Photo: David HortonThe Burning was one of the most important components of I.E. ANIMUL. The physical action to be performed took the shape of a ritual that had two purposes for me. In one sense this was a simulation of ancient rituals involved with the slaying of a beast...to release its spirit and appease the gods the hunter was to burn the heart of the beast...in my case, the heart was the engine. It was necessary to burn it so that the spirit of the beast could be free and with the car gods.
This ritual was also a coming of age ritual, as this was my first slayed automobile. This being the case, it signified the end of my time in this world as a boy and ushered me into my new existence as a man. Aside from the very simulative aspects of this meaning of the ritual, there was also a quite real connotation for my coming of age interpretation. This project was the last thing I would produce as a student and as such signaled the end of my training. In the culture of my time and place, it is my belief that finishing school, getting a job and facing your responsibilities is one of the major components of being a man.
The aspects of this ritual were very complicated. Preparations had to be made involving the securing of a suitable location for the ritual, the construction of a funeral table of suitable strength to support the weight of the engine amidst a fire, the transportation and set up of both the engine and table and the collection of wood for the fire.
I owe a my thanks to two people in particular for their help in this work. Namely, David Horton and Jim Murray. David was a great help to me during the course of this entire project as well as my entire graduate career. He was the one who suggested the location and put me in contact with the property owner Jim. He also fulfilled the role of shaman and performed the blessing ceremony at the beginning of the ritual.
Without Jim's kindness and help, this ritual would likely have never happened. He not only allowed me to make use of his expansive plot of land in Southern New York but also used his tractor to hoist the engine off the tail bed of my truck, lower it onto the funeral pyre as well as the reverse of that process after the ritual was completed. Whats more, he allowed me to gather fire wood from all the downed trees in the woods on his land.
After all of the preparations had been made, I went home to get rest for the ritual that would take place the following day. As part of the ritual I had to abstain from eating solid foods the day of the burning, which I did. I showed up at around 6 in the evening, David was already there.
We got prepared and began.
My shaman (David) started by placing offerings and preparing himself for the ritual. Next, he created a sacred space around the funeral pyre. He used salt to draw a white circle around the space and placed colored candles at the north, south, east and west points of the circle. After lighting the candles and gathering his supplies he began to call to the Gods. Chanting and banging on his drum, he called out loudly asking the gods of each direction for their blessings, permission and protection during this ritual. As he called, we each turned to face the direction he was calling to. After this he lit some sage and special incenses (they smelled like nothing I had ever smelled before) and began to cleanse my aura. He used a feather to brush the smoke over my entire body and chanted. While this was happening I could sense some thing happening to me. Once it was over, I felt different. It is hard to explain how I was different, but I knew that something had changed in me.
Once the beginning ceremonies were over I lit the fire and began to burn the engine. Things started slow. for the first ten minutes it seemed as though nothing was going to happen. There was simply a fire under the engine. As time passed, I felt comfortable adding more wood to the fire to increase its size. I did this and then began giving my offerings to the fire. Every time I added more wood I gave offerings of tobacco and alcohol to the fire. I also took those same substances into my body. As I burned the brown paper bag off of my bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey and took my first sip, I realized that warm whiskey is a lot more flavorful and doesn't burn the throat as much.
As I let the fire burn, I thought that I heard sounds from the engine. As it turns out, there were still a lot of fluids left inside. these fluids started boiling and bubbling, escaping as steam from anywhere they could. I swear that at one point I even heard the pistons kicking over. The sounds and sudden jets of steam from the engine made the scenario seem quite dangerous, more so than I had expected. Not too long later the rubber parts, plastic parts and greases that were on the engine began to catch fire. At this point the burning became quite intense. The fire raged and the engine even shifted on its pyre. Some parts were even thrown from the engine and found on the ground nearly two feet away.
After a while though, things calmed down. As all of the fluids and burnable materials were burned, the engine quieted. I felt that the spirit had probably left the heart of the beast at this point, but I had to keep burning until sun up to make sure and properly finish the ritual. The night dragged on. At one point, a rather dense fog set in and at that moment a thought went through my head. It was almost a voice saying "They are here." At the same time my shaman told me he had to go and walk across the field. Sitting there alone I began to feel scared and odd...I felt I had to get closer to the fire. As I got there I saw David coming back and felt a relief. We returned to our seats and within a minute the fog was gone. Later he told me that there was a being in the fog, he didn't know what it was but he sensed it was there.
After that it was a fairly uneventful night until the morning. As the sun began to rise, I prepared for the closing actions of the ritual. I filled a tobacco can half way with vegetable oil. I set this can on top of the coals from the fire and let it heat up. As soon as the top of it caught fire I Put water in the oil filter of the Lumina which I had tied to a long aluminum pole. From a distance I poured this water into the can of hot oil. The result was a rather large fireball that enveloped the engine. The heat from this fireball was intense. I had to fill the oil filter three times with water and pour it before the fireballs ceased.
This was the end of the ritual. A photo of this part can be seen at the top of this post.
