rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

the hoodoo way: once more into the breech

Oct 1, syracse. pg 18 of 98


hello world, another draft of the hoodoo way
before i withdraw into the woodshed for novel

something new, if novel doesnt work it doesnt woork
all my adulltlife my sense of self worth been tied

to that novel, still is probably but at least i know
better, ima do it cause thats what i do but

either way i accept the call, the universe has
kept its part oof the deal, ima keep mine

had my spine surgery last week and im walking
i aint swaggering but im walking, got no wind but
im walking, also now that that overwhelming pain
has receded im beset w/all the regulation aches

gon be serious about my pt now
i dont want to end up here again

okay so now that im kinda functional again
am backk in the saddle, a draft of the
hoodoo way, 10 pgs a day, 96 pgs

i work single space so thats actually 20 pgs a day
and i can maintainn that kinda pace cause its a
mature manuscript that im mostly touching up

i wish it were more profund but the onlly way
to get it done is to accept it is what it is and
if this what im coming up with this what i get

there does not seem to be a market for what i do
but i trust it to do what i want - shape generations

i dont generally put the AI works i use in
the text online but im feeling fey, this is
the storywork for 1st segment - Invocation

awkward cause its a dude in a riff on god
and humanity, my bad but the art evokes
for me, its that rainbow halo do me

all my love

In the Beginning

in the beginning god created humanity, when
humanity got too proud god created death,
when death got too proud god created art

up against the speculative wall

hello world, im in a strange space
starting to get a feel foor what novel
is capable of and still fear im not
capabe of biingiing it to life like i
see / hear it in my head

even as i wrote / hear, some tenndril of
possibiliity stirred regarding voice

a storytellers voice but ive tried
to pull that off foor decades, ook
dont discourage yourself rick, just do it

and if you fail you fail bt iif you dont giive
it your best shot failure is certain

just went thru changing POV, which forced
me to actually read it no matter how painful

so whats got me trepiditious is i want
to take it fanstasicall this time and
i just dont know what that entail

so im about too do the 2ns readingn but every
passage ima be asking how do i takke this
passage to the speculative wall

got to deal with him as struggling
with thhe prophetiic, want to set up the
high hoodoo of memphis mmythwork

everything got to lead to the cllosure beat:
you need me you call me i will come

having  emotiional resonance for readers

thhats a promiise I want them to feel in their souls

whichh ean i got to convey what i feell whhen i mmake it

or soemthing

i gotta go, imma play
mi handpan, try to
calm mmyself down

be safe

 

im in

tues10:46 pm pg 36 of 92, the cuse

took labor day off
so sue me


sun 12:40 pm pg 34 of 92, the cuse

getting harder to keep going,
earliest sections always easier

movingg at a good clip
cause the historical work

civil war memphis, its the
holycity memphis i gotta fix

the high hoodoo mythwork

goot to go dunal up in here

 

 

friday, pg 21 of 92

hello world, im in,, took me a minute
the doubts and anxieties had me reeling

when you 1st start a new draft alll you see is whats wrong

been working on this novel 20 years now
no reason to think this draft will work any better
than the others,, if it was just the industry id say okay
not my time yet, but my friends arent moved by it either

folk who would give me any benefit of the doubt, and I
myself am dismayed by the surplus of shallow beats

i fear i have a juneteenth on my
hands - ellisons lifelong futility

i am in despair of it ever workinng, specially as
i age out but what else ima do with my days

since the industry has said no i can just dispense
with any focus on what the industry want, imma

let my narrative freak flag fly, i am
a stylist by god and all thats holy

a fucking stylist, i just gootta make my
voice work - while i still got chops

so i kept trying to get in and not findinng a grip
then i decided i would change 2nd person to 1st
trying to make it easy on reader when i can

have decided no llonger trying to please agent industry
or readers even, this gon be a dialogue between me

and the generations and i abandoned all ellens suggestions
thru the years about making it more accessible been reading joyce
to give myself permission to do whatever the fuck i please

so chaging the pov gave me a grip

1st was changing to 1st but i wasn't feeling 1st
sounded like just a more fanciful version of my memoir
im too self absorbed for 1st, so doing iit in 3rd

and its working, force marching thru, goal is 5 pgs a day
did 15 yesterday but the early stages always easier

and not really allowibg myself to be stopped
doing what i can do to make it viable script
as i go thru but if it reallly needs attention
i just bold that passage to indicate it needs
work, im foorce marching nw, taking out what

obviously dont work no more and enriching
what i can enrich without losing my momentum

if i do my 5 pgs that day i can clean up passages
and whatever, did  song yesterday on mi handpan
staggerlee and the conqueror at the crossroads

(doing an album on sacred memphis
w/what i learned in vancouver))

ii got to go, got to get back to work
im in the zone and im going to have a
viable draft in 3 weeks, swear fore god i am

then spend the rest of the year
enriching the bolded passages

life is good, one more draft, lord

one more draft

my neighbor had a stroke,

praying for him

one more draft

all my love

back in the saddle

hello world

im back

finished drafts of memoir and codex
now its time to make one more stab
at mi novel, one more round

i have been afraid of annything happening
before i coud get to it and still afraid of
anything (stroke, death,, et al) happening
before i finish it buut at least now i got a shot

got a llonng list of novels i need to read
would love to do before i start but dont
have that kinnd of time, i hate having
other folks in my head during a big push
but it is what it is, i gotta go

so many books, so little time

tick tock

Mi Codex: The Hoodoo Way

aug 17, 11:24pm pg 97 of 97 (single sp)

done deal, still need workk, not as profound
as i wish it was and never will be, ohwell

its done, now i can doo what i desperately want
to do, work on my novel, i will spend a week
Clearing my decks but ii will start working out

the nnext drsft of my novel in the morning

wish me luck, be safe

mi last story, dec 31st

Ark Ship Lady Tubman 566FB

6 generations they had spent in deepspace before a selfdestruct faction
voted to destroy the lady tubman, the last arkship to survive the death
of earth, the lady was starting to show the wear and tear of generations
fruitlessly spent in search of a habital planet but the voting was still
open when mind:ship announced entry into the carina nebula and
bologramed it, billions and billions of stars swirling about them, one
a blinking green light in the blueblack immensity of the great mojo
adorned with a billion, billion bright star clusters, the tubman,
beckoning them on -  don’t you dare get weary, children, we got this

god, im so corny . .  .  .

 

aug 15, 10-01 am pg 64 of 99

burnout, reeling in the saddle
production falling, any minute
now i will just collapse, no more

10 pg days, slogging thru narr
mud now, 2, 3 pgs a day, o well

take a break, rick, a coupla
hours, see if that will suffice

 

aug 14, 10:02 am pg 58 of 99

its become a slog, the deeper i get the less polished
the more balls in the air, be lucky to do 5 a day but
the real problem is its so shallow i want to quit
but i never noot finish a draft, i remember now i
got about halfway back in jan and had to put it
down cause of projects scheduled for new year

paying for that now

also having to research, for instance the natural laws
thought i had enuf knowledge to just write it but if all
im doing is using what i already know whats the point
of writing a new book, my knowledge base is so esoteric
even with new research dont knoow if its acually benefitting

also i wish i was ore reflectic, less jeremaidic but
i goot to embrace whats showing up, giving it my
best and f this is what shows up this s what it is

i gotta go, woke up this morning dreading
the page, dreadng the days work, maybe
i need to

 

aug 13, 10:02 am pg 58 of 99

averaging 5 a day, guess thats new goal
deeper i get into text more work needed
earlier segments are cleaner

aug 11, 10:02 am pg 46 of 100

still on 46, spent last two hours working on stories, this
story ijust did for DEC27: TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY

II got a beautiful AI for iit but i dont put AIs ima
use in my Text online, only rejects get given away



On the Nature of Awe

once upon a time a pilgrim in search of holyground come upon the babajohn
and asked for guidance, where ask the pilgrim, might I find holyground,
whereupon the babajohn asked why do you seek holyground, to touch divinity,
the pilgrim say, to sanctify myself, and how will you conduct this healing, ask the
babajohn, by letting the majesty of holyground awe me, say the pilgrim  but
just then cloud cover dissipate and the babajohn was distracted, eyes closed,
faced lifted up in apparent satisfaction, excuse me, prod the irritated pilgrim,
my apologies, said the babajohn, I was enjoying the sun on my face, my bad

 

aug 10, 11:55 am pg 46 of 100

been working hard since
about 7 am, got 2 pgs

fuck,  i need a break

 

aug 10, 2:40 am pg 44 of 100

burnt out, no mas, did 11 pgs today

yesterday only did 2 but i incorporated
mi stories into the text, time well spent
im in the zone, make it happen, rick

10 pgs a day mean a draft by end of month
let us separate writers from the wannabes

make it happen



aug 7, 11:57 pm the cuse pg29 of 102

8 pgs today, going foor 10 a day since
im almost doing that, if i can mainain
will be done by end of month

ima take a break, see if i can doo one more
that will give me my daily 10. -  wish me luck


aug 6, 11:24 pm the cuse

pg 21 and still strong, im in the zone
had to accept it is what it is, i wish it
was more cosmic, whatever that is

but once i accepoted it for whatever it is
im force marching thru, im iin the zone

the almighty zone,

be safe

aug 6, 12:24 pm the cuse

lost ground cause i worked the stories last couple of days
but its been good and im back in the saddle, pg 12, need
3 more to make my daily 5,

been doing stories w/ AI graphics before each segment,
this is the one for the invocation

In the Beginning in the beginning god created humanity, when humanity became too proud god created death, when death became too proud god created art

 

aug 1, 8:53,  the cuse


hello world,

its been a while, been traveling
been working hard on mi memoir

been going thru changes

but i have finished mi memoir and happy w/it,
noow for a draft of mi codex

will put memoir aside, let it get cold
while I do this codex, come back to it
with more informed post codex eyes

i floundered for a day or so not even wanting
to read the shallow thing but today i dug in

my goal is 5 pages a day,

okay, did two beats so far today, may put both up
cause im liking the way its evolving, gon give
you enuf to see where Im going with this

-----------------  

 

INVOCATION: let this work be a healing

in the beginning god created humanity
when humanity got too proud god created death
when death got too proud god created art

I am Flowers of the Delta Clan Flowers and the Line of O. Killens.

This Text was originally a 365 day Hoodoo Almanac structure designed to give guidance in your Daily Grind. A year of transformation that represent a lifetime. But I was not happy with the Product. It was Shallow and your boy don't do Shallow. Decided I would let this be the one where I let it all hang out. I rarely say what I really feel for fear folk will find it delusional.

But I guess anytime you let your freak flag fly you delusional.

Since it does not appear to be commercially viable and I am running out of life might as well do what I want to do. Speculate. So. Here we go. Meditations on the Hoodoo Way.

An interrogation of the Hoodoo Way designed to walk you thru a Transformative Year that also reflect a Life as Pilgrimage. An attempt to refine your Daily Grind in the Hoodoo Way. An attempt to define just what the Hoodoo Way is.

Folk hear the word hoodoo they generally thinking folkmagic hoodoo. Saverytime hoodoo. 100 years out of date hoodoo. Spells, spirits, and black cat bones hoodoo. Folk magic hoodoo back from when we was a folk peoples.

The Hoodoo Way is the indigenous African American spiritual tradition. One of a family of Afrospiritual traditions in the Americas. Vodou, Lucumi, Candomble, Obeah, et al. Mostly they religious traditions, fusions of Catholicism and various African systems, Yoruba, Fon, Congo, Akan and such whereas hoodoo has traditionally been a folkmagic system.

But the cutting edge has long since moved into high magic. 21^st Century stylee. Most folk they hear the word Hoodoo they thinking Slaverytime Hoodoo, spells, hells and black cat bones. Love potions and Get Away Powder. Folkmagic hoodoo. 100 years out of date hoodoo.

Early in my practice I abandoned the folk magic paradigm and embraced a high magic one instead.

 - the enhancement of the human condition and the amelioration of suffering,

- playing with reality and the potentially divine human mind / spirit,

- shaping reality,

- shaping generations,

- spiritdoctoring,

- communion with the great mojo

Also been a question of late in hoodoology on if hoodoo should remain tribal or go universal. Mi fledglings, ie the next generation, voting tribal whereas I been trying to universalize. Thinking now maybe I can do both, work w/both hands. I want the whole world to walk the hoodoo Way. I want to transform hoodoo into one of the World’s Great Ways. I want to position Hoodoo as the prophetic thread in the Afrospiritual paradigm. My model is the relationship of the Sufis to Islam, in it but not under it.

This Text is an attempt to ground my Teaching in your Daily Grind. To generate an iteration of Hoodoo the whole world can sing. Universalize my Tribal tradition like any would be Founder have to do. I would Hoodoo be one of the world’s Great Ways.

The moral laws of the universe are pretty consistent across the Great Traditions. A Great Way engages the questions for which there are no answers. A Great Way teaches you to live in the spirit. To nurture your soul thru service. A Great Way transcends the primacy of survival & the constraints of reality. A Great Way doesn’t promise a life of ease, it promises the strength to deal with affliction. It promises equanimity in the face of struggle. A Door to the Cosmic Divine,

Have to retool hoodoo, make it work for a 21^st Century mentality. Want to be a Founder of a New Way. A Better Way. The 1^st task of any would be Founder is to Universalize they tribal tradition.

I would also like in this work to explore the concept of being a Contemporary Tribal Healer. Mganga Maua. A word of power. In itself a Healing. I would this work be a magical text, one that transforms the reader as it unscrolls itself. One that transforms the scribe as it is wrote.

This Text will also attempt to reframe your Life as a Wisdomquest. A Pilgrimage perhaps. Accordingly, this Text will also serve as a Meditation on Wisdom. It embarrass me how much I want to be Wise. I want to be Illuminated, Compassionate, Soulful, all the verities, but more than anything I want to be Wise.

Accordingly, this aspires to be a Wisdom Text. A Meditation on Wisdom. A Griotic Guide to Empowerment designed to ground my teachings and enable an iteration of hoodoo the whole world can sing. A global work of Tribal Healing by the High Hoodoo of Memphis.

So, let us begin. Let us stumble thru. The Hoodoo Way.

 

 

JAN01:    THE HOODOO WAY

A train station with Mama Whodun, closest thing I know
to a Hoodoo Queen, waiting for her train and talking about
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Wisdom, talking about the
appropriators claiming they authentic hoodoo, right, she
say dismissively, problem is they practicing the hoodoo
they have read about, she say, but by the time it’s been
written down we have moved on. this a living tradition.



Just what constitutes the Hoodoo Way. Eh. What does your Daily Grind look like in the Hoodoo Way. How does it affect your lifegoals. How does it affect how you go about life.

What I will be trying to do here is gound my teachings and incorporate the Hoodoo Way into your Dailly Grind. To help sanctify your Life. To make of it a Pilgrimmage

Mi apologies for the sense of entitlement this entail. It’s what I do. My undergrad field was psychology. I still think of myself as a cultural psychologist, working the Tribal Soul thru my Works. So basically this Work is a Meditation on the Good Life. Just what does the good life entail.

Let’s assume everybody wants the basics: shelter, financial stability, loving relationships, rewarding jobs, interesting experiences, drama free days, blissful moments both fleeting and timeless. Living a life so Deep in the Spirit that whatever happens, good or bad, you finesse it for optimal growth of the spirit / soul / life experience / trip value.

Lets further assume that everybody, whether you know it or not, wants to be conscious. Our consciousness is like an iceberg, only the tip showing. The real show is buried deep. The challenge is pulling it out into the open. Making the unconscious conscious. My premise here is that Life does not begin at birth, it begins at consciousness. The ability to step back and monitor yourself from a greater and more dispassionate plane.

Weak at birth, consciousness becomes stronger as we become more selfaware, its evolution the measure of your growth. It is consciousness allows you to shape your life. Only then can you master your own Destiny instead of being tossed about by the winds of circumstance, subject to the whims of others.

Consciousness looks good on you.

In the Hoodoo Way as I see it every soul is on a journey, a quest to be, to make your time on the planet mean something. The classic pilgrimage / journey is most often geographic, a pilgrimage to sacred space / holyground. 1^st question is just what / where you trying to get to - just what constitute Holyground here. Once you know where you going every step must take you there. Be not distracted by the inessential. Focus, Dear Pilgrim, focus

Thruout this text I will suggest it behooves one to Live in the Spirit. Let us start then by speculating on what living in the spirit entail:

- prioritizing soulwork over external achievement - soulpowerment
  judging everything / every situation by its value to your soulwork.

- practicing spiritual alchemy in which every experience is mined
  for spiritual value, discarding the dross and extracting the gold.

- accepting the totality of life, good and bad

- enhancing your daily grind / functionality

Questions for which there are no answers I choose to believe what makes me stronger in the world now, I believe the more you live a Life of the Spirit the more likely your spirit will survive the death of the body.

And if it doesn’t that’s cool too. I believe the goal of all things hoodoo is to develop an all-encompassing Generosity of Spirit that enhances everything it touches. That enabalate the Divine. awaken o sleeper, arise

By soulwork I refer to the ongoing nourishment of your fragile soul, what I’ma call Soulscare. Soulpowerment. Daily we are damaged, daily our souls are stained. Consider a ritual cleansing at the end of everyday, nothing elaborate.

I am brought to mind here the Hogon, spiritual masters of the Dogon. The Hogon lives a life in ritual harmony with the Universe. Th 8 steps of the Hogons house represents the 1^st 8 chiefs of the Dogon, upon which the Hogon ascends and descends. . . . In every regard the Hogon’s life represents the personification of the Universe. This is what we will attempt. Perhaps not quite as regimented. But we will attempt to note the Natural Laws annd place ourselves as much as possible in alignment with them in our Daily Grind

So what is the arc of a fully lived life in the Hoodoo Way. Just what does a Life as Pilgrimage life entail.

It appears we are all:

- born w/o a shred of consciousness

- socialized as a children, we learn to fit in

- questions socialization as young adult, achieves individualization

- achieves professional success and personal / familial stability

- reaches for a higher spiritual plane, questioning everything

- spiritual awakening and social / cultural achievement

- moving from individual to communal grace / legacy / Fa

- graceful eldership as a spiritual / experiential resource

- a certain peace with self and life as lived

- moving from physical to spiritual plane in preparation for

- closure and oneness w/divinity

What stage are you in the Great Arc of Life, how has it manifested for you, what is the next phase, and how will you get there, battered and worn or w/some degree of Grace?

all mi love

 

still meeting the page  AI Works by Rdoc

hello world, had an old student send me this email:

Subject: Checking In

Hey Arthur,

I just lost a dear writing mentor today, and I haven't been able to get in touch with you for a while. Is all OK with you? Please get in touch and let me know how you are...

Love,

to which i replied:

 

Hello love,

don’t me throwing
bad vibes my way

crippled but still crawling
discouraged but still writing

cant sell nothing but I love
what im working on

spilled water on computer
- just after transferring info

to new one, and still got folk in my
life that I love like I love you,

the gods of lit continue to deny me
they don’t want me resting on my

laurels so they don’t give me none
the gods of literature still love me

still vertical, still meeting
the page, every day

mi cup runneth over

all mi love

final push, the hoodoo way

apr 29, 8:55pm pg 51 of 102

uncle rabbit in de briar patch  -  AI Word by Rdoc

took a day off, resisting
urge to take two,
i was on burnout patrol

still unhappy w/the product
clearly not a closure draft

probably realizing that is
what got me discouraged

my standard have not fallen
they have totally evaporated

i have one goal in life, to
finish this draft this week

showtime

apr 27, 6:33pm pg 51 of 104

i cant take it, was lying there taking a break
and running novel scenariios in my head
perhaps when ive done my daily 10 i can
start blocking out my novel

apr 27, pg 44 of 104 i was just looking
over this post and that admonition

- saddle up soldier -

me support talking myself, the bilateral mind in
dialogue - which folk have traditionally deified

or demonized - what if i was to have an ongoing
dialogue between jubilation and the conqueror

in mi novel, take a stab at
it, rick, see what comes up

(see, see, the conquerors voice, Im
so excited at the potential here)

but thats the stage im in, the novel
is bubbling in my head, its ready to
roll but i am not, i got to finish the
draft of the hoodoo way, no telling

how long an extensive draft of the novel
will take, at least a year - and when you
clocking those 70s you knoow you could
check out at any moment, i got to finish

the draft, have it be a done deal, legacy

i got to go, june fucking 11th

revivial meeting: AI word by Rdoc

apr 27, 9:42am pg 42 of 104 and i am sick
of this project, not even half way, 10 a day
is going to drive me stark raving mad, im

on jun11, divinity & the great mojo, jun11,
not even half way and totally discouraged

- saddle up soldier, whimpering is unseemly

i do not ever abandon a draft
till its done, i live by the Code

if you abandon a draft before its done you
have to start over when you come back to it

regulations by rdoc: always finish the draft

apr 26, 7:57 pm,  pg 41 of 104

okay my standards have totally collapsed
wont be no revision of weak passages

i got to make my deadline

apr 26, the cuse 8:44 am pg 32 of  104

sister rabbit in repose  -   AI Word by Rdoc

okay okay, im trying to clock
10 pgs a day, im on pg 32 of 104

and just dont have time to get stuck
cleaning up weak passages

my standards have fallen
i am so eager to do that novel
whats bubbling in my head is
a brand new fantasmical lick

i got to get thru this draft
this what i did just now
so very weak but i dont

have time to sit and wrestle
with it, its not really coherent

its not urgent, its not essentialist

right now its just a loosely connected
series of observations, so not compelling

ima park it here where i can
fiddle with it when i got time

be safe

---------  

APR23:   THE HIGH ROAD

once upon a time on the edge of night and day, brer rabbit hear a
mournful howl, whoop whoop whooooo, who there, ask brer rabbit,
he hold up the lantern he carrying when he hear a voice sad as it can
be asking is that you, brer rabbit, this brer wolf, need some help here,
at which point brer rabbit peer over the edge of the road and there brer
wolf is under a rock and sorely aggrieved, dont know that helping you
is to my advantage, say brer rabbit, you been mighty keen on having me
and mine for dinner, so brer rabbit he continue on his way but all that
night he hear that mornful howl so he return the next morning and roll off
the rock, in return brer wolf say every full moon he will give the rabbit folk
a pass and that’s why every full moon you hear that mournful howl, brer wolf
announcing to all the rabbit kin that the deal still on, whoop whoop whoooooo,

 

The High Road: conduct on the highest plane of which
we are capable at that moment in crossroadial time

When you come too the crossroads always choose the
High Road, always strive to be better than you are.

As an individual, as a people. A culture.

There is always a better you.
There is always a better way.

No matter how good it seems,
There is always better.

It is the unceasing search
for better than leads to FA.

Cry not to me, o Traveler, of your burdens, responsibility
lies with the responsible, I didnt choose you, God did.

The High Road is a difficult road, requiring of you your very best.
Pilgrimage w/o a degree of difficulty is not a Pilgrimage. The low road
is the easy road but you don’t necessarily grow from it. An easy ride
wouldn’t be very transformative would it? Expect difficulty.
When it matters. Embrace difficulty. When it matters.

And do remember, o Traveler, how easily all those years building trust
can be lost in one moment of questionable behavior. Do nothing you
don’t want exposed, everything comes into the light. Leadership requires
moral authority and relentless dignity. Folk need to know they can
depend on you. That in times of need you will be the last one to fold.

Leadership you have to earn.

Just cause you of the conscious don’t mean you can dismiss folk that
aren’t conscious. That don’t have the advantages you have. They the ones
the conscious been sent here to Serve. Humility is not an act of nature,
humility is an act of will. I expect of you unrelenting Generosity of Spirit.

The default position is Hoodoo Dignity in all things at all times. The High Road.

This is reflected in the Hoodoo Posture, tall spine, full chest. Brace those
shoulders, soldier, move with deliberate grace, rest in profound stillness.

An ongoing quest for significance laying down crossroads at will. We must
at all times carry ourselves w/the Hoodoo Dignity that demands respect,

Conduct yourself as as a Superior Personality and
you are. This is the Essence of Conjuration.