Eduardo Regis – Secrets To Voudon Gnosticism

Michael Bertiaux is a difficult mystery for many, a young occultist to crack. Some of you may have heard of the name only through the works of Kenneth Grant and the cults of Shadow. Others may be familiar with works such as the work of the monastery of the Seven Rays of the Etowah, or The Voodoo on Gnostic Workbook. Either way, Michael remains one of the wonderful, brilliant channels and enigmas inside of our wonderful community and to inspire us. Today I get to speak to Eduardo Regis Eduardo also who’s the author of this wonderful little rude on Gnostic introduction to the rights and practices of the work, also goes by the title writer of The Mary. No slouch to magic at all, a very experienced practitioner with backgrounds in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Martinism, as well as a teacher. He shares today a very beautiful and interesting discussion with us that not only explores some of the deep history of how these orders came into being, and how this birthed or influenced the system for which we attribute to Michael, but also some of the interesting mysteries within that, such as the concept of the utilization of Atlantis, the exploration of the sexual pseudo mysteries of the traditions, as well as various concepts of lucky hoodoo and some of its other core cosmologies. Whether you’re completely new to Michael or the subject of the Voodoo or Gnostic workbook, or you’re a seasoned veteran or experienced practitioner, I’m confident that you will find some very useful and juicy conversation bits today. Eduardo is a very beautiful storyteller. He shares and takes us on a wonderful adventure today to explore these ancient mysteries and talk to some of these more esoteric subjects inside of our field. So without any further ado, I’m Adam Knox, and remember to live deliciously.

Eduardo, welcome to the cult of You.

Thank you very much for having me here. I’m very excited to talk to you and to your audience.

Well, I mean, I’m excited. You and I just had a little bit of a catch-up just before this started. And, I mean, I love your book. It actually got me to pull out my copy of the Voodoo Gnostic Workbook and go relook at it. You actually helped really open my frame and make a lot of it more inviting. And I think you’re going to do the same for a lot of people today. I want to start getting people a sense of you because, again, we can look at the book and we can look at the work of voodoo and of Michael and the monastery of the Seven Rays. But you have quite a diverse occult background and experience in Brazil. We spoke earlier. You’re good friends with Nicolaus, with Diego, you know, it’s also been on the show. You’ve got quite a background. Give us a little bit more about that. Tell us a little bit about Eduardo and your entrance into the magical world. And what brought you to this point?

Sure. Well, first, I gotta say that I’m very happy that I made you get the Voodoo Gnostic Workbook from the shelf again. I think that’s the whole idea of this book. Somehow it’s to make people do that. So thanks for sharing that with me. And very happy. Let’s see. I have a quite diverse and magical background here in Brazil. I’ve been involved with some magical orders for quite a long time now. I have been involved with Freemasonry, which is kind of like everyone has, I guess, but I’m not active anymore. I lost some interest along the way. But not to bad mouth. For me, it’s just like a personal thing. What I’m really deeply involved with is, of course, Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua, which is linked to the Voodoo Gnostic current. And also with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn that we have here in Brazil. We have a temple here in Rio de Janeiro. There are some very good people, some very good brothers and sisters here who have been doing this work for decades, more than decades now. I’m one of the guys that is running the temple. So we have a lot of work here. It’s a system that I’m really passionate about because it’s a very important system to the whole tradition, and it teaches you so much. So I think it’s a very good system to be attached to somehow at any point of our journey. I also am a Martinist, an active Martinist as well. Much of this Martinism is more of a recent thing, but I participate, I go to the meetings, and I really like the whole idea of Martinism, which, of course, also has that magical touch. But some more room or maybe it’s easier to see in Martinism than in other orders. Maybe that’s the space for getting in touch with subtle things, with more spiritual communication. So I like it a lot about the work we do here in Martinism as well. And, of course, the work under Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua that involves the Voodoo Gnostic current, that system that we call the Voodoo Gnostic system. It is incredible. We can talk a little bit more later, but those are the main things that I’m involved with nowadays and that I have been involved with for a long time. There are some other minor things, but I guess those are the major things.

There’s a major and minor. Yeah. And a lot of work, you know, to run or better to help run because I’m not alone, you know, to be one of the guys running a temple of Golden Dawn, it’s really hard work. It’s really hard work on many levels.

Yeah, I was just listening to that. And I think energetically alone, balancing those systems. Firstly, I think they’re all very deeply tied. I mean, you do speak about some of the roots of Martinism, in the relationship to, and I’m going to ask you maybe to share a little bit about that, with you talk about purpose and you talk about some of the original thinkers that have what some would say for borders on the area of fringe masonry. And again, like I myself, also a Master Mason and not that I’m very active. I think just we tend to open up to some of the more magical traditions, such as the Golden Dawn, such as Martinism and various other practices, and then the OTOA, which I think you’ll talk about a little bit more in terms of how that has come to be established, maybe guide us, because I think a lot of people have heard some of these terms. They’re very big. They’re impressive, magical systems, some of these most authoritative in our world really today. It takes many years of experience and knowledge to really make sense of that internally as well as intellectually and as fluently as you’re doing right now. Give the neophytes a short cut journey to how, why, or where Martinism steps in from Freemasonry and how does that lead us to Michael and the order of the monastery of the Seven Rays in OTOA?

Sure. We’re going to deep dive into ancient history and some murky waters of knowledge that comes from mouth to ear only. So not everything has documents and hard proof. But we know that things are real because of what happens today and what they produce. To talk a little bit about how Freemasonry and Martinism and all of that mingle and somehow gives birth to the Voodoo Gnostic work, we go back to Haiti. Actually, we go back to when Haiti was not Haiti yet. It was called Saint-Domingue, a colony of France. In those times, we’re talking about the 18th century. So we’re talking about a time when Haiti was still under the control of France. Slavery was still going on there. It was a horrible thing. People were being taken from Africa and forced to work in the worst conditions possible. It was really barbaric. Oftentimes, these were royalty being taken. You have all kinds of people, all royalty, priests, warriors, and common people, being taken there to work. At this time in Europe, France, England, there was Freemasonry and interest in the occult happening. There’s a guy who is very famous, Martines de Pasqually. He’s a guy who is very well known but very little is known about him. His name is famous, but we don’t know much about him. We don’t know if he was Portuguese, French, Italian, or Jewish. It doesn’t matter for us. What matters is that he was a guy who was really interested in the occult, doing very deep spiritual work. And he founded the Ordre de Chevaliers Maçons Élus Coëns de l’Univers, which is very important to Martinism. He influenced so much of what influenced Papus. Pasqually was in France, sharing his life and doing his spiritual work. He decides to go to Saint-Domingue to take care of some business from his wife’s side of the family. He had a cousin in the army who went to Haiti a year earlier. So he goes to Haiti and ends up staying almost 2 to 3 years. He gets some disease, probably yellow fever, which was very common at the time, and he dies there. Although some people say he died from a serious medical operation, we will never know for sure. This starts a movement because when he goes there, he learns about Haitian Voodoo and interacts with the spiritual world. He gets involved with the Freemasonry happening on the island. He starts not only learning about what’s happening in Haiti but also spreading his spiritual ideas. He dies, but his ideas stay. Then enters a family named Germain. Some say this family were originally slaves owned by Pasqually. They started taking Pasqually’s esoteric system and mingling it with Haitian Voodoo. This is something that may seem absurd, but when you look at Haiti nowadays, you see a lot of Voodoo in Freemasonry. The Germain family starts taking these ideas and influences and developing their own system. This guy named Lucien-François Jean-Maine is a product of these influences. He goes to France, meets Papus, gets initiated, and brings back Haitian Voodoo to the US, spreading the word and writing books. The Voodoo Gnostic Workbook is the central publication of this system. Michael brings his influences from various esoteric systems. The process is still happening and evolving.

I think that’s a valuable point you shared. You’ve woven together these elements beautifully. Michael’s influence on the occult world is significant, and Kenneth Grant’s support further highlights this. These practices have influenced many major occult orders today. The ability to evolve and shift the system is remarkable, integrating various traditions like Kabbalah and Freemasonry. Michael’s work, the cosmology of Atlantis, and the Nigerian Atlantean priesthoods help us perceive this paradigm. Let’s discuss how the magician’s cosmology creates a personal universe. When we first get in contact with the system, we see references to different places, cultures, and ideas like Atlantis. Michael states that Voodoo was the religion of Atlantis. When Atlantis sank, powerful wizards transformed into something else under the sea. There are many stories and ideas, almost like myths or sci-fi novels. You also see influences from Africa and Western philosophy. This fabric of ideas triggers transformation in the reader. Reading Michael and Kenneth Grant is transformative. The texts are magical operations in themselves. Whether Atlantis was real or not, the influences are real. It’s about constructing your own magical universe. Michael and others provide a map, but you should make it your own. It takes time and practice. The Voodoo Gnostic Workbook has many influences, like Haitian Voodoo, Nordic religion, Golden Dawn, and Buddhism. It’s a unique tapestry of information. Understanding the essence of symbols and spirits is crucial. Spirits are real but can take many shapes. Michael’s paintings in “Ontological Graffiti” are inspired by spiritual experiences. He gathered with people, summoned spirits, and painted their messages. The approach is to enter into intimate contact with spirits. Lucky Hoodoo, in the Voodoo Gnostic Workbook, is a good starting point. It requires minimal materials and helps develop the muscle of contacting spirits. This system is accessible to everyone but requires dedication. It’s an initiatory material, unlocking different keys as you progress. There are over 300 initiations in the practice. The concept of Universe A and Universe B is also significant. Universe A is our known universe, while Universe B is the universe of nothing. It’s a source of magical energy, like a big battery. Working with Universe B has its challenges but connects to the roots of power. The system integrates the front and back sides of the Tree of Life. Universe B is like the back side, the primal source. Understanding these concepts helps in tapping into the deeper power of the system.