Divination and Revelation

Because of their work in the unseen realm (alam ghaib) I have argued that the Malay guru silat must be rethought as a kind of war magician. In this section I thicken the description and examine the work of the guru silat in the unseen realm; first with a chapter regarding their initiation rituals, and second, with a chapter tackling their beliefs and practices in relation to death. In this chapter I outline the initiation rituals of silat gayong, the main organization from which Seni Silat Haqq Melayu emerges, in relation to divination and revelation. Cikgu Ezhar defines gayong as “to dip into the well of the unseen” and it is through divinatory and revelatory rituals that silat gayong practitioners’ access and influence the hidden reality of the spiritual realm. In the silat gayong divination rites the shadows of deceased heroes are called upon to define the personality and potential of the initiate.