7.5 Malidoma Some: Dagara Gays as Gatekeepers and Guardians
I came across this text by Malidoma Some, an African shaman from Burkina Faso.
Malidoma’s books are to me nothing short of fascinating. He writes from the heart and his
books Of Water and the Spirit and Healing Wisdom of Africa are….the real deal! Yes,
certainly African spirituality is not all dark and scary. If you get a chance to read these you
may yet enjoy them and even possibly be assisted on your path.
It struck me because I realized that Malidoma was saying some really deep things about
some of the spiritual work done by his ethnic group the Dagara. I imagine that what he
says in this interview is only the 'tip of the iceberg', so to speak. What Malidoma is saying is
that there are individuals in his ethnic group who play the role of 'guardians'. They
maintain the dimensional portals, being entrusted to opening as well as closing them, not
only for members of their ethnic group but as this article suggests, for the entire human
race.
Malidoma received some criticism from Africans and other black people because he talked
about gays. Those who are criticizing him are ignorant of the fact that the Ancient Earth
human was androgynous, that the members of his ethnic group who are performing the role
of guardians, in order to revert to a state similar to that of the Ancient humans, the closest
thing is gay or lesbian. Why? Among the Ancient Earther humans, before the gender split,
there was no sexual differentiation as we know it today. Secondly, when two or more
members of the same sex perform rituals together, the energy is much stronger/higher than
when the group is mixed. This is a fact that is known in possibly all magical groups that do
group work. This has to do with the nature of energy flows through the different physical
bodies (male and female). Mind you, being in a physical gay or lesbian body does not mean
that you are spiritual, so the angle at which to look at this from is the spiritual point of
view! I believe this is what Malidoma Some tries to do.
Malidoma says that among the Dagara, it is the male gays who become gatekeepers. This is because the male physical body creates a lot of energy of an electrical nature. If you have a
look at the beginning of section 7.1 again you will see that the androgynous guardians are
divided into two groups – one does work of a more electrical nature and another of a more
magnetic nature. Malidoma says that 'the male can vibrate female energy and vice versa'.
This is because the spirit inhabiting the male body (or the female body for that matter) is
itself androgynous and so has both male and female aspects perfectly balanced.
I think the most amazing thing he says in this interview is that the Dagara rituals ensure
that the 'gates remain open'. This is what guardians do, they work with gates (dimensional
portals). The Dagara people are here performing the functions of the 'maintenance crew'. I
wonder what the full extent of their role is, it could be full of incredible accounts. I would
add that many other African tribes have rituals that keep the gateways between our world
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and the nature spirit realm open. This is why in Africa, nature spirit phenomena is
common. It is said that the Atlantean magicians abused their access to the portals, leading
those to be closed. In Africa, and I know also in parts of Asia (perhaps South America as
well?) there are guardians who are responsible for maintaining these gates.
Basically I am totally down with Malidoma on this one, and I say that his detractors are the
ones who are ignorant of the facts, or are not looking at this issue from a spiritual point of
view. Basically, it pays to look at things from a spiritual point of view. (Source:
http://www.menweb.org/somegay.htm )
During one of the Conflict Hours at the Mendocino Men’s Conference Malidoma spoke
eloquently on indigenous people’s views of gay men. He kindly agreed to elaborate on his
views as he sat with me among the redwoods of Mendocino.
Bert: At Conflict Hour you told us that your culture honors gays as having a higher
vibrational level that enabled them to be guardians of the gateways to the spirit world. You
suggested that our Western view limits itself by focusing only on their sexual role. Can you
elaborate for our readers?
Malidoma: I don’t know how to put it in terms that are clear enough for an audience that, I
think needs as much understanding of this gender issue as people in this country do. But at
least among the Dagara people, gender has very little to do with anatomy. It is purely
energetic. In that context, a male who is physically male can vibrate female energy, and
vice versa. That is where the real gender is. Anatomic differences are simply there to
determine who contributes what for the continuity of the tribe. It does not mean,
necessarily, that there is a kind of line that divides people on that basis. And this is
something that also touches on what has become known here as the "gay" or "homosexual"
issue. Again, in the culture that I come from, this is not the issue. These people are looked
on, essentially, as people. The whole notion of "gay" does not exist in the indigenous world.
That does not mean that there are not people there who feel the way that certain people
feel in this culture, that has led to them being referred to as "gay."
The reason why I’m saying there are no such people is because the gay person is very well
integrated into the community, with the functions that delete this whole sexual
differentiation of him or her. The gay person is looked at primarily as a "gatekeeper." The
Earth is looked at, from my tribal perspective, as a very, very delicate machine or
consciousness, with high vibrational points, which certain people must be guardians of in
order for the tribe to keep its continuity with the gods and with the spirits that dwell there.
Spirits of this world and spirits of the other worlds. Any person who is at this link between
this world and the other world experiences a state of vibrational consciousness which is far
higher, and far different, from the one that a normal person would experience. This is what
makes a gay person gay. This kind of function is not one that society votes for certain
people to fulfill. It is one that people are said to decide on prior to being born. You decide
that you will be a gatekeeper before you are born. And it is that decision that provides you
with the equipment (Malidoma gestures by circling waist area with hands) that you bring
into this world. So when you arrive here you begin to vibrate in a way that Elders can
detect as meaning that you are connected with a gateway somewhere. Then they watch you
grow, and they watch you act and react, and sooner or later they will follow you to the
gateway that you are connected with.
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Now, gay people have children. Because they’re fertile, just like normal people. How I got to
know that they were gay was because on arriving in this country and seeing the serious
issues surrounding gay people, I began to wonder it does not exist in my own country. When
I asked one of them, who had taken me to the threshold of the Otherworld, whether he feels
sexual attraction towards another man, he jumped back and said, "How do you know that?!"
He said, "This is our business as gatekeepers." And, yet he had a wife and children -- no
problem, you see.
So to then limit gay people to simple sexual orientation is really the worst harm that can be
done to a person. That all he or she is is a sexual person. And, personally, because of the
fact that my knowledge of indigenous medicine, ritual, comes from gatekeepers, it’s hard for
me to take this position that gay people are the negative breed of a society. No! In a society
that is profoundly dysfunctional, what happens is that peoples’ life purposes are taken
away, and what is left is this kind of sexual orientation which, in turn, is disturbing to the
very society that created it.
I think this is again victimization by a Christian establishment that is looking at a gay
person as a disempowered person, a person who has lost his job from birth onward, and now
society just wants to fire him out of life. This is not justice. It’s not justice. It is a terrible
harm done to an energy that could save the world, that could save us. If, today, we are
suffering from a gradual ecological waste, this is simply because the gatekeepers have been
fired from their job. They have been fired! They have nothing to do! And because they have
been fired, we accuse them for not doing anything. This is not fair!
Let us look at the earth differently, and we will find out gradually that these people that
are bothering us today are going to start taking their posts. They know what their job is.
You just have to get near them, to feel that they don’t vibrate the same way. They are not of
this world. They come from the Otherworld, and they were sent here to keep the gates open
to the Otherworld, because if the gates are shut, this is when the earth, Mother Earth, will
shake -- because it has no more reason to be alive, it will shake itself, and we will be in deep
trouble.
Bert: Christianity has separated spirit from body and spirit from Earth. And earlier you
talked to us about Christianity suppressing your culture. So there’s a suggestion here that
suppression of homosexuality would be the way for the Christians to shut down the
gateways, shut down the spirit, and shut down our connection with the Earth.
Malidoma: Yes! That’s right! Christianity stresses postponing living on earth, as of we are
only here to pack up our baggage and prepare for a life somewhere else "out there." Jesus
Christ is right here, man! And of course anyone else who knows more, who knows better,
will be suppressed.
And you start with the gatekeepers. You take the gatekeeper and you confuse his mind.
You threaten him and you throw him in the middle of nowhere. Then nobody knows where
the gate is. As soon as you lose the whereabouts of the gate, then you have a culture going
downhill. What keeps a village together is a handful of "gays and lesbians," as they call
them in the modern world. In my village, lesbians are called witches, and gay men are
known as the gatekeepers. These are the two only known secret societies. These are the
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only groups that will get together as a separate group and go out into the woods secretly to
do whatever they do. And if they find you during their yearly symposium, they have the
right to kill you.
Unless they go out on their yearly symposium, the village cannot be granted another year of
life. They have to go out to do what they do, in order for the village to feel safe enough to
live the way it has lived before. This is why, to me, we’re playing with our lives.
Bert: So our culture may not be granted another year of life.
Malidoma: That’s right! Every year it feels like the number of years that this culture is
entitled to live is getting smaller. So God only knows how close to the chasm this culture is.
This constantly- reiterated discomfort and hatred for the gay person is again another
indication that every year we might as well be prepared for the apocalyptic moment when
the stars start to fall to the earth.
You see, unless there is somebody who constantly monitors the mechanism that opens the
door from this world to the Otherworld, what happens is that something can happen to one
of the doors and it closes up. When all the doors are closed, this earth runs out of its own
orbit and the solar system collapses into itself. And because this system is linked to other
systems, they too start to fall into a whirlpool. And the cataclysm would be amazing!
Ask the Dogon, they will tell you that. The Dogon. They’re a tribe that understands this so
well, it’s amazing, mind-boggling. And it is a tribe that knows astrology like no other tribe
that I have encountered. And the great astrologers of the Dogon are gay. They are gay.
There is a dull planet that, in its orbit, is directly above the Dogon village every 58 years.
Who knows that, but the gay people.
I mean, I’m not just trying to make gay people look fine. This is the truth, man! I’m trying
to save my ass!
Why is it that, everywhere else in the world, gay people are a blessing, and in the modern
world they are a curse? It is self-evident. The modern world was built by Christianity. They
have taken the gods out of the earth sent them to heaven, wherever that is. And everyone
who aspires to the gods must then negotiate with Christianity, so that the real priests and
priestesses are out of a job. This is the worst thing that can happen to a culture that calls
itself modern.
Bert: That theme came up earlier with you and MartÃn, the Mayan shaman here, that if a
modern society wants to shut down another culture they will go out and kill the keepers of
the ritual.
Malidoma: Oh, yes! Because they know that this is where the life-pulse of the culture is.
This is where the engine room of the tribe is. So if you go and bomb that place, then the
whole mechanism shuts down. That’s pretty much what’s at work in the third world, and
what has happened here with the Native American culture. And the thing about it is that
humans are going to be begetting gatekeepers, no matter what. This is the chance that
we’ve got. So maybe that means that sooner or later we’re going to wake up to the horror of
our own errors, and we’re going to reconsecrate our chosen people so that they can do their
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priestly work as they should. Otherwise, I just don’t understand. I just don’t understand.
My position about it is not so much that gays be just forgiven. That’s just tokenism. But
that they serve as an example of the wrong, or the illness, that modernity has brought to
us, and that we use that to begin working at healing ourselves and our society from the
bottom up. That way, by the time we reach a certain level, all the gatekeepers are going to
find their positions again. We cannot tell them where the gates are. They know. If we start
to heal ourselves, they will remember. It will kick in. But as long as we continue in
arrogance, in egotism, in God-knows-what form of violence on ourselves, no, there’s that
veil of confusion that’s going to continue to prevail, and as a result it’s going to prevent
great things from happening. That’s all I can say about that.
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