Feeling.

inside the throno
the iyawó shares his feelings
chulo starts to think

Religion is a puzzling thing. After an education and upbringing rich in science, it is hard to abandon fact finding and tangible evidence in search of faith and spirituality. So much of any religion is based on believing on things that are iconic in form, yet hold a much deeper purpose. Is this "spiritual growth" something that one can learn along the path, or is it much more of a self-actualized sense one already possesses that continues to build and grow?

Most religions have you believing in one god -- one being that will guide you thru life and lead you to eternal salvation. They tell you a tale of a man sent from above who has come to die for the sins of man. They bring evidence of his existence via a book and random artifacts scattered thru-out the world. Eat his body, drink his blood -- live forever eternally in the temple of heaven. It sounds like a story you've heard, right?

Polytheistic religions are much more complex. No longer is there just one god, but many, hence poly -- a latin prefix for more than one. Now with more than one deity, combine that with the ceremony that is santo, a union of you and your guardian angel. Now you are one with the santo, one to practise and continue the oral and symbolic traditions of a years old african religion that became merged with christianity in order to protect the practitioners from religious persecution. You are a conduit that can channel the santo, become the santo. You share your body with this essence, an essence that is as old as the Earth, if not older, yet once delivered, but merely a child.

That is the journey the Iyawó has begun. A journey to last one year and seven days. A journey of "teaching" the santo how to function in today's world. A year to relearn and develop -- become accustomed to the host it now lives inside. In effect, a symbiotic relationship between a day-walker and a celestial spiritual essence that is now merged into the host's head.

It makes you stop and think.

After speaking to him about his yesterday, it's clear that while he physically looks the same as the day before santo, he has a new perspective on many things in life. In his words, he told me that last week, while he was happy, he felt incomplete. Today, not but two days have passed, and while still happy, he feels that he needs nothing more in his life -- a feeling of completeness has come over his person and his spirit.

Now, scientifically, one is left to wonder. How exactly has this process changed this individual into believing that he is complete. Aside from the obvious ceremony that had been performed, what tangible explanation can account for this?

There is none.

I can't explain it any more than the weather man who fails miserably when predicting the weather. What I do know, after watching not nearly the entire santo ceremony, I am left wondering so many things. Can a spiritual essence be in effect "born" into the head of another sentient being that walks the Earth and communicates? I believe so. Is this as far fetched as consuming bread and wine in order to produce eternal salvation from the flames of the inferno? Not even remotely. This entire process leaves you with tangible elements you can look upon and feel the essence of the life you now possess; a new realisation of what life holds.

What the fuck.

I don't even know how to explain what I am going thru, let alone that of the Iyawó, who, from his throno, is experiencing life from entirely new perspective, barely three days old.

Drink from me and life forever; eat from me and never die...