An ecstatic experience transcends duality; it is
simultaneously terrifying, hilarious, awe-inspiring, familiar, and bizarre. It is an experience that one wishes to have
over and over again.  [ Terence McKenna, "Food of Gods" ]

In his trance the shaman goes on a far journey -the place of the departed ancestors, or the nether world, or there
where the gods dwell-and this wonderland is, I submit, precisely where the hallucinogens take us. They are a
gateway to ecstasy. Ecstasy in itself is neither pleasant nor unpleasant. The bliss or panic into which it plunges you
is incidental to ecstasy. When you are in a state of ecstasy, your very soul seems scooped out from your body and
away it goes. Who controls its flight: Is it you, or your “subconscious,” or a “higher power”? Perhaps it is pitch
dark, yet you see and hear more clearly than you have ever seen or heard before. You are at last face to face with
Ultimate Truth: this is the overwhelming impression (or illusion) that grips you. You may visit Hell, or the Elysian
fields of Asphodel, or the Gobi desert, or Arctic wastes. You know awe, you know bliss, and fear, even terror. [ Gordon Wasson, "The Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica" ]

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 Doświadczenie ekstatyczne przekracza dualność, jest jednocześnie przerażające, zabawne, wywołujące szacunek, znajome i dziwaczne. To doświadczenie, które chce się powtarzać wciąż na nowo, nigdy takie same. [ Terence McKenna, "Pokarm Bogów ]

W swoim transie szaman wyrusza w daleką podróż – do miejsca gdzie odeszli przodkowie, do dolnego świata, lub też tam gdzie mieszkają bogowie, i ta cudowna kraina, postuluję, jest dokładnie tym miejscem gdzie zabierają nas halucynogeny. Są one bramą do ekstazy. Ekstaza sama w sobie nie jest przyjemna ani nieprzyjemna. Rozkosz czy panika w jaką nas wciąga jest wtórna, uboczna. Kiedy jesteś w stanie ekstazy, sama dusza wydaje się zostać wydarta z ciała i porwana gdzieś w dal. Kto kontroluje ten lot : czy to ty, czy twoja podświadomość, czy też jakaś “wyższa siła”? Być może jest to podróż przez smolistą ciemność, a jednak widzisz i słyszysz jaśniej i wyraźniej niż kiedykolwiek wcześniej. Jesteś w końcu twarzą w twarz z Ostateczną Prawdą, to jest to przytłaczające wrażenie ( czy też iluzja ) które cię wtedy chwyta. Możesz odwiedzić Piekło, albo pokryte złotogłowiem eleuzyjskie pola umarłych, albo pustynię Gobi, albo arktyczne pustkowia. Znasz grozę, znasz rozkosz, doświadczasz strachu i przerażenia. [ Gordon Wasson, "Cudowny grzyb : Mykolatria w Ameryce Środkowej" ]

“In the chtonic world there was to be found a source of living water, and it came, according to the folk belief, from under an apple tree. This was, in Slavic folk tradition, a version of the shamanic tree of life, related to the immortality and strength, located above all in the fruits – wonderful, golden apples, guarded by the Golden Cock ( Fire Bird ) or a dragon. In the roots of the tree lived a dragon ( in mythology of the Slavs called Nij, snake god of the netherworld), in the crown of the tree, the bird”

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“W podziemnym świecie znajdowało się źródło żywej wody, a wypływało ono, według ludowych wierzeń spod jabłoni. Była ona w słowiańskiej kulturze ludowej istotnym wariantem drzewa życia, kojarzonego z nieśmiertelnością i siłą, skupiającą się zwykle w owocach – cudownych, złotych rajskich jabłkach, strzeżonych przez złotego kura (żar ptaka) lub smoka. W korzeniach jabłoni miał mieszkać smok (patrz: zoomorficzna postać boga zaświatów Niji, jako węża/żmija), a na wierzchołku siadać ptak.”

patrz : “Bogowie Polscy”

Una ora en la ventana
Ora i media al balkon
La kulevra de tu ermana
Ah, no mos desha, ah! no mos desha
Azer el amor

Yo la kero, tu la keres
Ya mos vamos a matar
Ven djugaremos a los dados
El ke la gana, el ke la gana
Su mazal

Ke komio la tu mama
Empreniada de ti
Te kito morena i dulse
Amasada
Amasada kon la miel

Ah! no t’alaves ke sos blanka
Blanka komo el yasmin
Ke ay morenikas en el mundo
Ke kemaron, ke kemaron
Medio izmir

A la mar yo me vo echar
Un peshkado yo vo panar
Siete novias vo kitar
Ah! yo a ti, yo a ti
Me vo tomar  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSNmVuCwyXk

Song from the times long gone, times when Muslims, Christians and Jews could be neighbors, and did not have conform to one common standard set by combined secular and religious establishment. Fuck the holy inquistors of any denomination, may these times come back, even if it happens in communities of outcasts.

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Z czasów minionych, takiego czasu kiedy muzułmanie, żydzi i chrześcijanie mogli być sąsiadami, i nie musieli dopasować się do jednego identycznego wzorca ustalonego przez połączony świecki i religijny establishment. Pierdolić świętych inkwizytorów niezależnie od ich wyznania, niech te czasy wrócą, nawet jeśli tylko w społecznościach wyrzutków.

Images from medieval Toledo, which until expulsion of Jews from Spain was a home to large Ladino community,  and from modern gypsies gathering in the hills on border between Spain and Portugal.

 ” About Ladino ”

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Zdjęcia ze średniowiecznego Toledo które do czasu wygnania Żydów z Hiszpanii było siedzibą sporej społeczności Ladino, oraz ze zgromadzenia współczesnych cyganów na wzgórzach na pograniczu Hiszpanii i Portugalii.

” Co nieco o Ladino “

…

When after French Revolution changes started to appear in St Domingue, ( former name of Haiti, at that time French colony ) , in 1792, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax was sent to the colony by the French Legislative Assembly as part of the Revolutionary Commission. His main goal was to maintain French control of Saint-Domingue, stabilize the colony, and enforce the social equality recently granted to free people of color by the National Convention of France.
On August 29, 1793, Sonthonax took the radical step of proclaiming the freedom of the slaves in the north province (with severe limits on their freedom). In September and October, emancipation was extended throughout the colony. On February 4, 1794 the French National Convention ratified this act, applying it to all French colonies.

However, not only white plantators but also mixed mulattoes and free men of colour, that were to build future elites of independednt state, were opposed to abolition of slavery and fought the French force. Finally, slaves under Toussaint Ouvertoure managed to take control of the whole Hispaniola island and slavery was abolished in 1801.
In the meantime continental France was taken over by Napoleon, and in 1802 he sent a massive invasion force under his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc in order to take over the island and restore slavery when possible.

The contingent was around 40000 strong and included Polish Legion, army created according to the wishful thinking of Polish soldiers that by helping Napoleon in his wars, freedom will be won for Poland. The slogan of the time was “For yours and our freedom”. However, when the Legionnaires realized that the campaign has very little to do with liberating and is actually about enslaving people fighting for their rights, they refused, deserted and in many cases joined the slave army.

The invading army perished anyway due to yellow fever and malaria, and at the same time war resumed between France and Britain, so Napoleon was forced to sell his overseas possessions to USA in Louisiana Purchase.

On January 1, 1804 independent Haiti was declared, remaining colonizers who didnt manage to flee were slaughtered and white people prohibited from possesing property in Haitian soil.

One exception were Polish soldiers, in gratitude for their actions during the war of independence they were allowed to stay and were spared the fate of other whites, which some of them choose , settling in places like Fond des Blanc or Cazales. For many who survived, that was the only options, as only some officers were able to pay for the passage back to Europe, and no soldiers were paid by French, since they were forced by them to leave Europe for that expedition.

During the fighting time, they were decimated by yellow fever but also often killed by blacks when captured, and when they deserted , they were on their own, equally fearing the French and the slaves.

As Margaret Odrowaz-Sypniewska ( www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/PolesinHaitiA.html )  writes :

“First of all, you must remember that Haiti was a world the Polish soldiers never imagined. Poland was not this hot. Poland did not have yellow fever and other tropical diseases. They were ill prepared for the heat and thus looked to the mountains. Most Poles were not familiar with black men. There was hatred towards whites perpetrated by the blacks, and the French feared and hated the blacks equally, in return. The Poles that could afford it bought passage back to Poland. Those that could not fled to the remote, uninhabited areas where they thought the French could not find them. At this point they weren’t sure they might not be killed by the slaves. They knew their lives were not valued, at this point, by either side. To surrender meant either instant death or a punishment. Their fate was made they had to hide. Eventually they learned that they could own land because they fought with the slaves. Their world as they knew it was in total and complete upheaval.”

In isolation for a long time, memory of old traditions and language started to die out, but there is still awareness of their heritage, of being different. This is portrait of Cazales, biggest of those villages, name , as locals believe , originating from popular Polish name Zalewski and creole word Kay. The home of Zalewski, the home of the Polish descendants.

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Niepublikowane dotąd zdjęcia z wioski Cazales, gdzie mieszkają potomkowie polskich legionistów wysłanych przez Napoleona do tłumienia powstania niewolników. Więcej fotografii można znaleźć pod tym linkiem :

“200 lat od domu”

Jest już sporo publikacji na ten temat od czasu naszej wizyty i trzesięnia ziemi, więc podam kilka linków bo nie chce mi się tłumaczyć powyższego tekstu :

polskie_voodoo_na_haiti_smierc_seks_i_czarna_bogini

haiti-niezwykla-polska-wyspa-na-krancu-swiata

troszke-ciemniejsi-polacy

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