rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

seperating the writers from the wannabes

SUNDAY

highjohn the conqueror root is the power root of hoodoo, properly dressed it will conquer all obstacles, over the years i have dressed some for folk and attempted to make roots by rickydoc into little works of art, i use cowries and siete potentia elekes, sometimes i use the red black green and gold - i use stones and such, used to use crystals by they fall out eventually, was doing a reading for phils schoolhouse when he pulled out one i had given him some 15 years or so ago, kept it on his writing desk - the cyrstal had fallen out, so i talked him out of it so i could rebuild it, this is what i just finished for him - over the years ive gotten allergic to them so it takes an effort to do them these days, decided ima start numbering them, keep a record of who got what - in my world there are folk who value a highjohn de conquer root worked by rickydoc - so this is #1, belongs to phil lamarche, folk who want theirs authenticated (and maybe up dated) should contact me:

 

 

 

 

THURSDAY

so im in that lost stage, that whirlpool stage where you have broken the novel apart and its lying there in its constituent pieces, many of which no longer fit your purposes and everyday you work on it you just digging yourself deeper into a hole, everyday you working hard just to generate more confusion - but a good revision, (unless you doing what i call poetry drafts, strictly polish drafts) a good revision you have to break a work down and rebuild it, i advise my students to avoid nip and tuck rewrites where you fiddle with a sentence here and a paragraph there - good revision, you have to tear the text apart, rebuild it, take it to higher ground,

so im in that tear it apart stage, when the harder you work the more confused you get, what keeps you going is the vision of what the novel can be, i might be wallowing in a pit of confusion but my eyes are full of literary stardust - and im just thankful for the 3 months im given every year to do battle, my summer woodshed, the paradise part of academia, when the work get done - legend is 1st time coltrane came out to play he got blowed off the stage, went home and withdrew into this woodshed out back & he practice & he practice until he was the john coltrane, came back and said now blow this  - all my love

 

 

MONDAY

so I'm listening to some albert king, and i recall early 90s, right before my 2nd novel, another good loving blues, came out - Im in this hole in the wall jook joint on beale, round midnight the mc say ladies and gentlemen, the greatest left hand bluesman in the world is in the house, albert king - man at the table next to me stood up and took a bow - I must say i was tickled, engaged him in conversation & jack & coke until we was both toasty whereupon i asked if he would blurb my novel and he said yeah, no problem, rick, drop it off - two, three days later he was dead - had i known i woulda had him write it on a napkin, far as im concerned that blurb is there, prominently displayed on the cover - congratulations rick, from the greatest lefthand bluesman ever

 

 

SUNDAY 5/30

so im woodshedding now and everyday im struggling with the page
this what i live for - course im also wading through fears and anxieties

early woodshed all you can see are the problems w/the text, what need desperately to be done, while
fighting off crippling fears that you will once again prove unequal to the task, constrained once again

by ongoing failures of craft, and i know if i can make this draft do what i want it to
it will be a book that i can live with, ie die on - i know i got to just ignore my anxieties

and get my work done regardless, and i think sometime about all the folk i know
(& love) who want to be writers but they not willing to struggle with the page

its like they think it come easy to those of us who do, its like you think you the only one in
the world it come hard to - clocking pages not only require discipline it require you to go deep

buddy of mine one time say if it was easy everybody would go down the street and get some

but you do what you got to do, every phase of aspiration to the literary there are psychological
blocks that must be gently pushed aside, assuming you actually want to live out this dream,

i woulda paid any dues imaginable to live this literary life i have lived - i fear and have damn near
accepted (damn near mean not quite) that i just might not be the great writer i have always

aspired to be, but ima continue to conduct myself as if i am, ima take myself and
my work seriously and ima get my work done - and whatever writer i am i accept that

long as im true to me (and my aesthetic) i accept that

long as im clocking pages and making books im good to go
the universe has kept its part of the deal, ima keep mine

all my love

rdoc

working at the crossroads: the 9 hoodoo challenges of human destiny & evolution

SATURDAY

working at the crossroad, the 9 hoodoo challenges of human destiny/evolution: well, those know me know i aspire to be a prophet of the hoodoo way, that entail pretty much ongoing speculation about human destiny and evolution, the eternal struggle to be greater than we are - folk think prophecy about foretelling the future - au contrary, prophecy equate current cultural tropes with destinic consequence & provide avenues of engagement - a cultural dispensation to reforge your chosen tradition - "continue to conduct yourselves in this manner and your generations will suffer, listen to me and they will thrive" -

It is de geas of rickydoc: 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

so im dealing with this prophetic thread in rest for the weary that basically consist of scifi segments meditating on human destiny, so last couple of days I been structuring that trope and I come up with this 9 challenges of human evolution, (everything i do i do in 9s, its a hoodoo thing) i been reluctant to be definitive with the prophetic passages because the likelihood of failure is selfevident but i got to just go for it and trust the gods of literature will be kind to me - so now im trying to determine the 9 challenges of human evolution - talking longgame, shaping generations, preparing them for the challenges ahead

i can identify three crossroads points definitive, i think, 1) when the monkeyfolk decided to walk upright, 2) one world irie, (id say we in process of being globalized now, didn't say any of these would be easy) and 3) getting off the planet . . (one planet is not enuf to ensure survival of the species, extinction events happen, we got to spread out, increase the odds . . .)

4) okay, after we 3) off planet, human destiny becomes murky, even for a man of vision in the line of o killens, a hoodoo lord of the delta, I got speculation but so many wildcard factors come into play - first contact will be unsettling, as will becoming a star faring peoples, then there post human transcendence, that's like my endgame, beyond that im speculating wildly, cosmology, biology and the creation of life maybe, will that be a crossroads moment or a footnote, what about technologies of which i can only imagine, inequality & such will always be with us far as I can see, what about cosmic custodianship, what more subtle crossroads moments of human destiny am I missing, is my scope unweildy, unrealistic, can i truly claim visionary –

only thing clear is this gon be more challenging than i understood it to be when I begun these speculations, I was thinking a couple of minutes hard thinking, done deal, instead it appear I got to step up my visionary game, got to clarify, what are the 9 hoodoo points of human evolution in our eternal struggle to be greater than we are, what are the 9 crossroads points of human destiny,

I know this kind of esoteric but this where I find myself, up the cosmic creek w/o a paddle, anybody got speculations on human destiny might be helpful to me please let me know - floundering am i not, i hate it when i stink of effort and frustration,

got to remember its just research for the novel, what im doing this first month woodshed is generating all these raw segments because i will have to work them hard to make them functional - so right now im generating realms of raw text, (well paragraphs) while researching memphis historicals - decided im going encyclopedic w/this draft like ive always wanted, ive come this far i might as well go for broke,

a meditation on human destiny, might work out the particulars here, if its entertaining instead of just embarrassing, right now its just embarrassing - if youre going to subject folk to pretentious rumination you should at least at the end of the day have real answers for people instead of just more questions

im out, me and this fucking novel
everyday its war

all my love

rdoc

 

hoodoo wedding services

 

 

 

 

 

 

SATURDAY MAY 21?

well, its been awhile since i felt like i had discretionary time
i think 1st thing ima do is put my wedding text up, parker

asked me to officiate, used the kalimba, got it on cam but
havent looked at it yet, all i do is think i shoulda this and

shoulda that, why torment myself, but i think i did ok
did this blessing thing w/kalimba, running it over them

while i did the cleansing, i had asked parker if he wanted
me to read it straight or throw down, he said throw down of

course, whatever you do will be fine he said, you the holiest
man i know, i was very moved, so i did: throw down

opened w/conch, ended w/kalimba, i blew it of course,
forgot stuff, adlibbed, endured brainfreeze but the

congregation doesnt realize it, ive learned if you prep prime
then you can let go and emote and whatever is is

just keep in mind my affection for parker, talk about
what i think a good marriage consist of, done deal

heathens tried to weasel out of doing vows, i pitched a fit
they did it, parker in russian, it was quite beautiful actually:

PARKERS WEDDING

greetings one and all, family, friends, honored guests, thank you for being here, this celebration of the ritual joining of two souls, two lives, two destinies recast as one  -  and when my people they gather together like this, in peace and love and harmony, that place that gathering place is the holyground, may your lives together from this moment on be a sanctuary for all that is good in this world

it is a blessing is it not to find the right mate in this life, the one you know you can do the journey with, go the distance, the one you thank god for, the one who calls from you your very best, the one you know will there in your times of greatest need and the times of o so fleeting joy, those special moments that are more special when they are shared - everybody needs somebody and today you have found that special somebody, today you have made the commitment that shapes us more than any other, today you have declared before all and sundry, its you and me, my love, my wild and wondrous love, we will bathe this world in grace, you and i, living life as it is meant to be, today, this day, this is a good day - today we meet the future with courage, power and grace, today we exchange vows that forge brand new realities - Alina:   Parker:

THE VOWS:  Alina:      I such and such           Parker:  I such and such

I DO’s: Do you Alina ra ba Vo la va take Jeff Parker to be your soulmate, your champion, to love  & honor, & cherish & protect in divine partnership, forever & ever more  I DO
Do you Jeff Parker take Alina Ra ba Vo la va to be your soulmate, your champion, to love and honor, to cherish and protect in divine partnership forever & ever more   I DO

THE RING   do you have the rings, repeat after me,    
jeff: may this ring remind us always of this day, these vows we have taken, this commitment we have made
Alina: may this ring represent the eternity of our love, my comiitment to you, yours to me

THE BLESSING: (while using kalimba as cleansing instrument)

back in the delta, my part of the delta marriage ceremony is considered a cleansing of all that has come before, cleansing of all that is petty in you, begone, of immaturity (begone) and shallowness too, iabayo ibayo ibayo

anything that does not represent love, begone, it is a clean slate, today you start anew, an invitation to be greater than you are, may the love you feel today bless all your days & bless your nights, may the grace that lies upon this day protect you against pain, frustration, and miscommunication, against irritation, boredom and temptation, remember this day when the growing gets hard, remember always what you feel this very moment, this very day, when all you hold truly dear has become so very very clear  – ibayo ibayo

may you always remember that love must be fed daily, with respect and caring, with responsibility and commitment, and duty, yes duty, a concern for your mates well being that supersedes your own, I ask of you boundless patience and loving waves of joy, I ask of you a generosity of spirit that indulges your mates human frailties and peculiarities as you find them and the occasional off days, indulge as you yourself must be indulged, I ask that you nurture growth and treasure happiness, let your home be a sanctuary for all that is best in you, remember this day and you will never go wrong

there has been a choosing done here today, may it last many years, many generations, may your love be seasoned with time, every year more comfortable than the one before, may your every day be a lesson in love, in all its many and wondrous guises, may your journey be full of grace -  o yess o yess, we have gathered here this evening, in the name of love, a day of divine celebration, o come all ye faithful, let us all rejoice, let us now walk on holyground

By the power vested in me I now pronounce you one.. . time to seal the deal, the kiss of life   . . . and now it is done -  gods blessing on you both, gods blessings on this day, gods blessings on us all