Trees as Psychic Batteries Stimulating Expansions of Consciousness : Conceptions of Witchcraft

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

                                                                                                

                                                                                  

                                       

                                            Trees as Psychic Batteries Stimulating Expansions of Consciousness

                                                                            Conceptions of Witchcraft

                                                                            Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                                       Compcros

                                                                Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

                                                  "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

                                                                                                

                                                               

A  massive tree was recently felled in the SE of Nigeria on the belief that it harboured evil powers.

Can trees really possess or be inhabited by spiritual forces, good or evil?

They can.

Some trees project divine powers. Some trees manifest demonic forces.

Some trees, forests and groves can help you develop the powers attributed to witches in Nigeria- the ability to travel outside your body and congregate with others at a location defined by those vegetative forms.

Some trees can communicate with you mentally.

How do I know these statements to be factual?

I know because I have experienced  all the phenomena, described by these statements.

I did not join any group or harm anybody or anything in order to experience these aspects of reality nor have I employed the knowledge gained in harming anyone or anything.

What  I did was meditate on trees, admiring their beauty and trying, though my gaze, to pierce to their essence, to see beyond their physical forms to their metaphysical roots in the source of existence.

I also interacted with particular trees, and mentally projecting my thoughts to them, asked them to hep me in my quest.

I spent many hours in the company of trees, keeping myself alert to admiring their distinctive configurations everywhere I saw them.

I also conducted rituals of invocation of Yoruba Orisa cosmology deities but I wonder if this has much relationship with my adventures in nature spirituality.

What might have had more effect was my immersing myself in books that vividly evoked nature spirituality, such as the English novelist J.R.R. Tolkien's depictions of enchanted forests and trees in The Lord of the Rings and Douglas Baker on devas, angels of nature.

I was also fortunate to be living in Benin-City, which at the time, as I recognize now after having seen other parts of the world, was a global capital of tree centred spirituality, the city's topography definable significantly in terms of the strategic positioning of sacred tees and groves throughout the city and the presence of other such locations in its surrounding villages, centres of spirituality I explored through long walks.

Persisting in these practices, gradually my eyes began to open to another dimension of existence lying  in plain view but concealed by the fact that most people can't see it.

I began to observe an aura, an emanation around some trees, groves and forests, a quality always occurring with those trees, groves and forests traditionally understood as sacred in Benin. I became able to identify such traditionally designated sacred arboreal locations anywhere I went, within and beyond Benin, and have had such observations confirmed upon enquiry. I concluded that I and those others who had designated those locations as sacred were participating in an intersection of intersubjective and objective perception in which we perceived something that objectively existed but which could be perceived only by people who had cultivated the necessary means of perception, a fraternity of awareness into which I had stumbled through my meditations on trees facilitated by the highly developed tree spirituality of Benin, the expansion of these perceptual powers accelerated by specific sacred groves in Benin which stimulated my consciousness with particular intensity.

                                                                 

There is much talk about witches and wizards in Nigeria but there are few, such as Osemewegie Ebohon, in Benin, who  identify themselves with this designation on account of the bad press witchcraft  has got in Africa.

I suspect  witches and wizards exist  in Nigeria and other parts of Africa  but are careful not to draw attention to themselves so  they are not physically attacked or ostracized. On one of my regular visits to the Ogba forest in Benin, I got the impression a person I could not see but whose presence I sensed was walking out of the  forest as I walked in and that they stopped and studied me before moving on, just as I was gazing at the spot where they stood, seeing no one but sensing an enquiring presence.

Paraphrasing English occultist  Dion Fortune, as one journeys in the world of occult knowledge, one encounters opportunities for knowledge and power of various kinds, requiring different kinds of investment to gain, investments which, in another context, are known as sacrifices, since you will need to surrender something to gain another thing, the most fundamental of these sacrifices being time and energy, although Nigerian folktales reference other kinds of sacrifices, some of which are factual rather than purely imaginative.

A very relevant guide in such contexts is the orientation of Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, "What shall it profit a man if he  gains the whole world and loses his own soul?". I don't refer here to the idea of eternal damnation, which I don't believe in but the notion of the sacrifice of the essence of one's humanity, an essence its not always easy to appreciate but the health of which is fundamental to living a fulfilling life as a human being.

 Diaspora practitioners of Yoruba spirituality are eagerly developing Yoruba Iyami Aje spirituality, a spirituality existing in Yorubaland more as hearsay  than as verifiable fact,  rumour and unverified belief that depict this spirituality in ways significantly correlatable with the more negative conceptions of witchcraft in Western history but also demonstrating aspects of the more valoristic  conceptions of Western witchcraft developed since the 20th century.

The Diaspora Iyami Aje practitioners are refining the crudities of the traditional conception and building an elevated theology from the traditional material. Along similar lines,  and related to the achievements of modern Western witchcraft, its vital for continental Africans to develop witchcraft lore into something that answers to profound and elevated human needs in the partnership between humanity and nature,   ethically cultivating  the full scope of human potential for the benefit of humanity,  in recognition  of the  brotherhood and sisterhood of nature,  our ancestors who yet surround us always.

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