rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

FYI: dialogues

MAY 25, 2023    8:31 AM  CUSE



hoodoo heritage month poster, check oct 18th, a sacred day for sure

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dearest ellen, I feel need to justify my hoodoo almanac
I know its full of cliché spiritwork and wornout observations

1 - basic spirit observations are historically consistent, you rephrase
and update but love thy neighbor etc is generic spiritwork

2 - im kinda not writing to the industry these days -  my bad

im trying to get a given Body of Work done before I lose my chops

at 73 its just a matter of time and I have certain Works in mind
for folk in the future who decide to walk the Paths ive laid out

who want to hoodoo like I do

in hoodoo circles I am sometimes called a
‘hoodoo theorist’ it is not a measure of respect
i fear i am often talking over folks heads

This Text is an effort to Ground my Teachings in folks
daily lives, a meditation on how to live ‘the mystic’s way’

also maybe 30 years ago I determined I wanted
to be quoted by future generations and started
very consciously writing in quotable phrasings

i know I got trite cliches in the Work, my
bad, but still I think it will be an important

contribution to my Body of Works and
every draft is a little less trite

the memoir is diff now, much more focused
not just compacted - who knows if it works,

but between retirement and giving up on
ever pleasing the industry I have been

liberated to dialogue w/the generations
and when I try to sell I will be selling a

a Body of Works, all of which I think
are impo and feed off each other

right now Im just focused on Creating while I still can

ima a mystic and a conjureman, im not sure why
the industry doesn’t expect me to be different

sorry you have had to nurture such
a problematic voice all these years

after the memoir ima rewrite that novel again - habit

reasons im hoping for diff novel outcome:
1 im just an incurable narrative optimist

2 ive wrestled with my wisdom text
3 ive wrestled with self knowledge / memoir

4 ive used up the stories that drove novel
before in my graphic flash collection

5 all ive got left of that old draft is a skeleton that ive got
vague ideas of what to do with - but am eager to try again

6 freed of need to please schoolhouse, industry or readers

I think I still got chops tho I fear now I never had them but
7 what else is the old retiree expected to do w/his time

all my love always

arf

abandon ship

MAY 16 2023 7:55 AM SYR

I discouraged myself so bad this morning

so I got this new memoir outline / structure / approach, right

so the next step is to go into old draft and see
what I can use and all I see is the same old stuff

I been saying the last 50 years that the industry
and the culture has already shrugged off and its like
ok ima say the same damn thing different yet again

and hope this time folk get it

I was so discouraged I wanted to abandon ship
but you absolutely never abandon a project

what, pray tell, does how you feel
have to do w/getting your work done

once you start a book you finish it
once you start a draft you finish it

if you want to abandon it once its done okay
but never in midstride, always finish the move

you don’t know if it works or not unless you do it
the only thing fatal in this business is giving up

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NOTES; WOULD TRIBAL HEALER VOICE BE OVER THE TOP

XI: INVOCATION

1A        I AM FLOWERS OF THE DELTA CLAN FLOWERS
1B:        I WANNA BE A HERO, A RETURNING CULTURE HERO
1C:       A PROPHET OF THE HOODOO WAY

X2:       THE HOODOO WAY

2A:       TRADITIONAL HOODOO AND 21^ST CENTURY STYLEE
2B:       LITERARY HOODOO  (and the sacred text)
2C:       MGANGA MAUA,,    (cultural custodianship and tribal healers)

X3:       THE HIGH HOODOO OF MEMPHIS

3A:       THE MYTHOPOETIC TRADITION OF THE DELTA.  (representing)
3B:       MEMPHIS & THE DELTA AS AA HOLYGROUND.  (on mythwork)
3C:       CULTURAL CUSTODIANSHIP: A FAMILY TRADITION (a tale of two militants)

X4:       THE LINE OF O KILLENS

4A:       GETTING IN THE KILLENS WORKSHOP.  (Vietnam)
4B:       LEARNING MY TRADE (on being crafty)
4C:       ON WISDOM TALES: mythwork: THE BABAJOHN

X5:       A MAN OF POWER

5A:       IDEOLOGICAL ORCHESTRATION (cultural empowerment))
5B:       THE HOODOO BOARD OF DESTINY (destinywork)
5C:       HORSE OF THE CONQUEROR (hoodoo studies)
5D:       THE COMPASSION OF O KILLENS. (on taking souls)

X6:       ON TAKING THE HAMMER

6A:       GOING DOWN SLOW.   (hwg, heartbreak, drugs)
6B:       WATCHTOWER PAMPHLET    (on viable spiritual systems)_
6C:       YOUR FAMILY NEEDS YOU   (too busy saving the world)
6D:       THE REBUILD (a new vision, a new me)

X7:       THE CALL OF PROPHECY

7A:       GIVING UP ON BLACK PEOPLE   (of my generation)
7B:       EMPOWERMENT & SELF DETERMINATION (bottomfeeders everywhere)
7C:       REPARATIONS & THE LONG GAME. (on cultural follies & strategic postures)
7D:       ANSWERING THE CALL    (prophecy and the longgame)
7E:       WHAT I HOPE TO ACHIEVE   (a strong people / culture / generational empowerment)

X8:       SPEAKING TRUTH TO THE PEOPLE   (have to be capable of speaking truth to the people if i am to ever be the great hoodooman i see in me )

8A:       THE GRIOTS WAY.    (gathering folk around the sacred fire)
8B:       THE ILLUMINATED CHILDREN OF THE SUN (on mi mythwork)
8C:       DE GEAS OF RICKYDOC. (on mi mythwork)

X9:       ON ELDERSHIP

9A:       ADJUSTMENTS. (getting old is a hard road)
9B:       RETIREMENT / PASSING IT ON.  (students in the tradition)
9C:       AN UNEASY PATRIARCH.  (learning to do family)
9D:       WISDOMQUESTING.   (equanimity, vision, legacy)
9E:       ON CLOSURE (withdrawing from the fray)