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Traditional Practicers?

To: alt.traditional.witchcraft,alt.magick.tyagi
From: catherine yronwode 
Subject: Re: Traditional Practicers?
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 07:02:54 GMT

Phoenix wrote:
> 
> "Aetyr"  wrote:

> > "catherine yronwode"  wrote:

> > > I practice in the African-American and European
> > > traditions of folk magic, witchcraft, brujeria, hoodoo,
> > > powwow magic, conjure, hexenkraft, stregeria, et al, 
> > > without respect to coven membership or a specific
> > > religious orientation.

> > Yes, it would be hard to have a specific relgious
> > orientation with such a mixed bag, unless you created it 
> > yourself.

> Yes, it would and I can see the probability that there would
> be conflict of interests, in such a mixed bag..

Not really, in my experience.

What seems like a "mixed bag" is really very unified. There are robably
less than a dozen deep structural differences between these forms of
witchcraft. I'll give three examples of how i see the various branches
overla and differ, outlining them here in brief brief, because details
would require a book, and i trust you know where i am coming from with
this and can understand the short-form version:

FOOT-TRACK/"DEVIL"/CROSSROADS
African: foot track magic and rites of the crossroads god (the black
     man, called "the devil" by some in the USA, but not the same 
     as Christian Satan; sometimes said to have dog's feet)
Germano-British: the devil (not Christian Satan) as both a woods 
     god and a crossroads god, but no foot track magic per se, 
     except note the unspoken but obviously important goat-foot  
     or claw-foot of Krampus, Old Nick, Old Split-Foot, etc., 
     pointing to a perhaps "lost" foot-track magic tradition. 
Latin American: underworld god appears in caves and at crossroads, 
     with a modern overlay of Euroean "devil" imagery; no foot-track
     magic per se, but parallel wind/breath magic from Native 
     American sources
Native American: underworld god, wind/breath magic

EVIL EYE/HORSESHOE
Italian/Jewish/Arab/Greek/Turkish/etc: evil eye belief, apotroaic 
     blue eye, eye-in-hand, horseshoe faces downward as the vulva of 
     the goddess pouring out blessings and offering protection
Germano-British/Irish: evil eye belief modified with horseshoe upward 
     as vulva "filled" by sky-god, less use of apotropaic blue eye 
     as blue eyes are common in this population
Asian/Native American/African: no evil eye belief at all

BOWL/BOTTLE/BAG/PACKAGE
Jewish: prayer/spell inscribed in clay bowl in a spiral, clay fired,
     bowl buried at corner(s) of building(s). 
Germano-British: prayer/spell in glass bottle, blue glass favoured, 
     bottle buried under house, hidden in chimney, or hung from tree 
African/Sicilian: prayer/spell in a red bag (mojo, wanga, etc.), bag 
     always tied to fix it, odd number of ingreedients, in USA bottle
     spells also adopted for houses, but mojo usually kept on person.
Asian: silk brocade/embroidered prayer/spell bags and package-amulets, 
     usually one or three items per bag. 
Native American: leather rayer/spell bag, unspecified number of items,
     always tied to fix it
Latin American: similar to Native American, plus small pillow-like 
     rectangular or square sewn (not tied) package amulets which 
     contain several items including a red bean seed ( with DMT-
     psychedelic properties, but not ingested), package often red 
     since the days of influence from African slaves or in a clear 
     plastic wrap as a form of modern glass-bottle-spell. 

See what i mean? The central ideas "map" well upon one another, like
different dialects of the same world-language. The key points of the old
religion are there as well, very easy to see. 

I could go on and on and on, but you get my drift, i think. 

cat yronwode 

     Lucky Mojo Curio Co. http://www.luckymojo.com/catalogue.html
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