A Cure For Plural Pissfight Poisoning

[lb_lee]

Rogan: hey friends, for those of you who've been poisoned by plural political backbiting, I have found the perfect palate-cleanser: Go read stuff about other forms of bodysharing, bodyborrowing, and manyselvedness that have NOTHING TO DO with the subcultures that poisoned you.

I mean it. Even if you think "those people" have nothing to do with you. ESPECIALLY if you're convinced they have nothing to do with you. Expand your horizons. It works. I feel like I had sucked about all the juices and marrow from the medical multi and medical multi backlash groups that culturally formed me. (And a lot of the slapfights from these groups are just premasticated fourth-hand arguments from older sources that everyone's forgotten, with very little juice left to them.) Reading about spirit marriage and spirit possession revived me like a long-overdue watering for a half-dead plant.

These groups have their own bugbears... but at least they're DIFFERENT bugbears, breaking the illusion that our local present-day slapfights are The Way It's Always Been. It breaks out of the echo chamber and makes the unthinkable... well, thinkable.

If you're going, "but Rogan! I don't even know where to start!" I am here for you. Here are some sources, most free, all screenreadable, with links and everything. YOU'RE WELCOME.

• Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti. Haitian Vodou book from the 1950s. (Also an avante-garde documentary thingy. Video shows animal sacrifice.)
• Megan Rose, Spirit Marriage: Intimate Relationships with Otherworldly Beings. Book about spirit marriage, by a practitioner, interviewing others. Piratable on libgen, but please toss her some money; this book only came out in 2022.
• Ida Craddock, Psychic Wedlock, Heavenly Bridegrooms, and Spiritual Joys. Sex ed and spirit marriage texts from a mystic who got harassed to suicide in 1902.
• Xavia Publius, We Other Fairies. A theatre performance academic discuss the ontology of performed characters in theatre as an expression of queer ghosts. (I would also recommend Anima Ex Machina: Meatsuit Realness and Transformative Reenchantment, but inevitably, the book it's in, Digital Performance in Canada, is paper-only. Check out her blog at xandromedovna instead)
• The Cyborg Jillian Weise, My Brain Is Already Cyborg. A disabled cyborg reflects on how her prosthetic leg has expanded her sense of self.
• Marta Morena Vega, The Altar of My Soul: Living Traditions of Santería. Vega's memoir of being initiated into Santería, available on paper and ebook.
• The First Protocols of Queer Goetia. Anonymous queer magic zine made in remembrance of those lost to the Ghost Ship warehouse fire.
• Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater and Dear Senthuran. Fictionalized (in Freshwater's case) and non-fictionalized memoir of being ogbanje and an embodied god. If you want something legitimately free, try their essay, The Mask Is The Truest Thing.

Comments

[starfallhaven]

We've felt really freed by our recent trend of exploring our plurality spiritually and metaphysically while also leaving room for psychology. Diverse perspectives are almost always a good thing, with stuff like this. -Souji (he/they)

[lb_lee]

Sneak: I really think being able to take many lenses to an experience is super helpful, even if you end up discarding some later on!

[wolffyluna]

Thank you for the recommendations!

I do find it very... something.. that Digital Performance in Canada is paper only.

[lb_lee]

Mori: I KNOW RIGHT?! I'm so mad about it! We had to email Xavia Publius directly to ask for a digital copy, because spending international shipping on a beefy academic anthology when I only want ONE article in it was just... no.

[the_network]

It's definitely a good way to cleanse the mental palette, thank you for the recommendations!

-Alison

[lb_lee]

Sneak: We will probably add to this list over time! :D