PAWÒL APRANTI-SAJ

The Western World

My name is Djalòki. I am from Ayiti, i.e. I am Haitian. Although my culture is significantly marked by European culture, which is one of its 3 main roots, I am not, culturally speaking, a Westerner. There are 2 other important branches in my culture, one is rooted in my African ancestors, and the other comes from the Original Peoples of the So-Called Americas (incorrectly referred to as Indian). These roots can be called primordial or indigenous. My primordial cultural roots are more dominant than my European one in terms of my mental paradigms and perceptions of the “objective” reality. Even at the genetic level, the characteristics derived from my family’s European gene pool does not, by any standard, make me European. This, though, doesn’t prevent me from feeling close to my western cousins. And I must admit that my current life style is very influenced by the Western World, more by adaptation to a dominant system in which I want to survive, than by deliberate choice. I also recognize that I benefit, to a limited amount, from some of the effects and products of western technology. Therefore, as long as I haven’t completely forsaken it, I will take partial responsibility in the destruction and evil created by that technology.

When I use the word Westerner, though, I am referring to people, communities and institutions who consider themselves modern and civilized, or who would like to become as such, and who think and act accordingly, be them from Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia or else.

In order to be able to share my reflections about the September 11, 2001 events, I need to present a few aspects, specific to my primordial cultural roots - hence non western - that constitute the foundations of these reflections. For this, I allow the primordial aspects of my global culture to flow to the forefront of my consciousness, while the western paradigm remains dormant in the background, just animated enough to enable me to use a vocabulary understandable by the Westerners. From this point on, my primordial soul will be predominant in my words.

The Invisibles

We have learned from our Elders, who themselves learned from our Ancestors, that the Divine Source created several worlds connected with each other. From our human perspective there is the visible world, where Humans consciously dwell and the invisible world, where Ancestors and Spirits dwell, as well as to where Humans make frequent incursions, usually unconsciously. Without getting into a detailed description of the Spirits, let us say for the moment, that they roughly correspond, in western words, to immaterial energies whose effects can be perceived by Humans at the physical, emotional, mental or psychic level, such as moods, archetypes or natural forces.

The visible world and the invisible one are in very close relationship. In particular, everything that exists and happens in the visible is intimately linked to its counterpart in the invisible. But the invisible is much bigger and much more diverse than the visible. Still from our perspective, the very Divine Source appears to belong to the invisible world. For the simplicity of this text, and except when elsewhere indicated, we will call “The Invisibles” all the Beings of the invisible world, including the Divine Source.

The Principle of Balance

According to our Elders, one of the main principles of Creation is the Principle of Balance (or Equilibrium). It is a very elaborate principle that we are not going to explain here in details; we will content ourselves with the reader’s intuitive notion of it. All the aspects of Creation are dedicated to functioning according to this principle.

A peculiarity for Humans is Free Will, which allows them, apparently, to deliberately ignore this principle, but this sets a series of reactions in motion in order to reestablish the laws of the Principle of Balance. Usually, Humans and communities who know and understand this principle take great care to respect it and apply it in every aspect of their lives. All of Creation as a whole follows the Principle. Since Humans only have the capacity to consider a limited number of aspects at the same time in order to comprehend and apply it, a simple and frequent approach is to consider the balance between 2 aspects of Creation, for example between the visible and the invisible worlds. The Primordial people are meticulous managers of this balance determining the way they interact with their environment at all levels, from astronomical sciences, of which some of the Primordial Peoples are experts, to handicrafts, including an array of traditional sciences specializing in the balance at the planetary level (minerals, plants, animals and Humans), at the Nations and Peoples level (tribes and clans, families, other various organizations, production activities, leisure, education, health, rituals, etc.), at the individual level, etc…

Primordial invisible accounting

Several technologies are used by Primordial people to manage the balance between the visible and the invisible depending on the nature and the cause of the potential imbalance. For example, when an action exclusively relates to the visible realm, one must deliberately invite the invisible to participate with it in order to reestablish balance

One way to proceed with this invitation is to make a sacrifice. I am referring here to the primary meaning of the term “sacrifice”: an offering to a deity; in other words, an offering to the Invisibles. In several western languages, the term “sacrifice” comes from 2 Latin roots: sacer (= sacred) and facere (= to make). The term “sacred” means related to the Divine, therefore the etymological meaning of “sacrifice” refers to that which makes related to the Divine; in other words: that relates (a visible/profane act) to the Invisibles. If we combine our 2 definitions, we can say that a sacrifice is an offering that relates a profane act to the Invisibles. It is a way to bring back balance to this act.

No mention has been made yet of the meaning of sacrifice suggesting privations or the loss of a valuable resource - including the life of a Human or an animal - in exchange of an eventual benefit. A sacrifice can be an invocation, a prayer, a gift in nature, a ritual, or a ceremony. It is a supplementary act that consecrates the profane act therefore rebalancing it. Before drinking, we pour a few drops on the floor for our Ancestors. Before eating, we ask the Invisibles to bless and charge our food with vital energy. Before addressing an audience, we greet the Invisibles with honor and respect. Before planting, we ask the Invisibles to assist us and guide our actions. Before gathering, we thank the Invisibles for allowing us to use the healing power of a plant for our own balance. Before moving somewhere, we invite the Invisibles to go before us and then to cohabit with us. Before traveling, we ask for permission and protection, etc. As a rule, before using the resources of our environment, we make an offering to the Invisibles and ask them to consecrate our profane act.

The invisible external debt

As long as sacrifices are made, the balance between the visible and the invisible is maintained. In the case of forgetfulness or negligence, an action is thus undertaken in the visible without its invisible counterpart. This creates an imbalance and those responsible are accountable until reconciliation is made. This can be considered as an invisible debt that the people responsible owe to the Invisibles. The more collective the roles of those people, the more the debt will be shared by the community as a whole. Individuals can be held accountable for a debt incurred by others, but it is no less real

Pain

Shamans are familiar with the invisible world. They go there easily, at will. One of the main functions of shamans in primordial societies is to watch over the balance between the visible and the invisible and to help the community in reestablishing balance when it drifts away. When the invisible external debt of the community piles up, shamans perceive the need for rebalancing. At their instigation and under their supervision, sacrifices are made, but at this stage, small or daily sacrifices, appropriate at the individual level, are not enough any more to pay the collective external debt whose interests, in a sense, have accumulated. Healing rituals are then necessary. And sometimes, pain is inevitable. Pain has a unique capacity to create a thirst for the Divine, not only deep within our psyche, but also at the conscious level. This forces us to call with acute intent and awareness upon the Invisibles for help. It is the strength of this intent that can counterbalance the volume of the debt incurred. A simple mechanical gesture, without any personal investment would not do for that circumstance, even as impressive and majestic as it could be. In this sense, pain is sometimes a form of sacrifice in itself, according to the meaning: relation to the Invisibles. An interesting subject to investigate would be the obsession of the Westerners to try to eliminate pain in their life. But this is not our current purpose.

Even at this level, a painful sacrifice doesn’t necessarily mean bloodshed or loss of life. Nevertheless, the qualities and the functions of the blood can powerfully enhance the effects of the sacrificial pain. We are reaching a stage here that may be delicate and difficult. It requires a great deal of open mindedness from Westerners, perhaps even some humility, to put aside cultural concepts they have about blood, for a moment. Do not misunderstand me: I won’t presume I can help you completely understand, let alone accept, the primordial concepts on blood in just a few words. I am only suggesting you realize that your concepts are specific to your culture, which is relatively young. It might be good to approach what I am saying here, not only with your rational intellect, but also with your faculty of direct intuitive perception, more akin to emotion than to pure thought.

A lot of us, non-Westerners, know from our Ancestors, who themselves know it from the Invisibles, that blood is the main physical vehicle of the human soul. I will not try to prove this affirmation. You may consider it or discard it as you see appropriate, but know that more than a few non-Western scientists and sages understand this as a truth. Knowing this, you can have an idea of the importance that the presence of blood may have in an activity designed to invoke the Invisibles and to communicate with them.

Invoicing and payment of debts

If the shamans do not do their job, or if the community doesn’t listen to them, or worse, if there aren’t any more shamans in the community, then sacrifices are overlooked and omitted, and the invisible debt accumulates even more. One day the Invisibles will ask for a settlement, in other words, the creditors will send the invoice.

To communicate with us, the Invisibles address the part of us that is in closer contact with them, our superconscious mind that, paradoxically, operates in close collaboration with our subconscious mind, and uses a very similar language. Our subconscious mind plays the double role of messenger and translator between our superconscious mind and the Invisibles on one hand and our conscious mind on the other hand. The language of the subconscious mind is expressed in symbolic, analogical and multidimensional images, as one can observe in dreams, but this is not about dreams. In order to tell us that it has received an invoice for unpaid overdue external transactions, our subconscious mind will create a situation that represents the debt (the sacrifice) asked by the Invisibles, symbolically, analogically and multidimensional. Although it will be a very real situation, it will serve as an image, likely reduced, of the final sacrifice. As the debt is a collective one, that image will have to be public, accessible to everyone. It may be very interesting, for Westerners who know how and enjoy interpreting dreams at the individual level, to analyze the great events of the public life of their community with the same methods they use for individual dreams.

After the invoice has been received, the community will still have the opportunity, if it understands the message, to take back responsibility of its debt and to reconcile it by intentionally making the required sacrifices. These will probably be very painful indeed, but there is a relative flexibility in the choice of the nature and the expression of that pain, with the effect of limiting “losses”. Most of all, this allows the community to prepare itself psychologically for these sacrifices, in order to make them consciously, in complete awareness, while recognizing its entire responsibility. The greatest value is then drawn from these sacrifices and used to maximum “profitability” so that an eventual bankruptcy may be avoided.

Now, if, after having overlooked the trivial daily sacrifices, after having snubbed the shamans’ warnings, and after having ignored or misinterpreted the message of the Invisible through its subconscious mind, this community doesn’t pay its debt still, then the creditors simply collect for themselves without any other civilities. In other words, the sacrifice is made without the community having intentionally decided or planned it. It is imposed with or without consent. At this stage, the payment modalities are not negotiable anymore. Chances are this sacrifice will not only be extremely painful, but eventually lethal for the debtor community, especially if this community is found nonsolvent. In which case the only offering capable to match the required amount is the very soul of the community. That soul has to be returned to the invisible world where it came from and from where it has been disconnected from for too long due to the negligence of its human guardians.

The invisible external debt of the modern Western World

Approximately ten thousand years ago, the cultural Ancestors of the modern Westerners gradually abandoned the primordial vision in order to “civilize” themselves. A new culture was born, very different from all others on Earth. Among other peculiarities, it was loosing touch with the Invisibles, and didn’t take care of the balance in Creation anymore, not even the most crucial balance between the invisible and the visible. Contact was totally severed at the community level during the Renaissance, when religion gave way to science, which progressively gained control of the affairs of society. This leads us to a first observation.

First observation: The Western World has been overlooking the visible/invisible balance for a long time.

The primary notion of the sacrifice, namely: an offering done to the Invisibles to consecrate a profane action is pushed back into the dark secret dungeons of the truncated Western World’s memory. I use the term truncated because Westerners categorize everything that precedes the oldest writings of their Ancestors under the term “prehistory” and because the average person, generally, has a very erroneous idea of prehistory. He/she usually thinks that all prehistoric Humans were mentally inferior. He/she is not taught (or doesn’t remember) that we, Human Beings, have been living on Earth the way we are now in our current mental development ten times longer than the age of western civilization. According to modern western science many of these 100,000 year old prehistoric Humans, classified Homo Sapiens, were likely more intelligent than the average person, by even his/her own criteria. I recognize, though, that many scholars have a better knowledge of their distant past than the average person. Nevertheless, I don’t hear them asking the question why, if their Ancestors were as intellectually equipped as they (western scholars) are, they existed for so long without “civilizing” themselves, but managed to maintain balance all around them and why, once “civilized”, they managed to proceed to destroy the balance of so many forms of life in so little time.

It is true that sacrifice is not a civilized technology…

It is also true that shamans only existed among prehistoric Peoples, or slightly more “evolved” contemporary peoples…

Because of its short memory, the Western World confuses its own Ancestors - who were brilliant astronomers, surgeons, sociologists and theologians - with rough filthy primates. According to this thinking no forefather or foremother prior to - or even contemporary of - Ur and Babylon has anything of value to teach to an average Westerner, except to feed his/her curiosity about inferior practices considered superstitious (by the way, superstition = belief in the power of invisible forces…). More observations:

Second observation: The Western World hasn’t practiced conscious community sacrifices for a long time.

Third observation: The Western World hasn’t listened to its shamans for a long time.
(Fortunately shamans haven’t completely disappeared yet).

The first 3 observations lead us to think that the invisible external debt of the Western World may have been accumulating for hundreds or even thousands of years without being balanced in the invisible.

And what is that debt anyway?

The answer is simple and yet dreadful at the same time: The debt is made up of everything Westerners have taken for their own benefit, all the imbalance they have produced, everything they have destroyed, directly or indirectly, during several millennia of brutal exploitation, blind expansion and voracious development. Now we can formulate a fourth observation.

Fourth observation: The invisible external debt of the Western World is gigantic.

A review of these 4 observations immediately makes us think of a possible invoice issuing from the Invisibles. The invoice is received and translated by the collective subconscious mind. The message could be expressed in the form of a public event that would symbolically, or in a reduced fashion, represent the sacrifice that is expected from the Western World. A painful event that would force Westerners to turn to their God, and at the same time show them the offerings necessary to reconcile their debt. Simply speaking it would be a catastrophe or a tragedy that would strike simultaneously their deep collective psyche and their material wealth.

The Tragedy

What if September 11 was a call from the Invisibles?

What if Bin Laden, the Talibans, the Muslim extremists, the terrorists, the CIA, the Israeli Palestinian conflict, the fraudulent election of “W”, the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and all the elements of the tragedy were nothing but instruments used by the collective western subconscious mind, as theater decor, or even better, as in a dream, to notify the collective conscious mind that an invoice has been sent by the Invisibles?

What if this tragedy, so traumatizing and destructive, was only a reduced image, only a little scratch in comparison to what is maybe in store for the Western World, if this one doesn’t react appropriately and quick enough?

The sacrifice

But is the Western World ready to wake up right now? Is it ready to make the sacrifice on its own or is it just going to wait for the Invisibles to collect on the debt themselves?

And by the way, what is this sacrifice required from the Westerners anyway?

The answer is on the same level as the one about the nature of the debt: simple and dreadful. What is asked from the Western World is to make a radical change of habits and attitudes that violate the Principle of Balance as well as offerings heavy in cost.

The habits and attitudes to change, although innumerable to list, are not difficult to identify (without pre-established order): chronic arrogance, exploitation without scruples, deification of profit and money, expansionism, materialism, consumerism, institutional lies and hypocrisy, racism, sexism, classism, obscurantism, imperialism, commoditization of land, of space, of food, of clothing, of health, of education, of security, of solidarity, of dignity, of the sacred, of life, non respect for natural laws, for cycles, for equilibriums, for Humans, for communities, for the Elders, for the Ancestors, for the Spirits, etc…

Let it be clear that I don’t have the intention to ignore the numerous actions deeply marked with respect, beauty and grandeur undertaken by generations of Westerners. But, my sense is that the real ultimate consequence of the action of the Western World, as a whole, on our planet, is all but respectful, beautiful and grand.

The offerings too are easy to identify. Should the Western world desire to make amends, it will have to give up - and do without, in the future - the “benefits” of its nonsacred technology: mass production, materials that can’t be recycled as fast as they are produced, nonrenewable energies, nonsustainable gadgets, machines, products and processes that disturb the environment and the health of all kinds of species (vegetal, animal, Human) in their manufacturing, their use, or their disposal, etc.

Yes, as it could have been expected, the price is as overwhelming as the debt. Is the Western World willing, and ready to pay it?