It is interesting that in the year 2008 there should be witches and others who believe in a “blacksmith god”. Interesting because blacksmiths have become rather obsolete in our hi-tech world of mobile phones, laptops, microelectronics, nanotechnology, MRI scans, and scientific objectivity. And yet the blacksmith as a memory and archetype remains a much loved figure among pagans, witches, artists, and reenactors. There must be something going on here that is very important if the archetype of the blacksmith has survived beyond the near extinction of the blacksmith’s profession.

Among the Yoruba of Nigeria, the blacksmith god is called Ogun. Ogun’s name is usually translated to mean “warrior”, but in one article that I read on the internet his name is supposed to mean, “The owner of medicine”, referring to the various medicinal plants found in the jungle, the jungle being a part of the physical world where Ogun’s spirit is very strong. Ogun is a very complex figure, and in many ways is very similar to Tubal Cain, the much loved divine blacksmith of the 1734 Tradition of Witchcraft. Ogun is the orisha (West African spiritual being) of war, hunting, jungles, justice, and iron. Like Wayland and Prometheus, Ogun is the suffering hero whose suffering nonetheless benefits humanity. In one story, Ogun takes an oath to protect a village against its enemies. The night before the battle Eshu (the trickster god associated with fate) offers Ogun some palm wine. He takes an excessive quantity of the intoxicating beverage, and when he rides into battle the following morning Ogun is so drunk that he cannot distinguish between the people he is supposed to protect and the people he is supposed to fight. In his drunkenness, Ogun begins a wholesale slaughter of everyone! When the palm wine wears off, Ogun realizes the terrible mistake that he committed. Obatala, Ogun’s father, suddenly appears before Ogun, telling him that he must pay for his crime. Obatala sentences Ogun to a lifetime of hard labor, mining iron ore from the earth, refining the ore in a blast furnace, and then hammering the metal into objects of beauty and utility, and also forging the weapons to be used by man and the other orishas.

There is certainly a karmic quality to the story, and indeed Ogun is invoked in Cuba and Haiti when a priest of Santeria or Voodoo believes that the police cannot provide the protection that he needs to deal with a difficult situation. But Ogun is much more than just a god of justice or a god of revenge. Ogun is the divine representation of the farmer, the hunter, and the butcher. Followers of the Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions will often say that without Ogun, all living things—even the other orishas—will starve to death. Ogun is the one who feeds the community. As the god of war, Ogun is the one who defends the community. And as the god of labor, Ogun is the one who builds the community in the form of carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, steelworkers, foresters, lumberjacks, truck drivers, etc, etc.

Many witches believe that Odin or some similar deity is the source of all consciousness. In Santeria, Obatala is the god of the mind, the so-called “owner of all the heads”. But think about what is needed for the evolution of consciousness. In his book African Genesis, written and published in the 1960s, author Robert Ardrey writes of the time he spent with British anthropologist, Raymond Dart. Raymond Dart had the controversial theory that human beings descended from some killer ape, whose cranial capacity developed remarkably fast once he had learned to use tools—and weapons. Take a good look at man’s military history and scientific history. The two histories are very well correlated. Man always makes wonderful scientific discoveries in anticipation of some serious war or perhaps in the wake of some other war. Prior to the Civil War, the medical profession was rather primitive by today’s standards. During the Civil War, Americans became keenly aware of the need for more medical research and better drugs for the treatment of various kinds of infections and diseases. The goal was hardly philanthropic in nature. The purpose of all this medical research was to treat the brave young men who had been injured on the battlefield so as to minimize the loss of vital manpower. Only later on did medicine become available to civilians, but even then the goal was to make money rather than to demonstrate man’s compassion for man.

What about linear programming, one of the most important aspects of modern applied mathematics? Linear programming, along with cryptography (another important aspect of modern applied mathematics), got started during WWII. It is often the case that great intellectual achievements occur during times of war, conflict, stress, and danger. Why? Is that the nature of all life? Or is that just the nature of human life during this epoch in our evolution?

Perhaps Odin or Obatala is the creator of the head or brain, and hence the god of wisdom and consciousness, but it is obvious that without war, hunting, labor, and the struggle for survival (the domain of Ogun) man’s consciousness or intellect cannot evolve. Our minds expand when we solve problems. Without problems to solve, the mind becomes weak. Ogun gives us problems, not because he hates us, but because he wants our minds to grow stronger and smarter.

Is the god of war a dumb brute? Is the divine blacksmith just a brawny jock with big muscles and a tiny brain? NO! This force of Mars possesses tremendous wisdom. He understands that struggle is a prerequisite for evolution. If you are not willing to struggle and fight for something, then perhaps you do not deserve it. Ogun does not give you something for nothing. If you want freedom, you must fight for it. If you want knowledge, then you must study and read and save your money for college courses. If you want to become a master in a certain discipline, then you must pay for it with hard work and persistence. Ogun is the god of blood and of bloodshed. He is the orisha of sacrifice. With Ogun, nothing is free. There is always a price to be paid. That is why I call Ogun the God of Karma. Like with cash vs. credit cards, you can pay now or pay later! But you have to pay. The expansion of man’s consciousness is a very noble goal, but it is not achieved without paying a price. Man’s brain has evolved over millions of years, and such evolution would never have happened without violence and the struggle for survival—and also the struggle and competition to procreate. The struggle to survive is what makes us smarter. Without lions, the zebras would not run very fast. Without sharks to prey upon them, the seals would not be such amazing swimmers. Ogun is like some very strict football coach, working us very hard, but doing so because he wants us to win the game—the game of life.

In Cuba and certain parts of the United States where the Orisha tradition is practiced, Ogun is represented by an iron cauldron containing horseshoes, nails, chains, padlocks, knives, swords, machetes, iron hooks, tongs, hammers, fireplace tools, and other examples of the blacksmith’s craft. Ogun’s symbolism is essentially the same as that of Tubal Cain, although Tubal Cain’s role as god of war is usually not emphasized in the Craft. One should remember however, that even if the blacksmith did not invent war, he certainly made it much more serious and much more frightening. It is the blacksmith who arms the warrior. It is the gunsmith who arms the gunslinger. In 1948, John T. Parsons, famous for his invention of CNC (computerized numerical control) was awarded the contract for the fabrication of the wings for military aircraft for the United States. In the 1940s CNC was really cutting edge metalworking technology, and it is interesting to observe that its first major application was in fabricating metal parts to be used by our military forces. If the god of war and the god of blacksmiths are not the same god, then surely they must be brothers! There is a deep partnership between war and man’s love of technology.  Similarly, one can easily argue that there is a deep and profound partnership between man’s consciousness and his love of war.

To understand the Divine Blacksmith, whether you call him Ogun, Tubal Cain, Wayland, Hephaestus, Goibhniu, Zarabanda, Gushkin Banda, or by some other name…..to understand him, to truly understand him, is to understand the blood and guts of human existence and human hardship.  Geologists tell us that at the core of the planet earth there is a large ball of iron and nickel that is responsible for the earth’s magnetism. I believe that the blacksmith god lives deep within my core as well, and that he is responsible for my magnetic energies, those same energies that are manipulated by psychics, witches, mystics, and martial artists.