hello world
im feeling a little down i think
i think ol rickydoc has got the blues
this is another posting of a thread on the rootworkers list
i keep getting drawn into that but ima back out of it
and just let it be
i think that weariness is showing through in
the stridency of my tone here
there were all these blackfolk on the list
mostly from the westindies, putting down africanamericans
and it was a dialogue i just didnt feel like having
i got involved in this cause mambo racine kinda upset me
with her uninformed pronouncements on blackness
and her attempt to take over the hoodoo list
and make it a promotional subsidiary of
roots without end
and now shes there lecturing down at folk
and putting a lot of voudou dogma on the hoodoos
and making authoratative statements about hoodoo
in spite of fact that she dont know nothing about hoodoo
asked the other day, what is a delta griot
i didnt even bother to answer
neither do i feel like getting into a flamewar with her
i dont really have anything against her, just object
to her feeling like shes an authority on blackness
and resent her and her minions taking over a hoodoo list
with that condescending attitude that atr takes to hoodoo
but hey, if the hoodoo list lets her take it over, they deserve her
im tired of trying to defend them
and the black radical congress, another institution
i have hopes for, seems to be floundering and unable
to effectively shape itself for struggle in the 21st century
its like they stuck in the struggles & rhetoric of yesteryear
just when we are engaged in a struggle for the souls of blackfolk
with conservative blacks crawling out from under every rock
(where does the bush administration find these people)
im weary to the bone
god and when i look at the world, dont get me going there
bush and the rightwing trying so hard to put a hurting on everybody
and succeeding beyond their wildest dreams and our progressive nightmares
it will take generations to undo the harm that hes done to the american people
and to the world
what actually generated this post was reading about saddam in his underwear
and i wouldnt put it past the bush administration to have orchestrated that
it sounds like the little petty kind of thing they think is cute
and i thought about how they been torturing people to death as policy
and not holding anybody accountable for it and the american people been
letting that kind of behavior slide and i just dont understand it
and i thought about how they have debased everything america used to stand for
and this attempt to impose religious dogma on the american people
i got a post about religious movement called the dominionists that make
no bones about their attempt to impose religious fundamentalism on
every aspect of american society and their success so far
i fear for our souls
and africa convulsed with wars and poverty and disease and
behind in every criteria of well being
and african religious traditions still stuck in archaic modes
of blood ritual and sacrifice (which is another issue im taking a
beating on, when i tell atr folk that what worked for ancient cultures
that killed their own food dont necessarily work for cultures that dont
they start telling me about what the gods demand and its like look
i dont want to hear it, all that bloodlust just aint necessary, and the
gods are a little more flexible than most religious folk willing to acknowledge
but hell thats an entire post of its own, maybe the next one)
and all around the world blackfolk suffering and dying and hardly nothing
you can do that dont feel like spitting in the wind
and not just blackfolk the world is full of inhumanity
and sometimes you just despair and feel like best you
can do is go for self
okay, i didnt intend to go into all this
im just feeling low right now, i got the blues
but i will feel better in a couple of days i imagine
so here is my lastest rant from the rootworker list
as those of you who know me will see, its kinda redundant
okay im out of here, sorry world, i didnt mean to whine on you like this
had planned to say a few words explaining the post and let it be
problem with a weblog is that you tend to express whatever you
feeling at the moment and right now im feeling down
i guess i will try to get some novelwork done
a good day of novelwork is generally good for what ails me
a lot of my vision gets clarified in rest for the weary
and sometimes it actually feels like the wonderful
work of art i hope it to be
puts me to mind of a story about mozart passing out some new material
and one of the musicians saying this trash isnt music and mozart responding
it is not for you, it is for another age (future generations)
now thats what im talking about
hangingtough
rickydoc
----------------------------------------
hello raven
hello list
raven i wouldnt worry about folk
like the
ones you talking about
all these issues of black selfhatred
and
tribalism have been addressed and dealt with
as far back as the 60s and 70s
and im not
going to worry about folk who didnt get the memo yet
i fear
there will always be selfhating blacks
who will go for the okeydoke of
putting other blacks down
i dont even feel like its a subject im
going
to spend any energy on
in the delta my daddy told me never wrestle
w/pigs
you just get dirty and the pig enjoys it
but while im here and
in the spotlight
let me bring up a couple of subjects
that i am willing to
spend energy on
a subject that i do think is important
though i assume will basically be ignored
and thats the future of hoodoo
which is
my primary concern
and as i said in a previous post
i would like hoodoo to
evolve from where
it is today
when i spoke of archival hoodoo i
was
basically speaking of all of you
stuck in hoodoos past instead of
its
evolving future
lasttime i posted
i spoke of adding highmagic to
the folkmagic
we now practice and i spoke of aspiring to
the
prophetic
trying to forge hoodoo into one of the
worlds great
spiritual/magical systems
means taking it to higher ground
and i think
that higherground will include
highmagic and the prophetic because
they
are congruent with hoodoo reality
and i expect most folk wont be
interested in this
im speaking to the cutting edge
cause i believe we can
make hoodoo as strong a force
in the world as say christanity, islam or
judaism, etc
but i dont want to go religious and would prefer
that
hoodoo not
which is why i object to the religious dogmas
of the other atr
traditions being imposed on hoodoo
i believe there is a flexibility to
being a magical
system that the religious systems dont have
but
because hoodoo has begun to interface so heavily
with atr systems im willing
to look at the compromise
of aspiring to the prophetic
i dont believe
there is any more powerful contribution to make
than to shape a spiritual
tradition in such a way that it evolves
along the lines you think
suitable
and because we are in at the beginning more or less of this
process
we are the ones
who will determine the lines of hoodoo evolution
and its influence on
the destiny of humanity
its on us to make sure
its a strong contribution and try to alleviate
the weaknesses that can so
often attend to spiritual activism and
result in abominations like jonestown
or other such
accordingly as part of that hoodoo activism i dont want to
shape
hoodoo as a religious tradition, i would like to leave it a
magical
and spiritual tradition, one that questions and is skeptical
rather
than basing its power on blind faith
even within religious
traditions the prophet is free of
institutional hierarchies (much like the
hoodoo vis a vis the other
atr hierarchical religions)the prophet is a part
of yet not
the prophet is an individualistic practitioner (much like hoodoo)
and there is not much difference between the sorceric and
the
prophetic, they manifest the same powers, except that one serves
only
clients and self, the other also serves god(s) and the
community
i was made aware of this distinction reading a work on the
prophets
of east africa and the book made the statement that the
difference
between the diviners (which is basically what we are) of the
masai
and others tribes and the prophet/diviner (the diviner who is
also
ackwnowledged prophet) is that the prophet diviner is not
only
concerned w/clients but with the guidance of the entire society
(or
tribe)
and that the prophet diviners practice went beyond the
private
readings of the diviner to include public ritualwork (which for me
is
those of us who practice performance ritualwork)
folk think
prophecy (or divination) is foretelling the future. But
the prophetic voice
is more than a foreteller of the future. True
prophecy is prophecy that
guides individual, social and destinic
action. Prophecy connects current
behavior w/future consequences in
order to force social change through divine
sanction.
the wouldbe prophet uses the prophetic vision to see as far
into the
future as possible and anticipate the changes, the crises
and
opportunities the tribe will have to overcome in its generations
long
struggle for survival and prosperity.
the aspiring prophet then
determines what social traits will be
necessary to meet those challenges and
tries to program them into the
cultural soul through ageold techs of magical,
prophetic and
ideological orchestration. basing authority to do so on
the
deceptively simple proclamation, "god told me to."
i have often
used the term destiny players, destiny workers, to
define the hoodoos of my
hoodoo vision
and basically i mean folk who are trying to shape the
destiny of
humanity, who feel that human destiny is not a given but that
we
shape it daily and that with study and application it can be shaped
as
we see fit
that parts of my interest in adding highmagic to the folkmagic
focus
of hoodoo today, striving to be able to shape reality so that
it
reflects our vision of what it should be and not necessarily
just
accepting it as it is
why should we be satisfied with being
folkmagicians
in the 21st century when we could so easily be highmagicans
also
folk who are comfortable using ageold techniques of
ideological
orchestration and prophetic exhortation to try to shape the
destiny
of humanity in the direction of their vision for humanity
folk
who are capable of forcing reality
to respond to their will
i am
constantly trying to assess the challenges and opportunities
that will face
future generations and try to input into the cultural
mix (the tribal soul),
the psychological and cultural traits that i
think will finesse these
challenges and keep humanity growing on
the good foot
for me that
tribal soul is both the black race and the entire human
race, but im not
going to go there again
suffice it to say that i have decided that the
hoodoo tradition is
the most promising instrument of this ongoing effort to
forge a more
appropriate human destiny
i believe that it is our
responsibility as
the awake and aware in the land of the half sleep
to use
our powers to take care of the community
and provide guidance and
protection
and part of my hoodoo mission is to develop this confidence
and this
power and the necessary skills to manifest this prophetic power
in
the hoodoo practitioners of the future
my most fundamental phrase that i hope to imbed in the culture is:
cast your vision young hoodoo as
far as you can see
determine the challenges the tribe will face
prepare
the tribal soul to meet them
right now im in a dialogue of one
but
thats alright it comes with the territory
when you aspire to the
prophetic
now part of what i love about hoodoo
is that its an eclectic
system that allows you to
practice pretty much however you want
so im not
saying you should practice what i practice
most of you i assume will keep on
doing what you doing
but understand, whether you like it or not
im the
hoodoo future
i aspire to be a prophet of the hoodoo way
and i will
defy all of you if i must
to bring hoodoo into the 21st century
i am
rickydoc trickmaster
and i will not be denied
in spirit and
struggle
rickydoc
stay strong bro, i think it's the full moon messing w/ a lot of people. and people read your blog, dont worry about that! i read it at livejournal, the rss is syndicated and there are almost 30 people reading it.
peace-
Posted by: | May 23, 2005 at 01:43 AM
appreciate the shoutout
sometimes i falter and get
weary and a little pat
on the back goes a long way
good looking out
arf
Posted by: | May 23, 2005 at 02:34 AM