On Keys and Conjurations: Afro-Creole Adaptations of The Book of Black Magic in Trinidad and Tobago

This paper offers a fresh ethnographic perspective on the role of esoteric texts in contemporary Caribbean religion by exploring the Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist community’s involvement in a creolized form of occult spiritism referred to locally as “Kabbalah.” Seemingly unrelated to the Jewish mystical tradition of the same name, these closed-door ritual practices are supplemental to the faith and are heavily influenced by demonological and occult literatures. Delving into the esoteric reaches of Baptist biblical exegesis and the private unorthodox engagements of my interlocutors, this paper considers the adoption, adaptation, and application of mystical seals and conjurations derived from Waite’s The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts and looks to contribute novel ethnographic insights into the diffuse, albeit unappreciated, influence of occult philosophies and literatures on Spiritual Baptist and other Afro-Caribbean religions.