happiness is homefood

grits.bacon.biscuits
trademarks of the south. with the basic combination it is obvious that the south is more complicated than people would like to think. this dish best describes where i come from and my ancestry.
biscuits: definitely a British concept ( although we eat hoecakes in my family more, hoecakes are of Creek & Choctaw origin )
grits: well hominy or grits are just big sofkee
bacon: made from the leftover pieces of the hog that were given to slaves, which were fried, boiled, pickled & salt cured.

it's funny that MOST dishes that are considered soul food came from southeastern native dishes consisting of corn, beans, squash. the eating of the greens of root vegetables though... is definitely african. talking my mixed blood.sisterwitch.cousinkin the other day and she said, mentioned that we both like turnips and ground food because of it. apparently lakota (sioux) folks use the turnip for everything, as a chew toy for toddlers, balls for play and even make a turnip flour.... wow i can't wait to eat whatever dangerine conjures up with turnips.

last post of 2009

                       .....blah....

Digging Deep

I have been reading a paper written by Zora Neale Hurston, a literary giant of all that is wild and strange concerning blackfolk, entitled Hoodoo in America and it's got me whirling. Since much of here information was compiled in New Orleans ( although there are sections on the Bahamas & Florida) there some many little pieces of information just beg for questioning. For instance, there is a passage entitled Hoodoo Beliefs which states that if you go to  
" St. Roque church down at Raquet Green, where all the hoodoo dances used to be held, is a good place to burn candles for what you want. But you must walk down and back."

Of course I read it and wondered where this church used to be. Then all this info flooded my brain... Like the fact that Christian Churches almost always took sacred indigenous sites to build their own holy temples upon. Power places in the Southeast US almost always were at one time Native ceremonial grounds or sites.
For instance, Congo Square (renamed Beauregard Square for some dumb reason) in New Orleans, was the site of many voodoo ritual and social dances. It was also the Houma people's ceremonial stomp and stickball grounds.
So, I'm remembering all this and then I run across this in New Orleans as it was: Episodes of Louisiana life by Henry C. Castellanos 

                     Postcard of St. Roch Cemetery Entrance w/ Chapel in the Background, New Orleans, c.1910

 

St. Roch Cemetery Entrance, present

What I can't make sense of is the use of the word bamboula? Bamboula is a musical style ( and also a drum of kinds ) that was imported into the Americas by slaves from the Caribbean. It is a dance, a style and an instrument so closely linked to the African Diaspora. Why is it ( incorrectly, i feel ) in this documentation of a Ishtaboli ( choctaw stickball ) game? The ball itself is called towa and I can find nothing so far to link the word bamboula any kind of game.

Subsequently, I have found interesting facts that link the pre-game ceremonies of Ishtaboli that were very ritualistic to the "hoodoo dances" on the Square. There was lots of conjuring and dancing by the medicine people of the Indian towns a the games.

Congo Square was used for this purpose and for certain both Native people and African people inhabited the Square at the same time. With Sunday's off for all slaves ( African, Native, Creole or White ) within the City of New Orleans anybody was bound to be in Congo Square during the festivities. I am now intrigued by this and need to find out more information.

Here's a funny thing:

quick fast mojo

Colored People's Directory circa 1905

This is a treasure for folks with ties to Chicago who are interested in genealogy. It's awesome viewing! My favorite is Miss Lutie Jackson. If she ain't a Hoodoo Lady she sure promotes like one.

Courtesy of Internet Archive

Juju Gallerie

Welcome to our Gallerie of Conjurecraft

medicine bag for suz

ummm, from pieces and parts to mojo in 1 hr, 38mins.

Sharing the craft

I will be sharing the craft with some awesome sistren I met with last week in The Village Bottoms Cultural District in West Oakland. This is stuff I've been dreaming of! Celebrating the love of the cultural phenomenon that juju is. Omg, maybe juju is moving west.

........................................................................
thursday, dec. 10, 2009 | w. oakland, california usa
Sacred Wayz & Means Workshop| Thurs: 7p-9p| Village Bottoms Juju Shop
Soirée - Perfumes and Prosperity | offering: $5-$7 sliding scale

An intimate convening and working exchange of medicines, potions, customs [skilled, legacy & invoked] ole’ & neo manifestations of traditional and cultural ingredients for healing, transformation and positive action. The evening to focus upon the Juju workings of Perfumes, and the working principles in motion of Abundance and Prosperity...

The Juju Shop: 1193 Pine Street
[btwn 11th & 12th streets on Pine]
The Village Bottoms Cultural District
West Oakland, CA  USA

contact: khayastar@gmail.com
_______________

Congo SQ West Kinship Society | Oakland, CA

"... to build bridges, restore networks & bind cultural ties."

Programs of Service, Campaigns, Arts & Culture & Foundation
phone: 510-464-3025  email: congosqwest@gmail.com

My own bottle spells

( check'em out the bottle spells on etsy)

A common practice among Southern rootworkers is the use of bottle spells. Incantations, spells, notes and sometimes prayers are written on a piece of paper, which is folded numerous times and then placed into a bottle containing spell matter. This spell matter can be anything that is associated with the spell such as, bay leaf from prosperity, roses for love or nails for protection and so on. The bottle is sealed and then thrown into a body of water, buried or hung from a tree. This casts your spell out into the world giving it power.


Need some juju for Prosperity? Got some of that too.

Rush,Rush

(pictured Junkanoo, New Year's Eve 2007)

Junkanoo is a celebration/carnival/extravaganza held in the Bahamas, Miami & other parts of the West Indies during the christmas holiday season. On Boxing Day and New Year's Day the most highly anticipated showcase of this festival occurs in New Providence,Bahamas. The elements of Junkanoo are similar to other pre-Lent celebrations such as carnival ( Trindad & Brazil ) as well as Mardi Gras ( New Orleans ) yet there are many distinctions. Personally, I believe that creating the works ( costumes, et al ) for Junkanoo are less evasive and more creative because the materials used. The good and bad thing about Junkanoo is that because the costumes are made from paper ( 90% paper goods ) they are DELICATE and if it rains they push back the starting time from 1:00am to whenever it stops raining. In 2007, me, my husband, my parents sat on Bay St, waiting for the parade to start which began at around 3:30am...
The musical element of Junkanoo I consider very "New World". The use of goat-skin drums, blowing conch shells, brass "marching band" instruments and rushing  is something that relates it to New Orleans' second line. Everybody loves to rush the band, and the cops are forever yelling at folks. One year at Junkanoo my cousin, who is a founder of One Family, saw me in the crowd, motioned me to come out and this cop says to me when he saw me move ( i was already out there anyway) " You betta not rush "

Read more about Junkanoo here.

Southern Home

and then there's...

Limited Edition Scents ( Yule 2009 )

Djon+Delius Perfumerie would like to wish you a joyful yuletide season. To commemorate the end of the old year and to celebrate the arrival of the new, two special edition scents will be available for purchase up until 1 February 2010. These scents come a 1oz, clear, corked bottle.
Price: $ 22 each

B U R N I N G R O S E

The end of a cycle is a time for purifying body, mind and spirit. Burning Rose is a bittersweet brew of honey and roses. It contains a combination of homemade honey tisane, Jamaican Rum as well as cinnamon,vetiver & rose essential oils.

W I N T E R L I G H T

With the new year comes new ideas, thoughts and visions. A bright new future to explore. This clean scent embodies that brand new light of day. It contains a combination of homemade pine, and sage tinctures as well as cedar,sage & jasmine essential oils.

why is all my font in italics...

ok, now. i don't have time to mess with this? why all of a sudden is my page font in italics? c'mon blogger, i don't feel like decifering code this afternoon..... wtf?

uh now what...

got this off the street today. i have no idea what i will build with
this. one idea is to make it a scrying mirror.


"Scrying is a method of divination and takes on many forms. Scrying has been used for thousands of years by different cultures. Ancient Egypt used scrying in their Initiations. This included water scrying, dream scrying, oil scrying, and mirror scrying. One legend states that the goddess Hathor carried a shield that could reflect back all things in their true light. From this shield she allegedly fashioned the first magic mirror to "see." Nostradamus is believed to have employed a small bowl of water as a offering/scrying tool into which he gazed and received images of future events. " 
rehashed from ancient-wisdoms.com

the last time i used anything for scrying was at my old apartment in which my television what the scry. that was fun! since there are three panels i would make it for the 3 aspects of eruzile/ezili and somehow include medusa in there. because, medusa's my girl.
or i could take the mirrors, cut'em down. make individual scrying mirrors, like compact size and sell?? i know there's a ton of empty make-up cases at east bay center for creative re-use

A New Year's resolution of sorts...

from my photo stash .... YAY!

In lieu of my annual Thanksgiving rant...

 

Courtesy of Fotosearch.com

NPS : Keeping it Real or Not?

The Future of Slavery's Historical Spaces

James Oliver Horton, George Washington University

Spell Cards on sale now @ our Etsy Shop

Just got the Spell Cards in the mail. They're awesome.

I've listed them on ETSY and given a couple of them out already. I admit, they're kind of fun.

An Everyday Anytime Good Luck Spell

Circle of Love Spell

Lover's Dream

a murder of crows

so, today i'm getting ready to leave my house and this gang of crows are outside YAPPIN' in up. i mean yappin away. i walk outside and they all turn around like " yea, what? did you hear what we said? " then they all proceeded to continue there talking. while i stand there, nearly a foot from them i think about all the stuff my relatives would say about crows.

1. when crows talk. there's gossip going on
2. they have something to tell. ( i.e there is a message coming )
3. somebody needs to shut up
4. there's trouble coming

here's a folktale from GA,

The Crows are in the Corn
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

 It happened in Georgia not long ago, that a farmer and his wife decided to sleep late, like the rich folk do. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the kind that brings all God's creatures out to play. But not these farm folk. No, they just slept and slept and slept.
The crows were gathered in a large oak tree, having a big morning meeting. They noticed that there was nobody stirring around the house, and that the corn was ripe in the field. So they adjourned their meeting mighty quick and flew over to the field to eat some corn.
"Caw-n, caw-n," they cackled excitedly.
The old rooster woke up to their activities and started to crow excitedly to the sleeping family. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"
The farmer and his wife just kept sleeping, and the crows kept eating the corn.
"Caw-n, caw-n," they called.
"The crows are in the corn! The crows are in the corn!" The rooster cock-a-doodle-dooed with all his might.
The farmer kept snoring, and his wife just rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head.
The rooster was frantic. He tried once more: "The crows are in the corn. They're pulling up the corn!"
The farmer and his wife kept right on sleeping. And the crow's kept right on eating.
The rooster quit crowing in disgust. Nothing would wake the farmer and his wife.
The old turkey came strolling into the yard and watched the proceedings. Finally he said to the rooster: "The corns all et up, all et up, all et up."
When the farmer and his wife finally rolled out of bed, they found that the corn was all gone. That is why in Georgia we say "the crows are in the corn" when it is time to get up.


You can read more Georgia folktales in Spooky South by S.E. Schlosser.

hair story

   ( pictured: yep, my hair )

so this woman at work just propositioned me. said if i ever cut my dreadlocks and wanted to donate them she had an awesome project she would like to use them for. i reluctantly asked her what the project
was... creating a sculpture of adonis with dreads. she wants to attach each dread to the piece. :)  i'm not saying that the concept is not cool as all get down but, using real hair( human hair cut off a living person) for anything (including weaves) makes a powerful charm. wtf are people thinking. i don't know anybody who would want their hair used for that purpose. art or not.
(i think the only way for it to get worse..... what's worse is using hair from people not living. that's worse.)

Bottle Spells

personally, if i were this guy, i wouldn't be stockpiling this "debris" in my office.... unless you're ready for some serious consequences in your life. i've heard many stories about bottle spells. they are no joke if you have ties to mami wata,yemanya,oshun,damballah.

Bottles of hoodoo taken from Vermilion River

By KEVIN BLANCHARD

kblanchard@theadvocate.com

Acadiana bureau

Advocate staff photo by Bryan Tuck

Bayou Vermilion District Watershed Projects Manager Paul LaHaye holds one of the spells, revealing the nearly illegible writing of the spells, some of it crossed out and unreadable.

LAFAYETTE -- Among the soda bottles and lost basketballs floating down the Vermilion River, there are things much odder and mysterious. The Vermilion River could be called a one-way hoodoo highway.
Over the years, more than four dozen ordinary, little brown plastic prescription bottles have been found in the murky water -- each filled with blue or pink powder and strange, rambling spells meticulously written on scraps of paper.
Paul LaHaye, the watershed projects manager with the Bayou Vermil-ion District, oversees the collection of tons of debris pulled from the river each year.
Each time one of the brown bottles surfaces, LaHaye dries out the contents and places them in a plastic baggy or cardboard box labeled "Voodoo," that sits in his office.
Some of the district's workers won't pick up the bottles for fear of the "powerful magic," LaHaye said.
And while LaHaye isn't superstitious, he said he still tries to treat the items with respect.
"These are cultural artifacts," LaHaye said.
Inside each bottle are pieces of torn or folded paper containing tiny, nearly indecipherable cursive script, colored powder and sometimes cayenne pepper or seeds.
LaHaye has ventured to read some of the spells. A co-worker even started to help transcribe one of the more readable spells, but stopped when she started feeling nauseated, LaHaye said.
"Your power is no more on me ... your spell by witchcraft is broken ... undone, gone," one of the spells reads. "Please help us great mother. Send his witchcraft back to him and destroy him with his own witchcraft."
Most of them end, LaHaye said, with "Thank you spell for favors granted in the name of ..."
"There's a hoodoo out there for somebody," LaHaye said.
Most of the spells seem to be written in the same tiny handwriting. Each could have taken hours of labor, as sheets of paper were filled, then torn and folded, for each spell, LaHaye said.
It's likely that the spells were written by a practitioner of what academics classify as Southern Rootwork or Southern Hoodoo, said Ray Brassieur, a professor of anthropology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Brassieur cautioned against trying to track down the person writing the spells.
To pry into such a secret and personal agreement between client and practitioner -- in a way like a priest and confessor --would be improper, Brassieur said.
The practice was famously documented in the South during the 1930s and 1940s by Harry Middleton Hyatt, Brassieur said.
The type of folk magic practiced involves "sympathetic magic," the idea that "whatever you do to that item, a like thing happens in reality," Brassieur said.
"Bottle" spells, like the ones being found in the Vermilion, are common, Brassieur said.
Part of the spell is placing the bottle into running water or tidal streams -- with their symbolic ebb and flow, Brassieur said.
The practice is not as unusual as some people may think, Brassieur said.
But finding evidence of the practice is "surprising," Brassieur said.
Brassieur said he's yet to study the spells in detail and will be careful when doing so -- in order to protect people's privacy.
Generally, people who seek out the help of a hoodoo practitioner are looking for help with a specific problem in their life that, for whatever reason, "regular channels" and institutions like medicine or attorneys aren't a possibility, Brassieur said.
Likely, most of the clients are poor, without financial means to find help otherwise, Brassieur said.
There's also a cultural and traditional aspect, he said.
"They were taught that this is the way to control the world," Brassieur said. "They're continuing those traditions."
LaHaye -- who's degree is in anthropology -- sees the hoodoo bottles as one more aspect of the Vermilion River's unique personality.
He said he'll keep the bottles at the office so that the unique practice can be studied and appreciated -- despite the nagging feeling that maybe the bottles are better left undisturbed, like King Tut's Tomb.
"It makes you suspicious" anytime something strange happens at work, LaHaye said. "Maybe it's more than coincidence."

purging fears

i am happy I got to share a great cleansing ritual today with a group of people i consider my folk, my peeps, my ohana, my clan, my kin, my cousins... i think i scared myself though when i sang a song that i've never had any inclination to sing outside of blood and outside myself! ha ha ha! as a person raised in a church ( against my own will, of course ) i've always had a love/hate relationship with the church construct.  (pictured, purging our fears in the backyard)
i come from folks (american blacks,caribbean blacks & mvskoke creek) who have : gone to "church" in the woods and/or given their lives up to the idea of jesus as the great white hope and the ideals of a judeo-christian ideal and/or gone to ritual on saturday & church on sunday. it's not that i don't like church, per se, i love old-time, backwoods church i do. i especially love the singing. it takes me to a most safe and serene place. that's where the comfort is.

when you sing, they all come. they are your folks. your ancestors. the ones who make you who you are. some are long gone from this world and some are right with you. every step of the way. that's why i sang the song i did.

i hope that my kin here, in this present, find that comfort,joy,solace,happiness,gratitude,understanding & patiencePLACE. together we can. i know we can. coming home from this circle i felt a little bit of peace. i hope that my kin take care of themselves and their loved ones approaching the holiday season and remember that better environment makes better people. 
ashe' & a'ho

In the land of DIXIE

Tuskegee, Alabama. Confederate soldier on the square. I always hated this statute. But it reminds me of the place....click the photo and read why

halloween abuse violation #6

it's a week or two since halloween and folks still, unabashedly prop up

discarded bounty on their front porches. now they are moving into

thanksgiving decor. i don't even wanna start with that holiday... not

today. maybe next week! folks can abuse thanksgiving all they want. i

really don't care for it in they way it's romanticized and perpetuated

in concept. but, i like hanging out with my family,cause we're crazy

and yea, who doesn't like to eat?

Sent from my iPhone

i just looked back in my archived posts.... this is vegetable abuse at halloween must really burn me up, check out my nov 2006 post ...wtf

tis the season of anger :

me in 2007: who came here first
me in 2006 : first thanksgiving

Circle of love - Spellcards

(Front-side of card ) 

                                                (An excerpt from a circle of love spell in Gold-bug font)

                                               (An excerpt from  lovers dream  spell in Fancy script )
 

the circle of love  spell comes in a beautiful gold script font.  yellow/gold is associated with the orisha oshun who is in charge of the realm of love, beauty and attraction.

you can use these cards in many ways. Keep them ANYWHERE you need, on your altar, at work or home. Recite, mediate on them or just carry'em. Give them to friends or family members anyone you would like to attract love to. each card is 55mmx84mm ( European Business Card size ) made from a thick, high quality 350gsm card with a matte laminate finish. this is slightly larger (in height) than an American business card. 

Followers: 
If you'd like a sample email me your address (djondelius@yahoo.com). 

I'll be glad to mail you a couple. 

All cards will be listed on our etsy shop as soon as possible

An Everyday Anytime Good Luck - Spellcards

                                                                                         ( Front-side of card )

                                                         

                               (An excerpt from an everyday anytime good luck spell in Fancy script)

                          (An excerpt from an everyday anytime good luck spell in Gold-bug script )

 

an everyday anytime good luck spell comes in a beautiful pink script font.  pink is associated with the vodoun lwa ezili freda who for some represent good luck and success (as well as love).

you can use these cards in many ways. Keep them ANYWHERE you need, on your altar, at work or home. Recite, mediate on them or just carry'em. Give them to friends or family members anyone you would like to bless with good luck. each card is 55mmx84mm ( European Business Card size ) made from a thick, high quality 350gsm card with a matte laminate finish. this is slightly larger (in height) than an American business card. 

Followers: 
If you'd like a sample email me your address (djondelius@yahoo.com). 

I'll be glad to mail you a couple.

new items for sale - spellcards

so this idea has been circling my brain for a while now and i just got my prototypes the other day. i like the idea of making everyday magic , not just the once in a while kind. i had an idea that i could distribute my our personal spells for anyone to use, as well as create some really cute merchandise! the power the words ( coupled with the voice ) is paramount in the realm of spellwork but who has the right words, all the time?  
enter : spellcards

 (pictured above is the everyday anytime good luck spell )
 

each card lists a different color scheme according it's spell type and are rhyming spells. at present i have four different spell types being printed. i will list the rest as they become available.

the everyday anytime good luck spell comes in a beautiful pink script font.  pink is associated with the vodoun lwa ezili freda who for some represent good luck and success (as well as love).

you can use these cards in many ways. Keep them ANYWHERE you need, on your altar, at work or home. Recite, mediate on them or just carry'em. Give them to friends or family members anyone you would like to bless with good luck. each card is 55mmx84mm ( European Business Card size ) made from a thick, high quality 350gsm card with a matte laminate finish. this is slightly larger (in height) than an American business card. 

creek medicinal plants

The Creek Confederacy ( Guale, Yamasee, Hitchiti,

Tamathli, Oconee, Apalachicolo, Ocmulgee, Yuchi, Chiaha ) were driven from their ancestral lands, which included Alabama & Georgia, starting in the early 1820's. Not all of them went willing.

There are many pockets of Native communities all over the South. For those that left, know you can come back. The knowledge is still here!

Listed are the major medicinal plants used in Creek Medicine.

   tolee  (sweet bay)     ( picture courtesy : mgonline.com ) 

   achina  (cedar leaves)  (picture courtesy: beccafromportland)

                        

   kapapaska (redberry shrub)   (picture courtesy: shaney 442's photostream )

 

   tchul'issa (pine needles)  (picture courtesy : Urban Science Adventures ) 

   atak'la lasti ( blackberry shrub )  ( picture courtesy : Theodor Reimers )

   koha lowagi  ( switch cane ) ( photo courtesy :   jerryoldnettel's photostream )

   okchanatchku ( a moss grown on rocks ) ( picture courtesy : A Storybook Life )

   tchufi masi ( sugar cane ) (picture courtesy:  WGCU  )

miko huyani'cha

cati hiliswa  ( red medicine )

chufi insakka afaga ( a vine sorta like the strawberry plant.  means rabbit-basket-string )

hiliswa hatkee ( ginseng )

tutka chokishi ( moss species )

wilanv ( yellow water, jerusalem oak )

passv ( a mixture of herbs used at Green Corn )

Why I hate being sick

OK, other than the runny nose, fatigue and sinus headaches that come every year with the winter, i really hate that it takes me forEVER to get my self together enough to remember, consult my dad and come up with the home remedy that works for me. I'm a water child, so I like any remedy having to do with water. If I can drink it away WOOHOO. If I can bathe it away WOOHOO. Tea & a Bath. That's me! I just prepared a sinus-go-away bath maybe you'd like to try:

A handful of Sea Salt
20 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil
A handful of Spearmint Leaves
A dash of Spearmint infused alcohol
Cheesecloth

Draw a HOT bath. ( by the time you're done it'll have cooled down)
Crush the sea salt ( mortar & pestle is the best method OR use your hands ), add 20 drops of peppermint essential oil & spearmint. Mix until dry. Add a dash of the alcohol and pour out into cheesecloth. Wrap and tie. Place in tub. Let soak for ten minutes before entering tub.
Hang out and enjoy the smells.

now to my tub...

post tub script:
when you're just about done in the tub, take the bath mixture and use it as a compress. apply directly to the forehead & temples. headache. gone! well, mine is!

for all mine that are gone

my family altar, list of ancestors, dia de los muertos 2009.

Cupid workin'

Writing out a love spell and needed some inspiration... ran across this book but, wtf? i can't read it. i mean i can't read the german, make out the english, stare at the french and maybe get a few words in or not. i wish i knew what the hell cupid was doing. dude is fishing.... what's that about. hmm.. the pictures are quite interesting though.

from the following book, by Kroniger & Gobels, 1699