--- In
hrcourse@yahoogroups.com, "Quimbisero" <eballard@s...> wrote:
> > I am interested in the views, experiences and opinions of the people
> in our class on the following subject, and of course would welcome
> Cat's informed remarks on this most interesting subject.
>
> It is referred to directly on a number of occassions in Hyatt and of
> course is implicit in the frequently mentioned Hoodoo term "two-
> headed" Doctor. The subject I am referring to is the direct
> communication with spirits, not merely through internal
> "spiritual" communication with guides, but also through possession.
>
> In the interview and related materials concerning the Unkis Man,
> Hyatt indicates that his assistant remarks about the state or
> behavior of the man and Hyatt agknowledges his remark but does not
> overtly explain it. (Forgive me because I do not have my copy
> of Hyatt in front of me to check the wording- I am going from memory)
> However, it is obvious to me that he is referring to an altered state
> of consciousness and that the man must have been close to being
> possessed by a spirit.
This might be the following, which you once transcribed:
{Hyatt writes} After he [the Unkus Man] leaves the room, my
contact man Edward comes in and we discuss our experience. I
speak, "So you heard him all the way down the steps, did
you?" Edward answers, "Yeah, all the way down to the end of
the hall there." i continue, "Certainly sounded - and then
every once in a while he would stop and shake his head, as
if he were going into a trance or something, you know."
Edward concludes, "Yeah, good gracious alive, certianly did
lay a bit easy around here - he was kind of sticking with
you." {end Hyatt}
> > It is a state that is central to most African traditional religions
> both in Africa and in the New World. In the Spiritual churches
> of New Orleans, it is institutionalized, but in
> Hoodoo it is fairly loosely referred to and is not at
> least now presented as a common occurance in most literature.
>
> Well, I throw the subject out there and hope that it may generate
> some discussion.
>
> Eoghan
I think that the term "two-headed" is less often heard now
in hoodoo circles than in times past.
You noted soemthing i have seen as well -- you said that in
the Spiritual Church in New Orleans trance possession is
"institutionalized." Now, it can be said that this is true
of all Holiness Church denominations, but in those cases the
possession is not by specific spirits, rather by the Holy
Ghost or Holy Spirit. However, institutionalized trance
possession by non-Holy Spirit entities can also be found
among hoodoo workers OUTSIDE of New Orleans when you examine
the records of conjure doctors who were members of the
Spiritual Church versus those who were not.
For instance, Aunt Caroline Dye of Newport, Arkansas, who
had passed by the time Harry Hyatt conducted his interviews
in her region, was mentioned by another of Hyatt's
subjects,who noted that Dye was a member of the Spiritual
Church and that he thought she would be appearing at their
next four-year convention in New Orleans. When we see Dye's
calling card photo (not a casual home snapshot), it has
obviously been doctored to show an otherworldy familiar by
her side, as well as a halo or aura around her head. So she
was tacitly -- and probably openly, if we but had a verbal
record of it -- engaging in some form of mediumship or
trance possession of non-human, non-Holy-Spirit entities.
See the calling card photo of Aunt Caroline Dye at
http://www.luckymojo.com/auntcarolinedye.html
Another one that comes to mind in this regard is Paschal
Beverly Randolph, the Virginia-born African American
spiritualist medium of the mid 19th century. In addition to
appearing on stage and in seances among white audiences to
contact the dead, Randolph sold hoodoo-style spiritual
supplies by mail order, including various elixers, salves,
the "New Orleans Magnetic Pillow," scrying mirrors for use
in divination, manhood restoration tonics, and hashish (then
legal). In other words, he straddled the line between being
a rootworker and a spirit medium.
What sets Randolph apart from white seance mediums of his
era is that he fits right into the "two-headed" world,
although he never used that down-home country term. Rather,
he said that he lived a "double existence" and that he was
possessed not merely by the spirits of the dead -- which was
the form of mediumship common in white Spiritualist circles
of the time -- but also by non-human spirits, some of whom
he called "angels" -- a form of trance possession that was
*highly unusual* among white Spiritualists of his era.
Randolph referred to the condition of being possessed by
non-human spirits as "atrilism" (he coined many neologisms
such as this, which makes his work difficult to follow at
times) and he said that, unlike a medium who was channeling
the spirits of the dead, a medium who engaged in atrilism
was "not present" -- that the spirit being took over or
possessed his body completely. Randolph seems to have known
nothing about African or African diasporic religions -- his
"double existence" and "atrilism" theories all came out of
his family background as a Free Man of Color in Virginia.
Please read more in "Paschal Beverly Rabdolph, A Nineteenth
Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex
Magician" by John Patrick Deveney, State University of New
York Press, 1997.
cat yronwode
