Historical and Contemporary Hoodoo Root Doctors, Practitioners, Fortune Tellers, and Shop Owners

[mamaambota2003]

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/world ... egypt.html

When I was in Europe this spring, we went to the British Museum, and
I was sure I had seen a candle holder that was at least as old
as "biblical times" ... so I've been searching. Here is what I
saw.

You have to go to this website and click on COMPASS.
Then do a search on candle.

Then you can click and read about this Etruscan piece. In case you
have difficulty opening the site, here is what is printed there,
along with a photo of the candelabrum:

Bronze candelabrum with the figure of a warrior

Etruscan, about 475-450 BC
Probably made at Vulci, ancient Etruria (now in Lazio, Italy)

In the ancient world light was usually provided by lamps filled with
olive-oil and sometimes supported on elaborate stands. This object,
though, is a candelabrum, and when in use would have had a candle
attached to each of the four prongs. It is a characteristically
Etruscan type of object, and a fine example of the way the bronze
smiths elaborately decorated versions of everyday objects.

The stand would have been made in several parts, each cast
separately. Particular attention was paid to a decorative figure for
the top, and many different types are known. Here a warrior stands in
an alert and rather aggressive stance, his head turned, his left foot
and his shield arm forward and his sword arm flexed, ready for
action. He wears a decorated tunic and a crested helmet of Athenian
type.

Height: 1.34 m

Campanari Collection

GR 1846.6-29.44 (Bronze 592)

Room 71, Italy before the Roman Empire, case 25

[catherineyronwode]

--- In hrcourse@yahoogroups.com, "mamaambota2003" <OakPsts@a...> wrote:
> > http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/world ... egypt.html
>
> When I was in Europe this spring, we went to the British Museum, and
> I was sure I had seen a candle holder that was at least as old
> as "biblical times" ... so I've been searching. Here is what I
> saw.

[extremely interesting Etruscsan candelabrum information snipped]

Actually, in my earlier post i did not mention "Biblical times" per se.
I wrote "candles did not exist when the Bible was written. People used
oil lamps" -- but no doubt for greatest accuracy i should have written
"candles did not exist when *and where* the Bible was written. People
used oil lamps."

In other words, the ancient Hebrews did use decorative lighting
fixtures for which the English word "candelabrum" is sometimes given in
translation -- but they were multiple oil lamp stands, not candle-
holders as we now tuse the term.

Thanks for helping me clarify that.

cat yronwode

[catherineyronwode]

Emancipated Voices: Online Recordings Tell of Slavery

By Linton Weeks

Deep, resonant like coming thunder is the voice of Bob
Ledbetter as he remembers his life as a slave -- singing to
pass the time, learning to read and write, joining the
church and getting married.

"Well, how have you got along so well in life?" the
interviewer asks Ledbetter in a 1940 conversation in
Louisiana. "What's been your principles?"

In his rumbling tone, Ledbetter replies: "I know what's
right and I tried my best to do what's right in everything I
do."

Beginning today people the world over will be able to listen
to interviews with Ledbetter and other former slaves through
the online presentation "Voices >From the Days of Slavery:
Former Slaves Tell Their Stories" on the Library of
Congress's American Memory Web site (www.memory.loc.gov).

One of the most amazing encounters is with Wallace
Quarterman, who was interviewed in the mid-1930s. At age 87,
he is sometimes difficult to understand when he speaks. He
says at one point that he remembers being told that the
Yankees were coming and he should run down to the field and
let all the slaves go free.

But he is eerily clear when he sings "Jesus Is a Rock in a
Weary Land."

He and others, in intricate harmony, sing: "My God is the
rock in the weary land. Shelter in the time of storm."

The words are comforting when you read them; chilling when
you hear them.

Nearly two dozen people are interviewed. Many of the
recordings -- most cut on scratchy 78 rpm discs -- have not
been released before.

Most of the reminiscences come from elderly men. Billy
McCrea, questioned when he was 89, remembers seeing a group
from the North set up a Freedmen's Bureau in a southern
town.

Another former slave tells an interviewer: "I got my name
from President Jeff Davis. He was president of the Southern
Confederacy. He owned my grandfather and my father."

The recordings are important because we can hear the
oppression. Michael Taft, head of the library's archive of
folk culture, says, "These are the only voices we have from
a defining era in American history."

He adds: "These are the stories of people's lives who grew
out of slavery."

Reams of written documents regarding slavery, mostly from
field historians of the Works Progress Administration, are
kept in the library's American Folklife Center and are
available on the Web at the American Memory site, Taft says.
But those interviewers used dictation and could not always
be faithful to what was being said.

The newly released digital recordings are raw and fresh,
straight from the wellspring. The quality is sometimes poor,
and here and there words are swallowed or unintelligible.
There are transcripts on the site for every recording. The
beauty, Taft says, is that the recordings "are the only way
you hear how they expressed themselves."

It is an eerie feeling as you sit in the gray glow of your
computer and hear Charlie Smith, reported to be well over
100 years old when he was interviewed, tell of other slaves
wanting to throw him off a ship as he sailed from Africa to
America. "I was a child, a boy," he says.

His tone is rhythmic, slow. He talks on and on and his voice
is crackling, yet resolute, like a rusted gate hinge.

He was tricked onto the slave ship, he tells the
interviewer, by promises of pancakes.

At one point during the crossing, he says matter-of-factly,
folks were yelling: " 'Throw him overboard!' I was in cuffs.
'Throw him overboard, let the damn whale swallow him like he
done Jonah.' "

Smith was interviewed in Florida by historian Elmer Sparks.
The other 15 interviewers include notable writers such as
Zora Neale Hurston and folklorists such as John and Alan
Lomax.

John Lomax, you learn from listening, could be an abrasive
interrogator. At one point he snaps at Ledbetter, "Louder.
Sing it louder." Ledbetter, with a meek, dulcet air,
complies.

"No soap, no starch," Ledbetter trills with a haunting
wistfulness. "Nobody, nobody to wash my clothes. Nobody to
wash my clothes."

He tells Lomax, "I hate to sing to anybody. My voice, it, it
broke."

The site is handsome, as is nearly every Web presentation
the library creates. It takes a while to understand the
site's navigation, but the investment of time and
techno-patience is worth it.

Nearly seven hours of material is available. The recordings
were made between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states.

Washingtonian Roscoe E. Lewis, working with the WPA and the
Federal Writers' Project, made three recordings of former
slaves for the state of Virginia. He and a group of 16
African American chroniclers also put to paper hundreds of
oral histories and, in 1940, published "The Negro in
Virginia."

Nine of the newly available recordings were produced by the
American Dialect Society. The rest come from various
sources. The site features 28 songs sung by former slaves.

More than 2,000 additional interviews, compiled by the
Federal Writers' Project, are also in the library's
collection and available online through the American Memory
Web site.

But if you want to hear real people speaking in real voices,
you can use your ears and your computer's media player.

The introduction to the library's presentation, on the
site's home page, reminds listeners that most of the
recorded interviews took place long after the subjects had
been in slavery.

Slavery is the recurring theme, but the men and women also
discuss their lives after bondage and the changing society
around them.

Interviewer John Henry Faulk, a renowned storyteller from
Austin, caught up with Laura Smalley in Hempstead, Tex., in
1941. She remembered eating with other slave children from a
long, wooden trough-like tray.

Smalley's voice is like a fast-moving train, sometimes
sounding like two voices melded into one -- an older woman
and a younger girl.

She refers to herself as "a great big girl" and "a big old
girl" at times in the interview.

At one point Smalley is asked what her family did after the
Emancipation Proclamation. "Mama and them didn't know where
to go, you see, after freedom broke," Smalley says. "Just
turned, just like you turn something out, you know. Didn't
know where to go. That's just where they stayed."

Would you like to send this article to a friend? Go to

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

[Quimbisero]

The Library of Congress site -- http://www.memory.loc.gov -- has been in the same place for years and i just checked -- it is still there and the "Emancipated Voices" link is the "featured" page right now (with a photo) at the right of the page. The other link, which was at the very end of the article (called "email this message to a friend"), was broken onto two lines by Yahoo's posting mechanism. Try assembling it back together on one line to use it -- but there's no real need for that because you can just copy the text and send the whole thing to a friend.

Try https://www.loc.gov/collections/voices- ... ollection/

[catherineyronwode]

It's working. thanks Cat!

Eoghan

[rootwomin@yahoo.com]

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/090 ... o001.shtml

(Thanks -- This is great article on hoodoo bottle spells pulled out a river near Lafayette, Louisiana! And, strange to say, i know an old traditional rootworker right in Lafayette, and i truly believe this is his work. Also, i deplore the way the police and the anthropologist mentioned in the article think they can "anthropologize" someone's work. I mean, how would they like it is we followed them around all day commenting on what *they* do? Not nice. --cat)

[Etudiant Ancetres]

This was a great article! I kind of wonder if maybe I should try to contact the Brassieur guy since I'm kind of close to him to find out more about old-time practitioners. Cat, is the old traditional rootworker in Lafayette that you know of named Mr. Murphy? My friend knows a rootworker in Lafayette named Mr. Murphy and I'm wondering if this is the same guy.

(Yes, this is the same man. I believe his name is Matthew Murray, not Murphy. He is known to most people as Mr. Murray. He gave me his contact information, and i am free to give it out with one proviso -- and folks, please read this carefully: He ONLY does work in person. Do not phone him unless you plan to make an appointment to visit him in person. He does not do readings over the phone. He does not work for people over the phone. If you understand that, here is the contact information he gave me: Mr. Murray, 165 North Loop, Lafayette, LA, phone number 337-234-3714. He is about 80 - 85 years old at this time. --cat)

As you know, belief in hoodoo is real deep in Louisanna and I think personally that hoodoo is more concentrated in Louisanna than any other places in the South.

(Have you travelled through Georgia? I think that the area around Valdosta, GA will give any place in Louisana a run for its money as the hoodoo capital of the world. --cat)

I was surprised to find that hoodoo is practiced here in Beaumont (I live in Texas) when an ex-coworker told me about her brother being tricked.

(Whoa. You were SURPRISED to find hoodoo is practiced in Beaumont, Texas??? But that's the birthplace of Ivory Joe Hunter, the R&B pianist whose big hit "I Almost Lost My Mind" mentions going to a "gypsy" reader. And it is not so far from Centerville, the birthplace of Lightning Hopkins, the great blues singer whose big hit was "Mojo Hand" and whose career took off in the clubs of Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur -- and Hopkins's wife was the cousin of Clifton Chenier, the Zydeco accordianist from Louisiana! Have you ever wondered how a Jewish girl from Berkeley California learned so much about hoodoo? Well, i picked it up in the neighboring town of Oakland. (Berkeley, Oakland, Richnmond, El Cerrito, Albany, et al comprise what is called "the East Bay" of the San Francisco Bay Area). Virtually everyone i learned hoodoo from told me that they had grown up in Texas, Louisiana, or Mississippi -- many of them were Gulf Coast shipyard workers who had come to the East Bay during WW II to work in the naval and merchant marine yards. From what they told me, Southeast Texas is a real hotbed of hoodoo. If you want to take a look at my own teenaged musical obsessions, with pictures of some of the Texas-Louisiana R&B and rural acoustic blues musicians i hung out with at Eli's Mile-High and the Cabale Creamery, read "The Southeast Texas - East Bay Music Connection"
http://www.chumpchange.com/Juneteenth/Texas-EastBay.htm or check out
For a more academic look at the same migration phenomenon, minus the music, find a copy of Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo's book "Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community (1996, University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0807845639), which is all about the shipyard workers. This is why Juneteenth celebrations -- and the hope to celebrate Juneteenth more widely, in honour of the last slaves who were feed, in Galveston, Texas -- began in the East Bay: so many immigrants from Texas. --cat)

He kept hearing knocking noises at his house one day so he decided to spend the night at the neighbor's house. He along with the neighbor's heard the same noise at their home so he searched around his house for the trick and he found a toby in a flowerpot. He took the toby to the Sabine River and threw it into the water and he never heard the knocking noises again. Cat, I've never heard of knocking noises as part of a trick until I was told this story. Are you familiar with this sort of tricking? I'm pretty sure that you are. Marc

(Unfriendly, evil, and trickster spirits associated with knocking sounds are often called "poltergiests" -- which means "noisy ghosts" in German. Hiding a toby in a flowerpot is fairly common as a "sneaky trick," as you can rad in HHRM in the listing for "Apple" on page 33. It sounds like someone used an evil or tricksterish graveyard spirit to haunt the man, based on what you say, in which case, the toby would have contained the poltergiest's graveyard dirt, and when it was thrown into the river, the spirit's link to the victim was broken, for it is often said that spirits cannot cross running (river) water. -- cat)

[Quimbisero]

Well, the police usually manage to goof things up. However, to be fair, (and I have not read the article) journalists are notorious for completely changing not only what people say, but their entire manner. So don't rule out the possibility that the people did not speak the way they are being presented as speaking.

(Well, count me as a journalist then, because i screwed my own post up -- the man whose comments bothered me was not a policeman but a Water Projects Manager. My error! He's the guy who is finding these rootwork bottles and filing them in plastic bags! --cat)

Mostly, the more serious and better educated anthropologists of today are much more sensitive to the individuals that they are working with. It is not unusual for them to be personally involved with what they are writing about. That has not always been the case, and not all people are as sensitive as they ought to be.

(The anthropologist mentioned in the story wants to transcribe the spells. These folks are so nosy! They remind me of the guy who used to go through Bob Dylan's garbage and write articles on what Bob Dyaln was eating! --cat)

Eoghan

[catherineyronwode]

The HITAP page on Harry Hyatt's 1,600 informants has been updated
extensively today. Basically, i went through my saved stuff and
inserted all the data i could find for Waycross, Georgia.

Why Waycross? Becuase that's where the Okefenokee swamp is and that's
where Pogo Possum lives, and i get so tired of people asking me if i
practice "real New Orleans Vooodoo." When they do, i often reply, "No,
but i practice real Memphis Tennessee and Waycross Georgia hoodoo."

Anyway, if you go to the page and check out the Waycross material (not
all of it is entered, just what i was able to glean in 10 hours from
the electronic transcripts made by Landa, Dara, and myself in years
past), note how there seem to be clusters of ideas associated with the
workers there.

Hyatt cut the interviews apart and sorted them by subject, but in
reassembling them by date and location, you can suddenly see patterns,
such as the fact that at least 6 people in Waycross had read or gotten
spells from the German book "Pow Wows or the Long Lost Friend" by John
George Hohman and one of those had delved very deeply into the Hebrew
Kabbalah material reprinted in "Secrets of the Psalms" by Godfrey
Selig. This was a "Waycross thang" just as much as working with certain
saints was a "New Orleans thang."

Hyatt never asked his informants if they knew each other, studied under
one another, or traded spells, but some of the Waycross informants must
have been colleagues, or at least bought their supplies and books from
the same source, and some of them do explain the sources for spells
they themselved had collected but never had occasion to use. All in
all, they were a high class of hoodoos in Waycross.

The Waycross collection began approximately March 2, 1939 and ran until
around March 9 or 10 (about one week), during which time approximately
100 root workers were interviewed.

Check out the updated Hyatt Informants page at the same old URL:

http://www.luckymojo.com/hyattinformants.html

cat yronwode

[panmodal23]

[attn: cat]

I don't know if anyone caught this last night on Fresh Air (or back in 1992 when it originally aired, so it may be old news), but during an interview with New Orleans singer/producer Vernel Bagneris (re: his Jelly Roll Morton show) the subject of "spells" came up. Bagneris talked briefly about how spells and such are just part of growing up in New Orleans like anything else, mentioned "White Voodoo," and gave as an example of the "things that you can do" rolling an onion after someone leaving your house when you don't want them to come back. Brief, and not a whole lot of information, but it was interesting to hear (especially since I had just turned on the radio and wasn't expecting it). And the music of Jelly Roll Morton is always worth hearing, anyway. ; )

The story can be streamed from the NPR website (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4285935), and the talk about spells starts at 16:00 (and ends at about 17:30 - I said it was brief!).

Hope everyone's having fun,

=Ilya

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[natstein]

This is just something I am curiuse about. local spiritual
bookstore here just started carrying a lot of Anna Riva's Oils and
books and I always run accross her name when doing searches and
things on hoodoo. So I was just Wondering what some of your
opinions of her products and books were??

One thing i did notice was there didn't seeem to be any pieces of
herbs and such in any of the oils which made me a little suspicuse.

Thanks

Nathen

(I think i have mentioned this before -- but Anna Riva (actually Dorothy Spencer; the name "Anna Riva" came from her mother's name and her daughter's name) was a real person, and a lot of her recipes were great, as was most of what she wrote. Her company, International Imports, was a good source for spiritual supplies back in the 1970s. Sometime in the late 80s or early 90s she sold out to Marty Meyer of Indio and retired. He now controls her formulas. A couple of years ago Marty told me she had Alzheimer's and was no longer able to communicate, poor woman. Now i will try to speak fairly here, not as a competitor to her successor, who is someone i actually like a lot as a person -- but I have been told by people that the formulas currently marketed under the Anna Riva name are no longer exactly as she had written them down and prepared them herself back in the day. I don't buy her oils, so i can't comment beyond that; but i did use to buy her oils, back when i was young. They were okay. They never did have herbs in them, like the oils made by Papa Jim in Texas or the Papa Julius' Bombay Candle Company in Los Angeles. They were more like the oils from Sonny Boy Products, except Anna Riva used more natural essential oils and fewer artificial fragrances than Sonny Boy. Her books remain in print from Indio, and most of them are worth reading and owning. My favourite of them is "Golden Secrets of Mystic Oils." Anna Riva was an ecclectic, not a traditionalist, and she tended to write her own greeting card verse rhyming spells, but she was a sincere worker and she was a major spiritual supplier in her day. She also pulled off a few funky little hoaxes, like copying some op-art eye-bending geometric patterns from the late 1960s and calling them traditional talismans for catching devils. But no one's perfect, i guess. --cat)

[MadameSamantha]

It amazes me Miss Cat how much information you have accumulated
over the years and still retain it in your memory.

(Ah, thank you, Samantha, but it's genetic -- the memory thing, i mean. My grandmother, mother, aunt, half-sister, and daughter all have this gift as well. I can't see farther than my nose and i can't run fast and i can't do math in my head -- but i can remember stuff. Or rather, i can't eactly *forget* stuff. That is, i don't consciously "try" to remember data; i just find that it's still there, neatly filed away with about ten different mnemonic tags attached to it for easy reference whenever i go looking for it in my head. --cat)

I can not help but feel sorrow for Anna Riva having Alzheimer's.
This is such a hideous sickness.

My poor 68 year old half-sister Wanda also suffers from this
condition. Wanda is 1/4 gypsy and once was quite the entertainer as
well as a great beauty. I take care of her now and keep a St.
Dymphna relic medal around her neck. I add a package of Lucky Mojo's
St. Dymphna Sachet to her dusting powder and a bottle of Lucky
Mojo's St. Dymphna Perfume Oil on her vainty. These items have
helped Wanda more than anything else.

(Caring for someone with Alzheimers is heartbreaking and backbreaking work. You are a good and great person to do that, God love you. --cat)

I can't help but wonder if Anna Riva does in fact have Alzheimer's
or if it's just a ruse to distance her from International Imports.

(I think she actually does have Alzheimers. Marty would have no reason to lie to me about that. He also supposedly still has all her hand-written formulas on index cards in a shoebox, too, just the way she gave them to him. --cat)

> (She also pulled off a few funky little
> hoaxes, like copying some op-art eye-bending
> geometric patterns from the late 1960s and calling
> them traditional talismans for catching devils.
> But no one's perfect, i guess. --cat)

You know, I still have my Anna Riva fetish doll. When it came in
the mail it had a sticker on the bottom that said "Made in China".
Of course I smirked over that, but the funny thing is I was at an
artifact museum and saw miniature versions of the same fetish doll
which were about 100 years old.

(She knew her stuff. She probably saw that somewhere and had it copied in China. --cat)

There were also the Anna Riva "Voodoo Spinners". These were a sort
of wooden balancing figure on an ornate wood base. When you spun the
balancing figure it was suppose to chase away the evil spirits or
the likes of. I have 4 of these items to this day. I know they come
from Haiti and sometimes you can find them on eBay.

(I remember those! Those were funny! You're a nutty collector, Samantha, like me. I still have my Anna Riva Love Knot Spell in a heart-shaped plastic box! --cat)

Spirit's Blessings,

Samantha

[Tommyc]

Monday's Los Angeles Times has an interesting article in its Health
section that will be online for a short period, though I believe
registration is required. The Times is particularly nosy, which may
explain why some people simply make up the information requested.

In any event, the article is available for another day or two at:

http://tinyurl.com/4k23g

"Mainstream medicine is beginning to explore the aisles of botanicas
The shops, burgeoning in the Southland, sell herbs and remedies long used
by Latinos," says the subhead. Since Latinons make up nearly 45% of the
Los Angeles population (thus, I realize, there is no majority race,
certainly not the white race, in Los Angeles), it turns out that there are
more botanicas here-- well, Southern California in general-- than anywhere
else in the country.

In fact, in the last 30 years, the number of botanicas in the area has
gone up from three dozen to around 500, according to Patrick Polk, cited
in the article as "a visiting professor at UCLA who has studied botanicas
for more than a decade." List members may be interested to know about an
exhibit Polk is curating:

Through March 6, Fowler Museum at UCLA is presenting the exhibit
"Botanica Los Angeles: Latino Popular Religious Art in the City of
Angels." It focuses on the artistic, religious and cultural aspects of
botanicas. Last Thursday anthropologists, folklorists, priestesses and
traditional herbalists gathered at the Fowler to discuss botanicas as
sites of alternative medical practices.

The article refers briefly to a recent panel discussion at UCLA, and says
researchers have a $250,000 grant from the NIH to study botanicas because
there are all kinds of herbal health activities going on in them,
including the use of some 200 herbs for perhaps a hundred different
medical conditions. All that medical infomation may turn out to be as
significant as the products and preparations found in Asian pharmacies,
but which have not been studied. Naturally, someone is writing a book on
the herbs and their use.

Specifically mentioned in the piece: Botanica El Congo Manuel, located in
a Hollywood strip mall, and the Million Dollar Pharmacy, which has long
existed in an utterly amazing old marble pile in downtown Los Angeles next
to the Central Market and directly across the street from the Bradbury
Building with its extensive wrought iron detailing inside-- which you may
remember from seeing it in the movie Blade Runner.

None of the article is really about either the artwork or the beliefs
associated with candle burning and such, but the piece is worth checking
out anyway. A separate box contains brief mentions of arnica, basil,
cumin, rue, spearmint, and wormseed.

--
He lied about Iraq, why would he tell the truth about Social Security?
--Steve Gilliard

[Syren]

--- In hrcourse@yahoogroups.com, Tommyc <tommyc@l...> wrote:
> >
> Monday's Los Angeles Times has an interesting article in its Health
> section that will be online for a short period, though I believe
> registration is required. The Times is particularly nosy, which may
> explain why some people simply make up the information requested.
>
> In any event, the article is available for another day or two at:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4k23g
>
> "Mainstream medicine is beginning to explore the aisles of botanicas
> The shops, burgeoning in the Southland, sell herbs and remedies
long used
> > by Latinos," says the subhead.

Before everyone in the rest of the country gets jealous, let me tell
you that most of these botanicas suck. I work in southeast LA and
there are about 6 botanicas in the surrounding one block area alone.
Unfortunately, most of them are very small and poorly stocked, mostly
with products from Indio, the mothership warehouse of whom is local.
They cater mostly to the immediate neighborhood's needs - items for
santeria and religions practiced in central America - which is good
for them I guess, but there is nothing in any of them for the hoodoo
looking for the specific and unusual. The botanicas mentioned in the
Times article are the exception: most are very small storefronts with
very limited stock, and nothing specific to hoodoo. So we hoodoos
here in SoCal are in the same boat botanically-speaking as most of
the rest of you folks: we have to find our supplies online and by
hook, crook, trial and error.

Is Lucky Mojo interested in opening a So Cal location?! I wish.

If someone has some money to invest, i will throw myself into the project of franchising Lucky Mojo shops. I cannot run a second shop, though. I wish i could. --cat)

Peace.
--Holly

[an_on_amouse]

> If someone has some money to invest, i will throw myself into the
project of franchising Lucky Mojo shops. I cannot run a second shop,
though. I wish i could. --cat)


That would be something to put on my money altar, I suppose, a little
store figure. There shouldn't be a problem opening a Canadian outlet,
I would think. Just give me time.
Karen

[MissMichaele]

Oy! Such a Home: The Art of Masking Jieuxish in New Orleans

by Rachel Breunlin
(pic of Captain L.J. marching as a "Metairie Jieuxbilly.")

As founder of the first Jewish Mardi Gras krewe, L.J. Goldstein
occupies a unique place in the annals of a celebration formerly
dominated by high-society krewes that shunned people of his faith.
Observing that New Orleans is a Catholic city, he says a lot of Jewish
citizens try to fit in by "masking Catholic. You don't talk about the
fact that you're Jewish. You're Jewish at home. Jewish is something
you do in the closet. You never parade through the streets as a Jew,
wearing a big fake nose and horns and a tail."

While such talk might strike a tender chord among certain elements of
the Jewish community, there's no denying that L.J. and his band of
revelers—the Krewe du Jieux—have proven that masking Jewish can be a
transformative, uplifting experience. ...


The rest of the article is at this link:

http://www.mardigrasunmasked.com/mardig ... dstein.htm

Michaele

[otterpoppy]

--- an_on_amouse <baalith@hotmail.com> wrote:

> > If someone has some money to invest, i will throw
> myself into the
> project of franchising Lucky Mojo shops. I cannot
> run a second shop,
> though. I wish i could. --cat)
>
> That would be something to put on my money altar, I
> suppose, a little
> store figure. There shouldn't be a problem opening
> a Canadian outlet,
> I would think. Just give me time.
> Karen

Or a Las Vegas one! I can see it right on Freemont
Street!

Maybe I oughtta try playing MegaBucks.

Joan

[Quimbisero]

Since we're engaging in fantasy here, I'd love to have a section of a
store dedicated to Lucky Mojo in Havana Vieja, preferably on Calle Obispo.

Eoghan

(And you are just the man to do it, Eoghan! --cat)

[Jon Hughett]

Hello All,

I was cruising the web and I found a reprinting of a circa 2000 article from
The Macon Telegraph entitled,'Ancient beliefs still alive in Georgia
Practioners claim to offer supernatural help, but often at steep
prices' By Don Schanche Jr. I found it to be quite interesting and I thought some folks on this list might like to read it too. Here's the URL:

http://www.demonbuster.com/root.html

Hope you enjoy it,

Jon

(Thanks very much, Jon. The original publisher of the article, the Macon [GA] Telegraph newspaper, does not have the article archived online at this time. The site at which you found the text, demonbuster.com, is emphatically anti-magical, but has archived other interesting articles about magic over the years. Their index to archived material is located at
http://www.demonbuster.com/index2.html
I have taken the liberty of archiving and annotating the Macon Telegraph article at my southern-spirits.com site as well, for those who would like to read it without the anti-magical commentary that surrounded it at deomonbuster.com. My URL for the annotated version is
http://www.southern-spirits.com/schanch ... twork.html
--cat)

[Jon Hughett]

> (Thanks very much, Jon. The original publisher of the article, the
> Macon [GA] Telegraph newspaper, does not have the article archived
> online at this time. The site at which you found the text,
> demonbuster.com, is emphatically anti-magical, but has archived other
> interesting articles about magic over the years. Their index to
> archived material is located at
> http://www.demonbuster.com/index2.html
> I have taken the liberty of archiving and annotating the Macon
> Telegraph article at my southern-spirits.com site as well, for those
> who would like to read it without the anti-magical commentary that
> surrounded it at deomonbuster.com. My URL for the annotated version is
> http://www.southern-spirits.com/schanch ... twork.html
> --cat)

Hi Cat,

In fact when I first saw the webpage I immediately thought of your
Southern Spirits page. If you liked that one then you may enjoy this
website also:

http://www.cmstory.org/exhibit/plum/chapters.htm

It is an online book entitled, 'Plum Thickets and Field Daisies' by
Rose Leary Love. It was written in 1965 and is the autobiography of
a woman who grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte NC.
Of sspecial interest are the chapters entitled 'Superstions', and
'Herbs, Their Use, and Other Old-Fashioned Remedies'. Hope you enjoy it.

Jon

(That is a wonderful book, Jon. Thanks for the URL. I have created a link to it in our groups link-list. I hope that all of my students with an interest in African American cultural history will check it out. In addition to the chapters on rootwork and herbal medicaine that Jon mentioned, there are many other interesting chapters about the author's North Carolina childhood during the 1910s -1920s. --cat)

[Gale Jurasek]

Cat,

I just have to let you know that people on Witcheye magazine's
Yahoo message board are praising you and Lucky Mojo to the
skies!!

(Cool! And, in reference to the subject line of your post, of COURSE i am vain enough to post this to the message board. I love praise, even praise i receive at second hand. --cat)

[Jon Hughett]

Hello all,
I found this on the web and figured someone here might be interested in
taking a peek.

Conjuring & Doctoring
A True Story about the Fabled Doctor Jim Jordan

Told by Ella Jackson (August 23, 1998)

http://www.nathanielturner.com/conjuring.htm

I thought maybe it would fit in nicely with the Southern Spirits page

Jon

(Well, it says it's a true story, but it is pubished in Chicken Bones, a "literary hoodoo" magazine. There are many other hoodoo poems and tales at the Chicken Bones site, so explore it thoroughly. --cat)

[congadrumm]

Hi Cat!! how yah doing?

hoping all is well for you
me my day is going good so far hoping
my scorpion/tarantula cllection grows
so i can get some good stock for breeding
my strange hobby i been doing sence i was
a kid llol

any ways i am writing because
I was listenin to the Archived radio show on Divination
you mentioned The book Complete Guide to fortune telling
its awsome!! i ordered it on Amazon.com 1.98 Used primo
condtion came in today its got a wealth of many many
Defrent methods of Divination Truely awsome book and
can't beat the price eather there are a few usedbook sellers on
Anazon selling it


blessings
chris

[Sana Karine]

Annapolis House Yields Clues to Hoodoo Mysteries
By Ray Rivera
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 6, 2005; Page B01

Sifting through the debris of an 18th-century townhouse being renovated in Annapolis last month, the archaeologist and his students found what they were looking for under the brick floor near the kitchen hearth.

There, in a shallow five-inch pit, lay eight bent nails, a clear glass
spindle, a plate of glass etched with a checkerboard design and a white
pierced disk the size of a 50-cent piece.

What University of Maryland archaeologist Mark Leone and his team of
students had discovered was evidence of hoodoo, a New World variant of
ancient West African mystical traditions carried across the Atlantic by
black slaves.

Complete article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01564.html

(I cannot get that Washington Post page to open for me (my old browser won't allow me to subscribe), but see also an earler article from Februay 2000 on other conjure items found in Annapolis by Professor Leone; it is available in the Arcane Archive at:
http://arcane-archive.org/occultism/mag ... olis-1.php
If anyone is up to the task of copying the Washington Post article for us slo-mo net surfers, it'd be much appreciated. Also, in case anyone is unaware of it, Leone and i had a few talks after his frst big hoodoo find. Back then he thought conjure wasn't practiced anymore, and that's what the ewqspaper picked up on, so i phoned him, to give him the good news that hodoo had not bitten the dust, so to speak, and boy was he amazed when i sent him a care package of goodies. Of course being a thorough scholar, he rolled with it and is pretty much on top of hoodoo knowledge now. He is aactually a great guy, and very interested in preserving this sort of material, for which we can all be grateful. --cat)

[Sana Karine]

>> If anyone is up to the task of copying the
>> Washington Post article for us slo-mo net
>> surfers, it'd be much appreciated.

Here 'tis:

Annapolis House Yields Clues to Hoodoo Mysteries

By Ray Rivera
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 6, 2005; B01

Sifting through the debris of an 18th-century townhouse being renovated in
Annapolis last month, the archaeologist and his students found what they
were looking for under the brick floor near the kitchen hearth.

There, in a shallow five-inch pit, lay eight bent nails, a clear glass
spindle, a plate of glass etched with a checkerboard design and a white
pierced disk the size of a 50-cent piece.

What University of Maryland archaeologist Mark Leone and his team of
students had discovered was evidence of hoodoo, a New World variant of
ancient West African mystical traditions carried across the Atlantic by
black slaves.

The practice, meant to influence healing and ward off misfortune, was
continued well into the 20th century by freed descendants who lived and
worked in the homes of wealthy white families as cooks, launderers and
gardeners.

But Leone's research in Annapolis has raised an intriguing question:
Scholars have yet to find hoodoo artifacts in homes owned and rented by the
city's emerging black middle class in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In
other words, while poorer blacks were keeping hoodoo alive, upwardly mobile
African Americans were abandoning it.

"That's not to say that middle-class African Americans were giving up their
African traditions, but they were finding different ways to express it,"
said Leone, who has led much of the research in Annapolis for the past 25
years,

The findings released last week add to the complex picture of black life in
Annapolis and throughout the region in the decades before and after
emancipation.

Hoodoo, which is practiced today, was widespread throughout the antebellum
South.

Like other African-derived folk practices such as Santeria in Cuba and
voodoo in Haiti, it mixed elements of Christianity with conjuring rituals
involving herbs, dolls, pins and other everyday items bundled together as
mojos worn on the body or buried in and around homes.

Frowned upon by Christian slave owners and later by white employers, the
rituals were often conducted in secret -- what many scholars now see as a
form of cultural resistance.

"In part you're talking about a sense of power and control," said Charles L.
Perdue, who teaches folklore at the University of Virginia. "When you have
no control over your destiny at all, anything you can do to increase the
notion that you can exercise some power over your environment is a benefit
to your psychic health."

Leone found the first inklings of hoodoo in Annapolis during an excavation
in the early 1990s of the Charles Carroll House, home to a signer of the
Declaration of Independence who had vast slave holdings.

Buried in a shallow pit in the northeast corner of the house were crystals,
shards of glass, beads and a polished black stone. Researchers then didn't
understand their meaning or why it appeared that the objects had been placed
deliberately in the northeast corner.

The find drew the attention of Frederick Lamp, then curator of African art
at the Baltimore Museum of Art. He suggested the materials might be a kind
of nkisi , a grouping of religious artifacts used in religious rituals by
the BaKongo people of West Africa.

Subsequent finds in Annapolis were unearthed in the Brice and Slayton
mansions and, just last month, the Adams-Kilty House on Charles Street. The
earliest materials date to 1790 and the latest to 1920.

Based on the oral narratives of former slaves, African American folklore and
studies of West African rituals, researchers theorize that the ritual
bundles -- variously called mojos, tobys or "hands" -- contain three key
elements:

The first is something to catch and hold the spirit in place. In the
Adams-Kilty cache, it was a piece of glass with a checkerboard design. The
glass is transparent and looks like ash or water, mimicking the environment
spirits travel in, Leone said.

Another element is something that belongs to the person to be affected by
the spirit. This latest cache didn't appear to have such an object. Leone
theorizes that it might have been the cloth, which disintegrated, used to
wrap the cache. In the Brice house, the cache included a button engraved
with the letter M, possibly belonging to a member of the Martin family,
which owned the home in the late 19th or early 20th century, Leone said.

The third element is something that relates to the problem to be solved. In
the Adams-Kilty case, it was probably the bent nails, which might signify
arthritis.

Researchers have also learned exactly where to look: Under thresholds,
hearths and stairwells -- places spirits were believed to congregate and use
as entry points, Leone said. Another common location is beneath the
northeast corners of houses, but the reason for that placement remains a
mystery, scholars say.

During the same period they were excavating the homes of wealthy white
families, researchers conducted digs at a half-dozen homes owned or rented
in the 19th and 20th centuries by middle-class African Americans. They
included the historic Maynard-Burgess House, home to John Maynard, a free
black man born in 1810 who later bought his wife and stepdaughter out of
slavery.

Maynard was part of a black middle class that began emerging around the
1830s, buying property and working as carpenters and waiters and running
their own businesses.

Leone said the lack of evidence of hoodoo may reflect "the difficult choices
facing African Americans who strived for acceptance and advancement, but
wanted to remain connected to their traditions."

Swarthmore College religion professor Yvonne P. Chireau, author of "Black
Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition," said she
isn't surprised by Leone's findings.

"There was a real split among black folks after the Civil War," she said,
"in terms of whether they should abandon these traditions . . . and [move
toward] what's called an ideology of racial uplift -- an emerging middle
class joining American society."

Still, she predicted that further study would reveal pockets where even
middle class blacks clung to elements of the practice, particularly when it
came to health.

The move away from folk traditions is not unusual as groups move from one
economic class to another, said Perdue of U-Va.

"Obviously when you have some money, you have some control," Perdue said.
"Of course, you still had racism to deal with, but you would inevitably
developed some ability to control your future."

[catherineyronwode]

I just wrote and uploaded a new web page on Professor Konje, a.k.a.
Professor De Herbert, a..k.a. Herbert Gladstone Parris, dream book
author. The URL is
http://www.luckymojo.com/professorkonje.html

[RedWill0w]

Professor Jim Haskins of the University of Florida at Gainesville, an
accomplished and prolific author, died in Manhattan on Wednesday, July 6, 2005.

Professor Haskins was the author of "Voodoo and Hoodoo," which many of us have read and loved.

May he be at peace.

Dara

A brief obituary:
http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2005/0 ... nd_p.shtml

A list of published works and general accomplishments:
http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:Q- ... n&ie=UTF-8

(Thanks for passing along that news, Dara, sad though it is. During his 63 years of life Jim Haskins wrote a lot of good books -- especially kids' books -- on black history. In addition to his valuable and ground-breaking book of contemporary hoodoo magic, which was based on his grandmother's spriritual practices in Alabama, he used his talent as an author and educator to carry the torch for recognition of African American contributions to all sectors of American culture. He will be missed. --cat)

[Rebecca]

I just realized that there is no telling the history and knowledge we've lost to the waters of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. It is like the New Orleans/Hoodoo version of the library of Alexiandria. Maybe I'm watching too much news.........?

Rebecca

[Quimbisero]

Knowledge never gets lost, people do.

Eoghan

(Mmmm. Either that is very deep or ... no, i know -- i just disagree with it. In my opinion, both people AND knowledge (and STUFF, too) can get lost. Example: When Linneus wrote his first plant taxonomy, he utilized as many previously known Latin names as possible, hoping to maintain consistency with the oldest texts on botany. Among the very old names he retained was the name Cortinarius tinctoria for a certain mushroom. It was the Latin name for the mushroom in ancient Roma. The names means "The Dyer's Cortinarius." No one in Linneaus' time knew why it had that name. People tried dying with it -- boil it up in water and it produces an undistinguished and unremarkable muddy brown dye, about the same muddy brown as any other species of Cortinarius mushroom. Lots of easier to find herbs produce equally unattractive shades of muddy brown, so why was this little woodland mushroom called "The Dyer's Cortinarius"? No one knew. People who researched mushrooms said they had found no reference in anicnet books explaining the curious name, and many said it was a "misnomer" or a "mistake." But why would the ancient Romans make such a mstake? Well, in the 1960s, my mother's best friend Miriam Rice became interested in my mother's habit of collecting mushrooms for food, and she started learning how to identify them -- but she was not satisfied with the idea that this name was a "curiousity of unknown antiquity" -- she decided to try dying fiber with the "Dyer's Cortinarius." She got lots of muddy brown fibers for her trouble -- until she started playing around with metalic salt mordants that were used by ancient peoples and then, BINGO! the mushroom suddently revealed that in the precesence of the proper mineral salts, it produced a vivid, lightfast PURPLE dye! The knowledge had been lost for almost 2,000 years, with only the old name remaining as a clue.And that's why i believe that knowledge can be lost. (And found again, sometimes.) My Two cents and welcome to them. --cat)

[Rebecca]

<Knowledge never gets lost, people do.

<Eoghan


Well of course it does and has all through the ages. But like Cat mentioned, it is sometimes found again. I watch a LOT of archeology shows and they talk about how we have re-discovered things that the ancients knew way back when.

Of course the most important loss is the people but they carry the knowledge.

Rebecca

[Dirk Behana]

July 16, 1767 The Pennsylvania Gazette

TWENTY DOLLARS Reward.

RUN away, on the 5th instant, from the subscriber,
living in Alloway Creek precinct, and county of
Salem, two Dutch servant men.

One named Charles Geisinger, about 27 years of
age, 5 feet 4 inches high, dark complexion, grey
eyes, marked with the small pox about his mouth,
short brown hair; had on, when he went away, an
old felt hat, brown linsey jacket, with an under
jacket, the fore parts the same cloth as the
other, the back parts of red cloth, tow shirt,
striped trowsers, and new shoes; speaks no English
at all.

The other named John Michael Rider, about 5 feet 7
inches high, 21 years of age, well set, brownish
hair, which he wears tied behind, red beard,
whitish eye brows, large curled locks on each
temple and a large scar on the sole of one of his
feet; had on, and took with him, two new tow
shirts, a pair of tow trowsers, a pair of home
made bearskin breeches, lined with tow cloth, a
jacket of the same with three flowered metal
buttons on each sleeve, a red broadcloth jacket,
half worn blue flowered damask ditto, without
sleeves and another blue ditto, bound round the
arm holes with linen; also a blue broadcloth coat,
lined with red, with button holes on each side,
chiefly false holes, a pair of old leather
breeches, patched with new leather, a large felt
hat, with a brass button, two pair of light
coloured yarn stockings, old shoes, a a pair of
boots, grain side out, a large Dutch pillow case
of stamped linen, a piece of white linen for
shirts, a silk handkerchief, an stamped linen
ditto, and a hogskin knapsack, with the hair on;
he speaks broken English, [and] is a great talker,
smokes much, takes snuff, plays on the fiddle, and
PRETENDS TO BE A CONJURER.

They have two fiddles with them, and one of them
has plenty of money; they have both been soldiers,
and came last fall from Lisbon, can talk Dutch,
French, and perhaps Portuguese. It is supposed
they will change their clothes. The crossed the
river at New Castle, and came up towards Chester,
where they were seen, and it is thought they are
gone towards Lancaster or Maryland.

Whoever apprehends or secures the said servants,
or either of them, in any of his Majesty goals, so
that their masters may have them again, or brings
them to their respective masters, or to Richard
Wister, in Philadelphia, shall have Sixteen
Dollars for the first mentioned, and Four Dollars
for the last, besides reasonable charges, paid by
us MARTIN HALTER, HUGH BLACKWOOD, RICHARD WISTAR.
July 11, 1767.

ITEM #59597

June 26, 1776

(I have run across this mention of John Michael Rider on the web before -- and i agree, it is interesting. It shows that Dutch / German conjurers (with two fiddles, no less!) were afoot in America early in the history of our nation. Rider's form of spell-craft would more properly come under the heading of "Pow Wow Magic," but we are all familiar with the blending that has long existed between hoodoo and German conjuration practices. Thanks for posting this. --cat)

[gillecroisd]

I thought it noteworthy that Tyler Steele mentions LuckyMojo.com in the March '06 issue [Volume 9, Issue 3, page 22] of Instinct magazine.

"By 2007 everyone will be doing it, so be
the first to go Hoodoo on his ass. Log on to
LuckyMojo.com and work your magic."

(Far out! -- cat)

[catherineyronwode]

I have added a link under the heading "Hoodoo History: Newbell Niles Puckett Photo Collection" which will take you to the top page for a series of 92 photos at the Cleveland Public Library by Puckkett and the Pruitt Studios of Columbus, MS depicting conjure doctors and other African Americans photographed between 1922 and 1941. Most are named from captions on the slides, which makes a valuable addition to Puckett's "Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro," where names only appear with the spells, and do not appear with the photos.

https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digit ... oll9/id/55

Take your time and view all 92 images.

cat yronwode

[catherineyronwode]

(Posted here from another list due to the importance of the rabbit foot
in hoodoo -- hence the name of the original minstrel troupe -- and the
linkages between hoodoo and AA musical culture generally, and because
David Evans is a pal of mine --cat)

Rabbit Foot Minstrels Exhibit to Open in Port
Gibson, MS on June 30, 2006

A new exhibit of pictures, stories, costumes,
music, and sound pays tribute to the
companies of African American musicians and
actors who toured the country by train and
bus during the first half of the 20th
century, bringing the new blues music to
popular audiences.

Founded by African American Pat Chapelle in
1900, "The Foots" became the most famous
touring company in the South, featuring
musicians as varied as Ma and Pa Rainey, Ida
Cox, Louis Jordan, and Rufus Thomas.

After Chapelle's death in 1911, the company
was purchased by F. S. Wolcott, and from
1918 to 1950 had its headquarters in Port
Gibson. Each spring, musicians from around
the country assembled to create a musical,
comedy, and variety show to perform under
canvas.

The grand opening of the exhibit will be at 5
p.m. Friday, June 30, and will feature a
keynote address by music scholar, historian,
and performer David Evans, author of Big
Road Blues.

A panel discussion will follow featuring
invited guests Alex Albright, Jerry Bangham,
Doug Seroff and Lynn Abbott, co-authors of
Out of Sight, and Jim Sherraden of Hatch
Showprint in Nashville, which printed
posters and other advertising for the
principal minstrel shows.

The evening will conclude with a performance
by David Evans and his latter-day Memphis
jug band.

For more information call 601-437-4351 or
601-437-8905

"From Rabbit Foot Minstrels to Blues and
Cruise" is sponsored by the Claiborne County
Board of Supervisors and funded in part by
grants from the Mississippi Humanities
Council, the Claiborne County Port
Com-mission, the Mississippi Development
Authority, and other generous patrons and
contributors. Admission to the exhibit and to
the events of the grand opening is free and
open to the public.

[MissMichaele]

--- In hrcourse@yahoogroups.com, "catherine yronwode" <cat@...> wrote:
> >
> (Posted here from another list due to the importance of the rabbit foot
> in hoodoo -- hence the name of the original minstrel troupe -- and the
> linkages between hoodoo and AA musical culture generally, and because
> David Evans is a pal of mine --cat)
>
> Rabbit Foot Minstrels Exhibit to Open in Port
> Gibson, MS on June 30, 2006

Oh, man, I wish I could see that. Especially because I've spent the
weekend reading Bill Ellis's _Lucifer Ascending: the Occult in
Folklore and Popular Culture,_ which includes many quotations of Harry
Hyatt, and an entire chapter on "Why is a Rabbit's Foot Lucky?"
Great, great stuff. Lots of material on Pow Wow magic too, and the
Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

Magic is good for you. It stretches the brain.

Michaele / Mother Pyrite

[RedWill0w]

In a message dated 6/15/2006 9:37:14 P.M. Central Standard Time,
quimbisa@inquiceweb.com writes:

> >The second article is actually very much on topic. There is an article
>in today's Post (6/13/06) which details a 31 year long communication
>between a man and his deceased father through dreams. I have a mixed
>reaction concerning his claims that he believes the experience to be a
>creation of his own mind. My suspicion is that that is a fiction he
>feels necessary to create for public consumption. His description of
>the subject does not sound like the words of someone who is a
>disbeliever.



Eoghan,
Those were both good articles. Thanks for bringing them to our
attention.
The story of the man having dream conversations with his dad is quite
moving. I agree with you - he knows that he's actually communicating with his dad,
but is sensitive to how this might be perceived, so he disguises his truth a
bit. I wish I had as good a relationship with my deceased dad!

Dara


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[tweetybird448]

Miss Cat have you or any of the others ever heard of a DR. Buzzard JR.
of Beaufort SC, and do you have a page on Dr. Buzzard?

(At last count, there have been about 35 men, both Black and White, in SC and NC (and a few elsewhere) who have used the name Dr. Buzzard, Dr. Buzzard Jr., Little Dr. Buzzard, and so forth. I can't say i am familiar with who's taken on the name in Beaufort SC at this time, but at least that is the original town where the original Dr. Buzzard lived, rest his soul. --cat)

[rootwork]

"tweetybird448" --

I heard that there was a relative of Dr. Buzzard considering taking up
the practice after "Buzzy" Gregory died, who, so I understand, was
Stephaney Robinson's immediate successor. I never did hear whether he
had or not, but I suppose he must have.

[catherineyronwode]

I have annotated and uploaded a new page at
Southern Spirits. This one deals with
hoodoo and conjure practices in South-Western
Tennessee, circa 1850-1863, as related circa
1939 by the ex-slave Julius Jones. There is
a great deal of interest in his interview in
addition to Nr Jones' mentions of conjure -- he
tells us of the old bush arbor Baptist churches,
of the Reconstructionist Mississippi governor
James Lusk Alcorn, and of the hardships of life
as a slave on a large plantation.

The URL is

http://www.southern-spirits.com/jones-h ... essee.html

Enjoy!

cat yronwode

[Auntie Sindy Todo]

Thanks, Cat that's a nice little read. -Sindy Todo

[tokharian]

This makes, I think, the second
time I've heard it described that
"hoodoo didn't work on whites."
I believe the first time I read that, it
was in Robert Talant's Voodoo in New
Orleans. Yet, I've seen many
testimonials to the contrary here.
I wonder about how widely that was
believed. They certainly kept trying
hoodoo on whites, all the same.

Barbara Griffith

(There are many, many more slave narrative accounts of conjure working on white slave owners than not working on them -- see some of the other entries at Southern Spirits. First, i think the comment Mr. Jones made here is more along the lines of rueful or self-deprecating humour than it is a factual belief, something like, "Prayer don't stop the tax-man, neither." Second, if the interviewer was White, he statement might have been a way of mollifying him or her. Third, as long as folks were enslaved, they still were not coming into their own, no matter how much cojure they used -- yet you will find accounts by slaves who successfully used conjure to avert punishments, to get revenge on a cruel owner, to aid in escape from slavery, and so forth. --cat)

[Julia]

So enjoyed! I'm at work and could only skim through it, but I can't
wait to get home, get the kids to sleep and give it more attention.

Cheers,

Julia Ellingboe #882

[Dr Johannes]

Hello all,

I am reading "Spiritual Merchants" by Carolyn Morrow Long and came across a peculiar thing.

Shes talking about the Dr Buzzard described by Sheriff J. Edwin McTeer like this; "...and recognizable by his purple-tinted sunglasses, the traditional badge of the root doctor."

The point of these being purple I suppose is obvious but is this something that has been so common as she claims?

If so, perhaps that was where New Orleans based author Anne Rice used this on her famous vampire Lestat who made this a fashion trend among the goth community?

best regards,
Johannes Gårdbäck

[catherineyronwode]

Dear Johannes --

This "tradition" is an authorial invention that was not witnessed by 20th century folkloists like Newbell Niles Puckket or Harry Hyatt -- who interviewed, between the two of them, at least 2,000 root workers and practitioners. Look at the Puckett photos -- no dark glasses. Look at my photo of Aunt Caroline Dye -- no dark glasses. Look at the photos that Hyatt printed in his books -- no dark glasses. In fact, Hyatt, who interviewed 1,600 practitioners of hoodoo, met only ONE professional root worker who wore dark glasses, and he commented on the oddity of her apparel by making a recorded note about it after she left the room (she also wore a kerchief covering her head, as if she were trying to conceal her appearance from him).

This thing about the dark glasses (and PURPLE at that!) is one of those spurious attempts to make hoodoo into something spooky, Haitian, initiatic, and exotic. Anne Rice is a pulp author; it is in her best commercial interests to do likewise. If you look back on the time period involved, you will find that by the early 20h century dark glasses were often used by the blind, especially those who were disfigured in their eyes -- both as a way to avoid drawing disparagement from others and as a way to mark themselves as blind for the purposes of eliciting charity and help. Those glasses were generally referred to in the literature of the time period as "smoked glasses" and they were made with very dark stained glass in the lenses. Slightly lighter rose-red dark glasses were used by albinos to protect their weak eyes from sunlight. Sunglasses for the normally-sighted were made with brownish or grey-green glass. As for the styles available, they certainly were not "goth" -- look here for pictures of authentic 12920s -30s vintage sunglasses -- and note that the pair at the type are typical of the very dark "blind man's" type:
http://www.klasik.org/sunglasses/mpw/p1/p1.html

--cat

[Mitch]

Cat & Co.,

At the opening of "Helping Yourself with Selected Prayers" Vol. 1 (Original Publications) there appears a good essay on prayer under the byline of the mysterious Henri Gamache. Does anyone know which of Gamache's books the publisher clipped the essay from? Or maybe it's not vintage Gamache at all. There are no indentifers other than the Gamache byline. Thanks...

-- Mitch

(I don't have that book, so i can't check it. If it is not from other, common Gamache books, like "The Master Book of Candle Burning" or "Terrors of the Evil Eye Exposed" then perhaps it is from the rare, mimeographed Gamache course-book. I have a copy of that and can check it for you if you provide the actual quote you are looking for.

Original Publications is not the most ethical or reliable of publishers when it comes to credit ad may well have clipped something without attribution.

--cat)

[Mitch]

Cat,

Thanks; we've just had our second son -- Tobias, born on Jan. 8 -- and I've sold a book of my own (on the history of the occult in America), so my cup has been running over. I may ask afain later.

cheers, m

[catherineyronwode]

> http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/con ... lbaby.html
> >
> > [Middletown Journal, Middletown, Ohio, USA]
> >
> > Woman says she gave baby to Satan
> > Motorist reported woman walking naked in street
> >
> > By Eric Robinette
> >
> > Staff Writer
> >
> > Saturday, July 14, 2007
> >
> > LEBANON - Police on Saturday
> > arrested a woman who said she had taken a
> > baby to the devil, after she had
> > allegedly left it in the center of
> > the road.
> >
> > According to the Lebanon Division
> > of Police, at about 2:38 a.m.
> > Saturday, a motorist reported seeing
> > a naked black female carrying a
> > baby and walking in the roadway on
> > Miller Road Extension, east of the
> > intersection of North Broadway and
> > Miller Road. The motorist reported
> > that the woman had said she was
> > "taking the baby to Satan," according
> > to the news release.
> >
> > Officers responded to the scene and
> > found the woman naked and with
> > blood on her body, but without the
> > baby. The woman did not respond to
> > officers, except to say she had
> > taken the baby to Satan and it was
> > Satan's child.
> >
> > The woman was identified as Shaunte
> > R. Mitchell, 29, of 910 N.
> > Broadway, Apt. 3, Lebanon. She was
> > taken to Bethesda Medical Center at
> > Arrow Springs for medical and
> > psychological evaluation.
> >
> > A second Lebanon police officer
> > soon found the 7-week-old infant
> > laying on his back in the middle
> > of Miller Road, placed across the
> > double yellow center line, about
> > a mile from where the woman was
> > found.
> >
> > The infant was taken to the
> > Lebanon Division of Fire facility on West
> > Silver Street, and Warren County
> > Children Services took custody of the
> > child, who was unharmed, said
> > Lebanon dispatcher Becky Hughes.
> >
> > Police said charges are being prepared
> > against Mitchell. The charges
> > are for child endangerment, disorderly
> > conduct and aggravated arson.
> > The arson charge stems from an
> > investigation at Mitchell's residence,
> > where accelerants were found, although
> > there was no indication the
> > apartment had actually burned, Hughes
> > said.
> >
> > Police are continuing to investigate
> > the case.
> >
> > Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836
> > or erobinette@coxohio.com.

I have some thughts about this case.

First, the incident itself is quite similar to the usual baby-killing and baby-mutilation news stories we hear about that are associated with post-partum depression among untreated or previously undiagnosed schizophrenic women, and the child is lucky that his or her mentally ill mother did not use a bathtub or a convenient large body of water for drowning it, a pillow for smothering it, or a butcher knife for dismembering it, as those are far more common forms of religiously delusional infanticide in such delusional cases than placing a baby at a crossroads.

Second, we must then ask: Why, in her religious delusion, did this mentally ill mother choose a crossroads in which to give her baby to Satan? The perpetrator is African American (see the second paragraph of newspaper report) and she seems to have wished to dispose of the child by performing a skewed and potentilly lethal variation of a hoodoo crossroads ritual, an African retentiaon in American folk magic whereby one goes to a rural crossroads to meet the Devil and/or leave an offering and/or to disposes of ritual remains.

This woman's religious delusion seems to have begun with the core idea (a typical post-partun schizophrenic viewpoint) that there is something unnatural about the baby, and she then added some common ideas about women giving birth to the children of Satan, perhaps gleaned from folklore, but very likely influenced by well-known Satanic horror films. Then -- quite unusually for this type of case -- she ultimately located the entire delusion firmly within the culturally specific framework of an African American folk magic practice known as the crossroads ritual. If you are familiar with the crossroads ritual, its inclusion in her delusions will stand out quite sharply to your eyes. It certainly caught my attention.

I have written extensively about variations of the crossroads ritual in African American hoodoo and conjure (folk mgic), and some of my writing on the subject is online, should you wish to read it for background.

See
http://www.luckymojo.com/crossroads.html
http://www.luckymojo.com/layingtricks.html#crossroads

After you look over those accounts, perhaps you will understand why i think that this unfortunate mentally ill mother's delusions reflected a cultural or family heritage of African American hoodoo practice that resulted in her leaving the child at a crossroads rather than, say, drowning, smothering, or stabbing it to death, as most similarly mentally ill mothers are known to do.

cat yronwode
www.luckymojo.com.

[Dr Johannes]

For those with interest in old spiritual supply catalogs, check out the old de Laurence ones.

Johannes Gardback
#321 Grad. Stud.

(Yes. L. W. De Laurence was a great supplier in his day, and he is mentioned often by the 1,600 African American informants interviewed by Harry Hyatt in the 1930s. (Hyatt misheard his name and wrote it is "Doctor DeLong," so if you see that name in one of the Hyatt books, you'll know it is about the DeLaurence catalogue. See also this archived discussion in which Eoghan Ballard, John Hansen, Kevin Filan, and myself, talking about DeLaurence's influence on hoodoo and on Afro-Caribbean religions:
http://www.luckymojo.com/esoteric/relig ... ccult.html
--cat)

[Carin Huber]

fwd from me! :*
(US Games African American History Channel Playing Cards)
nagasiva

Reply-To:

|From: "Carin Huber" <carin@jhuger.com>
|To: <nagasiva@luckymojo.com>
|Subject: Black History Playing Cards
|Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:45:21 -0700

Hi, Siva.

I was cruising US Games' Bestsellers section and came across something I thought might interest Cat. It's Black History Playing Cards. Send her to http://www.usgamesinc.com/product.php?p ... at=0&page= . That "=" at the end is part of the url.

[catherine, if you like this one, look also at this one:

http://www.usgamesinc.com/product.php?productid=951

which is 6$ and has even more!]

Toodles.

Carin
----- End forwarded message -----

[Priestess Najah]

Hello!

Has anyone seen the story about the Red Sox jersey buried and unearthed, in the New Yankee stadium?! If not click on the link:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

My first thought was Hoodoo goes mainstream. Also the jersey was ripped. Looked to me like the guy who buried it, was intending to rip the the Yankees to shreds. I wonder if there's any whammy on the workers who pulled it up? Also, the Yanks know who did it, so they may be looking to prosecute the guy. How interesting!

Cat, any thoughts?

Najah Lightfoot Bagley #1262

(The guy who did this was an Italian American construction worker -- see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gino_Castignoli

The ripping of the shirt was explained as having resulted from the FIVE HOURS of jack-hammering and drilling it took to extricate the thing! YOW! --cat)--cat)

[Priestess Najah]

Hello Everybody,

I know this is a busy weekend for our Hoodoo group, as many including our beloved cat, Dr. Kioni, Ms. Robin, and wonderful classmates are in attendance at the Hoodoo Workshop. As was mentioned in earlier emails - I began this morning with thoughts of Bright Blessings and protection, and most of all success to everyone in attendance.

I also wanted to share that I just finished reading a fabulous novel. It's called "I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem", written by Maryse Conde, who won the France Grand Prix Literaire award (my apologies for missing the accents, but I don't know how to add them in). I've always had a fondness for Tituba, and was thrilled when I found this semi/historical work of fiction, written about her life. I was immediately drawn to the book from the foreword, "Tituba, a slave originating from the West Indies and probably practicing 'hoodoo'. Once I began reading it, I couldn't put it down, because the author does such a great a job of creating the life of Tituba as she practices Hoodoo, and works her way through slavery, and the Salem Witch Trials.

Sincerely,
Najah Lightfoot Bagley #1262

[Mike Rock]

This took place in Lee Canipe's hometown, someone tried to hoodoo a
Judge at the courthouse:

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/3809792/

mike rock 360G

--
http://www.mike-rock.com

(I love these reports. They never used to make the news before the anthrax scare, but now every time someone wants to hoodoo the judge, it gets on TV! Thanks, Mike! --cat)

[Frenchie]

Well I was thinking the other day about the whole Anthrax scare deal we had going on a few years back. It was heavily reported in the news.

Did anyone ever think that it might have been some Hoodoo work someone was doing and not necessarily someone spreading Anthrax.

Now I'm talking about the cases where they identified the white powder as NOT being Anthrax.

Any thoughts on this?

[Literarylioness]

Frenchie,

Cat has mentioned this in her course and in talking with me.

In Washington, D.C. where the mail was scanned by the government, they found a lot of ''innocent" powder! I think a lot of people were sending hoodoo sachet (fixed) mail to various judges and lawmakers, which makes sense.

Fixing mail is one of the best ways to get where you need to go with the right people.

Mary

[J Simulcik]

Frenchie,

Absolutely. I think the real question is how many people that read in the newspapers about the non-anthrax powder recognized that some of it might be hoodoo or some similar practice.

Reminds me of the Coke can pubic hair incident involving Associate Justice Thomas and Professor Hill in the early 90's. Miss Cat commented on that one here:

http://www.luckymojo.com/layingtricks.html#food

[nagasiva]

OH YAH. That white powder. catherine thought it was likely to be hoodoo sachet powders used to dust letters and forms sent to government agencies. she and i were joking for a while last year about starting a line of sachet called 'Harmless White Powder', perfect to send to your post office, or something similarly hilarious.

[catherineyronwode]

Here is a link to a 2008 news story about Tournament Poker Players and Coon Bones. Enjoy!

http://www.havenews.com/articles/luck_4 ... poker.html

[Leah Rivera]

Yay! Lucky Mojo in the News!

[wylde]

Was skimming the net like the little geek i am ran across an article on technopagans the 2nd page mentions Lucky Mojo so I thought I would share the link.

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/contemp ... ganism.htm

[fausto]

This is a link to a series of recordings made by Zora Neale Hurston while she collected folklore in Florida in the 1930's. Maybe not directly related to hoodoo, but I thought they were interesting.

http://www.floridamemory.com/Collection ... urston.cfm#