Sign Posts On The Road

My own experiences with seeking spiritual help, and travelling down a road of distraction and time wasting, have led me to finally understand that part of my life’s lessons is to learn things the hard way.

While I don’t regret it—I can’t because I learnt so much about so many things, and gained some valuable experience with Orisa work—I see now how wrong I was to put my trust in people.

I knew early on, that the people I had turned to, were limited, but I kept seeking out understanding and growth, and ultimately help. I was losing myself, and grasping at the people who had reached out to me, to save me, and they were too underdeveloped to grow.
This weekend, I’ve been reading “Spiritual Cleansing—A Handbook of Psychic Protection” by Draja Mickaharic. The whole book deals with spiritual baths and cleansing processes, but the book describes itself as a ‘spiritual first aid’ manual. These are the things you do when you feel the first onset of problems, and as preventative measures.

Mickaharic clearly states, that some problems can be first treated with the baths in book, but that bigger, more ingrained problems need to taken to a spiritual practitioner in order to really get long term relief.

I think this book is a must for anyone who has been struggling under any kind of negative, weighted energy over a long period of time.

In the back of the book, there is a whole section that deals with choosing the right spiritual practitioner, and the signs to specifically look for.

In your search there are also three things to beware of; they are not immediately noticeable, but will develop over a period of time while you are working out your difficulties with the practitioner. They usually indicate a practitioner who has not developed beyond a certain point. The work may be effective, but the worker’s self development may have flaws. The three things are:

1. Beware of spiritual practioners who try to “lay a trip” on you. They belong, morally, to the same school as the gypsy fortune tellers. If they stress overcoming your problems with willpower, if the want you to consider yourself a failure or if they make you feel guilty about anything, they are laying a trip on you, not helping you. Any person who judges you and finds you lacking, who makes you feel guilty, or who places you in a fear of the unknown is putting you on some kind of mental trip for their own benefit. They are not helping you. Avoid these moral frauds and keep looking for one who is ethical.
2. Beware of dependency. When a practioner tries to make another person dependent on him he is not helping but enslaving the client. When a person encourages dependency he may have negative motivations. This also happens when a worker lays a “holy trip” on you. He makes you feel guilty because he is “holy” and you are not. This does not help. No true spiritual practitioner will do this, as he knows the moral consequences of claiming holiness. False ones will, and frequently do.
3. Beware of immediate acceptance as a student. You are coming for help from a disadvantaged position. Why should anyone want you to join a class until you have your act together? If the request is real you will get a meaningful explanation. Otherwise be suspicious. This is also true of those who inform you on the first visit that you need to be initiated. Initiation is never properly done to solve a problem in a person’s life; it must be done only when someone has assumed responsibility for himself, and grown to the point where initiation can be accepted. Look for another spiritual practitioner in these cases.

I don’t want to admit it, but I recognise the elders in the ile I was in, in all three of those declarations. That whole scene last year, with the ‘breaking of protocol’ incident, and my feeling as though I had made terrible mistakes, that’s like the first of the three things Mikaharic mentions.

Then from my first few encounters with Baba Erin and Kambiri, there has been this push for me to get initiated, and to ‘learn’ from them. That’s point three, clearly.

He goes on to mention exorbitant fees and prices and money, and that is one of the first things. For me to get initiated at Iya’s shrine, I have to find something like USD$1500. Mikaharic says:

Money is another issue here for often the most dedicated person (sic practitioner) is not rich. The person dedicated to helping others doesn’t charge tremendous amounts of money to do his work—and if you have a problem you can work on clearing up that problem even if you don’t have money. Someday you will, and at that time you can help him buy his food and pay his rent or living expenses by donating what you feel the help he gave you was work to you. In the meantime you should pay him whatever you can afford, no matter how little it is. A truly dedicated practitioner will not refuse to work with a sincere client.

I also find it interesting that I read this, after my choice to leave the ile. It’s as though the Universe is giving me further information to support my choice. The thing is, when I divined about this before I joined the ile, I was told not to join the ile, but to continue to interact with Osunyemi. So this is what I will do.

I know I did the right thing. It was the right thing for me and I don’t regret it. I am handling my business and my responsibilities.

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