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Carnival is usually only thought of in terms of external
events and happenings. But the most important of events
are internal. Carnival and The Mardi Gras are both
external and internal events. Carnival, to be most
effective, must take place within the Self as well as on
the streets. As the Flesh is pushed to its limits
through the pleasures of the streets, so must the Self
be stretched to its limits through a willed violation of
its "I am THIS/ I am not THAT." Only then can the Flesh
and the Self join together and burn brightly enough to
produce the Ashes from which Spirit will rise, renewed
as the Phoenix.
Louis Martinie'
I am Expressing within
-Mombo Miriam
 From the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot Carnival XXI (The World/The Universe) The flames of desire rise. Into that furnace all longings are fed. Revelry stokes the fires to white-hot brightness. Come now, hold back not a whim. All is expended. In drunken sleepless pleasures, longing is sated. This is the World. Drink deeply. take your will and fill of love. The soul delights in the body's fulfillment The spirit turns outward through the body's senses. To they who hold back nothing, nothing will be withheld. To they that give all, all will be given. The Courir of the country is matched by the more refined parades of the city. The chicken is replaced with beads and pentacles. The city's hands reach not for food but for adornment. With the flesh one turns outward to taste, touch, feel, smell -- all senses are enraptured in the celebration of the World and its offerings. In Carnival the World erupts in cascading delight. Bodies give themselves to the revel and in so doing open their spirits to the sweet touch of revelation. Masked faces twist in the abandonment of self. Behind the great mask of Carnival, the small masks worn in the everyday world disappear. Sacred time touches all action, as clocks round their regular twelve, twelve, twelve with unnoticed precision. The Carnival, the Revel is ever Now. A primary attribute of Carnival is release. This release is definitely not from the World. The World, together with all the marvelous experiences it offers, is a part of liberation. The release is from a vile smallness to a more complete awareness of our ways and states of being. There is no growth; we are ever complete. What increases is awareness, the ability to focus one's attention and to appreciate that in the final, formal elegance of maya (illusion) the ultimate beauty of spirit is revealed.
THE NEW ORLEANS VOODOO TAROT
Mardi Gras at the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual TempleMardi Gras at the NEW ORLEANS VOODOO SPIRITUAL TEMPLE is a time when the fever and fashion of Carnival mix with the ferver and faith of the Temple's voodoosants. The combination is often an estatic marriage of ritual and revelry.Excess is the key. Ritual robes and costumes blend...of the two of us, my drum was the better dressed wearing a full skirt of human hair for these particular photographs. Would my drum have consented to wear such a skirt during other rituals of the Years Cycle?....no, the drum has refused the skirt numerous times...it would have been a bit overdone...but, during Mardi Gras it is almost impossible to overdo anything. The Jungian Robert Johnson has described Mardi Gras in a recent interview (Parabola; vol.22, # 2, p. 22) as one of the two Festivals of the Shadow left in the USA; the other being Halloween. In his words, "(they) are highly intelligent ways of honoring the shadow...There used to be many more, but we salvaged only these 2." The Marassa (twins) of Voodoo can be described as dancing on the point of nonantagonistic duality. There is the Shadow Twin and the Twin of Light...they must come together for the third twin, from which all flows, to be born. With these present photos, and the many more that will be added, we invite you to a celebration of this Festival of the Shadow at the VOODOO SPIRITUAL TEMPLE.
A Record of the Voodoo Spiritual Temple +|+ Death of an Houngan Mardi Gras at the Temple +|+ Images of Haiti
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