Ezili Danto - Seven stabs

As a new mother, I pay tribute to Vodoun Petwo Lwa, Eruzilie Dantor the Protector of Mothers and Children.

Bad Mout*

*bad mout = a form of spell or curse, bad mouth

People wonder WHY we have this thing called "Black English" without realizing that Africa is a continent with many countries and more than 2,000 languages spoken ( Nigeria alone has over 250 dialects spoken). Bring eight to ten groups of slaves from different parts to this country, set them up on plantations, house them all together and imagine what kind of communication skills get developed.
Let's be serious here, black people learned english from white people so... [please insert inference here] White people from specifically England,Scotland,Ireland. Some of them spoke fancy... most did not, i reckon. [here too]
They didn't come to the New World speaking the language, we know THAT.
The gullah language is a good example of a mixture of tongues. Black folk just creative like that. We took the g's off ing words, omitted apostrophies and had no use for the verb IS cause there is no such verb ( i.e. no equivalent ) in most African languages. What you get is a pidgin spoken, just like in the Caribbean, Central and South America and Hawaii.

I think it's ingenious.

YOU TUBE it:

Origins of Africa-American English

Uprooted - A documentary of the Gullah Geechee culture of the Carolina Sea Islands

Hush arbors ... sound like stomp grounds to me

                                                                           photo credit: Luis Modesti

Not many folks know about the Hush Arbors of back in the day. There was once a hush arbor that my family used back in the day here near Blue Hole Springs in Marianna, Florida as well as Pine Arbor Town. So much of the information about these kinds of gatherings are attached to revival movements and country churches ( i.e serpent handlers ) when you search the internet but, it is important to look deeper into the picture. I know for a fact that, these places of worship were very, very closely linked to the busk or green corn dance, one of the two major ceremonies of (Mvskoke) Creek people. We forget the ties that Native and African people formed in the South and the busk is a obvious example of how the Creeks infused African aspects into the fold. It is well documented that many Africans ( African-born and New World-born ) were a part of these ceremonies/celebrations and the presence of the medicine bundle in Mvskoke ritual is absolutely African. That cannot be denied. It is even stated that after the Second Seminole War, this non-Creek feature in the busk originated in Florida.
( check out: The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 56, No. 3, Jan 1978 )


Even the IDEA of a (Tvla) town associated with a medicine bundle (collection of magical objects associated with a medicine man) READ, juju,mojo,gris-gris is so African it should stop being overlooked. (in the eyes of historians) I'm tired of this things being misrepresented to the greater public. In a world where Christianity and Islam take people indoors, it is much needed that my folk get back to the forest, get back to nature. We are too removed from that energy.  

"...slaves would steal away into the woods and congregate in what they called hush arbors or brush arbors, which were sanctuaries constructed of tree branches or in secluded cabins.... "  William E. Montgomery

Varieties of African American religious experience by Anthony B. Pinn

once upon a time

once upon a time, a very long time
monkey chew tobacco
and spit white lime...
                old bahamian sayin'



calypso, mami wata, lasirene, aycayia, yemaya, what ever dey call she... be first in the hearts and minds of all that sail the seas. at time, she rough and hard and other time, she smooth and soft. she known for love and revenge. keep she close by and want for no more. you safe that way.

Don't do no love magic

 When Edwina Minnis come to my Nannie she axe for one thing. She axe dis man love only she. 
My granny say “ Don do no love magic , you do you’n ”, and she give her a dream candle to wish up her own fate. She say to Miss Edwina, You wan love you do one ting, you wan money you do ’nother.
Nanny always think love an hate both sides of the same coin. 

Hear dat, eh...

soon come

Practical Magic

If you love the movie Practical Magic (like me) then you'll love to see the article published in Victoria Magazine about the set.

the Owens sisters' home

thanks to frostedpetunia for uploading this article. this is my dream house!

At home in the Everglades

missing home....

*New* Postpartum Bath Salts

Instead of buying any postpartum remedies i found myself looking at time and time again during my pregnancy, I opted to ( even with a great batttle with fatigue the last month ) make some for myself. After this was decided, it was just natural that I make batches for my pregnant sisterfriends at the time. I was the ONLY baby shower gift I could muster up in my condition. All of the ingredients used are recommended for a speedy-soothing-harmless recovery from vaginal and cesearean births. Which, by the way, they don't tell you is long,bloody,painful and sometimes just unbearable. I can't submerge myself in water until after six weeks.... i'm dying to take a bath. these showers just don't cut it.

Look for these soon in our ETSY shop.

Feeding History

The birth of a child, especially that one which is auspicious, brings to the vessel a set of cosmic responsibilities to manage and maintain. I am living a different life these days. Many things I used to be able to do freely now take a back seat to caring for this new life. Yet, I have been able to create a couple little things for friends in my spare ( 5 mins ) time. Some sisterfriends of mine who were all due within weeks of me received postpartum baths that i had a chance to make JUST before the birth of my own child. I was so happy that i got a chance to make them as i thought i was not going to be making much of anything anytime soon.  but, as nature would have it, the act of creating is not limited to handiwork. i am amazed at the depth in which my ancestral connections come to play. i was trying to get my bub asleep, walking around the house and such. i looked down and he was wide awake, not what you wanna see at 2:30 am in morning, so i started to tell him a story. now, i was searching in my brain something cool to tell him or a funny story about how we used to go hang with our cousins and play in the orange groves behind their house but somehow i couldn't form it correctly for this moment. then, i started to just talk.
"their were these two cousins. cousins are like really close friends or blood relatives or other relations. these two cousins were playing in the forest jumping over and around fallen trees and rocks and leaves."  it started. basically these two were hanging out by the river fishing and eating when they spotted a bird on the other side. it was blabbering and doin things crows do. it was warning them of a storm coming and that they had better high tail it back home before they got caught in it. when they arrive home all their relatives were hold-up in the house for the storm. everyone was proud that they listened to their crow cousin.
this story came out of my mind and unfolded as i spoke. i find it amazing and wonder where exactly it came from. i never recalled reading or having this story read or told to me. i need to find out if there is similar one out there. i look forward to telling my son many more of these nighttime dreams.  

hmmm

Opon Ifa (Ifa Divination Board) : ORIGIN: Yoruba, Nigeria, Africa (circa. pre-contact )

Parker Brother's Ouija Board : ORIGIN: US ( circa: early 1800's )

A recent Ifa reading made me wonder about how U.S businessman profited on creating an entire industry supplying divination supplies and rootwork stuffs to people in urban areas who had previous relied on nature for their materials. 

It's been a while...

Been focusing on the coming of my first child into this world since the last post and boy has that taken up alot of my time. I'm hoping to back with my work and posting very very soon.

Sacred Wayz & Means Workhop Series

Sacred Wayz & Means is an on-going workshop series that honors,supports,values and creates a "Space for Sistahs!". 
                                        Join us tomorrow night, March 15th, 2010 for :

Sacred Woman - Dippin in Luv                                   A journey thru love, magic, media and more!

yemanya : (yoruban)goddess of the sea

i went with my cousin to casa de cultura's yemonja festival and was hardly impressed. as a matter of fact i was taken aback by the white yemanya, oschun and nana buku dolls for sale at the front door. i have many objections to that imagery. to take an african deity and to white wash them for mass appeal is wrong and denies the true spirit of the god or goddess. the fact that yemanya plays a significant role in the middle passage saga and is being portrayed as white woman is a stab in the heart to all devotees of yemanya and people of the african diaspora.
-sent from my iPhone

hoodoo supermarket

there's nothing like spending a day shopping for supplies. i used to spend
countless hours with my dad going to the hardware stores and junk
yards at home in florida on saturdays. man, i loved that ! at
present i cannot go into either without a purchase or an oogle of some contraption or thing i can't possibly fit in my apartment! outside of goin to the woods or herb shop, these are my favorite places to shop for accessories for hoodoo.

Maybe Robert Johnson took this guys' advice

from "Hoodoo in America" ( The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 44, No. 174, )ct-Dec 1931  ) Zora Neale Hurston

i just read this in the journal of american folk-lore
Whoa.. i kind of can't believe it's in a book like that.
all black and white.

A Basic Everyday Jack

from "Negro Myths" ( Boston, Houghton,Mifflin & Co. , 1888, p. 125 ) Col. C.C. Jones

Neighboring Gods - Ka Wahine 'o Pele

ASSOCIATED PRESS At Kauai's Limahuli Garden, a blossom of an ohia lehua tree soaks in the sunshine. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin )

  

So... Down the street from me lives Pele. Yes, the Hawaiian Volcano Goddess who was chased from Kahiki ( Tahiti ) by her older sister Namakaokaha'i for taking her husband. The deity that fell into a jealous rage when she sent her youngest sister Hi'iakaikapoliopele to rescue her lover Lohiau and found they had fallen in love. Pele errupts covering the land with lava and out of the ash a 'Ohia Lehua tree grows. This tree is the kinolau (physical embodiment) of Ku ( one of the three major Gods of Hawai'i) but still associated with Pele. Everytime I pass this tree I look into, say "aloha e ka wahine" and I think of how special it is that this tree is on my block. This tree lives ALL over the mountainous regions of the island of Hawai'i yet, I have Madame Pele as a neighbor in Oakland!

( Pictured clockwise (l to r) is the lehua tree on my street ) 

Recently I have felt detached from my hula practice and wondered if I would see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. And the other day I walked by the lehua tree on my block.... I feel it coming back. This is a good sign. 

here's the same tree a couple months ago in THIS post of mine where i found a cute mirrored dresser tray. too bad it was gone when i went back to get it ! 
 
 

Dream Juju

So my friend asked me to make her juju so that she'd be able to have nightmares/dreams again. Yes, I know some people frown on having nightmares..we don't. She's been having a problem with this since a long ago break-up with a guy we refer to as " he-who-must-not-be-named". What I made her was a bedside candle altar with a metal dreamcatcher fitted to the cap. It is to be placed in a corner, lit before going to bed with the hopes that the dreams will find her.

Here's the prototype:

 Materials : Coffee, Lichen, Paper Lantern, Skull beads, Abalone

The final product: Her dream juju I named Basheva. It was named for a 21st Century Yiddish writer, Issac Bashevis Singer who believed that demons are merely mysterious creations by God, neither good nor evil.

 

Materials : Coffee, Lichen, Recycled Seedling Pot ( for votive), Skull beads, Opihi Shell Necklace,

 

Ultra Sheen Spell

thanks jason for letting me re-post your blog entry!!!

Posted by Jason on November 29, 2009 at 5:00pm

OK so I sometimes tell this story of a healing spell that I once did years ago involving the use of the hair grease Ultra Sheen. It usually makes people giggle a bit, but I did perform a successful spell using it so I thought that I might share. I once worked at a soup kitchen after school for about four years. There, I met a fellow occultist who had emphysema and who was in a lot of pain. We decided to do trade spell on each other because she felt strange not doing a spell in return. She mostly wanted me to help take the pain away and I agreed to try. At the time I was in high school with very little money and resources. So I went home that night in order to see what I could do. I decided to work with the Archangel Raphael. I was heavily into angel magic at the time and Raphael happens to be my confirmation name. According to the correspondences that I read he was often associated with the color yellow. So I went around the house looking for yellow things. I found a candle, thick yellow construction paper, and a long yellow ribbon. Indeed the elements were definitely coming together for my spell. Unfortunately, I had very few herbs in the house. I did manage to find some crushed bay leaves and I thought that that would work. They are good at getting rid of undesirable things, as well as being associated with healing in many traditions. However, because the were broken up and the waxy nature of the paper, I was having a hard time with the herbs because they kept falling all over the place. I was very frustrated because previously I was on a roll and was "feeling the spirit," as some would say. I was thinking of just scrapping the spell altogether but I made a quick prayer for inspiration. Sure enough, inspiration struck. Sitting over on the shelf in front of me was a small yellow bottle of Ultra Sheen, the hair grease. I looked at it and said to myself, well......it is the right color and it does say that it had vitamins in it, what the hell. I had solved my problem! So I was then ready to begin. After cleansing the area that I was working in, I lit my candle and said something to the effect of, "I call you Archangel Raphael, angel of healing and I offer this candle and it's light to you; please be with me as I perform this spell." I then waited to feel some kind of a presence in the room and I explained what the situation was. I took up the name paper that I made with the waxy yellow construction paper and smeared on the mixture of Bay Leaf and Ultra Sheen. As I did this I imagined her beaming with vibrant healing energy pouring out from her very soul. Then I took the ribbon and slowly wrapped up the name paper like a bandage. As I did this, I recited a particular chant that I got from a Wiccan spell book which is as follows:


"I wrap thee in cotton
I bind thee with love
Protection from pain
Surrounds like a glove
May the brightest of blessings
be with thee tonight
For thou art cared for
Healing thoughts sent in flight"


When I was done I set the packet down in front of the offering candle and let it burn out. The next day I found the woman outside of the church, smoking like a chimney as usual. I was actually quite proud of myself for being so resourceful being the young magician that I was (and still am by the way, lol). I told her that I performed the spell and she wanted to know the details. Being the staunch traditionalist that she was, she let out a deep, husky, and slightly condescending laugh at the young cheeky newbie. I'll admit that it did hurt my feelings at the time but what soothed me were the results.For about six weeks she did not feel any pain whatsoever. Before the spell, she needed to take a pain killer at least twice a day. Unfortunately she did not wish to stop smoking, nor was she ever really willing to, so the spell did not last and eventually her condition got worse. She stopped going to the soup kitchen shortly after so I didn't really see her anymore. I used to think of the spell as a waste of my time, and in some ways it was, but looking back at it now I now know that it it taught me some very important lessons about magic and about life in general. The first lesson is that one cannot help anyone if they are truly not willing to do anything about the root of the problem. Speaking of the root of the problem, that is what the second lesson was. You must attack the cause of the problem, not the symptom. If she was willing, I should have done a spell in order to help her stop smoking first. And finally the last lesson was: if inspiration strikes, go with it, even if it seems silly at the time. I must admit I still feel a little odd about telling the story but it was an important part of my magical schooling and I thought that some people may enjoy it or get something out of it. So there you have it, the magical lessons of Ultra Sheen. Perhaps I should write them a thank you letter or something, lol!

you can read more from jason here.