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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.magick.folk,talk.religion.misc,alt.pagan.magick From: blackman99Subject: Commerce, Race, and Culture Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 04:52:26 GMT 50031230 vii om quoting sri catyananda (cat@luckymojo.com): # To learn hoodoo you have to learn about black social # customs. It is interwoven within the complex cultural # warp and weft of American black culture. it sounds like what you're saying is that those who study in a course to be a conjure will need to become comfortable with consultation, with commercial transactions surrounding magic, and with any number of common cultural elements of hoodoo with which we may have difficulties because, in part, we're talking about serving real people with customs and preferences and beliefs that may in some measure differ from our own. in some cases the best way to go about getting comfortable with things is to do them. that's what I had to do to lose my prejudices about some of the things in hoodoo when I decided that I wanted to learn about it. this was as true about other communities' magic as it was about hoodoo. when I studied with their teachers, I understood that their customs and ideologies might differ, so I just asked as many questions as I could in as polite a manner as I was able, and tried to put myself in their place. sometimes I could, and sometimes I couldn't. when I studied with Wiccans I shifted my altar from the center of the room to the North and got acquainted with the gods and symbols of the Faerie (the focus of the coven whom I engaged). when I studied with Thelemites I participated in odd rituals dreamed up by ceremonialist magicians in reflection of old ecclesiastic and masonic standards. so when I started learning about hoodoo I put down any difficulties with consulting and commerciality and tried to understand how it fit into the whole. I never had resistance to commercial transactions in hoodoo. I'd been looking for "spells and potions" and all those things I knew were being shoved aside by the others with whom I'd previously studied and called 'Low Magic', and was delighted to discover it. my main resistance was due to the complete unfamiliarity I had with commercial *packaging* of the goods. the formulae names struck me as hokey, odd, strange, and even juvenile. I had difficulties believing anyone took it seriously. catherine showed me the history of the products from old catalogues, explained how it had developed, how many of the old dispensors of magical goods were jewish, pharmacists, chemists or herbalists, and that the jewish and black cultures have a long history of mutual support in America and beyond it, economically, politically, and magically. she explained to me how some later manufacturers constructed the products without concern or regard for the Doctrine of Signatures, left out the potent elements necessary for the effects of natural magic, and gave hoodoo a bad name amongst those who cared about such things. after reeling from all the new information she was providing, it became apparent to me that I was prejudiced against quite a bit of it (and since I knew that prejudice was wrong, I did my best to restrain it within myself). it wasn't that I had some kind of bias against blacks or jews, per se, but as I continued trying to assimilate what I was being told (very foreign to me from my white, middle-class background) it quickly became apparent that I was COMPLETELY CULTURE-BLIND. my first reaction was to wonder why the woman I'd pilgrimmaged three times to finally meet up with was so focussed on "race". my mother taught me that 'the human race is composed of many different types of people' and she helped me to see PAST all of these differences, by *pretending that they didn't exist*. 'we can all get along if we just stop worrying so much about petty differences and just get done what we need to' was the general philosophy. it fit well within the New Age community that I worked within for so long, it even meshed to some extent with the Neopagan and Thelemic communities from whom I'd accepted instructed for many years. by and large, these were white communities with the occasional non-white passerby. but when I studied hoodoo I had to admit that culture-blindness and start to understand what I was missing through adherence to my 'all one human race' approach (which effectively had me blindering myself to everyone so that I could make a show of being broad-minded). it helped me greatly that I was grounded in philosophy and mysticism. I may not have had the temerity or endurance to sustain such a transformative change-of-headspace had I not already sought far from my home in thought and deed. it helped me also that catherine was so patient and knowledgeable about where I was coming from. she could easily have dismissed me as ignorant (which I was) *and* racist (which she could see that I wasn't) merely because I had no exposure to, with a practiced eye, the diversity and glory which makes the human animal so beautiful and perfect. I'd had those blinders installed for a good reason, and yet they did *not* serve everyone as the intent had been laid out. they served me and all those like me who would rather remain blind to cultures other than globalized television-culture and its ambiguous participants (many of whom displayed very real tendences in genetic and cultural characteristics, and, as I'd already seen through, promoted standards and values with which I did *not* always agree). so catherine introduced me to race as a genetic strain. like breeds of dogs or varieties of roses, humans are as yet quite differentiated, and these differences are important to acknowledge and respect in any education about our magic, our religion, or other very personal facets of our lives. we started slowly, by her pointing out the numerous 'half- visible' jews whom I knew from the entertainment field but whose background I'd not never really considered, and it grew from there. an expanse of knowledge to which I had only occasionally had exposure (and that badly: where race entered racISM) became partly visible to me. ever since then I've taken initiative to become more aware of backgrounds to things in *general*: from the numerous participants in the construction of art (to which catherine paid a great deal of attention) to the family history of those I just met or knew quite well (somewhat reluctantly participating in catherine's extensive examination of my heritage and background). in general, however, I learned that what I'd been taught about the value of blinding myself to colour and bodies in the hope of being able to get along with others could only serve me so long (while I was distanced from them). paying greater attention to these differences was *not*, contrary to my early education, itself prejudice. it was a kind of respect and attention that everyone needs and deserves. moreover, it was a *required focus* when I was trying to understand and assimilate aspects of a deeply personal nature to those about whom I knew so little. peace and love, blackman99 (yronwode.com@nagasiva) -------------------------------------------------------------- copy freely with proper attribution. thanks! ============================================================== apologies for any duplication. -- yronwode.com@nagasiva; http://www.satanservice.org/ emailed replies may be posted; cc replies if response desired; HOODOO CATALOGUE! send street addy to: catalogue@luckymojo.com
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