18/08/2020
SACRIFICIAL COVENANT AND THE VALUE OF UNCONSCIOUS PACT.
In the blood covenant with the spirits that occurs in sacrifice, the spirit is regarded as descending into the animal so that the blood of the animal is in some respects the blood of the spirit; in like manner something of the supplicant is passed to the animal and the blood of the animal is in some respects the blood of the supplicant. Then the spirit drinks the supplicant’s blood, the supplicant drinks the spirit’s blood, and the covenant is completed. Who is being killed? Psychoanalytic writers have looked upon sacrifice as a ritual satisfying unconscious urges. Freud (1920) believed that the sacrificial animal represents the father, and the act of sacrifice a symbolic patricide consistent with oedipal wishes. Accordingly, the sacrifice of a feminine animal should be regarded as the equivalent of junghian Electra’s complex satisfaction with ritual killing of the opponent mother. Money-Kryle (1929) felt that a wide variety of unconscious fantasies could be vicariously fulfilled in the sacrifice. Depending upon the individual concerned, the slaying might symbolize the murder of the father, the mother, the self, or the father murdering the mother. Yoruba informants were generally not very helpful on this point. On one or two occasions, however, they confirmed the death of the animal was a substitute for the death of the supplicant. The general pattern was: The supplicant or one of his family had offended the family Orisa, the lineage deity, (or some other spirit or deity). He may have failed to worship him or broken one of the Orisa’s taboos. The supplicant’s misfortune or illness was the consequence of this failure; death might result if proper measures were not taken. In the sacrifice the supplicant passes his bad luck or illness (which seems to be regarded as a kind of miasma clinging about the head) to the animal, the animal is killed in the supplicant’s stead and the supplicant, relieved of his evil effluvia, is restored to favor. It should be noted that the supplicant’s responsibility for his own uncleanness is not emphasized. Often he is unaware of his offense; in some instances the guilty party may even have been some other family member. These things are revealed only by divination after the misfortunes have already made their appearance. In another instance, the sacrificial animal represented the supplicant’s brother. Briefly, the situation was: The patient felt he was being persecuted by the witches. They harassed him by night, demanding that he deliver his brother to them for a ritual feast. The patient refused but offered them a ram and a goat. The witches accepted and these animals were sacrificed in the usual way, with the conscious belief on the part of the supplicant and the Ifa priest that they were taking the place of the supplicant’s brother. The patient carried on this dialogue with the witches partly through nocturnal hallucinations and partly through Ifa. It is noticeable during the sacrificial rite Orunmila, the ancestral diviner (and other ancestral spirits) may descend into the sacrificial animal that is then murdered and eaten. There are many observations which may arise from a focused attention to these evidences. First, in all sacrifices a definite alteration of consciousness is implicated, from initiation to any form of divination and Ebo. Without consciousness modification (from superficial to possession trance) nothing is going to happen but a sometime interesting piece of theatre representation. There is a profound necessity of unconscious manifestation that, however, is the clear consequence of ritual itself. Rituality is one of the most powerful inductors of consciousness alteration, acting over our most ancient mental parts, ones we call “archeo mind”. Rituality was born with first reptilians whose lives are embedded with this necessity in order to building up hierarchy, dominance, sexuality and reproduction, in other words the needed fight for individual and group life preservation. This necessity is still into us: our reptilian mind responds to certain solicitations, for example during military training and parades in an evident manner. Furthermore, “activation” of reptilian consciousness is clearly evoked by some suggestive ritual maneuvering, that may be completed by definite emotional stimulation like sounds, music, chants, proxemic modifications, gestures archetypal symbolisms. In these conditions the most ancient part of our unconscious may open to profound comprehension of ritual symbolism as related to one’s pulsional, ancestral and collective necessities. Second, as the Ego influence is suppressed or reduced during possession or lighter states of trance, certain unconscious exigencies may come out easily and be discharged and satisfied by the implications of the ritual (father assassinate, mother assassinate and others). Even the castration complex may be treated when certain ph***ic objects are presented as a part of the ritual (swords, knives, and so on). Orunmila himself can be considered a reference for the symbolic representation of Super Ego in freudian terms. Orunmila is a name with uncertain etymology. However, a simple explanation of the origins of this name is the Yoruba Orun mi ala: the Heaven gives me light. A clear metaphor of a superior force who enlightens the “lower” layers of consciousness, with reference to the pulsional world. Orunmila is represented as the divine consciousness that gives instructions to the Iwa Pele, that is the mythical “Bom Character”. It is clear super egoic principles may be the guide to a correct behavior, according to educational, society and religious needs and rules. Orun is the site of our spiritual consciousness: we are represented as double, like twins separated by different needs. Ifa says there is a separated society in Orun that relates to our earthy needs. At an intermediate level we find some spiritual figures that are related to Nature, called Orisa in Yoruba language. Characteristically, our mind (Ori) is “occupied by one or 2 of these figures that work to guide our mind to the correct alignment between the 2 societies, evident representation of our Ego. Our mind (Ori) is the ultimate force that, as a whole (Ori and Ori inu, inner Ori), determinates our Destiny. This link is stressed even more in Yoruba language as the word Ori has 2 different meanings: destiny and mind, highlighting the dependence of our Destiny from the correct work of our mind, compressed by the exigencies of Orunmila, Orisa, and Esu. Esu is the Yoruba trickster, amora and anethic, without any precise knowledge of concepts of Good and Evil, always boiling of inexhaustive force whose direction is the direction of wishes satisfaction. Those inner wishes whose most clear evidence is sexual. It is not by chance Esu is a ph***ic deity, expression of the main pulsion of our Id, that is sexual. Freud evidenced libido as our most powerful force, sexual lato sensu, specifically pulsional, i.e. generating the inner force gradient that must be expressed outside into an acceptable behavior, modeled following the principle of Good \character. Interesting, and according with Freud, Orunmila and Esu are best friends, according to the clear metaphor about the necessity of an optimal relation between super Ego and Id. This relation may be mediated by our Ego-Orisa that gives us the orientation toward our specific natural attitudes. Possession may occur with Esu and Orisa while Orunmila possession is linked to a light trance state that is called Ela (I am the light). Implication is we can easily get access to our superior Consciousness. More difficult my be to enter the depth of our deep unconscious Id and Ego needs.
