hello world, sorry i been out of the loop
been struggling with the page
rest for the weary been beating me all
about my head and shoulders
and i am in a funk about the time i give rootsblog
and nothing seem profound enough to
invest time better spent wrestling w/that novel
that never seems to move toward being done
i just work and work and work and then i look at it and
its like damn, still so much work need to be done
dont never get no down time
cause whenever life do let up for just a minute i got to
try to clock some pages or im still a failure
sitting here at the sacred desk now trying to focus
and clock some pages and aint nothing happening
and if aint no work getting done dont nothing else get done
so i havent posted in almost a week and feel like i should say something
but as you see i got nothing to say
no words of power and significance
someething that might make a difference
in the sudan on in the congo, harlem or the delta
oh what the hell, ima put up my 101 talismans, i fear this will be of
no interest to anybody but myself
i fear that the folk who will be interested will jack me up for who
ive left off the list, or snicker in private
afraid that somebody will use my research and take advantage
of all the effort ive put into compiling this list but you cant worry about
that when you deal in the net, the hyatt hoodoos i culled from a posting on lucky mojo
and the list itself was put together w/input from the hoodoo way list
live by the net, get poached by the net
part of being a 21st century literary man
cant be worried about copyright or making money - establishing yourself
as a worthy thinker on the net is as important as doing it in the print world
that mean putting your work up and out there
even so raw it embarrass me
first ima layout the raw list
edit it down to 101
why 101, i like the poetry of it:
one hundred and one talismans
most problematic be the contemporary hoodoos
basically these the serious hoodoos that i know of
i know there a multitude i dont know of but i can only work the ones i know
i think thats part of my mission you know, i keep the records for my generation
also power positioning i must admit
its the record keeper get to define the moment
im often apologetic about my insistent power positioning
positioning myself as the record keeper so as to define the historical moment
gatekeeper determining who in who out the historical narrative
get on my wrong side i will curse you, i will erase you, i will ignore you
be cool w/me i will bless you, i will anoint you - and mythmaker
as an attempt to shape the future, the destiny of humanity
and trying to position hoodoo as the prophetic tradition in atr family, a kind of overtradition
and trying to position blackfolk as guide and guardian of humanitys destiny
just power power power, always the power, flowers
personally too, constant power games all the time
in power, every move i make about power
sometime i get apologetic and shameface about it, but then i remind
myself, ima hoodooman - magician, sorceror and wouldbe prophet
power is what i do
power intellectual is what i am
ideological orchestrator
metaphysician and master of the longgame
doing what high magicians have always done
trying to rule the world pinkie, more or less
shape the future and nudge reality
i work for a weak team (blackfolk) so i got to play my
power games real indirect, longgame, thats the hand i was given
the hyatts are all the hyatts i could identify, got to go thru and
extract only the ones that i think most illuminated
like dr yousee, one of my favorites, and of course all
the memphis hoodoos
might rename some, hyatts names for them
often werent reflective of their true value
then got to give them attributes
mythological narratives
refine list till im dead
this i will invest time to because it is a motif in rest for the weary
also playing with concept of a hoodoo pantheon
who knows if that seed that will take
if it does, got a lot of trip value
destinically speaking
worthy game, win or lose
also some folk on this list, they not really hoodoo
taking some discretionary choices as payment for
applying myself to this task, i figure
the gods owe me a couple of personals
folk who have become part of my spiritual world
part of the record keepers narrative
folk like babajohn o killens, the great griot master of brooklyn
not technically speaking a hoodoo but who was instrumental
in forging my vision of the hoodoo future
folk like davidwalker and sojourner truth, martin and malcolm
spiritwarriors who have also become cultural icons
naturner and gullahjack, harriet tubman, maybe ida b
its because im defining hoodoo as an atr overtradition
im including diasporic folk like boukman dutty and nanny accompong
zumbi of palmares
and forces from other atr pantheons, just added that, very raw
determing which atr forces to include will be a big challenge
make me think how hoodoo has become such an integral part of my vision
if i was a conventional intellectual i would not have such a hard time establishing
a position in the literary canon/imagination
but im not just asking blackfolk/the world to buy into my vision of the future
its buy into my vision of the hoodoo future - that complicates it (and my Works)
but its because of my hoodoo identity that i believe
myself capable of influencing the future and shaping
reality, of conjuring
there are times, looking back over my life and wondering if i have spent
my talent/potential in vain - i wish i was a normal writer
normal intellectual, w/normal ambitions
but then again, i do so love the game
a visionary in the line of o killens
love it
so everybody in the 101 talismans of rickydoc not hoodoos
but rather hoodoo haints, which is my chosen name for hoodoo forces
our version of orishas, lwa, saints, gods, etc
a particularly hoodoo term ive decided to put it to use
i love being a writer
anybody else this attempt to define a hoodoo pantheon
would be at best academic, at worst delusional
but as a metafictional novelist its just research for my novels
no matter what, win or lose, realworld or not, i write about it
that make it real if only in fiction
the transactional border of the realworld and mine
song of the conjureman
making real into the world that which was not
i love being a writer
i really do
win or lose
i really do
-----------------------------
HOODOO PANTHEON: ANCESTORS AND FORCES
CONTEMPORARY HOODOOS
cassandra wimbs
cat yronwode
daughterofoshun
djenra windwalker
dredlok
dr kioni
ibeshe
katrina omogun
papa ce
papa gede nibo bey lakwa
raven
ra khu
rickydoc
siren noir
stephanie rose bird
snake 2g
oshuns daughter
rootwomin
misnippy
HOODOO LEGACIES
zora neale hurston
gullahjack
marieleveau:
old divinity
gullah buzzard flock
papa yousee:
dr moore
davidearl jackson
jim jordan
aunt caroline dye
black herman
mammy pleasant: http://www.shapingsf.org/ezine/afamerican/mpleasant.html>
father divine
tituba
dr jim jordan
7 sisters of new orleans
paschal beverly randolph
henri gamache
black herman
mother leafy anderson
cecile fatima
LITERARY PRACTITIONERS
charles chestnut
henry dumas
arthur flowers
gayle jones
ishmael reed
sheree thomas
john edgar wideman
babajohn o Killens
CULTURAL HEROS
highjohn the conqueror
shine
john henry
frankie and johnny
brer rabbit
jim crow
mammy
sambo
aunt jemima
zip coon
caldonia
mojo hannah
old black joe
staggerlee
anansi
HOODOOS FROM HYATT
samuel forman
george jackson dennis
zippy tull
aunt dinah
ethel waters
rootdoctor johnson
doctor paul bowles
ms lenny griffin
mrs. myrtle collins of memphis
toby cason
doctor washington
marcus brown / william brown / peter brown
doctor washington of charleston
doctor maguin
dr. williams of beaufort
rev. a. c. foster
a consolidated-minded woman
charlie wilson
doctor delong of chicago
the unkus man
jughead johnson
the boy-girl
madame henrietta joseph
albert pike
divine healer
doctor cunningham
madam griffin
frank harris
the laughing doctor
dr yousee
the patient doctor
henry l. timmons
a doctor at ease
doctor harris
peter blake
papa see-er
chicken
ready money
gifted medium
dark lady
mrs murray
DIASPORIC ANCESTORS
boukman dutty
mammy accompong
zumbi of palmares
ganga zumba
AfFROAM ATR FORCES
Oshun
Legba
Shango
Yemaya
Ogun
Babalu
Osei
Damballah
Azaka
Erzuli
Olodummare
CULTURAL ANCESTORS
harriet tubman
david walker
martin luther king
Malcolm x
marcus garvey
sojourner truth
bob marley
SPIRITS OF THE AMERICAS
coyote
AFROAM HOLYGROUND
Palmares
Mississippi delta
New Orleans
Dismal Swamp and Nat Turners hanging tree
The African burial ground nyc
Jamaican cockpit country (maroons)
Bois Caiman (?)
Memphis
ATTRIBUTES
loa
lwa
orisha
mammy, old black joe (old souls)
gal & buck (youth)
auntie & uncle (elders)
pickanninies
mulatto
coons (entertainers)
buddy
magical negro
big black man of the crossroads
highjohn
god
the ancestors
the traveling spirit
nigger
badman
I man
I woman
7 african powers:
TO BE DONE;
alphabetize
add missing entities
develop attributes
----------------------------
now that ive actually put it up one wonders why
kind of thing that i do best to work out on rootwork.com
i will take the time to work on that today
dont know if i will leave this up, too raw too something
help me fill in the holes dear regulators, help me refine it
names you think should be on the list
or off it
and links, plan to link every haint eventually
narratives and all
okay im outta here, let me try to clock some pages
desperationwise i believe i got critical mass
hanging in there
my love to you all
rdoc
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