hello world, ran up on this interesting site
a post this guy wallace calls modern day hoodoos
a christian with an agenda but he made some interesting points
basically talking about use of the charisma, the glamour
basically he talking about what i call ideological orchestration
he dont approve of us
but he did peep the power, gave all these negative examples
but he made some really insightful points for a civilian
loved when he identifies books as spells
designed to shape humanitys future
first he claim intellectuals are modern day witchdoctors
which i 1st understood reading the glass bead game as a cub
when magister ludi leaves academia and starts writing short stories,
one of which is a tribal shaman operating as the books intellectuals did
connection in my head: visionaryartist/intellectual = shaman
a connection reinforced by the early works of ishmael reed and my studies as literary hoodooman - and my 15 year apprenticeship with babajohn o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn
these are excerpts from article and my riffs on them:
"Call me afflicted with a terminal case of daffiness, but I see no evidence the people on this big round world of ours are any different than those of, say, 1,000,000 BC
We believe in the same things our ancestors did, though we give those things different names.
In the past certain people were called witchdoctors; today the foolish call them intellectuals. I call them Hoodoo Men.
You can take the same dangerous goofiness from thousands of years ago and map it on today and it'll fit perfectly. Not only can we take all those Hoodoo Men and witchdoctors from the past and call them the intellectuals of today, we can also take charms and talismans and amulets and and mojo bags and find the same exact things today. So we don't really have much business laughing at "primitives." We're them."
so basically he talking about intellectuals as ideological orchestrators
but what fascinates me is why he call them modern day hoodoos
this struck me cause its how i understand the game
its a dual manifestation:
sorceror prophet and hoodoo magician in the spiritworld
intellectual and visionary artist in the realworld
2 sides of the same coin: hoodoo mack
"That name, "Hoodoo Man," has stuck with me since I first heard it years ago. It's a Southern/country term, apparently only vaguely related to the similar word, "voodoo." Voodoo is an established religion; hoodoo can have religious overtones, but must not necessarily have them.
A Hoodoo Man is one who uses spells to try to enchant people to get them to do what he wants. You may laugh at someone who tries to cast spells to Win Friends and Influence People, but if you do, you're making a great big mistake.
The word "spell" literally means "to talk," or "tale." A Hoodoo Man is one who attempts to cast a spell through words directed at other people, in order to enchant them so they'll do what the Hoodoo Man wants. Simple, huh?
I certainly don't believe in toe of dog or wing of bat, or Love Potion Number Nine for that matter, but I do believe it's not even a matter for debate that words can be used to enchant people. Spells do exist. The point is not moot."
okay, so far so good, i cant argue with him
i might take exception to the breathless tone
but he has peeped the power
the power of the word
understand contemporary hoodoo better
than most folk practicing today
most hoodoos today practice a slaverytime hoodoo about 100 years out of date
folkmagic in the 21st century - dont get me wrong, folkmagic has its place
but an exclusive focus on folkmagic in the 21st century is an anachronism
that aint the living breathing culture still evolving, hoodoo is so much more than that
they dont understand the highgame
guide and guardian of the tribal soul and destiny
master of the longgame
destinywork
he dont either really, he aint really talking about hoodoo,
its just a term he apply to his real beef about ideological orchestrators as magicians
"All you have to do is watch Triumph of the Will, and you'll see how Hitler, one of the most hypnotic speakers ever, walked through a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, who parted before him like Charleton Heston waving his staff at the Red Sea. He had literally ensorcelled these poor, deluded, frightened and willing fools, had cast a spell on them. And this was in the 20th Century.
And as Mein Kampf makes clear, he had a way with words, whether written or spoken. He was one of the premier Hoodoo Men of the 20th Century.
It wasn't just Hitler. There was Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and Pol Pot. They just didn't grab hold of the machinery of the State and start rubbing people out with it. I guarantee you there was a huge mass of people who supported them, who had fallen under their spells.
Hoodoo Men exist on a smaller scale, too. David Koresh, anyone?"
david koresh? how did we get saddled with christanitys renegades
hitler et al was bad enuf
basically he calling anybody with the power a hoodoo
could have just as easily named jesus, muhammad, buddha, moses, et al
gandhi, mandela, martin luther king or sojourner truth
"They try to cast spells by the use of words, to ensorcel the susceptible masses, to get them to do what the Hoodoo Men want."
o he off the reservation but he making some deep connections in spite of it
thats exactly what we do - from your basic country magicworker
to destinyplayers such as myself
the word is a weapon a tool an instrument
a spell designed to shape reality - nommo
then he go into his political agenda
start talking about how hoodoos define the world in good and evil absolutes
say we set up a we the righteous have to defend the good against evil dynamic
he call it a trick but that aint fair, its often the case
article talks about how societies have always been manipulated by macks
that the misuse of that power is responsible for many of historys tragedies
among which he and i both include bush and iraq
"That spell will always work on the susceptible, of which there are way too many. That spell has been cast so many times in the past I consider it a law of human nature as to how people will respond to it. It's one of the most powerful and awful spells that exist, perhaps the most awful one of all, one that led to the deaths of up to 200 million people during the 20th Century.
Herman Goering understood that spell. At the Nuremberg trials he said, "Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
"An example of this false division into pure good and pure evil is the book, An End to Evil, by Hoodoo Men Richard Perle and David Frum. It's a purely nitwitted book, one worthy only as a doorstop and one anyone with an dollop of sense can see straight through. But since the rubes can't see through it, well then, they're another story."
wait up now partner, i really really object to being saddled with bush
hitler and koresh were bad enuf, but bush and the neocons, thems fighting words
i think we can add anything bush has said in the last 6 years to this list of okeydoke
pretty much anything the rightwing has said in the last 30
if anything my mythic role as a witchdoctor is to protect the tribe against witches like this
fucking with folks souls and creating zombies out of my people - rickydoc dont allow that
i will not abide a thief of souls
"I mentioned talismans, charms, amulets, mojo bags. A talisman, an amulet and a charm are the same thing: objects that are supposed to protect you. Today, they are often books. Follow the instructions in the book, and you will be protected. I've already mentioned An End to Evil. I could mention the Bible, too. There are people, and apparently a lot of them, who think the instructions in it will protect them from the purely evil monsters in the horror story they have projected onto reality. If they recite the spells in it (which they call "prayers"), they will be protected from evil.
A mojo bag, contrary to Austin Powers, is not something inside us that can be sucked out by Fat Bastard and his power drill. It's a small bag made to be hidden and carried around. It's the same thing as a charm. I like the term because it is, like Hoodoo, particularly American. A Hoodoo Man carrying a mojo bag is the same thing as a modern-day intellectual (okay, psuedo-intellectual) armed with his book. His spell-book."
got me there, the book as spell
this where i live and breathe
i consider every Work a spell designed to influence human destiny
or as ishmael said in the poem dragons blood, referring to his novel: mumbo jumbo
on you i said to the enemies of the soul
my books i consider seeds of future realities
my ideological/institutionalization work i consider preparation of the ground
also he got me when he talk about hoodoo and mojo as so very american
the indigenous africanamerican spiritual/magical system,
born out of our concrete conditions and needs as a culture and society
and like so much of africanamerican culture, the heart and soul of america
soon as i dust it off, put it on the good foot, extract the bullshit
make it congenial to the 21st century mind and sensibility
so basically he just using the word hoodoo to refer to any high magician and
ideological orchestrator - like any power the power itself is neutral, depend on who wielding it
"You see what I mean by all this? The Hoodoo Men of today, the Victor Davis Hansons, the David Frums, the Max Boots, the Richard Perles and Paul Wolfowitzs, consider themselves intellectuals, ones more awake, smarter and probably more moral than we are, but in reality they're nothing but Hoodoo Men, telling people they're stuck in a horror story where their goodness is under attack by completely insane monsters that wish to annihilate them. And if we listen to them, these self-appointed heroes and messiahs, and recite the charms from their books and put them into effect with missiles and machine guns, we will defeat the monsters. But what we're really going to end up with is unending war"
i still object to being saddled with the neocons
but im with you here partner
i hate it when power players like myself take advantage of the people
the way bush and his crew used 9/11 to froth the american people
justify torture as policy, imperial privilege, arbitrary wars and god know what
here i am trying to keep the tribal soul healthy and here they are degrading it
but i do plead guilty to believing intellectuals (& the mystically inclined) play by different rules
i am more conscious than most folk, have a more informed idea of whats going on
thats a power in society and the only question is how do i use that power
thats how i came up with one of my primary mantras
awaken the sleeper, protect the weak, guide the strong
i know thats kinda corny but it covered all the ground
tight and concise like i like it
i try to wake up folk who sleeping - this article claim hoodoos always claim that
he say its just part of our trick - that wasnt fair, most of the time thats all you can do
cant push folk, all you can do is show them the value of being awake, of being aware
when most folk just drifting through life on automatic pilot - being took advantage of
just what is your fa
what is your fate, what is your destiny
protecting the weak is pretty self explanatory
its guide the strong put the icing on that cake
i believe its the strong i really have to reach
the ones capable of causing harm to people and societies
the ones capable of helping, of serving, of making a difference
providing leadership
its the ethics of the strong that i really concerned myself with
the same ethics i myself try so hard to adhere to
cause i really do have the power you know, all joking aside
only real question is how do i use it
"We really are no different than tribal people thousands of years ago, ones that believed in goblins and ghosties and things that go bump in the night."
problem here is things do go bump in the night
all the time
and every society thats ever been has had its high magicians, like soldiers
farmers teachers and politicians we an essential part of the cultural mix
guardians at the gate against demons that go bump in the night
guides to humanitys ever higher self
magical charisma is a strange little power
its greater in impact if you keep it restrained
i remember as a young hoodoo training in charisma - the glamour
learned how to radiate it like when im handling an audience
how to put the whole audience in the palm of my sweaty hand
make it a moment around the sacred fire
or how to concentrate it into a tight little beam focused on an individual
and take souls
when i was a young hoodoo in training i used to take souls because i could
considered it experimentation, development of my power
i will always remember the day my mentor, john o killens, sat me down and said
art you a brilliant writer but with a little compassion you could be profound
all i heard was brilliant
wasnt until many years later i realize the old shaman was trying to ensure
that my contribution as his student would be warm and loving
instead of hard and cold
as a young player i aspired to be a hordesman
my plan was to gather my people into a horde and fling them into history
as i matured i decided that was a little too hard on the tribal soul - and mine
now im trying to call them to the longgame,
still a chosen people mythwork but one that elevates and illuminates
one that heals the tribal soul
and keeps it healthy
i still deal in souls, thats my stock in trade but instead
of taking them i heal them, ima soul doctor, like my daddy
dr arthur richard flowers sr
of memphis tennessee
but you have to be careful handling folks souls - youve heard me say this before
my mantra here is souls should be handled with a very light touch
restraint restraint restraint
but not to the point of not being true force
ima player on the hoodoo board of destiny
far as im concerned the whole world works for me
when they do write my story i dont want them to say
he had the power but he didnt have the heart
being a visionary artist and an intellectual of historical stature is a
blessing of a high order and you have to live by the code
if you want to keep your power - want to keep it strong
if you dont want your power to go bad
samesame conjureman
its babajohn o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn, taught me to be a visionary
made sure the code of conduct was embedded in my soul
i have spent my life in service
and i would never do anything john o killens would not approve of
i am of the line of o killens
and i live by the code
i will keep in mind that i am always walking on shaky ground
and i will strive always to keep to the highroad of true commitment
i will strive always to be greater than i am
to grow always in the compassion of o killens
"It's straight out of a fairy tale: the Hoodoo Men are the heroic
wizards, casting spells, to rouse the inhabitants to save their village
from the fire-breathing dragons. At least they consider themselves
heroes. And apparently wizards, too."
i wanna be a hero
with all my heart and soul i want to be a hoodoo hero
wind whipping my dreads on the mountaintop
guardian at the gate
just your basic neighborhood witchdoctor trying to help the tribe survive another winter
and by all thats holy, the tribe will not starve on my shift
in the line of o killens and
the name of the conqueror
rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way
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