rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

fuck it, ima go outlaw

feb 28, 2022 - high noon

started an outlaw text today, an abridgement of hyatts HCWR



WHY AM I DOING THIS.

Trying to shape the hoodoo future

if I turn one of the foundational texts of hoodoology into
a readable text then my interp of classic hoodoology

will be definitive t(one hopes)

not exactly sure what im doing
or what it will look like when im done
juist do it, let it shape itself in the doing

about 30 years ago when it was still rare
(5 known copies) i asked the folkloric society

that owned the copyright if i could do an abridgment
they never got back to me (imma try again tomorrow)

ththy did not give me permisiion so im going outlawng here
and hope to get permission after the fact but even if
its an underground text it will have served my purposes

shaping the hoodoo future

not sure what to call it, its not an  abridgement
cause ima be doing a lot of commentary on the
text

and big dollops of quotes when somebody like
dr yousee begin drop;ping knowledge

ima just do it and let it shape itself in the doing
spent a couple of hours reading thru this morning
the slush is mind numbing

but i feel like i did when i rewrote the brer rabbit
corpus, im taking our culture back

ROUGH OUTLINE:

- WHY AM I DOING THIS

- ME AND THE TEXT: A HISTORY

- BRINGING HOODOO INTO 21ST CENTURY

- HIGH MAGIC VS FOLK

- VALUE OF STUDYING THE TEXT

- EXTRACTING FOLK WISDOM, NOT FOLK MAGIC

- HYATT AND HARRIS, METHODOLOGY AND CUSTODIANSHIP

- ON ORAL HISTORIES AND FOLK WISDOM

- THE TEXT: 

- 1^ST  VOL

- 2^ND VOL

- 3^RD VOL

- CLOSURE

WHY AM I DOING THIS.

Trying to shape the hoodoo future

if I turn one of the foundational texts of hoodoology
into a readable text then my interp of classic hoodoology
will be definitive t(one hopes)

not exactly sure what im doing

thy did not give me permisiion so im going outlaw here
and hope to get permission after the fact but even if
its an underground text it will have served my purposes

this been on my mind to do for decades
i figure niow is the time, i am no longer
the seekr i was when  i 1st read it
i am now a teacher and hope to get more
from text than when i was a callow youth

whatever, the key to doing a challengin g text
is to just start it, lopng as its a im gonna its
not real but if you start it as i have just done
eventually you will fininish it

good lord willing and the creek dont rise

HISTORY WITH THE TEXT

I got a history with this text, 1^st encountered it when I was a baby hoodoo
went to the schomberg to see what they had for research purposes
I was shocked when they came out with a yard of books


first ran across it at the schomberg, was doing hoodoo research there, when I dug into hoodoo I went there assuming they would have good research material and lord help me among the hoodoo books I found there was HRC&W,

I was astounded when they bought out a stack of book a yard high, literarily, 5 vol, the 1^st 3 vols are the gold mine, 100s of hoodoo oral histories compiled by harry hyatt, a methodist preacher who traveled throughout the south 1930s recording hoodoo oral histories, the 1^st 3 are all oral histories, the last two are hoodoo recipes, which interest me not, the 1^st three are full of repetitive slush but amongst all that drivel there is hoodoo gold, I spent weeks breaking it down, every day all day, not only that insight into hoodoo lives, personalities and rough hewn folk philosophies, it was a folkloric language experience that I soaked up for my own literary voice, must have done a 100 dollars in copies, these are examples of notes have been translated from deep dialect, often its the turn of phrase Im looking for, these are beats you have seen or will see in my work, even as I write them down Im redoing them in my own words, triggering my own insights, dont know if these been fully processed or not, I don’t care, I claim they have

- my constant study is to know when you walk in my door better than you know yourself.

- if I cant get a clients mind I cant do nothing with them

- they got to believe in the tradition, believe in me, then I can help them,

- whole thing is what worries on your mind, everybody got something worry at them

- the spirit of my mind told me to

- you give it a spirit of imagination wonder

-  a hoodoo is a fortuneteller, a seer, master of dreams and spirits, a foreknower, able to know what has happened, is happening and will happen in the totality of the moment

- didn't nobody teach me because Im gifted, that mean the knowledge is already in you, all you got to do is act

- difference between the sorceror and the fortuneteller is that the fortuneteller tells your fortune, the sorceror makes it

-  they prevailed on me to go to someone that knowed a little more than I did

- you know you been fixed when you in bad luck, when you find yourself going contrary to your character

- charge a person according to what you think they can pay, I work in % of power, I charge less for less, 25%, 50%, 75% 100%, the best cost you $25, I guarantee it for 5 years – the 1^st time you win send me 5 silver dollars, the next time you win send me the rest

- if you have a strong determination that you will win you will

- lot of people come to me say they hurt and they are not, they get a pain they think they been hoodooed but most often its not that, if you tell them that they will go pay somebody else to trick them

- I don't need no bible no spells long as I get you well and work for your happiness then thats all thats necessary

- I dont need no altar because my altar is myself, I was gifted w/that, the high altar

- a conjure will conquer all obstacles for you or teach you how

- aunt zippy tull lived in drummond town virginia, she didn't use no cards or nothing, just told it straight out

- dr yousee: you got to get a persons mind concentrated, you understand, on what you undertaking to do for him, you first gotta build up a confidence, understand, you see, between you and him where he believes in what you telling him and that he believes you can do just what you tell him, you see

- uncle tom williams, when asked if he could handle a case, said son, I can do most anything

I came out of that immersion operating on
an entirely different level of hoodoology

I have repeatedly been called a hoodoo theorist and it is not a compliment, the fundamentalists are appalled at my blanket dismissal of folk magic, but then hoodoo always been an eclectic system shaped to the practitioner, I remind myself of what hyatt called the hoodoo principle - anymethod anytime - the propensity of hoodoo to break the rules of magic with a patchwork quilt of procedure in search of what works, a refusal to be restricted by rules and traditions, a bastard tradition kinda like the african american culture that sustains it,

A GARAGE FULL OF THEM

so david earl jackson call me one day, say some midwest folklore society found a whole garage of hyatts hoodoo vols and selling them $20 a vol, $100 for a full set, I copped two sets, one for me, one for gifts but I didnt believe it until they showed up, and then told every hoodoo I knew, unfortunately I told cat yronwode who bought them all and then sold them at a substantial markup on her site and I realize everybody aint in this for the same reason, instead of sharing empowering knowledge she monetized it, her website is a great resource I must say, problem w/cat is she practice that archaic hoodoo she has researched so thoroughly,

bout a 100 years out of date

so I got both a full set of hyatt and an education, every once in a while I dig in, so happy I got a full set, well its not full any more, recently sent vol 4 to rod jackman, for all the drafts he had read, I had posted my collection on FB and he tried to buy a set but the price tag threw him, I sent him vol 4, and what the hell I sent sheree 5, just because, altar gift, it’s the 1^st three Ima hold onto til james come for them when Im gone, whole set go for many thousands but I was never gon sell them so it does not matter, for me they are priceless,

WHY IM DOING THIS

ANYMETHOD ANYTIME

almost immediately I abandoned folk magic as a viable paradigm for the 21^st century, folkmagic bores me the cutting edge of hoodoo doing high magic these days, according to me

playing with reality,

and the divine human mind / spirit

shaping generations, destinywork

enhancing the human condition, rootwork

aspiring to the prophetic

and oneness w/divinity

I have repeatedly been called a hoodoo theorist and it is not a compliment, the fundamentalists are appalled at my blanket dismissal of folk magic, but then hoodoo always been an eclectic system shaped to the practitioner, I remind myself of what hyatt called the hoodoo principle - anymethod anytime - the propensity of hoodoo to break the rules of magic with a patchwork quilt of procedure in search of what works, a refusal to be restricted by rules and traditions, a bastard tradition kinda like the african american culture that sustains it,

RADICALLY UNINTERESTED IN FOLK MMAGI

HIGH MAGIC VS FOLK


VALUE OF STUDYING THE TEXT


EXTRACTING FOLK WISDOM, NOT FOLK MAGIC


HYATT, HARRIS,METHODOLOGY AND CUSTODIANSHIP



ON THE NATURE OF ORAL HISTORIES


THE TEXT: 


1^ST  VOL

2^ND VOL

3^RD VOL

CLOSURE

on hoodoo naming

souldancer me, anon by anon,

hellol world, had an email inquiry about hoodoo naming

--------------

K_______, your hoodoo name
represents your mythical self

your spiritworld self, most hoodoos have a
self given name that they are known by

doctor buzzard, dr. john
aunt carolyn dye

in our own time, mama whodun
papa CE, papa joe dyer, mama rue

etc etc

I have been at diff stages of my evolution

rickydoc rootdoctor
rickydoc trickmaster

etc etc, it evolves as I do

This is your spiritworld you

early in your practice you keep
it secret cause your belief

in your power is not strong enuf to
withstand realities scorn but as

you grow in power it becomes your
public identity, a mask you don

as called for, you
shapeshifter you

all this is in my book

the hoodoo book of flowers

once you choose your hoodoo
name you have to program it

you must conduct yourself henceforth as
a high magician and you must program

deep belief in your magical prowess as
enabled in your meditational practice  - 

be safe

fishing for fisherfolk

okay, ima put this on social media
still working on it

-----------  

Hello all,

as part of my closure, I am taking on
students who want to hoodoo like I do

what I call custodial hoodoo that takes
responsibility for your chosen community
from neighborhood to tribe to all humanity
and all god creature great and small

usually when folk hear hoodoo they thinking slaverytime
hoodoo, spells hells haints and love potions

folk magic hoodoo, about 100 years out of date hoodoo
folk magic worked for a folk people but we aint been a
folk people for generations now

so lets talk about magic, what is it, how does it work

1^st we reject folk magic, who got time for hot foot powder

folk magic is fine for a folk people but we aint been
a folk people for generations, that’s the hoodoo past

we the hoodoo future

and we aint talking about stage magic, pulling
rabbits out the hat, we talking high magic:

- playing w/reality and the divine mind: magicwork

- enhancing the human condition: rootwork

- shaping future generations, guide and
  guardian of human destiny: destinywork

- oneness w / divinity / the great mojo: godwork

i also call my brand of hoodoo literary hoodoo
cause it is manifested thru cultural products that

work the tribal soul thru working its culture that we administer
to by accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative,

the tribal medicine person, 21^st century style

a conjunction of mind will and way that utilizes time proven
magical and ideological technology to shape the future, to
shape generations and forge reality,

guide and guardian of human destiny,

I am not interested in folk magic, nor a bunch of students,
who got time, anybody who approaches me for training
will be put to the test, I will not share power with anybody
I am confident will not misuse it and I believe if a student
comes to you on a whim they will leave on a whim

assume you will be tested before I accept you
which will also give you time to decide if im
right for you, each student is a major investment
id rather not make but I got to institutionalize my
vision,

if not in my eldership when, I sense I am moving into
closure have recently been approached by a couple of folk
I have taken on and find it a satisfying experience, redemptive,

this phase of my life arc I am open to inquiries,

been sending them weekly missives, this is HM4
give you an idea of how im approaching this

also I got them reading hoodoo texts: we discussing
mama day and mumbo jumbo for march

got them working on their own Texts and media products
thru which I expect them to effect cultural custodianship

(and an independent source of income not
dependent on monetizing your clients pain)
  
-------------- 

HM4: ON CONJURATIONS

my job is to facilitate

your growth / identity as tribal medicine folk, tribal
custodians helping the tribe get thru another winter

taking care of the tribal soul / culture thru our works
giving it what it needs, extracting what it don’t

being historical forces, change agents, if you hanging
w/me that mean you in the history books too.

its important that you understand this and conduct yourselves accordingly,
assume every word, every move will be judged by history / future generations

I recall when I 1^st realized I was a player and everybody would know my
business and be judging me and I almost walked away from the game

decided its worth any cost to be historical / destinical
to actually make a difference, to ‘save’ the race and
benefit all humanity, to be one of historys great teachers

henceforth conduct yourself as if you are staring in
a biopic and every move be conscious of how its going
to read one day, how its gon play on the big screen,

write your own script: historical / destinical force

Ima show you how to make it happen

conduct yourself as you aspire to be and
you are - this is the key to conjuration

how to make real in the world that which was not: magic

so how does one go about being a true magician

1^st you must believe in magic, believe that you can.
actually make real into the world that which was not,
last session talked programming that absolute belief
in your magic thru meditational tech, you got to believe

to get there I need you to 1^st have a hoodoo identity
I want those hoodoo names by this weekend

then I got to teach you magical meditation, in which you
learn how to vitalize imagery until real in the world

and magical transformation, in which you learn how
to shapeshift thru dimensions, two headed folk

but I cant do any of these until
you have basic competency

1) a hoodoo identity and 2) understand
high magic and how to make it happen
all enabled thru 3) meditational practice

yes we doing baby steps, I AM, and
establishing meditational practice

but cant get to 2^nd gear wo going thru 1^st
much less 3^rd, 4^th, infinity

I need a name by this weekend

and I think ima have you keep a record
of meditational practice for which I will
want a weekly report, 20 minutes a week
in 5 minute sessions ought to be doable

and I know we are all under the life gun,
I don’t do it myself as regular as I should

I will also report

but meditation will improve your daily grind,
like sleep renews you, meditation will too,

ima assume you are on top of your daily grind, diff
to reach for the high road if you on shaky ground

one more point since I got you here
an incident happened w/my mentor

babajohn Killens, the great griot
master of brooklyn, when I was a

youngster and a power freak, (still am
just more spiritual about it now)

cause one day he pulled me aside and said
you a brilliant writer, art, but with a little
compassion you could be profound

All I heard was brilliant, wasn’t until
life had humbled me some I realized
he was trying to make sure that my

contribution, as his student, would be warm
and loving instead of hard and cold

an old shaman trying to take
care of the tribal soul,

as I shall try to do thru you

but I tell james all the time: don’t let me lay
my dreams on you, if I ask for too much
just yank my chain, no harm no foul

everybody aint about being change agents but
you are into being contemporary hoodoos,

21^st century stylee

tribal medicine folk - taking care
of the tribe is what we do

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

if you aint got the power to change
things what kind of conjuror are you:

all my love

im bad, im bad

FEB 26 10:09


one of clevelands necklaces, he gon put
i am flowers of the delta clan flowers on it

finished new draft of novel, utterly diff
figured no sense doing again what ive
done for 20 years and expecting better
outcome, doing what i call a griotic epic now

what i do is i extract the probelmatic parts
and i work them over abnd over till i can
stick themm back into text, so i have fixed
all the issies that probably only rod remember
cause i took that post down TMI

okay so moving forward
go over extracts one mo.re time, longhand
today and sunday, put into full text

put aside to let get cold while i draft the douthet
book on aging well, gice that a week

go thhru novell text over and over until satisfied

one to two weeks,, depending, send to agent
as in get it off the plate, keep working on it
every couple of weekends

start the HCRW text as i do these other projects

take pilgrimage text to next level  april i guess

guess then a revision of memoir  - may

revision of novel - june / july (bday gift, 72)

finalize douthet text - aufgust

make HCRW a real text - sept to dec

students thing ongoing
een accepting gig requests again, been turning them
down for two years, voice is shot, going down slow
but will keep performing long as i can, make my declinne
part of the act, irony is even w/trembling hands ima
better muusicianb, both technically and spiritually

i gotta go, need to take care of household stuff

when you pushing hard the daily tasks get backburned
now i got to rredress that before bonnie tosses me out

all my love

on the nature of training: hh3, 4, 5,

FEB 21 8:52 am


sherees afrofuturist concert at carnegie hall

hello world, i been sending hoodoo missives
to my trainees, ima do excerpts and fragments
here, dont know that ima maintain it, it is
occult knowledge, but im fishing for fisherfolk

we will see

--------  

my job is to facilitate

your growth / identity as tribal medicine folk, tribal
custodians helping the tribe get thru another winter

taking care of the tribal soul / culture thru our works
giving it what it needs, extracting what it don’t

being historical forces, if you hanging w/ me
that mean you in the history books too.

its important that you understand this and conduct yourselves accordingly,
assume every word, every move will be judged by history / future generations

I recall when I 1^st realized I was a player and everybody would know my
business and be judging me and I almost walked away from the game

decided its worth any cost to be historical / destinical
to actually make a difference, to ‘save’ the race
and all humanity, to be one of historys great teachers

henceforth conduct yourself as if you are staring in
a biopicand every move be conscious of how its going
to read one day, how its gon play on the big screen,

write your own script

Ima show you how to make it happen

conduct yourself as you aspire to be and
you are - this is the key to conjuration

how to make real in the world that which was not

so lets talk about magic, what is it, how does it work

1^st we reject folk magic, who got time for love spells
folk magic is fine for a folk people but we aint been
a folk people for generations, that’s the hoodoo past

we the hoodoo future

and we aint talking about stage magic, pulling
rabbits out the hat, we talking high magic:

- playing w/reality and the divine mind: magic

- enhancing the human condition: rootwork

- shaping future generations, guide and
  guardian of human destiny: destinywork

- oneness w / divinity / the great mojo: godwork

so how does one go about being a magician

1^st you must believe in magic, believe that you can.
actually make real into the world that which was not,

to get there I need you to 1^st have a hoodoo identity
I want those hoodoo names by this weekend

then I got to teach you magical meditation, in which you
learn how to vitalize imagery until real in the world

and magical transformation, in which you learn how
to shapeshift thru dimensions, two headed folk

but I cant do any of these until
you have basic compentency

1) a hoodoo identity and 2) understand
magic and how to make it happen all
enabled thru 3) meditational practice

yes we doing baby steps, I AM and
establishing meditational practice

but cant get to 2^nd gear wo going thru 1^st

I need a name by this weekend

and I think ima have you keep a record
of meditational practice for which I will
want a weekly report, 20 minutes a week
in 5 minute sessions ought to be doable

and I know we are all under the life gun,
I don’t do it myself, I will also report

but meditation will improve your daily grind,
like sleep renews you, meditation will too,

yall be safe

HH4:

 

. . . .

one more point since I got you here

an incident happened w/my mentor
babajohn Killens, the great griot
master of brooklyn, when I was a

youngster and a power freak, (still am
just more spiritual about it now)

cause one day he pulled me aside and said
you a brilliant writer, art, but with a little
compassion you could be profound

All I heard was brilliant, wasn’t until
life had humbled me some I realized
he was trying to make sure that my

contribution, as his student, would be
warm and loving instead of hard and cold

an old shaman trying to take
care of the tribal soul,

as I shall try to do thru you

I tell james all the time: don’t let me lay
my dreams on you, if I ask for too much
just yank my chain, no harm no foul

everybody aint about being change
agents but you are into being
contemporary hoodoos

tribal medicine folk - taking care
of the tribe is what we do

if you aint got the power to change
things what kind of conjuror are you

all my love

a state of acute frustration

FEB 16

marlons new book so good, so much
what i aspire to and am incapable of
writing and i sent him a congratulatory
note thru our mutual agent and i was like
what if he is dismissive and i have put
myself out for naught and i got folk who
have not responded to manuscripts and
i just got so much anxitiy clawing at me

i get all panicky about folk not responding
to overtures but i got to be beyond that

i got to express my truths and accept
the costs, im 72 this year, i just dont
feel like a lot of unearned anxities

im not feeling it

marlolns novel has humbled me
i want once again to abandon the
phantom, but i simply dont know how

got to go, need to clock pages

the anxieties they never go away
you just keep working

i look forward to next revision of
my memoir, im still growing and
it will affect closure, working on
two texts, life as pilgrimage and
one about eldership and both
are evolving me, gotta go

gotta clock some pages

i should be doing all these speculations
on social media but i dont like writing

for likes




FEB15,  

reading marlon james new book
the book i seem to be incapable
of writing, i believe something

in me has broken, something
has given up, i have to accept

im not the great writer i have
always aspired to be, i dont even
appear to be a good writer
much less great

ima finisnh this novel

ima finish my other projects
but i no longer expect success

ima keep writing till the bell
rings cause thats what i do

and give marlon his props

im done

PS

interesting this recent attitude
something has shifted, not sure what
will still be doing my daily grind
that is not gon change

but there is something in me that
is in process of disengaging

interesting

in the book of pilgrimage i talk about
some part of you has to be disengaged
no matter how im portant the moment
the effort, some part of you has to be
above it all, disengaged from benefit

or somethnig, whatever it is
im feeling the faint stirring

also getting into training my students
thats been a rewarding process

wrote this announcement for FB
then decided against begging

i will put it here where only
folk who really interested

will find it

Hello all, as part of my closure, I am taking on students in literary hoodoo, manifesting the indigenous afroam spiritual system thru works of art that function as cultural custodianship, which I perceive to be a manifestation of the tribal soul, that we administer to by accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative, custodial hoodoo that takes responsibility for the welfare of your chosen community, the tribal medicine person, what I also call high hoodoo, working with high magic over folk, playing w/reality, contributions to the enhancement of the human condition, oneness with divinity, a conjunction of mind will and way that utilizes time proven magical and ideological technology to shape the future, to forge reality, gujide and guardian of human destiny, I am not interested in folk magic, nor a bunch of students, who got time, but this phase of my life arc I am open to inquiries,

-------------  






FEB 12, still lost  1:53 am

all the pieces scattered
all over the garage floor

where they go i do not know
amd wont until july or so

woe o woe o woe

(took it out, rod, it was
too muich process)

i am so happy

i am working on my novel again
did 5 pages this mornming
good solid pages

otherstuff dont count
nonfiction is too easy
you put the houurs in
you get the product

fiction continues
to defy me

i love it

on the nature of voice

FEB 5: (how can it be feb5 already)

so i finished my draft and sent it off to james and casey
now that ive done it im getting all possessive but i got

to give them a shot, i got to provide for family

but the big problem will be voice, my stylee so uniquely
mine and they dont want to just copy me, anyway this

what i told them:

---------------  

So im thinking about the problem of voice
reason my work has power is I have a
unique voice / style

but making my voice work been a daily struggle
with the word and learning my Craft to point
it looks easy but as you shall soon see it is not

okay so as you see im going for a type of spiritual poetry
I want to roll like rumi and other sufi wisdom poets

so I have no idea how this weave is gon work
and how three voices will blend

you don’t just want to copy me

but its inevitable my style will influence
your riffs cause they riffs

I suggest just try to be sincere

that is the key to voice, don’t try to be DEEP

or anything else

Just be SINCERE

what do you have to say to humanity
and all the generations that will help
them live better more rewarding lives

SINCERITY

and SIGNIFICANCE

as in ESSENTIAL

also I am a minimalist, going for poetry

say what you got to say

don’t be throwing a lot of words at it

got to trust that you have communicated

and that your readership is a sophisticated readership

a lot of explaining will just irritated your super readers

in literary circles if you know what
you got to say it takes fewer words

a bunch of words just insecurity

reason I break / space my lines is to enhance

readers ability to digest my work

 

------------------  

okay i got to go, every word i generate
here is one that i didnt put in a book,

i gotta go, be safe

excerpt from de geas: giving bonnie props

feb 3rd, 3:05 pm  (pg 112 of 120)


the power is iithin thich photo of @badgairiri


you see those numbers dont you
almost done but its the last 20 pgs
or o thats got to shine, slogging

did this passage for geas just now
was thinking to give bonnie some props


-----------  

first time I met bonnie she was walking across campus and I was sitting on a bench behind the hall of languages with keith gilyard and I said who is that and he said bonnie ryan and he introduced me and I pursued her like I have never pursued anybody and still doing so, bonnie kinda saved me, I was a 50 year old bachelor and you know that’s a problem, finally like I understand long term love with all its challenges and its difficult to be a writer wo understanding transformative love, she try my patience regular with her womansplaining but that aint no dealkiller, maybe its that sharp edged DC born jamaica woman in her cause its like she think males are congenitally slow and everything must be explained 5 times before it takes, but then putting up with me aint been no cakewalk, Ive lost two old and treasured friends cause of this memoir, im willing to put my business in the street but not ours, I might take a chance with other folk, not with bonnie, gon be just the facts, mam, aint gon be no wild speculative leaps, her disapproval scare me, I have been thoroughly domesticated, we have made a good life team, as you shall soon see, dear reader, she is seriously grounded while I am the quintessential poet in flight, aint got a lick of common sense, but I live life hard, I live large and bonnie like that in a man, long as Im clocking pages she indulge me, it works out