GOBLIN MANTRAS

The old Gods of Ireland were a warrior race called the Tuatha de Danann. They lived alongside men, fought battles for and against them, and were told to be two or three times the size of an ordinary man. As time went by their presence dwindled and they were thought to have taken up residence in the passage tombs and dolmens that dotted the land. After this fashion they became known as the Daoine Sidhe, the Good People or Faerie Folk of Ireland.

As mentioned in the Bardo of the Real, the Buddhist believe in six different transitional realms known as Bardos. These worlds can be accessed through meditation, but is described in imagery as being like a journey deep into the Earth. According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, an auspicious realm for the reincarnation of the souls is the Bardo of the Gods. The Bardo of the Gods is a truly divine realm, where faeries, Gods, and UFOs all intermingle. But despite this the Gods and other inhabitants are almost driven demented with boredom. Existing so close to the source of all reality, but being unable to go beyond it they find themselves in a distinctly anti-climactic position; one which they regularly assuage by bouts of mischief, music, art and love-making.

While the realm of the Gods is a beautiful sight to behold it is not too dissimilar to our own world. This is because it is still a predominantly sense-based realm, like all of the lower realms of Samsara. When the Gods, faeries or aliens (as we call them) enter into our world, they can appear as beautiful, strange or terrifying creatures. As the ancient legends of Ireland suggest, these entities once lived alongside men and there is no reason to think that this will not happen again; in a couple of thousand years or so. It should be noted that, while our human perceptions divide the class of deities into Gods, faeries and aliens, no such distinction really exists.

The Gods routinely leave the Earth of their realm and travel in ships of light. If by chance a human can see beyond the bounds of this world and into the bardo of the Gods, they too will see these UFO-like craft, which are, as I have said, not distinct from faeries or the Gods themselves. It is interesting to note that the word 'bardo', as it appears in Tibetan Buddhism, is identical to the Irish word for poet. The bardos of Ireland were among the most well respected figures in the land, as their knowledge of the Gods and the history of mankind was unsurpassed, at the time.

It was while I was drifting through the sixth and last of the Bardos – that region we call Hell – that I was so in fear of my life and sanity that I reached for my copy of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. As soon as my fingers touched the pages, my mind was assailed of a vision of goblins, as they were imagined by Brian Froud for the movie Labyrinth. I could here them chattering; he has got it! he is going to read from it! etc. This closely mirrors what the goblins were saying in the darkened closet-world of the movie Labyrinth, just as Sarah was about to send her brother Toby to live with the Goblin king. I always wondered where that goblin realm existed, and now I know. It is in a dark in-between realm, a kind of observation point between our world and the next.

The goblins must have something to do with the mantras and prayers in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which would make sense, as Tibetan Buddhism is historically understood to be a blend between Shamanism, and Indian Dharmatta. Traditionally, Shamanism is preoccupied by spirits and demons, and the luck or misfortune they often bring. So, I would suggest, if you want to read the poems and prayers of the Little People to go and read the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.