Observations placeholder
Xam bushmen - The moon that was once his shoe
Identifier
011340
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
In the following extract /Kaggen, which in /Xam mythology is a trickster being – clever – creating both good and bad – and encompassing both creation an destruction has a magical influence upon his possessions. They ‘speak’ because he tells them to speak. The moon was created by ‘throwing his shoe into the sky’, but is also able to ‘speak’.
A description of the experience
The First Bushman’s Path: stories, Songs and testimonies of the /Xam of the Northern Cape
And /Kaggen said to the moon that was once his shoe
‘speak, you should speak because you are /Kaggen’s shoe
and you always used to speak when I wore you on my foot’
and therefore the moon speaks because /Kaggen told it to,
because all his things speak because they are his things
…..
/Kaggen’s things speak because they have understanding
because he commands them to understand, and to speak
‘I am /Kaggen and I talk to my things and they talk to me
……..
these things talk to me because they are my things
and I talk to them so that they will have understanding
the things listen to me and therefore they have sense
they talk with understanding because I tell them to
they are my things and they all obey me, I who am /Kaggen