Out_of_the_Devil_39_s_Cauldron

world of spiritualism, and I’m the one who is going to guide you where no other human being has
walked before. You will have my powers to tell people all about their lives, their destinies, and their
purpose. It is time to get started.”
Burning Flesh
Fueled by the strange but powerful dreams, I started attending even more occult gatherings,
including parties at the centros to honor the demons who gave us our powers. These festive
celebrations resembled birthday parties, except there was nothing innocent about them. What went on
in these gatherings was pure evil. One of the most demonic initiations used by espiritismo was the
cigar burning.
One Friday evening after midnight, Aunt Maria got demon-possessed by a spirit who called
herself the mother of Haiti—the principality that guards Haiti. Speaking through my aunt, the demon
spirit requested dark rum and a cigar. Somebody brought the liquor to her in a coconut shell, and I
watched as my aunt lit the cigar and puffed on it until the coal turned red-hot. Her eyes dark with
purpose, Aunt Maria called three of us to the front, including me. Speaking in her demonic language,
she said, “We’re going to see tonight who truly belongs to us, and this ceremony will determine that.”
The cigar kept turning redder and redder. The other two, a man and an older woman, went
first. The man was told to lift up the back of his shirt. As he kneeled on the floor in front of my aunt,
she plunged the lit cigar into the bare skin on his back. He screamed like someone trapped in hell as
she branded him in different parts of his back. Finally, he passed out.
Quivering with fear, the woman came forward next. Aunt Maria commanded her to close her
eyes and extend her arm. When my aunt plunged the cigar into the woman’s wrist, she too screamed
and fainted.
At last she approached me and told me to hold out my arm and close my eyes. As I stuck out
my arm, I felt the heat of the cigar approaching my skin like a flaming torch. She pressed the red-hot
coal into my arm and held it there, searing my flesh. I locked my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut tight,
allowing the cigar to remain on my skin, because I knew I was called to do this. I overcame the pain
and the smell of my own burning flesh—and that night I knew I was one of them.
“John,” Aunt Maria called as I started to head for home later that night. She gestured for me to
step into the hallway apart from the others. “There’s a secret meeting Monday night, and I want you to
be a part of it,” she said, her voice lowered. “Only the proven ones can be there, and tonight you
proved yourself.”
“What’s the meeting about?”
“This is for high-ranked mediums in the religion, and we’re gathering to map out the coming
year, to find out which principalities are going to run which regions. We’re also going to punish those
that dared to come against us,” she said, a devilish smile painted across her face. I knew it was time
for war.
I went about my business over the next few days in high expectations for what Monday night
would bring. We gathered at Aunt Maria’s house in the basement. Glancing around the candlelit room,
I realized I was standing among a select group of mediums who had ominous powers. The meeting’s
purpose: to settle the score and counter-attack our enemies, a group of people who wanted to make a
name for themselves and tried to do witchcraft on one of our people. But we caught it, and it was time