Obeah (sometimes spelled Obi, Obea, or Obia), is a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices developed among West African slaves, specifically of Igbo origin
Obeah is practiced in Suriname, Cuba, Jamaica,Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Guyana, Barbados, Grenada, Belize, The Bahamas, and other Caribbean nations In some Caribbean nations, Obeah refers to folk religions of the African diaspora.
In some cases, aspects of these folk religions have survived through syncretism with Christian symbolism and practice introduced by European colonials and slave owners. Casual observation may conclude that Christian symbolism is incorporated into Obeah worship, but in fact may represent clandestine worship and religious protest.
During slavery, Obeah was directed against the European slave masters. However, with the rise of Christianity, Obeah is considered a taboo, and the term has pejorative associations. The theory of origin that is most accepted and is supported by the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute databas traces obeah to the dibia or obia(Igbo: doctoring) traditions of the Igbo people. Specialists in Obia (also spelled Obea) were known as Ndi Obia (Igbo: Obia people) and practised the same activities as the obeah men and women of the Caribbean like predicting the future and manufacturing charms.the Igbo there were oracles known as ọbiạ which were said to be able to talk. Parts of the Caribbean where Obeah was most active imported a large number of its slaves from the Igbo dominated Bight of Biafra
The term ‘obeah’ is first found in documents from the early 18th century, as in its connection to Nanny of the Maroons, but discussion of it becomes more frequent when it was made illegal in Jamaica after Tacky’s War, in which an obeahman provided advice to the rebels.
In 1787 a letter to an English newspaper referred to “Obiu-women” interpreting the wishes of the dead at the funeral of a murdered slave in Jamaica: a footnote explained the term as meaning “Wise-women”.
A continuing source of white anxiety related to Obeah was the belief that practitioners were skilled in using poisons, as mentioned in Matthew Lewis’s Journal of a West India Proprietor. An anti-Obeah law passed in Barbados in 1818 specifically forbade the possession of “any poison, or any noxious or destructive substance”. A doctor who examined the medicine chest of an Obeah man arrested in Jamaica in 1866 identified white arsenic as one of the powders in it, but could not identify the others. The unnamed correspondent reporting this affirmed “The Jamaica herbal is an extensive one, and comprises some highly poisonous juices, of which the Obeah men have a perfect knowledge.”[18]
During the mid 19th century the appearance of a comet in the sky became the focal point of an outbreak of religious fanatical millennialism among the Myal men of Jamaica. Spiritualism was at that time sweeping the English-speaking nations as well, and it readily appealed to those in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, as spirit contact, especially with the dead, is an essential part of many African religions.
During the conflict between Myal and Obeah, the Myal men positioned themselves as the “good” opponents to “evil” Obeah.[19] They claimed that Obeah men stole people’s shadows, and they set themselves up as the helpers of those who wished to have their shadows restored. Myal men contacted spirits in order to expose the evil works they ascribed to the Obeah men, and led public parades which resulted in crowd-hysteria that engendered violent antagonism against Obeah men. The public “discovery”[according to whom?] of buried Obeah charms, presumed to be of evil intent, led on more than one occasion to violence against the rival Obeah men.
Laws were passed that limited both Obeah and Myal traditions[20] but due to the outrages perpetrated by the mobs of Myalists, the British government of Jamaica sent many Myal men to prison[when?], and this, along with the failure of their millennialist prophecies
Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Compensations”The more pure and spiritually developed a person is (especially if they are actively working towards real spiritual advancement) the more attention they will attract from the negatives to pull them down (see Mara).
In other words, the potential of any aspirant generates their level of negative opposition, plus their level of positive assistance, as set by Karmic Law. This is the natural way of things, and is part of the reason why real long-term spiritual development is so difficult. And this is also why those that achieve any significant level of spiritual / psychic development usually live fairly difficult lives, or have a painful past. Robert Bruce – “White Light Shields”
The First Law of Thermodynamics, a cornerstone of classical physics, states energy always presents itself as being “fixed.” That is, energy can be exchanged between the system of interest and its surroundings, however, the total energy of the system PLUS the surroundings remains constant. Nevertheless, in spite of the “rules” observed throughout history in classical physics, in quantum physics, energy can and does appear and disappear out of nowhere spontaneously.
Anna Jones – “Apportation Revisited”
“There is a powerful connecting force between events. We may not understand it scientifically, but spiritually we know it is so.”
Yasutani Hakuun Roshi – “A Biographical Note”
“Power is one of the first barriers you must pass in becoming a Man of Knowledge (Shaman). Power is intoxicating. Magic and Siddhicreate a drunkenness that is very tricky to sidestep. What you wish for comes true, like Aladdin and the Genie.”
Jeffrey Ellis – “DreamingAwake”
“All the details about how to dig up plants — not using a metal tool, using branches from tree-friends of the plant, and even apologizing to the plant-spirit every time for taking them and assuring them that someday the diviner’s own body will serve as food for them “so, all in all, the plants and ourselves are even” — are all things my uncle taught me.“
the Wanderling – ”The Informant and Carlos Castaneda“
”(In) the Psychic World of supersensuous perceptions and of deceptive sights… . No blossom picked in those regions has ever yet been brought down on earth without its serpent coiled around the stem.“
Madame Helen Petrovna Blavtsky – ”The Great Hall of Learning and Wisdom“
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