Mending Ourselves, by Many Voices Press (personal experience prose, 1993)

[lb_lee]

"I'm not at all sure that survivors have a choice in the way integration happens for them. While a smooth unification may be ideal, I suspect for most of us, this is a time of momentous change. Such change is rarely calm and uneventful."

Blurb: (From back cover) A collection of essays, poetry, and art shared by over fifty readers of Many Voices, an international newsletter for people healing from trauma-related dissociative disorders, mostly focused on personal experiences of the recovery progress and integration.

Why is it worth your time?: It's an interesting time capsule of a specific medical multi culture right before the switch to the DSM-IV and the DID name change. The editor, Lynn Wasnak, has since passed on, and Many Voices was shut down with her death, though the newsletter archive remains online. However you feel about the multi culture of that time, nobody can deny that Wasnak did a lot of work at creating multi community and pooling resources and stories.

Plural Tags: fusion/integration, memory work, children, medical multiplicity, plural creators, abuse intermediate-focus

Content Warnings: Obviously, integration, fusion, and returning to singlethood are all major themes. As is usual for medical multi stories from this time, a lot of the relationships with therapists are super-dependent and messed up. Abuse is discussed, but not in detail. Also, a specific story ("Integration," by Abigail Collins) involves a straight headmate worrying that integrating with her lesbian headmate would change her sexual orientation, and headmate friction comes up a few times.

Access Notes: Officially only in paper book, out of print, but Anna's Archive has digitized a copy, and it's screen-readable, so I now have a local copy! (Thanks for the tip-off, helpful anon!) I also textually transcribed a chapter of it here.

My Double Mystic Marriages to Two Goddesses of Love, by Rene and Houlberg (interview prose, 1993)

[lb_lee]

"The reason I have become engaged with these spirits is because I have been persecuted since I was a little child in school. And I dreamed such a thing and refused to believe this kind of thing exist..."

Blurb: An interview with a Haitian man about his marriages to two lwa, Ezili Danto and Ezili Freya, who interact with him via dreams and by possessing others.

Why is it worth your time?: The Haitian Vodoun tradition has a specific form of possession and spirit marriage that is well worth learning about, especially for plurals who come from different cultures. Also, Georges Rene seems quite happy with his marriages, which I found heartwarming! It's nice to see someone sharing such a positive experience so earnestly. It's short, it's interesting, and it's worth your time!

Plural Tags: nonhumans [lwa, gods, spirits], creator speaks from experience, community, romantic relationships, spiritual, possession

Content Warnings: Brief discussions of racism, death of a parent, wrongful imprisonment, threats of violence, homophobia, and people not being sure how to react, all discussed matter-of-factly.

Access Notes: Officially, the big book it's in (Sacred Arts of Haitian Voudou, Donald Cosentino ed.) is paper-only, out of print, and hard to find... soooo I PDFized this interview using the library book scanner for posterity. Now screenreadable! (Back-up link)