Greetings all

[kamals]

Hello everyone, I realized I never properly introduced myself. My name is Kemal. I live in the American Midwest but am originally from the East Coast. I like travel, book collecting, poetry, musically I love jazz music, but also listen to classic R&B and electric blues, some 1970s heavy rock, baroque and classical music, and now and then experimental electronica and industrial music.

For decades I've had a deep interest in the history and lore of African American Conjure and Hoodoo. One of my grandmothers did some rootworking though kept it secretive. Though whenever anyone got on her bad side she would joke about putting roots on them! But older folk in my family often mentioned root doctors and lore when I was growing up.

I was very interested in mysticism and the occult lore as a boy, having stumbled on Colin Wilson's book The Occult and the full-set Man Myth and Magic encyclopedia at libraries and devouring every volume. So all of my elderly family members talk about throwing roots and conjure men just haunted and fed my interests.

But as an actual practitioner my adult interests lay in North African Sufism and forms of Islamicate or Arabic magic often called Ruhaniyya, and also the Indonesian folk magic tradition of Ilumu Hikmah. Over the last couple of years I've felt moved to deepen my understanding and practice of Hoodoo and Conjure.

I also have a broader intellectual fascination and interest in Southern and Appalachian conjure and in the Cunning Folk traditions of the British Isles, in folk magic traditions all around the world, and in Grimorie ceremonial magic.

Funny thing, before registering an account I kind of lurked around the Lucky Mojo Forum for years just reading the publicly accessible forum threads. Before that I used to read many of Ms. Catherine's and Nagasiva's posts on Usenet years ago.

I only just started ordering Lucky Mojo products this year and figured, what the heck, why not actually register an account and actually start participating in this fascinating community and learning more by actual interaction. So here I am !

[catherineyronwode]

Thanks for that introduction, kamals.

The "Man Myth and Magic" encyclopedia edited by Richard Cavendish had a big influence on me too, although i already knew much of the material in it from older sources, as my folks ran an a scholarly antiquarian book shop. Both nagasiva and i had such fond memories of it that we actually bought a full set on eBay about 20 years ago. It's kind of a memory-trophy for us, i suppose. Funny thing -- i was cleaning up my office at the shop yesterday and ended up dusting the tops of those books. I thought about how, in the minds of many people, especially the young, they have been replaced with various online resources. I wondered if they too are now online. And, then, my dusting done, i realized that they had become a sort of talisman to me. When they were originally released in 1970, i could not afford to subscribe to them, so i read them at the library, but now i own a full set, so they not only hold knowledge, but they represent a moment of relative wealth, a token of having arrived, 20 years ago, at a place of prosperity that i did not occupy 55 years ago.

Anyway, that was a strange coincidence, your mentioning them right after i has handling them.

Here are some convenient links that may be of use to you:

Lucky Mojo YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/luckymojocurioco

Lucky Mojo Books:
https://www.luckymojo.com/luckymojopublishing.html

Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic:
https://www.luckymojo.com/hoodooherbandrootmagic.html

Hoodoo History:
http://luckymojo.com/hoodoohistory.html

Hoodoo Rootwork Correspondence Course
http://luckymojo.com/mojocourse.html

Mojo Hands:
http://luckymojo.com/mojo.html

Oils:
http://luckymojo.com/oils.html

Baths:
http://luckymojo.com/baths.html

Powders:
http://luckymojo.com/powders.html

Incense:
http://luckymojo.com/incense.html

Candles:
http://luckymojo.com/candlemagic.html

Herbs:
http://herb-magic.com

Commn Magical Conditions and how we can address them:
http://luckymojo.com/hoodooataglance.html

[kamals]

Thank you so much for the kind and warm welcome hospitality and all of the wisdom. I stumbled across a couple of those links in the past and found them to be incredibly informative, but didn't come across the candles and powders links and your herb-magic link looks so amazingly information packed, there's months of reading in there. I'm already finding useful information in it and I will peruse the entire site. Thank you for sharing all of this !

The Hoodoo Rootwork Correspondence Course sounds wonderful and something I hope to be able to do.

I think Strange coincidences are often meaningful, perhaps I should start looking around for an encyclopedia set on ebay myself.

It's simply wonderful that your set is a token of prosperity for you, such good tidings ! I wonder if perhaps in a certain sense this set may have a certain talismanic efficacy for you. It's certainly a classic and now I'm itching to find Man Myth and Magic again.

It's mysterious how threads in life come full circle!

- K

[catherineyronwode]

'Weird Coincidences" is probably my occult middle name.