friends, pagans, countrywomen, lend me your ears

the spiritual philosophy of a diouana woman

if you come from the old world, you know that the europeans are much more pagan than the africans. at least, they were. before the 11th century, when the saxons were successful in convincing the vikings their gods weren’t real. and even before then, when emperor constantine converted to christianity in the 4th century and issued the edict of milan, enshrining religious tolerance. on the latter front, the emperor has our thanks. for the west africans, our paganism has an ancestral worship bent to it. for the introduction of a christian god into our faith in the 15th century, we give our thanks to the portuguese. and of course, the north africans, the christian ones at least, give their thanks to the merchants of yore. circa 1st century ad, it was.

the gods may not save us, but faith will

as you can see, this is an old story with even older gods. that said, the heart of the story isn’t really about the gods, but our faith. it’ll always come down to 2 corinthians 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

faith is the most important ingredient because it’s the essence of all true things. it’s the groom of love. it’s the mother of all. a society that lacks in faith is not a secular society, but one that is doomed to fall by even the most minor of stresses. to the point of secularism, faith has nothing to do with religion. religion is a question of doctrine. faith is a matter of the divine.

as a christian-pagan, as i like to call myself, i don’t reference the bible strictly as a book to live by. in fact, i consider the bible to be the original horror story. but that’s an essay for another time. the bible, to me, is a book of spells. it’s a grimoire by any other name. especially the book of psalms. you see, spells are what you speak over your life or someone else’s. spells are a prayer by any other name. the importance of the bible is that it teaches you to root your spell (prayer) in the most high. in the king of kings. in yahweh. because he is an ever abundant source, and never asks for anything in return for the granted blessing. should you have to make a trade (sacrifice) of yourself, or someone else, in order to get what you want, than you’re dealing with a different source. i won’t say it’s the devil’s work, but it’s not a god.

and the thing about the devil, is that the devil is a lie. as such, he can real. but he can never be true.

when you have increases in anxieties, the absolute spread of fear, and general loathing that permeates the air, what you have is a vacuum in which the devil, from all theological origins, can emerge. because the devil feeds off of human chaos. but. when anxieties are nullified, joy is amplified, and love returns to the land, the devil is destroyed. it really is that simple. the trouble is, in the material world, it’s hard to see those dynamics because we’re caught right in the middle of it. it’s only in stepping back that we realize that the devil is a lie. and we must not perpetuate his lies. or, we’ll place ourselves in a position where he can feed (spiritually) off of us.

and in understanding this, we realize that it was never about the gods to begin with. it was always about us. for, it was not the gods who created the humans, but the humans who created the gods, who then created the humans.

when you lose faith, matter of fact, when you act in bad faith, chaos ensues. and because all i seem to think about these days is politics, the 2024 presidential election presents an excellent opportunity to analyze what unfolds when you act in bad faith.

the gods are watching

what i find interesting, in thinking about the gods, is the question of destiny. i have always been of the belief that our destinies are a lot more malleable than we think they are, but a lot less forgiving that we’d like them to be.

an interesting figure to examine this truism by is that of joe biden. i don’t he was destined to be president of the united states. at least, not in the way barack obama was. or donald trump for that matter. we’ll get to both of those men soon enough.

for biden, he started this election cycle off as a bit of a king lear figure. the mad king who clung to power. and it wasn’t until a coup, as successfully executed by the supremely cunning nancy pelosi, forced him to step down. and in what certainly must have felt like the greatest betrayal of his life, biden’s best moment came when he stopped being king lear and stepped into the role of brutus.

when he addressed the american people and spoke of his love of us, for this here great country, and informed us that he believed he was no longer fit to fight the ensuing battle, he reminded me of shakespeare’s brutus. after conspiring with the cabal that murdered julius caesar, brutus addressed the roman republic and explained why he thought it fit to kill their ruler by stating, "…[it’s] not that i loved caesar less, but that i loved rome more. had you rather caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that caesar were dead, to live all freemen?”

the phrase that drew the biden-brutus comparison, to me, was the line about “loving rome more.” biden loved his country more than he did being in power. and so, he made the difficult decision to step down. although previously he reminded determined to stay on the ticket. enter nancy pelosi, his “friend” who convinced him otherwise.¹

few people follow american politics in painful detail, or care to reflect on the previous administrations of all former american presidents. so there are many american presidents that are simply lost to history. partly because they didn’t do anything spectacular (good or bad) to warrant history remembering them. partly because, in their own historiography, they’ve been overshadowed: by that period’s popular culture, their vice-president, or whatever else was happening in the world. they are completely forgotten. i mean, who remembers calvin coolidge?

biden will find himself in this camp. not because he didn’t do anything interesting. he did. but because he’s been completely overshadowed: by obama, pelosi, and harris. first when obama convinced him not to run in 2016 and instead “make room” for hillary because it was “her turn.” in 2024, pelosi, along with a group of democrats, forced his hand leading to him announcing his intention to not seek re-election on twitter of all places.² then it was harris, debuting the best incumbent campaign (at least for the first three months) the american public had seen in a long time. let’s not forget that the covid pandemic that overshadowed everything in the early years of his administration.

given that his presidency has been completely overshadowed while he’s alive, it leads me to believe it’ll continue to be overshadowed when he’s no longer here. i reckon history will focus not on him as president, but the interlocutors around him. notably obama, pelosi, and harris.

if he was destined to be president, it was a bleak destiny. if the gods had been on his side, i think they would have given him better. a rememberable legacy, for starters.

obama always seemed to have the gods on his side. rarely, in his political career, and certainly when he was running for and then became the united states president, did he make a mistake or seem to cause scandal (that didn’t quickly die down). which is interesting if you consider the fact that black lives matter, the first series of protests, happened under the second obama administration. in what was dubbed a “post-racial society,” (because if you elect a biracial man into the highest office in the land, racism ceases to exist), race relations in the united states got worse. which is why we had black lives matter in the first place. to bring attention to the continuing injustices that were being faced by the black community in this country at that time—a biracial president be damned.

but obama didn’t seem to bear the blame, at least on the popular culture front, of our understanding of the deteriorating state of race relations and trust between american citizens. nor was he widely criticized for how little he did for black americans. but i only trafficked in leftist, progressive circles at the time. so, maybe people were calling out obama for this and i simply wasn’t there to keep track of history.

but now, everyone seems to be calling out obama. there was a time when you said his last name, and people, or at the very least the politicos among us, had positive things to say. especially the media. but now? he’s being painted as “self-righteous, inaccurate and arrogant.” what’s crazier than a journalist writing, in an established publication that we’d all consider “a credible source,” this characterization, is that it’s true. at least it has been during the harris-waltz campaign. which is why countless black men have been pushing back against obama for implying they’re misogynists (or, at the very least, men who are not feeling the idea of a female president [add p[olling roles / voting results from 2016 election]).

whatever glamour magick that was being worked during obama’s presidential campaigns and his administrations, as well as his post-white house public life, is beginning to wane. i never thought i’d see the day black people, perhaps not en masse but certainly enough to be significant, would push back, if not completely turn their backs, on obama.

whatever god had been on his side seems to have moved on.

if you consider that all of these figures have a god that supports them, an archetypical energy driving them forward, this election cycle spins an interesting tale of alchemism.

there are those of us who get very far, and can even go all the way, when we operate in the energies of joy, love, and mirth. then there are those of us who clear the field not by being happy warriors, but by telling the truth and shaming the devil. it’s often understood in folklore and mythology that the trickster is not a devil, but the vehicle the gods use to get us, the humans, to either see the truth or tell the truth. that’s why comedians have jesters’ privilege. the king won’t behead you for telling him he’s gone mad if he thinks you’re joking. and if you say that in court, in front of an audience, than the people can begin to understand that the king actually has gone mad. once the populace has made aware of a problem, even if the jester was crude in his delivery, they’ll surely begin to demand changes. changes will then come.

in understanding this, i’m often sadden when politicians, and regular civilians alike, who do their best work when operating in the energies of joy, love, and mirth, all of sudden try to operate in energies best suited for those who have more of a fire element to them. those whose jesters’ privilege is a birthright. a gift from the gods.

in examining the 2024 presidential election, and even the one from 2016, in these spiritual frameworks, a lot of things become clear.

i’ll reiterate from my last essay: a republican presidential candidate, in front of an audience and on national television, boldly stated, and in manner not yet seen in public american political life, that the united states was responsible for destabilizing an entire region, the middle east, and that we had no business being in iraq. and in fact, that the bush administration had lied and told the american people that saddam hussein had weapons of mass deconstruction when he didn’t in order to get the green light, both from the court of public opinion and congress, to invade iraq to stop hussein and it was a big mistake. “a beauty [of a mistake]”, the candidate called it.

i look back to that debate, and truly believe the gods were having a laugh.

and in that election cycle alone, that candidate, who went on to become the 2016 republican presidential nominee, effectively ended the political careers of the bush family and the clinton family. that same nominee, in this election cycle, is poised to end the political influence of the obama-biden apparatus and end the political career of obama himself, if black political popular opinion means anything to you.

i’ll close out this section on the influence the gods on this election cycle with the following from another substack writer:

"the real lesson here is that people yearn for honesty, even if the honesty is often ill-advised.

trump and harris are more like actors in a greek play representing archetypal titans. harris is the scion of legacy media[…]trump quick to take advantage of the rise of independent media[…]there was a reason why he was inducted into the wrestling hall of fame[…]he knows the theatre of playing to the crowd…

he is a liar, but an honest liar. what other president would say we want the oil, and we want to sell them weapons?

some adepts have tried to use spells against him, only to find they don't work. i suspect an old abrahamic god at work. he wants an end to war between the children of the book. trump has apparently told netanyahu he wants an end to the war in gaza by the time he takes office.

netanyahu will likely comply. trump is a lot more popular than netanyahu in israel. 75% of israelis support him. many are not enthused by their own religious right, even if they refuse to capitulate to the demands of ignorant westerners. for trump, they might just do it.

for those who are actually interested in the occult, there is a lot of history of the seemingly banal in american historical entrepreneurialism, particular salesmanship. as the [traveling] salesman became a feature of americano, many sales types could be heard to whisper into a motel mirror 'in every way, i will have a great day!' three times, with due deliberation, for words to [take] effect. that's sympathetic magick, although few at the time would have been brave or knowledgeable enough to call it thus.

…just remember when this is over, you have more in common with the other side than you imagine. the legacy media is fond of asking the electorate what one side thinks of the other sides’ politicians, and then pretends that's what they think of the supporters on the other side.

america is caught between two sides in the assignment of blame. one side thinks it's the corporations. the other side thinks it's government bureaucracy, and a few crony capitalists, particularly in finance. you're crazy if you don't [realize] it's both[…]ultimately, any [organization] which reaches a certain size and scale, has a destiny to [dehumanize]. 75% to 80% of workers who work for small businesses or [organizations] are either 'very' or 'extremely' happy with their workplace. almost nobody else is[…]it's what comes from being treated like a name and number on a spreadsheet rather than a person.

ultimately, the gods are watching. unfortunately for us, our politicians are giving them a show.

it’s never too late to come back home

although the gods are watching, ultimately, they are indifferent. they won’t stop us from doing bad things to each other. nor will they reward us for saving the day.

that’s not necessarily a bad thing. this cosmic indifference is what allows us, both as diouana women and alchemists, to utilize the laws of the universe to our favor, and spot when moments in history have a more cosmic force behind them. such as the us presidential election, as i highlighted above.

if the gods won’t save us, it simply means we are tasked with saving ourselves. one of my favorite mystics, osho, once wrote that innocence is not about never having sinned, but about making our way back home even if we had. innocence is not an innate human trait, but doing everything in our power to maintain, to regain it, is what gives us our humanity.

and it’s in losing our humanity, our sensitivity to each other, that we not only erode our connections to one another but allow ourselves to decline into chaos. and that’s what the devil feasts on. human chaos. the cacophony that is created when we give in to our base urges.

to be clear, some of us do our best work in the gutter. now, you can get dirty. you can even go low. just remember where your line is. and never cross it. and if you do, just bring yourself back home. even if you have to apologize and ask for forgiven.

tuning ourselves into the energies around us will save us all thousands in therapy because you’ll realize that you can shut certain frequencies off. by this i mean that you can institute a policy within your life that dedicates that no one can bring you any negative or heavy news. that said, if you work or live in an environment where you’re in no position to enforce such boundaries, then the next best thing you can do is cultivate a mind that does not allow the negativity of the world to steep in.

this is why you must be mindful to not consume content or conversation that is designed to arouse negative and volatile energies out of you. this is a spell that is been casted over your spirit and you must be quick to rebuke it.

it may not seem like it, but our legacy media, as well as the social media platforms headed by our resident tech bro ceos, are well verse in these alchemical schemes.

think about it: television “channel”; television “programming”; youtube “channel”. the operative words here are channel and programming because they relate to the mind. our subconscious is a highly malleable engine. and if we’re not paying attention, we can feed it information that it’ll use to harm us by way of mental ailments and other bio-psycho diseases.

there’s a reason you don’t feel good after doomscolling. even the name let’s you know what you’re in for.

and the permeability of the subconscious mind, coupled with the reach of the legacy media and all their “channels” and “programming” is why we, those of us who find ourselves in america at least, find ourselves angrier and angrier, with more anxiety as the day continues, when as we consume their content. which is not designed to educate us, but rile us to garner views, likes, and shares. such is the algorithmic techno-hellscape we find ourselves. it’s no wonder nietzsche said god is dead.

but nietzsche, like all great philosopher-kings before him, was prone to bouts of hyperbolism.

that said, god isn’t so much dead; as it is that we continue to try to kill him.

again, this has nothing to do with secularism as it does faith.

our hostility towards each other, especially in these fraught times, turns us away from each other. with our backs turned, and our hearts closed, the devil emerges to feast on human chaos.

but, again, be clear, the devil isn’t what causes the chaos. we do that all by ourselves. just consider the troll-feast that was this presidential election. dance parties with beyoncé and extra salty mcdonalds fries notwithstanding.

so, where does that leave us?

with a responsibility. not to be perfect, or good, or even nice. but a responsibility to be accountable for our actions.

i think about it like this: i sincerely believe that when it’s time for me to no longer be on this earth, i’ll find myself sitting next to god and in his lap will be an oversized book. the book will detail every decision i ever made. in flipping through the book, god will turn to me once he’s reviewed every decision and ask, “was it justified?”

meaning, the decision i made that minute, that day, that month, that year, do i feel justified in my actions? i also believe this exercise will be one of principle. so i’ll have no option to plead my case. only “yes or no” will do.

in thinking through how we treat ourselves. how we treat each other. especially if we’re in a position of power. it’s important to think about our book.

i don’t believe there are any right decisions in this life. only decisions made right. so, make sure you’re justified in all you do. even if, you seem to be the only one that believes in that course of action.

after all, the gods are watching. give them a good show.

sweet dreams,

a diouana woman

p.s. truth or dare

this section is a curated list of ideas and items i’ve engaged with recently that i’ve loved. the truths were 10/10, so i must recommend. and the dares were not so great, so it’s me saying don’t do it. but only if you dare. get it? great. let’s begin:

truth: telling the truth and shaming the devil. it’s a beautiful thing to stand firm in who you are. make no apologies for yourself. simply take accountability for your actions. also, i kept hearing lana’s gods & monsters as i was writing this, so please give her a listen. nothing beats 2012 lana.

dare: living in fear. playing small. hiding who you are. the god of war hates those who hesitate. be bold and win yourself a lasting name babes.

disclaimer: the views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not reflect the views of any employer, past or current.

1. in this shakespeare analogy, nancy is marc antony.

2. what’s heartbreaking about this, is that he really did want to be a two term president. in his dnc speech, he noted that his political life has been filled with naysayers telling him what he cannot do. he’d always prove them wrong. this time, he didn’t get that chance. it would seem we don’t always get what we want.