rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

final push, the hoodoo way

apr 29, 8:55pm pg 51 of 102

uncle rabbit in de briar patch  -  AI Word by Rdoc

took a day off, resisting
urge to take two,
i was on burnout patrol

still unhappy w/the product
clearly not a closure draft

probably realizing that is
what got me discouraged

my standard have not fallen
they have totally evaporated

i have one goal in life, to
finish this draft this week

showtime

apr 27, 6:33pm pg 51 of 104

i cant take it, was lying there taking a break
and running novel scenariios in my head
perhaps when ive done my daily 10 i can
start blocking out my novel

apr 27, pg 44 of 104 i was just looking
over this post and that admonition

- saddle up soldier -

me support talking myself, the bilateral mind in
dialogue - which folk have traditionally deified

or demonized - what if i was to have an ongoing
dialogue between jubilation and the conqueror

in mi novel, take a stab at
it, rick, see what comes up

(see, see, the conquerors voice, Im
so excited at the potential here)

but thats the stage im in, the novel
is bubbling in my head, its ready to
roll but i am not, i got to finish the
draft of the hoodoo way, no telling

how long an extensive draft of the novel
will take, at least a year - and when you
clocking those 70s you knoow you could
check out at any moment, i got to finish

the draft, have it be a done deal, legacy

i got to go, june fucking 11th

revivial meeting: AI word by Rdoc

apr 27, 9:42am pg 42 of 104 and i am sick
of this project, not even half way, 10 a day
is going to drive me stark raving mad, im

on jun11, divinity & the great mojo, jun11,
not even half way and totally discouraged

- saddle up soldier, whimpering is unseemly

i do not ever abandon a draft
till its done, i live by the Code

if you abandon a draft before its done you
have to start over when you come back to it

regulations by rdoc: always finish the draft

apr 26, 7:57 pm,  pg 41 of 104

okay my standards have totally collapsed
wont be no revision of weak passages

i got to make my deadline

apr 26, the cuse 8:44 am pg 32 of  104

sister rabbit in repose  -   AI Word by Rdoc

okay okay, im trying to clock
10 pgs a day, im on pg 32 of 104

and just dont have time to get stuck
cleaning up weak passages

my standards have fallen
i am so eager to do that novel
whats bubbling in my head is
a brand new fantasmical lick

i got to get thru this draft
this what i did just now
so very weak but i dont

have time to sit and wrestle
with it, its not really coherent

its not urgent, its not essentialist

right now its just a loosely connected
series of observations, so not compelling

ima park it here where i can
fiddle with it when i got time

be safe

---------  

APR23:   THE HIGH ROAD

once upon a time on the edge of night and day, brer rabbit hear a
mournful howl, whoop whoop whooooo, who there, ask brer rabbit,
he hold up the lantern he carrying when he hear a voice sad as it can
be asking is that you, brer rabbit, this brer wolf, need some help here,
at which point brer rabbit peer over the edge of the road and there brer
wolf is under a rock and sorely aggrieved, dont know that helping you
is to my advantage, say brer rabbit, you been mighty keen on having me
and mine for dinner, so brer rabbit he continue on his way but all that
night he hear that mornful howl so he return the next morning and roll off
the rock, in return brer wolf say every full moon he will give the rabbit folk
a pass and that’s why every full moon you hear that mournful howl, brer wolf
announcing to all the rabbit kin that the deal still on, whoop whoop whoooooo,

 

The High Road: conduct on the highest plane of which
we are capable at that moment in crossroadial time

When you come too the crossroads always choose the
High Road, always strive to be better than you are.

As an individual, as a people. A culture.

There is always a better you.
There is always a better way.

No matter how good it seems,
There is always better.

It is the unceasing search
for better than leads to FA.

Cry not to me, o Traveler, of your burdens, responsibility
lies with the responsible, I didnt choose you, God did.

The High Road is a difficult road, requiring of you your very best.
Pilgrimage w/o a degree of difficulty is not a Pilgrimage. The low road
is the easy road but you don’t necessarily grow from it. An easy ride
wouldn’t be very transformative would it? Expect difficulty.
When it matters. Embrace difficulty. When it matters.

And do remember, o Traveler, how easily all those years building trust
can be lost in one moment of questionable behavior. Do nothing you
don’t want exposed, everything comes into the light. Leadership requires
moral authority and relentless dignity. Folk need to know they can
depend on you. That in times of need you will be the last one to fold.

Leadership you have to earn.

Just cause you of the conscious don’t mean you can dismiss folk that
aren’t conscious. That don’t have the advantages you have. They the ones
the conscious been sent here to Serve. Humility is not an act of nature,
humility is an act of will. I expect of you unrelenting Generosity of Spirit.

The default position is Hoodoo Dignity in all things at all times. The High Road.

This is reflected in the Hoodoo Posture, tall spine, full chest. Brace those
shoulders, soldier, move with deliberate grace, rest in profound stillness.

An ongoing quest for significance laying down crossroads at will. We must
at all times carry ourselves w/the Hoodoo Dignity that demands respect,

Conduct yourself as as a Superior Personality and
you are. This is the Essence of Conjuration.

showtime, clark university ATL

you will notice dear reader i did not really process this last post
i am so eager to finish the draft of the hoodoo way so i can
get to novel, which has started to percolate in my head

ima go wild this draft, in past i was hindered by determination
to show readers how a real hoodoo roll but since ive done
that in the memoir i can let my fantasmical flag fly, i am
going to trip out this draft and having to restrain myself

cause i got to finish the draft of THWay, always finish
the draft, if i abandon it halfway i got to start all over

when i start again and if i die tomorrow it joins the
uncompleted works pile, always finish the draft

i spent last week getting the stories together
so im behind schedule,, pg 29 of 97, i write single

space so thats really about 60 of 200,

so 60 pages to do, i think 10 a day is maybe too much but if i
can pull off 10 a day i wiull be thru by end of month or so

i like that, full court press rick, lets

separate the writers from the dilettantes

im feeling that new novel draft

really really feeling it

one more round, lord

'

ima take a quick stab at testifying why the clark univ performance went so well, 1^st it was georgene bess invited me, georgene and me was babys in the tradition back when we met and she is one of the few scholars on the planet who has given me some lit crit love, so that she invited me to a conference called black boy love I was already primed but then I get to campus and its gloriously black, earnest black students filled with a discernable pride of place, I get there and the old road warrior aint as resilient as he used to be, I pass on going to campus then changed my mind and caught a cab and was glad I did so cause I caught hd hunter, met him as he was going in and im thinking he mighty young and I catch a hint of gold grill and im like kinda dismissive but boy got on stage and showed up, I mean impressive and engaging, a damn wunderkind, with absolutely beautiful vibrations, and afterward im like a fanboy, my brother my brother, and there was this brother there with a hat so pretty I told him he need to be careful I don’t snatch it off his head, turned out he was the morning reader my day, datch, who know everybody I know, we come from the same line of struggle and he know a good brim is essential in public so by the time I took the stage I was in a downhome state of mind, like when I go home to the delta, I got diff masks for diff folk, reached in and it was the high hoodoo of memphis showed up, rickydoc waymaker, I got up there and commence to exhorting, which only happens when I do the delta, or one of the seven sisters of the south, memphis, atlanta, bham, new orleans et al, me and mi interviewer, brother rooks, was simpatico, mi girl adero was in the house, paul coates, I started feeding of the congregation they started feeding off me and mi new hand pan, with which I have established a mystical connection, just playing it is a true healing for mi, been doing what I call meditation blues on it, it was a good gig, we hit the zone - demoja

on living the hoodoo way

4/14/24   pg 10 of 97 pgs



hello all, finished mi memoir and happy with it
getting mi last feedback opinions and now
working on The Hoodoo Way

want to get it off mi plate cause
im eager to dig into mi novel

so this is the intro beat setting it up

going thru a crises, all mi students black, which
shows you where my head is, i still think of it as
the indigenous black spiritual system, still think
of myself as the tribal medicine worker

and all mi students, ie the next generation

serious about keep hoodoo exclusively black

whereas i have been trying to universalize the tradition

i would the hoodoo way be one
of the world's Great Ways

this text / the hoodoo way is trying to turn
the whole world onto hoodoo but i am
susceptible to keeping it black

what im thinking now is that you dont
actually have to be a hoodoo to live

the hoodoo way

this book will explore what it means

to live the Hoodoo Way

an African American Way

schedule is 10 pages
a day for ten days

two days off, so i wiill be done by
end of month, at which point i will
do novel, novel been bouncing round

in mi head, gon do it from scratch
this time -  see what shows up

so, everyday of the big push i will put
up an excerpt from that days work

-------------   

INVOCATION: let this work be a healing

in the beginning god created humanity
when humanity got too proud god created death
when death got too proud god created art



I am Flowers of the Delta Clan Flowers and the Line of O. Killens. This Text was
originally a 365 day Hoodoo Almanac structure designed to give guidance in your
Daily Grind. A year of transformation that represent a lifetime. But I was not happy
with the Product. It was Shallow and your boy don't do Shallow. Decided I would let
this be the one where I let it all hang out. I rarely say what I really feel for fear folk
will find it delusional. But I guess anytime you let your freak flag fly you delusional.

Since it does not appear to be commercially viable and I am running out of life might as
well do what I want to do. Speculate. So. Here we go. Meditations on the Hoodoo Way.

An interrogation of the Hoodoo Way designed to walk you thru a Transformative
Year that also reflect a Life as Pilgrimage. An attempt to refine your Daily Grind

in the Hoodoo Way. To define just what the Hoodoo Way is.

Folk hear hoodoo they generally thinking folkmagic hoodoo. Saverytime
hoodoo. 100 years out of date hoodoo. Spells, spirits, and black cat bones
hoodoo. Folk magic hoodoo back from when we was a folk peoples.

The Hoodoo Way is the indigenous African American spiritual tradition.
One of a family of Afrospiritual traditions in the Americas. Vodou, Lucumi,
Candomble, Obeah, et al. Mostly they religious traditions, fusions of
Catholicism and various African systems, Yoruba, Fon, Congo, Akan et al,

whereas hoodoo has traditionally been a folkmagic system. But the cutting
edge has long since moved into high magic. 21^st Century stylee.

Been a question in hoodoology on if hoodoo should remain tribal or go
universal, mi students, ie the next generation, vote tribal whereas I been
trying to universalize, thinking now maybe I can do both, work w/both hands

Working Premise: you don’t have to actually be a hoodoo to live the Hoodoo Way.

I would also like in this work to explore the concept of being a Contemporary Tribal
Healer. Mganga Maua. It is itself a Healing. Accordingly, this Text will also

serve as a meditation on Wisdom. It embarrass me how much I want
to be Wise. There are other aspirations. I want to be Spiritual. Illuminated.
A Healer. I want to be Sanctified. Artiste. But more than anything it appears,

I want to be Wise.

Accordingly, this aspires to be a Wisdom Text.

A Meditation on Wisdom.

A Griotic Guide to Empowerment. Designed to ground my teachings and enable
an iteration of hoodoo the whole world can sing. A global work of Tribal Healing by the
High Hoodoo of Memphis. So, let us begin. Let us stumble thru. The Hoodoo Way.