted to these services and seek to be told what to do for every single decision in their life. There is also the dangers revolving around the person performing the services and their qualifications and teachings. Then we have the danger revolving around the timing of the services and finally, the danger of intermingling energies.

First, let us address the elephant in the room, while some people believe a divination and a reading to be two different things, most elders in Palo Mayombe, Lucumi and Ifa use the terms interchangeably. This is to say that readings are divination and divination is a reading. For the purpose of simplicity, we will stick with the terminology of reading. With that out of the way, we need to stress the danger of addiction. This danger is a very real one for some and really non-existent for others. This depends on each person’s general disposition to becoming dependent on readings and the elders performing these readings. What we are referring to is that some people are overwhelmed by having too many choices or may have a more submissive disposition or maybe have some other emotional reason to surrender entirely and become entirely dependent on readings in order to function in their day-to-day lives. This surrender can be dangerous to a persons progress and growth because they have surrendered their free will and ability to ration in favor of just following instructions. There is nothing wrong with following instructions but there is something wrong in surrendering your free will. This leads to a negative scenario in which someone can be stuck so far in their submission as to where they are unable to even decide what to eat for dinner without a reading or the spirits telling them. In some traditions this can be especially dangerous because the spirits can be offended by this behavior as they are not a parlor trick to be summoned for such a mundane thing. This can also be especially dangerous because a bad elder or someone misrepresenting themselves as an elder can take advantage of a person and they would be stuck in a vicious cycle of submission. These situations can be caused by the lack of an elder performing these readings or an elder that is irresponsible performing these readings. A responsible and concerned elder will definitely see the patterns in these behaviors and correct this behavior before it consumes a person entirely.

Speaking of responsible elders, there is a great deal of danger surrounding the who performs your readings. In a lot of cases people will present themselves as readers but not have the qualifications or wisdom to do readings on themselves, let alone others. Readings are complicated and can tamper with a person’s spiritual alignment. In most traditional religions and more specifically in Palo Mayombe, having the ability to do readings on anyone is a very special thing because of the dangers of giving the wrong messages or seeing something drastically wrong but not knowing how to correct it. In some cases, people will not even have the correct ceremonies to do the reading at all and they are just picking up publicly available books that claim to teach someone how to do readings and doing readings on others. This is a wildly dangerous scenario because not only does the person not know how to address anything major but they don’t even have the correct authority to perform the reading at all. This can lead to major problems in the life of the person or people receiving these readings that could require extensive ceremonial work to even correct. That isn’t even counting the amount of things the person or people in question will have to unlearn to then learn correctly or the possibility for them to lose hope in the traditional religions they were meant to practice, forcing them elsewhere and permanently damaging their spiritual progress.

There is also something to be said about the danger revolving around timing. When a person receives a reading, they are receiving a snapshot of what is to come, general guidance to leading a better life and even things they can do to improve their spiritual progress and physical life. The issue is that when you overlap readings you are in essence disregarding the last one for the new one. This doesn’t seem like such an issue at a glance but it is a major one. Say you have a reading done and everything was smooth and there were great things mentioned and then afterwards you went and got a reading from someone else who is not really good at doing readings. Lets say that second reading is really bad. Your reading that set you up for success was just voided for one that set you up for failure. This is such an important thing to keep in mind. To add more complexity to the subject, not all readings have the same timelines. Some readings can extend outward of 21 days, others 28 days so on and so forward based specifically on different traditions. So you can have a perfectly beautiful 21 days planned out by a Palo Mayombe reading and trade that in for 28 days of pain from an Ifa reading.

Finally, there is an exchange of energy when readings take place. People use this terminology to explain and justify their needs for compensation all the time but do not seem to understand or explain that this is a big danger to all involved in the process of doing a reading. During the reading the two or more people involved have their energy linked in order to discern, divine and interpret the messages. The person performing the reading as stated above may not be well suited or properly authorized and having their energy come in contact with the energy of the person being read could have disastrous consequences. This is a door that works both ways as well. The person receiving the reading can be “loaded” which means they can have a lot of negative energies on them and the person doing the reading has to know how to navigate such a situation should it occur. Failure to resolve this issue in a timely manner can result in a reading that is inaccurate, possibly dangerous, leads the person receiving the reading astray and can even cause the person performing the reading to have consequences for taking in all this negative energy and leaving it unresolved.

In summary, there are so many complexities and dangers when it comes to divination and readings. Everyone should be extremely mindful about who they allow to read them and when. To receive a reading is not a cute little parlor trick and its not something everyone can or should provide. A divination or reading is something special that is meant to guide and provide us with insight that could create forward progress both in our physical and spiritual lives but only when done right, by the right person. When people get these from anywhere they are liable to do more harm than good.

Divination is the connection we share with spiritual beings, our connection to them should be pure and consistent.

There is so much emphasis on our blog about elders and our priests speak of elders so commonly but very rarely is the term actually defined. In this growing environment of the internet and all the resources available to the public at the end of a click, there is still so much confusion as to what exactly an elder is, what their role is, what are the traits of a good elder, and what to do if you find yourself behind a bad elder. This has caused many people to believe they themselves are elders when they are not, or someone they know is an elder when they are not. Even worse, it has caused people who are not acknowledged and known elders to be given platforms to perform as if they were because nobody understands that they are playing the role of elders.

It is important to first define what an “elder” actually is before we get to more information about what an elder does or their traits. Elders are people who have ceremonies and wisdom granting them titles that make them elders because they are wise beyond their physical age, in most cases an elder is another term for an experienced priest. It is important to know this bit of information because in traditional religions your elder can be physically younger than you but when it comes to the traditional religion, they are years ahead of you. In some cases, your elders can also be understood as your family members that are older than you. This is particularly true when your traditional religion is one that is practiced and handed down from one generation to the next. In that case, your elder will be someone literally older than you but it would also be because they are years ahead of you in the traditional religion. It is important to remember that not everybody that is old is your elder and not everybody that is young is your peer. The ideology of elders having a certain physical appearance is also categorically wrong. In one example we can give, picture a child receiving ceremonies at the age of 5 and growing up surrounded by elders and training to be one themselves. By the time this child is 25 they would have 20 years of experience training to be an elder, yet they are only a 25. Meanwhile someone can receive their ceremonies at 40 and train until 50 to be an elder. At 50 this person has the physical appearance of an elder, the grey hairs, the wrinkles on the corners of their eyes, the more dated fashion sense… Yet when the 25 year old stands next to the 50 year old, the 25 year old is the elder of the two elders because they have 20 years experience and the 50 year old only has 10 years of experience.

To be clear, just because someone practices a traditional religion for a long time does not make them an elder in that traditional religion. They need to have the ceremonies that grant the authority of an elder, which in most cases are the ceremonies of priesthood. They also would need to have trained under another elder and have experience being an elder. Usually this is accomplished with the concept of an elder teaching a disciple and then at such a time that they feel this disciple is worthy of being an elder, they acknowledge them as such. One cannot just become an elder overnight, cannot just appoint themselves as an elder randomly, and cannot just say I have been practicing long enough I am an elder now. There are reasons as to why this is the protocol for such a title and it mainly has to do with the role an elder plays in their disciples lives.

Speaking of the role of an elder, what is that role? The role of an elder is to teach, guide, love and protect their disciples with all their might and wisdom. As en elder, accepting a disciple is an immense responsibility. You make yourself responsible for their safety and progress spiritually. This is comparable to the role of a parent, who makes themselves responsible for their safety and progress physically. This is why the terminology of “Godparent and Godchild” are often used to describe this role. There is no method in which you can acquire an elder without their consent. They have to accept you and acknowledge you as a disciple, which in most cases involves some sort of ceremonial rites taking place in which they make oaths to bring you under their protection and guidance and you make oaths to be a good disciple. It is not possible to just casually have a conversation with an elder and that is now your elder. Once an elder takes you to be their disciple, they teach and guide you as best they can. This can range from spiritual subjects to everyday subjects and is supposed to be an ongoing process for the rest of your life or theirs. Another thing elders are supposed to do is love and protect you. Elders should never look upon their disciples with any form of malice, not even the intent of possibly taking advantage of them. Keep in mind that as we mentioned above the relationship between and elder and a disciple is similar to the relationship between a parent and child, in which the power structure can be easily manipulated in favor of the elder to take advantage in many ways of the disciple. This is one of the reasons why nobody is allowed to appoint themselves as an elder because if they were, there would be no accountability. In almost every traditional religion we have seen, any form of romantic relationship between a disciple and an elder is strictly forbidden but this does not go far enough. There are many “elders” taking financial advantage of their disciples and this too is predatory. The ideology of “my protection comes at a cost” is one that shatters this relationship because it abuses the needs of the disciple and coerces them into making certain financial burdens if they want their needs met. In reality, an elder already agreed to protect that disciple as an extension of themselves. That disciple should only be responsible for covering costs they incur and if they want they can also provide assistance to their elder so that their elder is able to continue on their path of leading others. At least that is how we understand this relationship to work in this temple and in some temples, the financial aspect is completely different.

It is the role of elders to teach and guide and the role of disciples to learn and grow. When people who are not elders are the ones teaching, there are many things that can go wrong. To be clear, non-elders should not be teaching about traditional religions at all. In older times, this would be considered an egregious act that could lead to a public denouncing and even punishment of said person that is taking upon themselves the duties of an elder without having been an elder. In more recent times, due to the internet and the vast amount of uninformed people on the internet, this act is celebrated and has become a common occurrence. Guiding people is also something that is especially heinous for a non-elder to do because the consequences for bad guidance can be staggering for the people listening to bad guidance.

When in search for a good elder, one must use their discernment but they need something to discern against. One cannot state “use your discernment” as if it were that simple because it is truly not that simple. Traits of good elders are difficult and very often mixed up because people that are not elders are commenting on what the traits of good elders are. To define these traits one must take the full account of what it takes to be an elder and the role of an elder and then pull from those the traits that would particularly make them well suited for the task. Seeing as how an elder has to have ceremonies and wisdom, the first trait someone would want to see is qualifications. Without qualifications as an elder, nothing else matters. They can display every other trait but this one and they will not be a suitable elder because they cannot teach, guide or protect you in accordance with the traditional religion. In fact, displaying every other trait but this one is a very bad thing because that means that they are purposely misrepresenting themselves to be an elder when they are not and the people following them can suffer great catastrophes due to this. The next trait you will want to see is love. Any amount of titles and wisdom mean nothing if the elder does not truly care about your well-being. In so many cases people believe the best elder to be the one with the most wisdom or the most titles, this is not true. A very knowledgeable elder with no interest in their disciples will not defend those disciples as fiercely as an elder that has less titles and has less wisdom but truly cares about their disciples. Love reigns supreme in this regard and without it, a person can be convinced that their service provider is actually their elder when they are in fact just providing services. Another valuable trait that people tend to be unaware of, lineage. To be an elder means to have been taught by elders, which means to have lineage that they will induct you into. When properly trained and experienced, an elder should be able to describe their lineage of who taught them and granted them ceremonies, without any breaks in the lineage. Sometimes these lineages can be recited further back by really knowledgeable elders. This ensures that not only do they have the qualifications but that your induction or initiations and protections will be observed by an actual lineage of spirits. Integrity is the final piece of the puzzle in terms of traits that good elders should display. If you open yourself up in a vulnerable state, a good elder should never seek to take advantage of this vulnerability. Regardless of how vulnerable you may be, there should never be doubt as to the integrity of your elder. They should be a pillar of integrity that commands trust and respect, not demands it. There is a difference between commanding these things and demanding these things. One happens naturally based on the character of the person and the other happens when the person forcefully wants these things observed. There are many more traits that can be observed and commented on in this regard but these are the basic traits that all good elders must display.

If you have fallen behind a bad elder you should first seek within yourself the reasoning why your discernment has failed you. There may have been things that you believed to be positive that were not. There may have been messages from your spirits telling you to not trust this person that went ignored. While this may seem unnecessary at the time, it is absolutely necessary for the next steps. The next thing you need to do is take a step back and take time to process this loss. You cannot move on to the next step without processing this loss because you will project all of your previous problems into the future people you meet. Once you have processed this loss, however long that takes, you want to start searching for a new elder and use the above article to measure whether this is the elder for you or not. Take your time and observe them to see if they have all the traits mentioned above, there is no need to immediately jump under them the very first second they state their qualifications.

We wish the best of endeavors upon the people of the world, may your elders teach, guide, love and protect you always.

First, we want to give a disclaimer that not everything I will mention is exactly the same for all houses and some do things somewhat different but all the core concepts and steps are still taken. We also would like to add that nothing said herein is meant to offend or disrespect anyone, just educate people as to the proper protocols towards initiation into the traditional religion of Nkisi Malongo or Palo Mayombe.

The first step to initiating is digging within your own self and seeing if you even resonate with the traditional religion. I cannot stress enough that this traditional religion is not for everyone! You do this by interacting with people who are actively practicing members, not from what someone from another tradition said. Take your time, get to know Palo Mayombe and its openly known concepts. See if this even fits in with you and sits right on your soul. Remember that someone or something from outside Palo Mayombe cannot tell you if you need to initiate into Palo Mayombe. An Ifa reading, a Misa and even a random Psychic Medium cannot just determine this and to make such an affirmation would be a display of their complete lack of respect for Palo Mayombe.

The next step is to find an elder (Tata or Yaya) that resonates with you and do the same. Spend time with them, observe them, learn from them. Talk to them and ask questions. Take your time here, there is no rush to this process and rushing is catastrophic because it can lead you to be with elders you cant stand or fakes, scams, frauds etc. The key here is to not have a specific time frame of when you want to observe and more so just casually be present and get to know them, however long that does or doesn’t take.

Once you have resolved in your heart that Palo Mayombe is for you and you have found the elder that actually works for you, you must come to their spirits in person and do a reading or divination and ask them certain initiatory questions. This cannot be done remotely, this cannot be done via other traditions and this cannot be guessed on, it is something that can affect your whole life and needs to be taken very seriously. Please keep in mind that even if someone did have a “Kongo spirit” show up in a Misa or a Psychich Medium sees these kinds of spirits around them often, it does not necessarily means they must initiate into Palo Mayombe.

This is where some houses do things differently, the questions asked. For the most part, from my experience the questions are usually the same and just worded differently with exception of one and we will discuss that one when we arrive at that one.

The questions:
1) Does this person have a path in Nkisi Malongo (Palo Mayombe)?
2) Does this person have a path in this Munanzo (Spiritual House)?
3) Does this person need any Misas?
3a) If so, how many?

Lets start with the first one. This question is a flat out yes or no question asking if you belong in Palo Mayombe at all. This question is often a formality because you can pretty much know the answer judging by your resonating with the religion and an elder already. It is still a necessary part of the journey though and should still always be asked. If this question is skipped, you can find yourself initiated but not really welcomed by the spirits. This can be a really miserable circumstance because they will not acknowledge you. Keep in mind, this is one of the main reasons why Ifa, Misas and Psychic Readings cannot determine if someone should initiate into Palo Mayombe. These systems in and of themselves are not recognized as a part of this traditional religion and so their input is also not recognized.

The second question is asked to determine how the elder’s spirits feel about you. Will they grant you access to their nation? Do they feel that your path lies within this tribe of people? Are your interests and the elders interest in alignment? The simple existence of this question further proves that Ifa, Misas and Psychic Readings cannot tell you whether you should initiate into Palo Mayombe or not because they are not specifically asking with which house and they cannot. In this religion, each house is its own nation. You cant issue a blanket term for all of the above especially if you’re not even a part of one to begin with.

The last question is a bit of a controversial one, some houses ask the question and others don’t. There are some houses that do not ask the question hold a mandatory number of Misas (mostly just one) before proceeding. There are also some houses that do ask the question receive a “no” and they do not hold any misa for the future initiate. In our lineage, we ask the spirits and do what they say to the letter. There are even people saying that you cannot ask Palo Mayombe spirits about Misas because they are not the same tradition. The issue is that Palo Mayombe spirits are absolutely a part of your spiritual court and they do hold weight within the Boveda because Espiritismo is open and inclusive of all spirit guides, including Bakongo. We speak to them in the protocol they established (readings or divinations) but they can speak on Espiritismo because they too are part of Espiritismo. The Misa is actually done to give any spirits of the initiate the opportunity to understand the ceremonies that are about to take place and object if they do not agree with these ceremonies taking place.

There are more questions can be asked but these are the basics and the bare minimum needed to correctly proceed on the journey to initiation.

Once you have asked the questions, you must then do the Misas (if any) to prepare for the next step on your journey to initiation.

The final step on this journey revolves around the actual ceremony that is the rites-of-passage and grants access to wisdom and authority. While we will not speak too much on this ceremony because this is a private ceremony, we will mention that the ceremony goes on for about 24 hours before being completed. Once this ceremony is completed, you are an initiate. There is no probationary period or anything similar in Palo Mayombe.

Lineage is one of the most important things in all of spirituality, not just this tradition.

The subject of lineage is often discussed but in passing, its not properly emphasized or understood. It is due to this issue that so many people find themselves in terrible situations as elders and as god children of elders alike. Knowledge of this subject is a non-negotiable absolute necessity in order to properly progress and help others spiritually.

The role of an elder is the current anchor of a lineage of spirits, the glue that keeps everything and everyone together. During initiation into Nkisi Malongo more than just a miserably long rites of passage is happening. You were already born with one lineage but now you are acquiring another, one you would not normally have access to without that elder. To visually demonstrate what I mean please see below.

Ancestral Spirits -> Elder -> You

The ancestral spirits of that lineage appointed that elder as their current custodian, who then appoints you as a member of the lineage. There is processes in place to select a next elder so that when one elder passes away, the lineage continues and he joins the other Ancestral Spirits. In this sense, everything remains unchanged from a practicing stand point.

Ancestral Spirits (+Passed Elder) -> Elder (Newly appointed) -> You.
In some cases you are the next elder but this cannot always be true. There is only one current sitting elder of a house and the house can have several members. They cant all be the next elder.

So now that we understand the progression and continuity of lineage, we understand that each house has their own individual ancestors and then they all collectively have shared ancestors. These spirits have a protocol as to how you approach them, you must be ancestrally linked to them. This link is established by doing rites of passage or initiation (scratching ceremony as some ignorantly call it) where the elder performing the ceremony on you is entering you into their lineage, giving you an ancestral link to these spirits.

Can someone of Congolese descent skip this process? No. They may have blood relations to some spirits but not all and that amounts to trouble. Just because they have Congolese descent does not mean that they have any ancestral connection to the spirits of a specific house. Thinking otherwise is equivalent to thinking “all Black people are alike.” That’s just one issue, the other being that they do not have the wisdom or ceremonies required to practice this tradition which would mean the spirits have no obligation to them. They can decide to help the person if they want or they can ignore the person. They can even see an uninitiated person approaching them as disrespectful and proceed to punish them for their disrespectful actions.

Historically, nobody was above rites-of-passage, or the protocols not even the Mani Kongo or Mwene Kongo. There was only one specific way in which a person would be formally recognized as a practicing elder without the need for formal rites-of-passage. This method involved going to a specific place that had a body of water, defeating the water spirit and capturing it. Nobody has ever successfully accomplished this task. To such an extent where the practice was discontinued and the only way left is upon rites-of-passage or initiation. There is no other way in modern times. You also have to remember the amount of people that came before you, each making their sacrifices to complete this process. In bypassing or even attempting to bypass this sacred ceremony you are telling all of them that you are better than them. You cannot throw away ceremonies the ancestors lived and died for and expect their allegiance or respect.

In comes the more complicated parts of lineage. Your personal ancestry.

For all intensive purposes, every human born to this world has an ancestry upon birth. Some may be more or less painful or accepting etc. but they are all important because they are all a part of who you are since before your birth. So how does this ancestry specifically fit into the previously mentioned lineage? It becomes part of it because you become part of it. You are the current living representation of your ancestry, you are your ancestors embodied and living. They are with you wherever you may roam. So if you roam into Nkisi Malongo they do too. This can be shown with the visual example below.

Uninitiated:
You + Ancestors
Initiated:
Ancestral Spirits -> Elder -> You + Ancestors

In that example you can see that there is a possibility for abuse from an elder, towards you and/or your ancestors. Lets discuss this subject more in-depth. Ancestors that cling to you do so because they are interested in your success. They want to see their descendant succeed because that means their life and ultimately their death was not for nothing. Once you think about this you start to understand that in helping you, an elder gains the blessings and gratitude of your ancestors. If that elder were ever in need of help, they would help that elder because that elder helps their descendant for them and helps them bring blessings upon their descendant. This is often misunderstood as an elder attempting to benefit off their godchildren’s spirits. This is spirits always remembering an old friend that once helped them and returning the favor. They were not forced to do anything they didn’t want to do, therefore this is not a negative thing. So how can this relationship be abused?

When a person initiates and becomes part of a lineage, they have to surrender to that lineage to become part of it. Simply put, to be part of a lineage you have to accept that you’re not the one that is leading that lineage. You lead your ancestors and your spirits but you do not lead the house. You are coming under the leadership of the elder of that house. In much the same way, your spirits and ancestors follow suit. They acknowledge the elder as their leader much like you did. This is not to say you no longer lead them. This is to say they now gained another authority they answer to. Think of this more closely related to a military structure and you’re the direct boss but your elder is the bosses boss.

On the subject of military structure, you should know that while the bosses boss holds authority over the boss and so they also hold authority over anyone reporting to that boss, those spirits are loyal to the boss not the bosses boss. Visual context below.

|—————————|
Elder -> You -> Your Spirits and Ancestors

When conflicted between the elder and you, your spirits and ancestors will always follow you and not your elder. This can lead to problems because that can make them traitors to the lineage. For example: An elder corrects you and tells you that x is wrong and you decide to hex them with your ancestral spirits. If they listen to you (and they will because they are loyal to you above your elder) you have made them traitors to that lineage. This is not a scenario you want your spirits to be in, being labeled as traitors carries heavy consequences on many different levels. It is entirely up to you to not put them in this scenario and lead them correctly.

Elders have also been known to abuse this structure and trust by having their godchildren’s spirits doing things for their own personal benefit without consent and sometimes even by brute force (using their authority over those spirits). This is truly benefiting from your godchildren’s spirits and its a disgusting reality that some “elders” do it. The issue is the godchild in question can feel abused and seek another elder, in which their spirits are no longer bound to the elder who abused of their trust and in some cases they can seek retribution for their treatment while they were under obligations.

An elder who has done no wrong has nothing to fear when it comes to retributions because those spirits have no reason to feel any way towards them. In fact, I have heard and seen of the opposite. I have heard and seen spirits that no longer answer to an elder for whatever reason, still wishing blessings upon that elder because they truly cared and tried to help their descendant and its their descendant that was in the wrong.

The purpose of this structure was always meant to be as a protection for the apprentice or disciple. There can be scenarios where the apprentice is not in control of their spirituality and the elder can step in and get the spirituality under control for them. There is also situations where the apprentice can be doing something completely wrong and the elder can step in and stop everything for the sake of saving their apprentice. It is only when this authority is being misused that it becomes a problem, it is not a problem by virtue of existing just as there are many other things that exist that can be abused. If you fear your elder may abuse this specific function built-in to this traditional religion then you may not have found the right elder for you. The relationship should be one of love, wisdom and trust and without those elements its not a viable relationship.

I hope this demystifies the subject and gives some of you a clearer understanding of how lineage works.