The keris is a cultural and societal icon. This is particularly true in Jawa and Bali.
Because of the cultural and societal status of the keris it is necessary to approach the understanding of it from a position that at least approximates the understanding of the people who form the society from which it comes. The present day understanding of the keris in Jawa is an understanding that has developed from the original Javanese indigenous cultural belief system, overlaid by the amalgamation of Hindu-Buddhist beliefs that is known as the Javanese-Hindu belief system.
In Jawa since about 1500CE this original understanding of the keris has been progressively altered to an understanding that has become more acceptable to the Islamic belief system that has come to dominate Jawa. Islam in Jawa is a form of Islam that in its most prevalent form is a form unique to Jawa in that it incorporates indigenous Javanese belief with Sufic influences to create a thread of the Islamic faith that is heavily overlaid with mysticism.
In a society that observes the traditional beliefs associated with animism and ancestor worship, and then combines these beliefs with Sufic mysticism, it is inevitable that certain beliefs will be associated with certain inanimate objects, both natural and man made. Animism as it exists in Jawa holds that the same life essence is to be found in all things, but that life essence exists in varying quantities, and perhaps in varying qualities in those things.
The important thing for us to understand when we consider the esoteric powers associated with the keris is that for those people who are a part of the society that practices the relevant belief system, in this case, Kejawen, or Javanese Islam, those esoteric powers are real. They are not imagined powers, they are not artificial creations, they are real:- as real as the indisputable fact that one is being observed by one's ancestors and as real as the indisputable fact that the cosmos is not simply a place of a single dimension but has a component which can be readily seen, and a component which cannot be readily seen, but which under some circumstances may be visited, and which can certainly impact upon the part of the cosmos which can be seen. I feel that most of us here have heard of the "seen and the unseen worlds". Well, this is what it means, and its real, for those who live within this system of belief.
In fact, this phenomenon can even be real for somebody who is living outside the system, but upon whom the shared sub-conscious of those living within the system has effect.
It is an absolute and a total impossibility for a modern man from a post industrial society to understand anything at all about the Javanese keris unless he can develop the ability to see the cosmos in a similar way to that in which people who are traditionally orientated Javanese people see the cosmos. In the absence of this ability, it may be possible to gain a partial understanding by at least observing and attempting to understand the factors involved in the Javanese belief system.
So, when we consider the esoteric qualities that may, or may not, be attributed to a keris because of its pamor, or dhapur, or previous ownership or some other factor, a simple recitation of those esoteric qualities does not come even close an explanation of the qualities. Those esoteric qualities depend totally upon the beliefs of the person, or people, who are directly involved with the keris concerned.
The esoteric qualities of any keris cannot exist independent of the belief of a person or people in those qualities. In order to understand these beliefs it is necessary to begin with an understanding of the society and of the people of which that society is formed.
In other words:-
nobody ain't gunna learn nothin about the keris without they get a handle on the mob what done birthed it.
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