Occult Black History Month

let's talk about Betsy Bailey, a woman we know primarily through her grandson Frederick Douglass's writings, particularly in 'My Bondage and My Freedom.'

what we know for certain:
- she was a gardener and root gatherer on Maryland's Eastern Shore
- she was known in her community for interpreting dreams with remarkable accuracy
- she traveled between plantations despite restrictions on slave movement
- she helped raise Frederick until he was around 8
- she maintained significant respect and influence in her community despite being enslaved

Douglass specifically wrote about her 'power of divination' and her ability to interpret dreams, noting how both enslaved and free people sought her counsel. he also documented her extensive knowledge of plants and her regular travels between plantations.

she represents countless others whose names and practices are lost to us. for every Betsy Bailey whose story partially survived through her grandson's fame, there were thousands of others who carried ancient African spiritual traditions, healing knowledge, and divination practices across the Atlantic. their wisdom, largely undocumented, flows through the roots of American folk magic and spiritual traditions.

now, let's speculate (and i want to emphasize here that i am speculating):

given what we know about:
- the role of root workers in enslaved communities
- how plant knowledge was often used to maintain communication networks
- the importance of dreams in African American spiritual traditions
- the ways enslaved people used 'acceptable' roles to mask resistance

it's fascinating to consider how Bailey might have used her recognized roles as gardener and dream interpreter to maintain community connections and possibly aid in resistance. her ability to move between plantations and her respected status would have given her unique opportunities for gathering and sharing information.

but we should be careful not to romanticize. she lived under brutal conditions, and whatever power she wielded was exercised within the severe constraints of slavery.

what's most documented and remarkable is how she influenced her grandson's understanding of power and knowledge. Douglass's later writings about dreams, visions, and natural signs suggest her lasting impact on his worldview.

she represents something crucial about power: how it can flow through unexpected channels, how knowledge passes between generations, and how influence can be wielded even under the most oppressive conditions. her grandson would shake America with words, but first he learned from her that power grows in the dark, in the dirt, in the dreams they can't steal.

attached is the youngest contemporary depiction of Frederick Douglass i could find as no known pictures exist of Betsy Bailey, sadly

an occult education thread 6/?

Spare's Zos Kia Cultus - where flesh meets infinity and consciousness dissolves into pure potential.

let's wade into deeper waters. this isn't just another magical framework or philosophical system. it's a radical reimagining of what consciousness is, what reality can be, and how the body serves as the crossroads between them.

at its core lies two principles that contain universes within themselves...

Zos. the body complete. not just flesh and bone but all its possibilities, all its potential forms, all its hidden powers. your meat vehicle, yes, but also the temple where heaven and hell meet. every cell a universe, every nerve ending an oracle, every breath a ritual. Zos isn't just what you are, it's everything you could be. it's the sum total of all possible expressions of your physical form.

when Spare talks about Zos, he means the body as a living grimoire. your skin is parchment, your blood is ink, your bones are binding. every scar tells a story, every muscle holds memory, every organ sings its own song. the body isn't just a vehicle for consciousness, it IS consciousness in its most concentrated form.

Zos encompasses not just your physical form but your desires, your instincts, your automatic functions. breathing, heartbeat, digestion - these aren't just biological processes, they're ongoing magical operations. your immune system is practicing war magic. your endocrine system is conducting alchemy. your nervous system is running divination.

Kia. the cosmic life force. the void that births all things. pure unbound consciousness before it gets trapped in form. not energy, not spirit, but the raw stuff of possibility itself. the space between thoughts where reality bends. Kia is what you are when you stop being anything specific.

think of Kia as the quantum foam of consciousness. it's what's left when you strip away every label, every identity, every belief. it's the void that precedes creation, the silence between heartbeats, the darkness between stars. it's not nothing - it's everything in potential form.

Kia manifests through Zos like light through a prism. each body, each form, each manifestation is just one possible expression of this infinite potential. your flesh is where infinity learns its limits, and paradoxically, where limits learn to become infinite.

this isn't your standard spirit/flesh dualism that pervades western thought. Spare saw them as different expressions of the same thing, like ice and steam are expressions of water. Zos is Kia experiencing itself through limitation. Kia is Zos freed from the prison of identity.

traditional Western systems try to transcend the body, treat it as a prison for the soul. Spare put it at the center of his practice. your flesh isn't an obstacle to overcome or a sin to transcend. it's the laboratory where magic happens. every sensation, every desire, every bodily function becomes a potential gateway to power.

the death posture exemplifies this marriage of flesh and infinity. by maintaining an uncomfortable position until exhaustion forces release, you create a moment where consciousness cracks. in that crack, where thought fails and the body screams, reality becomes plastic. the death posture isn't about punishment or transcendence. it's about using physical stress to break the mind's usual patterns. when you can't maintain the position anymore, something has to give. usually it's your normal perception of reality.

why does this matter to you now?
- we live increasingly disembodied lives, floating in digital spaces, forgetting we have flesh. Spare's system grounds us in our bodies while expanding what those bodies can do. it's him telling you to touch grass.
- it offers direct access to gnosis without hierarchical structures or expensive tools. just you, your flesh, and the void.
- it provides practical methods for radical transformation that don't require belief in any particular system.
- it bridges conscious and unconscious in ways that become more relevant as we understand more about neuroscience and consciousness.