rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

a prayer a day keeps the blues away

TUESDAY

i am so totally lost, all these years i thought i had a viable cosmology
or as i like to call it an afromology but this attempt to put it on paper

has given me a headache, i been struggling with existential questions

like how much do i want to give to god when i am essentially a humanist
both hoodoo and the blues situate power within w/no necessity for giving

it to god, but i want the power that god belief gives to folk
without the foolishness but the foolishness is part and parcel

i dont know what to do, i go one way i switch back
all i can do is keep forcemarching thru process and

assume that all these questions will resolve themselves to my satisfaction
my progress has slowed to a crawl because im lost in quandaries that give

me headaches, quandaries for which there is no right answer but im aware of building
an edifice with every decision, okay, im gone, i got to get back to work, im gon

ibayo  (interesting, just adding ibayo sanctifies the insight for me)

i think i feel a crash and burn coming on, whereupon you have
pushed yourself and the body is about to revolt and crash on
you and you will be a zombie for a couple of days/weeks but
who got time to be crashing and burning, you keep pushing it
so when the inevitable crash and burn comes its that much worse

but you cant be reasonable about this, reasonable dont get the work done

im gon, i think i need to rest, i think im done  . . .

 

 

SATURDAY

been forgetting to add ibayo to the end of every prayer
i believe it is a yoruba word, akin an ibaye i heard an

ATR brazilian or cuban priest using and i dont even recall
where i got it, one of my earlier performances i was using it
as the christian use amen or the yoruba ashe, my crew often

uses ashe when they godworking but i want to come up with something
that is my own, sometihng hoodoo and not yoruba or congo or nothing
else but hgoodoo so its intersting that its still yoruba based but the
poipnt is not trying to appropriate yoruba culture and ritual and giving
other folk power over us, even if kin

african americans trying to be anything else offend me, yoruba, islamic, christian
i want to give african americans a Way of their own, a spiritual path of their own

was thinking the other day how will i convince blackfolk to move past tribalism
when im the biggest culprit, i keep wanting to seque to the universal but i cant

i got to save blackfolk, i cannot leave them where they are
once i do the hoodoo book of flowers ima go for a universal work

ibayo

 

 

 

FRIDAY   1/28

so sat down and tried to do prayer #2, figured I would
sanctify my daily grind, but it was a sterile effort:

let my daily work be my service to thee, o lord
let my daily grind be an instrument of your grace

let me not dispel thy gifts, let me be worthy of thy
service, this task with which I have been entrusted

this task I have so far failed, thru weakness of will
be done, only in your service will I count my days

------------- 

so i was sitting there disappointed when i had a creative
revelation, where understanding suddenly snap into place

I had been approaching this prayer thing as a literary exercise but I see now what
you got to do is emote from the soul and see what you got to say about whatever
you struggling with in your life in context of dialogue with god the universe, asking
for the help, the guidance, not for me but for those whose responsibility I bear

there can be nothing more essentialist than an ongoing dialogue with god

basically you are reaching deep inside for the most essentialist focus you
can bring to bear on struggling with your personal demons, at the sametime
reaching for the broadest identification w/the universe possible, all in the
name of service to the human condition, spreading them blessings

this evidences an identification with all things, all peoples, with everybody
you know including those who have in some way offended you, those you
need most to reach out to and forgive if naught but in an act of blessing, (yours
theirs) a gift of god you treasure and must exercise unceasingly –presupposing
that generosity of spirit you so value, a self healing

i have put folk dear to me out of my life because they offended
me with what i considered dishonorable treatment, folk whose

presence in my life i subsequently miss

i think how me and my boy sekou sudiata was half feuding when he died
and how much i regretted that, the wasted years over issues that in

reflection meant nothing - forgiveness my friend, gods gift and thine

--------------   

dear god #2

help me know forgiveness in full o lord
for those who have offended me
as my own transgressions are forgiven please
must I forgive the transgressions of those most
in need of my own blessings, do I not value
my blessings, thy gift and mine, that I would
give forgiveness so stingily

ibayo

 

 

THUR 1/28

my production has slowed to a crawl, im averaging one prayer, one story a day
it takes mental and spiritual energy to generate them from my notes but one a day

will not get me to the promiseland, ima have to reach for another gear, specially
now that school is in full hump - got 12 flashes to breakdown for class discussion at 1230

need to keep forcemarching thru these apps, i got to go . . .

 

 

WEDNESDAY  1/27

so i been telling myself i would do a prayer a day
in part to forge some prayers for my holybook/way

but also i figure engaing god every day in prayer
will move me closer to godhead

problem of course is that i consider god the universe my goal
instead of god the father or some antiquated such - god the universe

is harder to establish a relationship with but i want
to make myself one with the universe, what i used

to call centering, alligning my spiritual center with the
center of the universe and partaking of the power there

but i have not done any because i want them to be numinous and i am afraid
that they will not and when you trying to encompass the infinite where do you start

but i have to just start doing them and assume i will get better

dear god #1 (1/27)

help me be thy grace, be one with all things that are, all the universe
that is you, i in god and god in me, o god in we, stardust all - ibayo

----------

okay i can live with that as my first one, number them
had 'help me know thy grace' changed it to 'be thy grace'

works better i think, also struggling w/god is me or god is in me
worry about nuances later, got to get back to work, got 80 pages
of fragments like this generated by research of last 2 months

burnt out on research lately, start working notes into text, see
if that puts me back in the groove, im gone

 

ADDENDUM

was looking at the piece, editing it when i thought the endgame of 'stardust all' is really nice,
i like it and will leave it but it also equates god w/stardust, though exotic still a physical entity
whereas god got to b spiritual, beyond material form not matter how exotic, i will have to
figure all this out later, the poetry works, i will leave it at that for moment - i got to work on text

 

POST ADDENDUM ADDENDUM

put it up on facebook, folk liked it but for those
who objected to me caling god the father antiquated
but what can i do, god the father dont work logicsally

if i want to make god important to me i got to make it work logically
there is much we have learned about the nature of god since the

formative days of religion when god was a tribal god, somebody
you could talk to, worship and beseech like you did your father

but that dont work no more and modern religions twist it

around till it does but i figure i will concept god afresh
something i can beieve in, im gon, so much work to do

 

 

 

 

 

 

burn out, im done - of making many books there is no end

hello world

last 2 3 days i have not done a lick of work

i sit at the sacred desk but nothing happens
i can still read stuff but i an unable to transpose

notes into text, this research extraction phase has been labor intensive

i read a chapter worth of stuff i get a sentence
a book worth of stuff, i get a good para

and thats the good books, many books turn out to be useless

i have about 80 pages of raw notes that have to be worked into the text
i have a million books that i have to get thru before i feel competitive

i am so humbled by the works that i have been exposed to in last couple of months
how will i ever digest all the new insight and info i have been accumulating, not to

mention the long list of to be reads, but  the more i work on this project the more i know im supposed to do this
its like this is what im supposed to have done, im probably not the great novelist i aspre to be, i suspect i was

supposed to write nonfiction because it comes so easy to me, put the hours in get the product
but its fiction that still rules my heart and i will be glad to get back to it, do or die

i blame it all on babajohn killens, hadnt been for babajohn in my life i woulda been an easier kind of writer

fiction still my heart, but by god and all thats holy ima get this one off my plate,

because i have been exposed to so many sacred texts of every shape form and fashion

im getting a much clearer idea of what im doing, what it needs to do
also ive been humbled by all the other folk who have 1000s of years of backup

i read the sufi tales, the zen tales, the buddhist tales, great bodies of wisdom literature
and then i look at hoodoo, outside of literary hoodoo its a wasteland, folkmagic spells

and folk on facebook thinking looking spooky and holding a skull is hoodoo
i spent a lot of ideological energy trying to school folk but now i dont even try

i will let the work do the talking

what im tryhing to do now is do stuff like the historicals im doing
in the mode of wisdom tales, holy books are divine histories basically

finally figuted out how im going to handle god, that was a tough one
want that power god bring but want to update our relationship w/god

how do i impassion folk for a nonanthro god, get folk wanting to be one
with god the universe w/the passion of the sufis for their concept of god

i used to be concerned that the work would be too self help
ive moved so far past self help that is no longer a concern

right now i got to figure out what i can do wihle im burnt out
what i might need to do is just take a break,

i can still read stuff but im not even feeling that i dont think, might need
be i need to put the work done and get thru schoolhouse obligations

i got applications needs to be read, got about 3 manuscripts i owe folk feedback on
got googabs of backedup paperwork, maybe i need to just take a break, im wore out

rdoc

 

 

a failure of sensibility, the spirit was not yet ready

what is it about us thinking types that we go looking for shit to worry about, current fear is
when i pick my novel back up i will have lost the literary looseness the novel require as
opposed to this brick by brick narrative of nonfiction sacred work

i got to assume it will enrich my literary voice and not cripple it

 

 

 

been kinda interesting, getting into this project and i realized this
morning that i been working on this off and on for about 30 years now

and my previous drafts have not worked, tried a biblic format, didnt work
tried iching, didnt work, tried narrative, didnt work, but this time im feeling

like it might work this time, might actually be numinous and i realized this
morning i thought my previous failures were failures of form when what

they were were failures of sensibility, i just wasnt ready for what was called for
but this time, im still not ready, but the growth pattern this effort is putting me thru

i got this -  it may not be the great work i aspire it to be
my afroam holybook - but it will be a good sacred text

latest crossroads beats, will keep working on this
some of these are already written, what i got to do

this go round is tell them all as stories,
mythwork, divine histories by rdoc:

CHOSEN CROSSROADS MOMENTS:

monkey doctor standing on two feet

the conflicts between the 3 empires
the drying of the sahara & the movement of a people

the african jihads

Christians and colonialism

the gods of Africa

jebal barkal stands
slavery east and west

the encirclement

iron and tha bantu

the mfecane
the cattle killing
ethiopia and the Swahili coast
the quest for timbuctu

anticolonialist struggle
governance and development
mandela and the rule of chieftans & strongmen
afrospiritual illumination & redemption
united Africa

African American slavery
afrospiritual practice
the imposition of black slavery
the civil war and freedom
reconstruction

palmares and the religions of brazil
carribean and the rasta
Haiti and dominican repub
Trinidad and the Indians
Texaco and Martinique
afrospiritual traditions: voodoo, Santeria, obeah, et al

the romance of antar
malik of the deccan

melenesia and Indonesia
the abos of Australia
dravidians and the black tribes of asia
migratory europe

the harlem renaissance
the great migration
the civil rights movement
the black arts movement

the pan African movement
gangsterism
post race professionalism
empowerment
carribean world

21^st century and identity: one world
the line of o killens and the longgame
the age of Obama
prophecy and the hoodoo way

getting off the planet
getting out of the system
starfarers all
1^st contact
transformations

god as cosmos within & without

i gotta have faith

so this freed up thing, stilll have not fully expressed it, guess ima let it be
but let me show you whats happening, these are raw notes being generated

by this book essential sufism, some are 'quotes' that i have to process
some are me processing as i go, generating notes or new stuff and i

can pretty much tell when its my wording and when its not, but i fear
its likely some raw stuff will slip thru but holybooks steal from other

holybooks, what else is new, so sue me, so these are the raw notes of
last couple of days, ive got about 54 pages of raw stuff thats got to be

processed but there are about 5 more books i want to get thru
before i consider this phase of research done, maybe 7

this stuff is sufi mystical kind of stuff but i got historical, i got mythical
i got my little wisdom stories, and i got geas of rickydoc stuff

basically holybooks are divine histories of the world
this one will be told from an afroam reality

my concern right now is im just generating esoterica and self help pablum but i got to trust
that it will after many drafts be work of power and significance, be visionary

im just swimming thru narrative swamps now, buried in research extraction
im not even doing texts and i got about two weeks left before i dig in, i think

maybe this next semester will still be research extraction with some text work
that will require patience, i want to get back to text, but i got to be patient, got

to work in effective productive phases: remember these are raw research notes, dont judge me:

---------------  

it was in the dawn of time the babajohn once warn humanity that the water was to change and make all humanity that drank of it mad, nothing will stop this, the babajohn prophecy, prepare to make your adjustments - only the conqueror heed his call, stockpiling enuf true water to live out his days, but then came the day the water changed and everybody else went mad, for many moons the conqueror drank only true water but when he tried to tell the rest of humanity how it once was they called him mad and when he persisted they stoned him - soon enuf he threw away the true water and became like everybody else, congratulated on his miraculous recovery, on regaining his sanity like that

for once I stood in the white wintry presence of eternity

know that man was not created in jest or at random but marvelously made and for some greater end

god is found within and without

those prophets who have brought a book are known as messengers

everything has 7 layers of meaning

for the unitgiated at least two, the inner and outer meaning
for the initiated at least 7, possibly 9

to act beautifully

so the people began to question god and ask the babajohn where is this god of yours
invite him to dinner, we would see before we believe, so the babajohn ask god to

dinner and god agree to dinner but when dinner is set out there is no god but only two

beggars at the gates of the city who are not allowed in because this is a special dinner

you see but when god does not appear and the babajohn sent to ask why god say I came

but was not allowed to enter

for every law there is an inner and outer meaning

the outer meaning applies to conduct in society

the inner meaning conduct within the soul

truth must be empowering, facilitating agency in
the world, autonomy of the traveler is always a priority
I will not abide a thief of souls

most folk in the world are civilians, not yet open to the way of the spirit, they
aspire to comfortable lives of meaning, raise families, get their work done

is this not the essence of life, the way of the civilian is not to be faulted, it is a
they are to be protected, nurtured guided, here is where we judge the human
condition, among the people, here is where we judge the value of service

listen o ye players, my warrior kin, manifesting power in the name of grace
my regulators,

guided by travelers, seeking the truth of things in anticipation
of godhood, illuminative province of the high hoodoo(s)

guide and guardian of the hoodoo way
eternal quest to be greater than we are

if the hoodoo way is the rooting
hand, these then are branches:
5 hoodoos a hand,
5 hands a band

5 bands a clan

to each its own but this one thing
I will not abide a thief of souls

the 4 levels of sufi

shariah
tariqah
haqiqaha the inner meaning, direct experience of god
marifah, gnosis, superior wisdom or knowledge of spiritual truth

what is point of the hoodoo way

self knowledge and transformation
playing with reality and the soul

to monitor and tune the soul

to be a spirit doctor tending to sick and hurting souls

to illuminate whenever you can

to enhance the human condition and alleviate suffering

on all levels, personal, cultural, epical

I need to be able to define epics

what are the states of illumination as I see them
sleeping
questing
traveling
service
mastery
transitions
godhood

maturity is always desired
in the world but not of it

to be advisors to the powerful
in matters of spirit & strategy
this is your function, master it

awaken the sleeper, protect the weak, guide the strong

1st two are givens, its guide the strong that changes things
the high hoodoo is never the guest of power, only the host

service unto humanity, this is
why we are here, longgame

the wisdom of the heart sees better than the wisdom of the head
which can be deceived by appearances, the wise heart sees thru
illusion to the truth of things, comprehends the significance thereof

only then can you produce anything of value

it is only in the world that the fruits of your work is fulfilled
know the value of everything in the world, know its place on

the hoodoo board of destiny

the art of significance is the right move at the right time
the right state of mind, the right modal op, being attuned

to the significant moment is the nature of rootwork

switching to another text, tired of sufis, historicals
CHOSEN CROSSROADS MOMENTS:

monkey doctor standing on two feet

the conflicts between the 3 empires
the drying of the sahara & jebal barkal trope
the Islamic jihads
Christians and colonialism
the gods of Africa

slavery east and west
the encirclement

anticolonialist struggle
governance and development
afrospiritual illumination & redemption
united Africa

African American slavery
initial afrospiritual practice
the imposition of black slavery
the civil war and freedom
reconstruction
the harlem renaissance
the great migration
the civil rights movement
the pan African movement
gangsterism
post race professionalism

empowerment
one world identity
the line of o killens and the longgame
the age of Obama
prophecy and the hoodoo way

getting off the planet
getting out of the system
starfarers all
1^st contact
transformations

god as cosmos within & without
what else do i consider significant

moments in human evolution on
black hand side, im tired, im gone

worked hard all day but so much left to
do feel like im just spinning my wheels

all my love

rdoc