THE |
|
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects. |
To: alt.magick From: catherine yronwodeSubject: Cultural Blinders Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 01:36:34 GMT AgnosticGnostic wrote: > [Y] wrote: > > I wonder if there's a market for 'graveyard mud'? > If you say it will do something (especially if its magically > delicious) than you can sell anything. That's an interestingly smug attitude, but my experience does not bear out its truth. Generally, people will only buy magical goods already known to them through their own culture. Here's an example: your mockery of "graveyard mud": You just donŐt cone from a veneration-of-the-dead culture, so the idea of pouring a bottle of whiskey on a grave to pay for the dirt and feed the spirit is laughable to you, as is the concept of paying for graveyard dirt with coins. To you, selling graveyard dirt is "selling anything," not collecting ritually valuable dirt through the proper performance of ritual offerings or libation. You ARE aware, are you not, that to someone who doesn't come from a Judeo-Christian culture, calling up the Archangels is just "saying mumbo jumbo." And "mumbo jumbo" itself -- which is used in English to mean "gibberish" or "meaningless prattle posing as religious talk") ("Them old slaves was out back of the cabin talking that old African mumbo-jumbo.") is nothing more than a disparaging connotation applied by Judeo-Christians and their camp-followers to an African term that literally translates as "the sacred words" or "a discourse about liturgy." (Yep, "them old slaves was out back of the cabin talking that old African mumbo-jumbo" -- and now you know ... the REST of the story.) Graveyard dirt is important in the magical traditions of African people. Swords are important in the magical traditions of hermetics. Human skulls are important in the magical traditions of Tibetans. Written texts are important in the magical traditions of Christians. Eye-in-hand images are important in the magical traditions of Semites. Don't you get it yet? There are only a few "universals" in magic, or near-universals, anyway: incense, some sort of flame, some sort of magical link or image, the use of names ... The rest varies by culture. cat yronwode Hoodoo in Theory and Practice -- http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoo.html
The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org. |
Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site. |
The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories, each dealing with a different branch of religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge. Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit: |
|
interdisciplinary:
geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc. |
SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):
OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST
Southern
Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo,
including slave narratives & interviews
|