Book of Leaves

Not a particularly long post today (at least I hope) but I did want to poke at the subject some of my friends are kicking around in their journals.

The suggestion was made by caitriona_nnc over on the cr_r community that imbas was a form of possession. She talked a lot about possession in Yoruba religion, and what types of possession she'd seen in various Wiccan and other Pagan groups of her acquaintance. She wondered about the relationship of possession, imbas and geilt in relation to the warrior's frenzy. I can't really speak to Yoruba possession trance or the red mist, but I can offer some thoughts on imbas and geilt.

My response is that imbas ("poetic frenzy/inspiration" or the "fire in the head" of which Amirgen speaks), if it is possession at all, is possession by an idea rather than by a deity or spirit. The feeling I've experienced is one of fast-flowing thought, almost uncontrollable. It's almost too fast to speak the ideas, and trying to write them down is very difficult, though I've sometimes been able to get the gist of most of it when it hits.

The things that have stimulated moments of imbas for me have tended to be intense intellectual conversations, usually following either some heavy reading or a lot of dream or vision work. They tend to be associated, again for me, with the resolution of lines of thought and exploration that I've been working through for a while. It's as though all the work I've done suddenly coalesces into some burning whole that floods me like liquid fire and becomes impossible to contain. I could say it feels like my head is exploding and the urge to speak or write the information down is overwhelming.

If I don't get it down or talk to someone about it, I often lose details. In that way, yes, it can be something like full possession trance -- it's so powerful and fast that when it's gone, most of it vanishes, leaving general themes and images behind. For details, I have to go to the person I've spoken to, or to my written notes. These things will sometimes trigger memories and associations that I'd lost in the rush of it all.

The imbas spreads like a web, connecting things with a clarity that I don't usually possess. Things link together in ways that make sense, but wouldn't upon first examination. It's as though the incubation phase is necessary to let those connections and linkages brew (an image from the three cauldrons work) and ferment to ripeness before they can be expressed.

Geilt ("wildness") is only peripheraly related to possession. In my mind, much of the description of the madness of Suibhne from the Buile Suibhne looks more like the symptoms of severe PTSD. Yes, some of it is associated with imbas and a certain form of poetic madness/inspiration. Certainly Suibhne's poetry and his ability to prophesy are related to imbas -- they may in fact be imbas. The fear and avoidance of other people is pure PTSD reaction. The hallucinatory aspect of it, to me, would indicate a sort of flashback phenomenon. The episode where Suibhne is pursued by the heads of animals and creatures ("demons"?) certainly has that quality to it and I think that most people who've had severe enough symptoms to be in full body flashbacks might describe the experience like that.

Actually, I tend to use parts of the Buile Suibhne as something of a model for my own reintegration, and for understanding my own issues as a disabled vet with PTSD. It's a model that suggests even people who are not "normal" by societal standards can serve an important function as seers, poets, or magicians. I may never fully integrate into the larger overculture, but I'm not sure I want to. I don't see much there that appeals to me. On the other hand, I do see some very useful things in the way I approach dreams and visions and how I handle panic, nightmares, and flashbacks.

I think that geilt is a situation of intense hyper-sensitivity to the environment, the hyperalertness of the PTSD sufferer if you will. There are aspects of "mind-reading" to the anticipation and awareness that one experiences, trying to establish safe space and determine if the people and creatures nearby are safe to deal with. The anticipation and hyperalertness make a person pay exceedingly careful attention to body language, movement, and sound. An astute observer of human or animal nature or of the environment can code these things and get a very good idea of what is a threat and what isn't -- and may give the impression of being able to read emotions, if not thoughts themselves. When one is additionally rather empathic, it only goes to strengthen the impressions.

The geilt, traditionally, might be either solitary or congregate together in the forest. Often, the tradition suggests they were vegetarians, and wore few clothes. Was this madness, or an asceticism that the geilta practiced to control their most severe symptoms? Even today, there are war veterans (largely male, statistically speaking) who suffer from PTSD who head for the woods and live out there, in cabins or tents, far from the rest of humanity in an attempt to maintain a hold on their sanity.

When one attempts to combine efforts to deal with PTSD symptoms with animist and polytheist spiritual beliefs and practices, I think that something like geilt results. The emotional stresses of PTSD can cause visionary states and situations not unlike those of classic Siberian "shamanic sickness" -- and the reintegration of the geilt's personality into a useful configuration rather than falling into madness and hopelessness that eventually spirals into suicide or death can be a transformation of shamanic proportions.