Spooks

 

Do you believe in spooks? Well sure, we all know they're out there operating the arcana of their dark art, and the insouciance of latter day youth denigrates their online presence, "Glowies." But what about real spooks, ghosts, apparitions, typically of the dead. People see these, no doubt about it, and so have I. Here's a short story.

Back in the '80s our family lived in an Edwardian rectory on the outskirts of 'Nam, Cheltenham. My room was on the top floor and, when it was time for dinner, Ma LSP would shout out from the ground floor, "Dinner!" and off we'd go, all 5 kids.

a typical glowie

The pattern repeated. One night I was a bit slow off the mark and left the eyrie late. Walking by my parents' room  I did a quick eyes left and there was the silhouette of a woman, it was winter, the lights were off and she was combing her long hair in front of a mirror on the wall in the darkness.

I thought it was one of my sisters, being a comb your hair in the dark hippy, and was going to tease her for the malfeasance but thought better of it. Don't be a churl, LSP, let her enjoy the moment, so I duly walked down another flight of stairs and thence to the breakfast room, where everyone was present. No kidding, what had I just seen.

True story. Was it a ghost and if so, what are they, spirits of the dead in some kind of limbo? A transdimensional occurrence, a slip in  the fabric of space and time? Or something else. Feel free to weigh in.

Ghostly,

LSP

Aaaand They're Satanists

 Patrisse

Well maybe not, just necromancers, channeling the spirits and powers of the dead. This is Patrisse Cullors, one of BLM's three founders in a video call with Melina Abdulla, LA BLM chapter founder:

At its core, it’s a spiritual movement. You can’t pretend like that work is just organizing work. That’s, you know, that’s some serious stuff.

When we say the names, right, so we speak their names, we say her name, say their names, we do that all the time that, you kind of invoke that spirit, and then those spirits actually become present with you.

Cullors' comments on necromancy followed Abdulla's:

Maybe I’m sharing too much, but we’ve become very intimate with the spirits that we call on regularly, right. Like, each of them seems to have a different presence and personality, you know. I laugh a lot with Wakisha, you know. And I didn’t meet her in her body, right, I met her through this work.

She went on to emphasize the importance of invoking spirits, referencing popular BLM name chanting:

Gross

When we say the names, right, so we speak their names, we say her name, say their names, we do that all the time that, you kind of invoke that spirit, and then those spirits actually become present with you.

Spirituality is at the center of Black Lives Matter, and I think that’s not just for us, I feel like so many, um, leaders and so many organizers, um, are deeply engaged and in a pretty, um, important spiritual practice.

Cullors, Abdulla and how many others are practitioners of Ifa, West African Yoruba ancestor worship, with an emphasis on spirit possession and associated divination. You know, tell the future with the help of your dead spirit friend.

I tell you, this fight is against principalities and powers, and the Devil, like a roaring and ramping lion prowls, seeking whom he may devour.

Runway Model

Nigerian friends tell me Christianity is this remarkable thing, freeing them from the dead hand of their ancestral demons. Think, Western Man, sorry, pyrsxn, of your fate had Ygdrasil not been chopped down.

Hey, it's all a great Afro larf 'til Orisha's gnawing on your buddy's shin bone. Don't say Tayo.

Out Demons Out,

LSP