WHEN DISHONESTY IS A PART OF FAITH/PRACTICE

I was raised in a divorced and somewhat blended family. I will never forget one memory based on religious differences in that blend. My mom’s family is Baptist. My father’s side is AME Zion, and his second wife’s family is Church of God in Christ (COGIC). It would take me too long to explain the differences between these traditions. But, for the sake of this part of my life story, the COGIC faith is the one that stresses personal holiness the most. Because of that, I grew up experiencing a lot of COGIC people in and outside of my family as judgmental.

Though my dad was in my life, my mom raised me. Thus, I was most influenced in my early years by her faith and how she lived it. One gift she gave me was always to be critical of organized religion. She was this way because as she grew into her womanhood, she told me she saw many of the preachers and pastors where she was from doing immoral things that disappointed her and made it harder for her to respect them or their leadership.

I say “gift” because, at some point, one of my family members around my age expressed an interest in Islam based on some friends he had in school. He had talked to me about it, and even though I didn’t understand Islam then, I thought it was cool that he found it so interesting. When that same conversation was had in front of some of the Pentecostal members of the family, they told him he could look into that – but that they would pray for his eternal soul.

They were visibly crushed, and I was taken aback even as a kid. I didn’t have those words then, but I knew deep down that the guilting and shaming was wrong.

Fast forward many years later, and I am with a mentor in ministry. He was an interesting cat and had a diverse spiritual background. One day, when we were hanging out in his office, he pulled out his phone and showed me the picture of Bishop Mason that I attached to this post. I’m not going to lie; when I saw it, I immediately thought this man was some witch. Roots, herbs, and animal parts surrounded him. You can imagine my shock and awe when my mentor told me Mason was a man of God, a founder of a Christian denomination, AND a rootworker! We had a very long discussion, and my mind was blown that day.

I am writing these stories because there’s been a lot of talk over the past few years about what Hoodoo is, who can practice it, and the so-called fact that it was a spirituality that was never accepted by the Church, including the Black Church. Now, if you study just a bit of African American religious history, you will quickly see this was untrue. In areas of the South, it was common for a church to have its pastor who people went to for spiritual counsel and pastoral care, but then Deacon So And So was the rootworker who had the blessing of the pastor and was the one people went to to heal ailments and deal with spiritual issues outside the purview of the pastor. And yes, some of them, like Bishop Mason, were also pastors and rootworkers.

In more modern days, there are people like me. I am ordained as a Christian clergyman, but I am also a rootworker. I have been both for years. My family had rootwork around it when I was growing up, too. As is often the case for my people, you usually don’t even know you were exposed to Hoodoo until you start thinking back and remembering odd things your parents or grandparents did. I have numerous memories of that. I also know that, in my ancestral lineage, I have rootworkers. So, it is something I know is in my blood, even if my family line walked away from it at some point.

If Hoodoo was good enough for my ancestors, it is good enough for me. If Hoodoo was practiced by some of my ancestors who were also ministers, it is good enough for me.

If these things are in your spiritual path or birthright, you can also claim them. Religions cannot dictate this stuff, try as they might. It’s sad that a denomination could not be honest with itself, too. Back in his time, COGIC people were uncomfortable with Mason’s rootwork – but they could not deny the power of God in his life. Yet, in these modern times, he is not talked about in those circles. And this is just one story of a few I know of the Black Church’s history with Black Indigenous spirituality. I lift these things because people come to me distressed with the thought that they may be called to practice their spirituality in more than one spiritual world. Not everyone is called to that way, but more than a few are. In my power and capacity as a clergyperson and practitioner, I want to highlight these things to encourage more profound honesty about our collective legacies. Deeper honesty about them is key to understanding who we are or what we are becoming. Denying truths like this breeds confusion and disorientation in our development. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the wasted time.      

STOCKING STUFF SHOWCASE: PORTABLE WONDERS

This showcased one-off course is also something I rarely see offered out in the occult universe. Some of why this is is because not a lot of people know how to create talismans and amulets. Yes, there are some established approaches, such as those within the occult Jewish traditions. However, many of the traditional methods for this are very complicated and time-consuming. Hoodoo, while it has complicated aspects to its practice, is largely simple and easy to execute.

Because of this, I decided to create an approach that was simple enough, yet also effective in creating protective magical tools of wearable tech. I am also not interested in just creating recipe books, but teaching folx the “hows” and “whys” of something like an amulet. One also has to care for them, upkeep their internal energies, and how to align them in some cases with spirit energies set to the purpose for which the talisman was created.

If this sounds of interest to you, or someone you know who would be interested, please follow the link and sign up. The link is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/portablewonders/.

STOCKING STUFFER SHOWCASE: SIGHT BEYOND SIGHT

This week, I wanted to highlight my one-off course on divination, specifically procuring a divinatory spirit. I created this course for a few reasons. One is that I sometimes get clients who ask me how they can learn to divine, not just how to use a divinatory tool but also how to go about a divination process.

Anyone who takes my courses knows that I often encourage people to develop a connection and relationship with spirit allies who help in the ways we need. This Hoodoo Hack is no different. One of the challenges of divination is to convey clear messages while ensuring that readers are confident that what they perceive is accurate. This course goes a long way toward ensuring that!

Finally, in this course, I draw heavily on the practical grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, so here, a student can see how an actual cunning man’s repertoire could be drawn upon to meet our needs today. Of the traditional grimoires I know, Arthur Gauntlet’s is one of the few to offer such a spirit.

Check out this course if you want to step up your divination game. The link to the class is here: https://theblackthorneschool.com/courses/sight-beyond-sight-the-black-man-spirits-of-prophecy-and-the-art-of-divination/.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO THROW OUT ALL OF WHO YOU WERE TO BECOME WHO YOU ARE: REFLECTIONS ON CHANGING RELIGIONS/SPIRITUALITY

Over my career and spiritual journey, I have made changes to my faith, what I believe and how I practice – including religious/spiritual groups I associate with. One memory sticks out among many, however. I was raised in two black church traditions, but after a series of unfortunate events, I entered into the predominantly-white denomination known as the United Church of Christ. The process of switching was not difficult. It happened organically. I just left the AME Zion ordination process and was attending a house church in NYC. I assisted with worship from time to time as a seminary friend was working as an intern. When her internship came to an end, the pastor of that church approached me, told me several members recognized my gifts for ministry and they all wanted to sponsor me for ordination in the UCC. Before this happened, I wasn’t sure which denomination I was going into. My roots in the black churches of my childhood ran deep. Being exiled from them was extremely painful. But it was very healing to have this church community embrace me in this way, to help me work through my sense of rejection from my own people. I learned the hard lesson that as my people say, skinfolk ain’t always kinfolk.

My challenges continued during my UCC ordination process. The end of that process culminates in what’s called the Ecclesiastical Council. Clergy peers gather with you for dialogue after you undergo a psyche eval, background check and write an extensive paper on your beliefs. I have served on these Councils when I was a pastor too. These are not to police a minister’s personal beliefs, but rather opportunities to insure a coherence to of one’s beliefs, so those beliefs support them through the challenges of their ministry.

But my Council was NOT that. There were two Southern Baptist converts who, if it were not for the fact that they were gay (they stated this strongly and weirdly when arguing with me), they would still be Southern Baptist. They were clear they towed the ultra-conservative party line in the Reformed theological tradition. I knew Reformed theology because I went to a Presbyterian seminary. I enjoyed most of my studies even if I did not personally buy into Reformed theology. I was still working through which parts of my Black Churchness were going to stay with me, and which parts of me were going to embrace this new UCC thing. It was never an option to reject my roots to become UCC. But for these two men, that was the only way.

The thing they had a problem with was me calling myself a Christian Panentheist. Panentheism embodied a way to retain my Blackness and African/indigenous faith expressions and beliefs while staying within the Christian tradition. A God Who was both within and above nature made more sense to me than the radical transcendence the Reformed tradition insists upon.

The people against me were practically foaming at the mouth to prove me wrong, but I stood my ground because these were my beliefs. It also helped that the pastor of that church also explained to them my background and his sense of my commitment to the core values of the UCC. It was also ironic that the thing my future colleagues were giving me shit for was something they were doing as transplants from a related but different Christian tradition. It is often the case when we deal in absolutes that they blind us to the subconscious ways we hold onto our past.

This issue has continued to be a fight in my spiritual journey, to be honest. Even when I found my way to Lucumi and espiritismo, I had elders, usually who are American, who have their own biases and issues with religions like Christianity and cannot see their intolerance affecting their godkids’ development on their own spiritual paths. Instead of living in that tension and remembering that everyone has their own spiritual path, such elders pressure godkids in subtle and not subtle ways for that godkid to leave that former faith or practice completely behind.

I had such an elder do this to me when I was in the recovery period of making my Ocha. They said they did not understand how I could be Christian with the history. I told them I knew the history well and do not argue that Christians have and continue to do evil things. That I saw the remnants of that evil in the slave castles on the coast of Ghana. But that I was Christian and Lucumi because I CHOSE to be. I did this also because many of my ancestors were Christian. Being Christian thus connects me to them. I was honestly disappointed in them that I had to tell them that, because this person was an espiritista.

What I observed over time is that there is an intolerance lodged within most spiritual traditions. Some are more explicit than others. Newly-arrived people come to understand that they are expected to put behind whatever they were to become what they are. In some religions this is hardwired, such as the Apostle Paul’s articulation of being a new creation in Jesus Christ meaning putting away old things, which he considered childish. People text phrase these scriptures, and in doing so rip them out of their original context.

I am aware of this intolerance of absolutism in the faiths and traditions I carry, or have carried, within me. And I reject it. It is a weaponized tool of control designed to shame us for doing something I consider to be natural to just growing in life. Not every life experience has a silver lining, but not every life experience is doom and gloom and despair either. It’s grown people behavior to look back at something we went through and realize there were still good times. All or nothing beliefs limit our ability to integrate our experiences and evolve. A big part of spiritual development DOES happen from what is hard and what almost broke us (or did break us).

The last thing I want to observe is that I find it ironic that devotees of a religion or path often do not reflect on the fact that their exemplar (e.g., Jesus, Buddha, Abraham, etc) were not the religion that was birthed from their witness. They were something else, a part of something older, more established and itself a living tradition that fed and inspired that figure to evolve. If we spent more time meditating on this aspect of the human spirit, we might understand that we all come from somewhere, and that somewhere shaped, formed and influences how we see and think and believe. That’s not automatically a bad thing. It can be a source of our compassion toward others unlike us.

You don’t have to reject all of who you were to become who you are. Those who insist you do are working out their own internal issues. Don’t make their issues yours. It’s okay to be free!

STOCKING STUFFER SHOWCASE: TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

Now that another Thanksgiving season has passed, many of us will be turning our minds, hearts, and wallets toward the upcoming series of holidays that revolve around gift-giving. If you are anything like me, knowing what to give people can be stressful. Even if you know someone well, knowing what gifts they may like can be different!

With this in mind, I decided to do something different and fun this year and highlight one of my one-offs a week. I won’t likely cover them all, so please look at the Blackthorne School website and see the wide range of offers. This week, I wanted to lift up an excellent course for which I did not see many similar options. The “Taking Care of Business” course does pertain to its namesake, but many of the things I cover have much wider use than just business. For example, the floor wash highlighted in the material is a good idea for anyone to do, even where they live, so you carry that drawing energy of prosperity with you every time you leave the house. These tools could also be used for volunteer fundraising for a nonprofit, where you apply the principles to help worthy causes have a more significant impact in your community.

One of the core lessons I continually teach and emphasize is that Hoodoo, even when taught by someone else, can and should be adapted to work for you. I also do not know anyone who would not benefit from extra tools to gain a financial advantage.

I know how challenging running a business can be. I created this course to help people bridge that gap between desire and vision toward execution and success. So come, feel free to check it out – and maybe even share it with friends.

The link to the class is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/taking-care-of-business/

THE WEANING PROCESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SPIRITUAL WORK

There’s this concept in medicine that I have seen hospice doctors espouse with their teammates. When there are certain medical problems a patient has, the team does not always know what will work to alleviate or resolve it. The doctor usually then instructs the nurses to (in the case of someone on multiple medications) wean a patient off medicines one by one over time, until the aggravating symptom lessens or disappears. It is only then that the team knows for sure what could be causing the problem medicinally.

I think of this periodically in my life too. We often choose to throw everything and the kitchen sink at life issues and problems all at once. I have found in my own life that when I do that, it can be hard to tell what worked, if anything. Or, conversely, if nothing worked, where the point of failure was. But of course, this is easier said than done when emotions and negative consequences are involved right?

I thought of this post because I am a part of a group where someone asked how they knew their magic worked when they did several different magical things at the same time to make their situation better. I feel for a person when they are in this predicament. It can truly happen to anyone, especially if there’s a lot of anxiety or fear on our end running the show of our decision-making. But I do think there are ways around and through this. Here’s four things I recommend:

1. Develop a relationship with a patron spirit. Even if you are not a spirit worker, it’s just a good idea to have a spirit guide of some sort to assist and in some cases direct your work. This entity is a fresh set of eyes that, if the connection is legit, will help you course correct and focus on times where it feels hard to focus.

2. Develop some divinatory skill. You don’t have to divine to become a professional reader. You don’t even have to read for other people. You can simply learn divination so that your magical practice and skill becomes more honed and focused. This tool and the aforementioned spirit guide are the two things that should help you know the path of least resistance to fixing your issue.

3. Have a trusted friend of spiritual colleague who you can consult with. Spirits are good, but a human is also important because we are living this life in this body and that perspective is different from existence as a disembodied spirit. Trustworthy people also have a way of grounding us when we are going through hard times too.

4. Get a reading from a seasoned, trustworthy diviner. I think this is especially important if you notice patterns in your life you can’t seem to break. A person outside your situation will be able to see the threads and tapestry of your life, and where it’s becoming frayed. And a good reader will also tell you things you can do to fix that!

There are more things that could be said. But I am going to leave it here and invite anyone reading this to add things you have found helpful with issues like this. Here’s to getting unstuck!

MORE THOUGHTS ON MOVING FORWARD

I wanted to leave some thoughts and a continuation of practical ideas I expressed earlier this week about moving forward through difficult times. When I was relatively new to the Bay area of California a few years back, I got invited to a special group meant for spiritual leaders and community activists. The woman who led it conveyed one core idea in her program: that social justice types are poor with our self-care. We are so passionate about the issues we fight for that we often burn out. To make it worse, when whatever that justice struggle is encounters failure, some people take it really hard and really person, and their mental and emotional health suffers.

Her work with us was to create a sacred space where we could rest, sleep, walk labyrinths, meditate to sacred harp music, and eat simple but nourishing food. This program was not the first time I was made aware of my own need to balance my self-care with serving humanity in my sense of call. When I went to seminary, two professors arranged a trip to a monastery on the Hudson River. Though I was very Protestant then, I was spiritually open. I wanted to understand how various iterations of Christianity did what they did to nourish their people with spirituality. So I discovered the power of the Psalter, the blessing of daily Eucharist, and sacred conversations with holy men who devoted themselves to Christian hospitality so the rest of us could find ourselves.

I have been blessed over my life thus far and my career to have had these experiences. They are the anchors I return to when times seem out of joint. When the person I believe to be the wrong leader for my country gets elected. When people around me are freaking out left and right because we don’t even know exactly what things mean anymore.

These experiences and people taught me that there is such a thing as sacred rest—what two of the three Abrahamic traditions call a Sabbath. In my personal life, I can't focus well if I get so caught up in serving, doing, fighting, whatever. I can’t even do my spiritual practices competently. In short, losing sight of this diminishes my quality of life.

My hope for folx is that, regardless of how we all do it, we all find those places to rest and recipe during this time.

Be blessed, and get good rest out there.

THOUGHTS ON PATRIOTISM: A PIECE OF THE WAY FORWARD

I have had a few people ask me to speak on what I think about our recent presidential election. I resisted any urge to speak immediately, however. I wanted to give myself some time to gather my thoughts and feelings and reflect, largely apart from what other people think. I am finding most people’s opinions strong and unyielding, and a lack of openness to real dialogue. Looking around social media, most people who ARE speaking are largely critical with in the way of anything positive or meaningful. I don’t have all the answers either. But it’s easy to be negative. It’s much harder to be a part of the solution.

So here are my thoughts: I think in a moment like this, we need to remember our history. For some of us, that will mean learning the history we have never been properly taught. And no, I don’t mean just what is taught in any school. Schools are just as political as any capitol in how decisions are made around what gets taught and what doesn’t. Even with all of my education, I am STILL learning about American history myself.

I want to tell the rest of my point through a coincidental story: after I spent time at home with my then-newborn grandson, I was waiting at the local airport to fly home. As fate would have it, there were delays. Many people were stuck in that little airport waiting for the next connecting flight. I had been there a while, so I had my own seat. But this nondescript white man came along and looked around dejectedly for a seat. He asked me if he could sit with me, which I was glad to oblige. He had a kind spirit. When he sat down, I noticed he was holding this book, the same one whose cover I included with this post. He saw my curiosity and then proceeded to tell me that he had just come from a military base in Upstate New York where it was NAMED after her!

He definitely had my attention then! He told me that she was many things, but during the Civil War she was a bit of a spy. She got caught by the Confederacy. But he told me she was such a pain in the butt to the Confederate jailers that they released her and demanded she go back North! She did, and soon after returned to continue to be a thorn in their side until the South was brought to its knees in defeat. Her name was Dr. Mary Walker. She is an example of a true patriot, to me. It took me some time to write this because I did not have pen and paper when I met her descendant. It took me some time to find her name.

When we think of patriots, we often think of flag-waving rah-rah American people who want nothing but a Christian God, nothing but white people in this country, and a list of other unsettling things. But the problem is not completely those people. Those of us who are not like them but just as loving of our country do not speak up and witness to a different vision of national pride that is inclusive. To get there we need to know who our heroes and heroines are who have ALWAYS withstood the tides of ignorance, hatred and exclusivity. We need to remember that these patriots have always been here, and we have their stories to inspire us and give us wisdom. Many Americans do not know this history aside from possibly John Brown and Harriet Tubman. They are significant, but there are others.

Looking at these patriots and their stories also reminds me to be realistic. It has never been the case in America that there was a massive movement of American conscience to move the needle in a good way on any social movement. Most movements have happened through a small but dedicated group of people building coalitions outside of their interest group, and then waiting for the right moment to strike while the iron was hot. This was the genius of the Civil Rights movement. Civil Rights succeeded because of community organizing and timely political strikes.

This kind of patriotic courage was established at the start of our country. The trick for us is to figure out how to get there. Part of the answer, for me, is to find out who our heroes were and are. They are there; let’s find them together!  

LOST AND FOUND: A HOODOO WORKING FOR SOMETHING LOST

I heard of this method some time ago and have used it occasionally with moderate success. As you all keep hearing me say, Hoodoo is a mixture of complex and straightforward practices and workings. Certain things require a few hours to do well, while others require just a few minutes and ingredients. This spell is simpler and traditionally only requires two ingredients.

This is known as black candle tobacco working and has its namesake: tobacco, oil, and a black candle. It is not easy to find actual tobacco oil, so it is much easier to pour a little olive oil into a glass Vigil candle after poking some holes in it and sprinkling some dried tobacco leaf on top of that. After doing this, the next thing is to pray over it for the one you have lost contact with. That’s it!

Now, me being me, I would enhance this. Hoodoo relies a lot on personal concerns, so I would also lean a photo of the missing person against the candle glass in addition to the candle. If you REALLY want to get fancy, you can also turn this into a moving candle spell. Let’s say you are working on a square table. I would add four pink or white candles to the four corners of the table with a reconciliation or “return to me” style oil (different oil sellers call these different names), or barring those, crush some balm of gilead buds and sprinkle them into an oil then roll or pour the oil onto the candle glass. Each day, as you pray aloud for this person to return, move the corner candles closer to the center of the table until they touch.

Aside from the materia and ritual I suggested, the most critical part of this working is the intention and steadfastness of your vocalized prayer for this person to return to your life. I had a recent and sudden loss in my life where I have done just this spell. But I am also going to be honest that this sort of working is one where it is best to follow it up with concrete practical steps, such as pounding the pavement, going to the police and filing a missing person’s report, etc. Do not rely on magic alone; instead, combine the mundane and magical to increase the chance of a more favorable result.

That’s all for now! I hope you enjoy this. If you want to learn more about workings like this, please join the current “Working the Roots” cohort. The link is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/working-the-roots/

The class is closing soon, but I would love to have you.   

A DIFFERENT KIND OF PATRIOTISM

Happy Friday! Today I took a shift toward the creative again, and decided to post this poem from Langston Hughes. It felt especially appropriate as the country settles into the unknown of the next four years. I commend these words to you and hope they bring you some hope and solace during this time. 

"LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN"

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

HOLY MOLY!: THE SAINTS & HOODOO

It may seem at first blush that Hoodoo and Christian saints don’t have much of a natural connection, especially outside of the context of New Orleans, Louisiana, where there has been a longstanding historical synergy. If you ever read any of the Hyatt books, where a lot of Southern Hoodoo is cataloged in sociological style, you will see quickly that working with saints was not reserved for that one part of the South.

The connection is not as far-fetched as it might seem. For one thing, saints are Christian spirits. Hoodoo itself has strong Christian roots and tended not to work with a lot of other spirits outside of the Bible (mainly because the most considerable Abrahamic influence on early Hoodoo was Protestant Christianity, not Catholicism). But even for a Protestant worker, if they were Black, they were also working on a foundational premise of African spiritualities (and really, any indigenous spirituality). That premise is that Indigenous people recognize power wherever it comes from. Sometimes anthropologists see the practical results of this belief and assume Black people will worship anything—and when they do, they are missing the point.

The saints have long been established witnesses in the lives of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Episcopal churches. Workers would have seen or known people who revere the saints in the church, seeing them in prayer, at feast days, and so forth, and the light bulb would have gone off.

Add to this the fact that Hoodoo and American Spiritualism/Spiritualist Churches began to exchange ideas and fuse into each other’s practices, and you have the perfect storm for some rootworkers who choose to work with saints. What I find fascinating is, when I read some of the stories and prescriptions Hyatt received where saints were mentioned, the rootworkers would combine reverence for, for example, Saint Expedite with rootwork to get some quick money or return a lost lover. With its reverence for these spiritual superheroes, the “high magic” of the Church made love to the “low magic” of working roots, tying knots, and fixing money to hunt more money!

In some of my classes, I, too, show how I work with certain saints to specific ends. For example, there is no better saint for mental and emotional issues than Saint Dymphna. My first working with her years ago was for a dear friend whose brother got into trouble with the Law and had to do some serious time. The problem wasn’t his crime as much as his mental health. His mom had visited him when he was just in holding, and she could tell that his mental health was already bad. So, she reached out to me and asked if there was anything I could do. So I prayed to Dymphna like I knew how. Pretty soon after, I received a spiritual bath and candle ritual. Dymphna taught me that a mother could take baths for their child, and its benefit would reach the child—because they have an unbreakable bond. And sure enough, when we visited her son, he was much better and wasn’t sure how!

Like other spirits, saints are great teachers and will show you what you need to know. I hope you consider them and their value in your practice.    

THE THREAD OF SPIRITS: ARE THEY THE SAME EVERYWHERE?

There are certain people for whom some spirits seem to walk with them no matter what they practice. This means that from tradition to tradition, that spirit always seems to find them. This is an interesting phenomenon because it bucks some of the trends, assumptions, and gatekeeping that others seem so intent on doing.

Before people start bugging out, I am not saying all spirits are the same or that all spiritual traditions are the same. Just going from a church to a mosque to a Hindu temple will make the point that there are some significant and noticeable differences in belief and expression of those beliefs. In espiritismo, though, I have noticed this phenomenon more than in other places. Although, as a reader and guide of others, I know many people where I can see the thread of a specific spirit manifesting itself across tradition lines when I look with them at their spiritual paths.

What does this mean? To be sure, I do not have all the answers to that. But I will make an educated guess based on my knowledge of different indigenous traditions (which I include espiritismo as one). In spiritualities that work with Congo spirits, the Congo often has a name and attributes all their own. But this palpable sense is also that the Congo walks powerfully with nature force energies. So it may be a healing Congo with an intense energy of the nkisi known as Kobayende. The Congo is NOT Kobayende, but that force of nature is so strong with that Congo that the person who has that Congo as a guide will sometimes feel that more potent energy comes forward.

If spirits like Congos are like this, there is no reason we would not be the same. This is partly why, in Orisha traditions, children of a particular Orisha tend to behave throughout their lifetime with that Orisha’s energy. For example, Chango children can be arrogant. But let me tell you, it is far more menacing to meet one who is humble—because the kingly power of Chango is there and rooted in a deep self-confidence that does not need arrogance to keep it afloat!

My theory is that we draw this sort of thread because it is the choice we made pre-incarnation as our default natural state in relation to the natural order of Creation. With something akin to the Law of Attraction, we then will draw energies and vibrations that align with that, and over a lifetime, we have the potential to become that energy in powerful ways. Just think of people, big and small, who we know who seem to do just this. I don’t think all spirits are the same, but I believe the spiritual thread of like attracting like brings the entities to us that we most align with.

What are your thoughts on this? I'm eager to hear your perspectives and experiences. After all, our individual journeys contribute to the rich tapestry of spiritual understanding.

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey Folx!

I have another piece of exciting news to share. My dear and beloved friend, Michelle Jacques, has produced a fine album of music rooted in a larger-scale project she has been involved in for years called “Daughters of the Delta.” This artistic project highlights the unique contributions certain women have made to the music and culture of the Louisiana Gulf region. As she says in the link I have provided below, it is a living tradition, and she is doing her part within her musical community to uplift and preserve it.

But I want to get personal for a moment. I have known Michelle for many years, as long as I moved to and lived in California. She is also the music director at my church and is an award-winning international Jazz and Blues artist in her own right. One of the charisms of my multiracial church is the music ministry. Several local jazz and blues musicians participate in the church’s music ministry, and no other church in the Bay can boast of such a claim. Chelle, as we call her, is also a dear friend who has walked with me during some difficult life moments, so it is an honor and joy to share this impressive accomplishment in her life’s work with you.

With that, I commend to you the music of the Daughter of the Delta and warmly encourage you to listen, make a purchase, and let the sounds, rhythms, and spirit of Louisiana enliven your soul!

https://roundwhirledrecords.bandcamp.com/album/daughters-of-the-delta

SOMETIMES, THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE

A few years back, a friend needed my help at the relatively last minute, through no fault of his own. A situation turned urgent for him, and he reached out for help. I had not long had a specific spirit who worked quickly in communication and commerce, so I knew immediately to go to that spirit and see what I could negotiate to help.

I did as I had learned, calling out to the spirit and divining. Sure enough, he agreed to assist. Then came the part that always makes me pause a little—the payment!

It was the first time I had worked with said spirit for someone other than myself. See, people like me, when we receive new spirits, we know not to ask them to do a bunch of stuff, even for us. The first several weeks I usually spend sitting, meditating and talking. Sometimes, I will light a candle or blow some smoke or rum. But this person needed me to act, so act, I did.

Do you know what this spirit wanted? It was nothing more than a candle with some specific herbs rolled onto it.

I was floored. I expected a significant ask/demand for such a last-minute situation. But instead, it just wanted light. Now, to be sure, light is no small thing in ATRs/ADRs. Those of us who practice espiritismo often say that all you need to work with spirits is a candle and a glass of water. I have done this enough to know that it is that simple.

But I digress a little. Light is essential for several reasons. One is that it is an offering of light to the spirit. It makes it easier for them to see in some ways. It brings light to darkness, whether that is the situation, something someone is hiding, or to ease my communication with my spirit. Light also uplifts prayers. It is akin to what the Bible calls the “sweet burnt offering” going up to the Divine. Light means many things.

For my friend, this meant that all the spirit needed was some light and herbs to procure money to get things moving. My friend had what he needed in precisely three days. This spirit has an uncanny ability to accomplish goals in three days, so much so that I know that’s how it works.

But this post is really about the power of simplicity. I am learning of another related ATR system that is far more straightforward than most. We live in an age of oversaturation of many things, so when something simple yet effective comes along, there can almost be a tyranny against believing it has real power. For some of us, we get stuck thinking that what’s powerful is what takes hours and hours to carry out. Some things are this way, yes. But other ways are not.

This is yet another reason why I teach Hoodoo the way I do. To be sure, there are complicated rituals in Hoodoo. But the vast majority of its tools are simple, direct, and effective. Hoodoo was not borne out of a state of luxury but of necessity. It also had to be something that could work on the move because Hoodoo’s original forebears often had to keep it moving while still doing what needed to be done spiritually. If you want to learn more about the simple spiritual practice I teach, please join me in my current cohort of Working the Roots. You will be glad you did!

The link to the class is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/working-the-roots/.

See you in class!

MAKING MAGIC WORK FOR YOU

Several years back, much earlier in my practice and development, I had a good friend who reached out in need of help. He had lent someone a significant amount of money, and though they agreed at the onset to pay him back, he reported that they started to hedge on their promise. His not receiving that money back would have devastated his life, based on everything he said to me.

I had a few spirits I was learning to work with, but few of them had come through strong yet. But that day, one of my spirits did. Very much so. Someone within my spiritual cuadro that was new to me, who I hadn’t even established much understanding about how to work with her. But she came through STRONG. And with her presence came a strong download of specific work to do with her.

What threw me at that moment wasn’t that she was talking so much. Or even that she stood up to assist me in helping my bud. What THREW me was the specific work she gave me. The things she instructed me to do were not things I knew or understood to be something that went together. Yes, I had worked with them separately and in different situations. Cussing someone out. Banging a machete on the ground. And fire, LOTS of fire.

But I knew enough of them to know better than not to do what that spirit gave me to do. And I kid you not, my friend had all his money back in three days, precisely when she said it would return!

What I learned at that time was that it is okay, and even necessary, for me to make my magic work for me. Yes, tradition is important. It is vital to me as an ATR practitioner. There is a way to do things that get consistent results, and more importantly, it connects me to a long line of egguns who did the same thing. So when I follow the traditions, I am not just doing it with the energy of now. I am doing it with the power of countless ancestral spirits who went before me. Even my saying that does not entirely capture the mystery of it, but it is what it is.

Tradition is important, but it only carries you to a point. At some point, a trust needs to be established where your spirits teach you the stuff that tradition alone cannot and will not. This is because tradition is valuable and valuable. It’s because there are mysteries and ways of working that are authentic to you and your spirits that only they can teach. I think this is often misunderstood, to be honest. I think the misunderstanding leads to people thinking teachers like me can teach that, but none of us can. What we can teach is the foundation. We can teach our version of tradition that gives your tree roots from which you and your spirits grow and branch.

I get it, though. We live in an age of instant information, of many people teaching many things. But we also live in a time of Covid and other social problems that make many of us feel we need something clear and specific to deal with. The problem is that we need more than tradition alone to get what we need. The tradition is more like a means to an end than the end itself. In my spiritual work, especially with spirits, the story I told above has repeated itself so many times with so many different spirits that I trust what I am given to bring relief and aid to folks. I know it will work because they have shown it WILL.

Now, I don’t want to romanticize any of this. We are all different, develop differently, and have different skills, gifts, and talents. Some people I know can work with or pass spirits with little effort. Others, like me, have had to work through a lot of challenges to have a consistent practice. The difference I encountered was who my elders were. If I had controlled elders and not worked with me to build my confidence, my development would be slow. If a mentor had an ulterior motive for keeping me in a relationship of dependence with them, my development was slow. But when an elder encouraged me to trust myself, I grew.

Making your magic work for you is fundamental to any spiritual practice. The medium doesn’t matter to me: chaos magic, Solomonic magic, PGM magic, Lucumi, Abakua, etc. Any of them should bring you to the place where however that system works takes you to a practice authentic and unique to you. The methods may not be unique, but how you carry them out should, over time, reflect how you perceive the spirit world. It should reflect a protocol you follow to connect to your spirits, herbs, or astral energies to make things happen as you need. It is not a dismissal from a teacher for you to be on your own unless you choose to be. Following a tradition should connect you to others who walk that same path, even if you walk it differently.

I hope everyone reading this finds their own way to this authentic place. It is what will carry you through the long haul of a lifetime practice.

ANOTHER REASON I TEACH HOODOO THE WAY I DO

The occult world as we know it is chock full of numerous traditions. Among them are a fair number of initiation-based ones. Some initiatory ones, like any ATR/ADR, require hefty commitments and an even heftier price tag. And I am talking about honest spiritual houses, not the ones trying to exploit people. Those are a whole other post for a whole other day.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with any tradition as long as it does not add to the numerous forms of oppression anyone with eyes can see. But as I keep reiterating, initiations are not for everyone. They are not. If a santero, palero, babalawo, blah blah blah, is hustling you to believe initiations ARE meant for everyone, do an about-face and walk away.

I actually went to a misa (read: ATR séance) not long ago where both myself and the person the misa was for were told we needed to receive a million different initiations across three traditions. The person did pass their spirit, but I could feel right away that the spirit was not very evolved. This was confirmed for me when the other person, who is in recovery, was offered an alcoholic drink by the spirit. The spirit tried to push it on them, so I stood up, blocked them, and said NO. If a spirit is elevated, it will know a detail like that and not do something destructive to a person’s life. But I digress a bit.

I am teaching my brand of Hoodoo because there should be spiritual practices that do not require initiation so people can fulfill their potential and walk their path with the right tools. Foremost among the tools I teach is for people to name their social location as the starting point for their personal power. It is also where some people discover or rediscover that they come from a community that brought them to this moment, good or bad. Reflection on this in the class context can help people discern how they will serve the communities around them. I haven’t taken many other classes that take the time to do this.

Most of the time, these things I highlight are things I don’t hear about as much while the class takes place but in the days, weeks, and months after. Usually, when a person fully incorporates what they have learned to practice rootwork in ways that work for their context. It is always fantastic to get this feedback because, honestly, it helps me to know whether my teachings are on track and having the positive impact on students’ lives that I hope for. So, to that, I say thank you.

If you still need to take Working the Roots, know that my next cohort through the Blackthorne School is starting on 10/21. I would love to have you with us! The link to join is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/working-the-roots/.  

WANNA WORK WITH SPIRITS? START WITH YOUR ANCESTORS!

I have written about this periodically here and there, but I thought this post would address what I believe to be an important part, if not the important part, of spirit work. Many people approach me and ask me how to work with spirits. Sometimes, this comes up in a reading. Other times, people seek advice and counsel about developing that part of their spiritual practice.

My answer is almost always the same: start with your ancestors. Another word people will hear me use a lot is eggun. This word in the Lucumi ATR world I am in signifies two sets of spirits. One is your blood ancestors. You typically know these people a few generations back, and some you only know through family stories. Our ancestors are a mixed bag of noble and sometimes scandalous people. But what is significant is if they show up for you in your ancestral spiritual development, they are likely in a good spiritual place where they wish to help their posterity from the other side.

The second set of eggun are called “ara onu,” which translates roughly in the Nigerian dialect as ancestral spirit guides. All ancestral spirits are eggun, but not all are ara onu. Some are both, but that tends to be rare. These are spirits that are usually not part of your bloodline. They can be from any place, time, or culture and almost always have a specific mission with you during this lifetime that they have come to you to assist you with. These spirits are also often where many of your spiritual abilities originate, and in many cases, they enhance things such as psychic vision, divination, working with herbs, and so on.

There’s one reason I lift these spirits up above any other for the average person. With most other spirits, you have to work hard to connect, then give offerings, devotion, and whatever else to make a pact with said spirit and eventually achieve what you desire. This can be time-consuming, and there is always a chance such a spirit—even a god- may not follow through. Eggun are different. You don’t have to spend inordinate amounts of time to connect because they are already connected to you. They are already inside of you, in your bones and DNA. They are a literal part of you. The trick with them is not so much connecting but building a solid relationship and foundation.

In all my ATR traditions, eggun lead everything. Most ATR ceremonies cannot even happen without eggun being propitiated first, especially in Lucumi. When you connect, especially with a practice like espiritismo, you also begin to discover that while most spirits walking with you are meant for devotional work, some with you are working spirits. Some do not need your devotion but rather are workhorses that address, attack, or resolve the challenges in your life. Each of them tends to have a specialty and makes that known as you connect and sit with them.

The things people run to demons, angels, djinn, and gods for can easily and more quickly be done by your working ancestral spirits. Sometimes, even the other eggun will assist one of the others, and you quickly discover you have a whole army at your back. There’s nothing wrong with those other spirits, but the fact that it takes pacting with them in some way to get what you want means success depends on their whim. Your ancestors, on the other hand, have a vested interest in the line's success. If you fail, they fail. If you go broke, nobody gets anything. I would bet my bottom dollar on that any day above any other spirit. I encourage you to do the same, especially if you are wondering how best to foundate your practice. I don’t know of any better than Eggun.  

Ancestral Reverence: Some Scattered Thoughts

This is an oldie I wrote a year or two ago, but a goodie. Much of this still applies to revering those who went before us. Enjoy!

My ancestors and spirit guides have been heavy on my mind as of late. So have some of my close family members who have passed away in recent years. In fact, around my birthday date in August, I suddenly got this strong urge to get a Mets baseball cap. Why? Because growing up, when I was a little boy, I used to spend a lot of time with my grandpa watching Mets games on TV. I actually dreamed someday of taking a trip with him to Shea Stadium and seeing a game live.

We never got to do that before he died. He died suddenly after a minor surgical procedure, months later, while I was in college. But he was a major force in my childhood. When my parents divorced, it was devastating to my mom on several levels, especially financially. She struggled for at least the first ten years of my life to stabilize our lives and rebuild her life. My grandparents were KEY to that process. They often picked me up from school while Mom worked late. They would feed me dinner. 

The cool thing is I never felt a sense of lack. I knew what my Mom was doing, getting her education and then her very busy job as a guidance counselor. She was doing the work with poor families to get them stable like she had done for her and I. And she drew on the community around the school to help her do that, just like she did with grandma and grandpa.

Fast forward to grandpa’s death. I got asked to speak at the funeral. By now I was a student leader in the Protestant church at college, so everybody in the family saw me as a preacher-man-in-training. The night before the funeral, I was typing away on my word processor.

All of a sudden, I felt a spirit hovering over and to one side of me. In my mind’s eye, the spirit showed itself enough that I knew it was Grandpa Chuck. I simply said “Grandpa?!” No sooner had I said that, he passed on and away, like Superman. I later learned that this was a thing in the Black community—that our deceased ancestors will sometimes pass over loved ones to let them know they are okay.

It would be even more later that I would learn that my grandpa continues to be with me in a special way, and is a guiding force in my life. You can then imagine that, when the signals started coming through that it was time to get a Mets cap and honor my Grandpa, I did not hesitate!

Alright, so here’s the thing. The reason I am writing about this is because sometimes people are saying and doing weird shit around ancestor reverence. I hear stories of people saying someone reached out to them about their ancestors to tell them what their own ancestors want them to do. It just doesn’t work that way, periodt. The only thing somewhat similar to that is a misa or a séance that is focused on you and “pulling” your ancestral spirits, to assist in your development. But no ATR person is going to just randomly go around telling people about their ancestors. 

You already have your ancestors with you. The connection is also already there, but sometimes it needs some work to make it so that you can perceive them. Also, yes, some of us have so-called bad ancestors. Some people want to write ancestors off completely because of those rotten apples. I say that’s a huge mistake. Your ancestral line is old, really old. It goes back to the ancestors we all share, which even science confirms. I do believe it is possible to reach back to those, what I call Primal Ancestors. Do I have a specific way of doing that? No. But from all the stuff I see in occultism and how far out it gets, I wonder why people would balk at trying to reach back ancestrally, but have no qualms conjuring the Devil and every demon of the Goetia? Them spirits you have to work to even have the connection to begin with. With your ancestors, it is already there.

Another critique I hear of ancestral veneration is that people talking about it don’t really show a clear-cut method with concrete results. That’s a fair one. Some of us don’t. But the ability to connect to ancestors and spirit guides just is not a cookie-cutter thing. It’s not like Solomonic magic, for example, where if you do all the steps correctly, you will experience SOMETHING. 

No, because our ancestors are first and foremost carried in our bodies, it means our individual ability to connect to them will have variance. For people like me, I can sit at my White Table and connect to them without a problem. For others that never works. Maybe they need to have a ground altar. Maybe they need to take a walk in nature and take off their shoes and learn to hear the ancestral voices guiding them.

Or maybe it’s as simple as buying a Mets cap and letting the connection with that person come through the memories, sensations and joy they inspired in your life. 

Perhaps this is why people are so critical of ancestral reverence, because it’s not easily reproducible like scientific research. Spiritists and Spiritualists have been doing this work for a long time, and those I know who are good at it ALL seek first and foremost to determine how a new person to the Art connects. A lot of that is experimentation. What’s challenging, though, is that some of it only happens well in the context of community. There are things I learned about my family line ancestrally that would have taken me many years of work to perceive, but with the assistance of espiritistas in my spiritual house, I made much faster progress.

All of this is to say to you that if you feel any draw to your ancestors, I want you to not be afraid to experiment and try different things. They are already guiding and running your development as a spirit and human being, so they will also guide you around this. There will be things you try that you connect with immediately, while others not so much. Sometimes that is one of your ancestral spirits letting you know that this interest in, let’s say calligraphy is because you have a Japanese spirit guide who was a Buddhist monk and practiced writing. But we don’t have an understanding of that until we do the doing.

You don’t have to have a fancy white table.

You don’t have to give expensive liquors.

You don’t have to cook massive feasts of ancestor food.

You don’t really need anything to connect with your ancestors.

They are already in your body, blood, bones and DNA. 

You can call out to them right where you stand, right now.

Then just be still

And they will come.

DID YOU KNOW?: THE PRACTICE OF ESPIRITISMO

You have all heard me speak and teach pretty openly on practices connected to espiritismo, or Spiritism, that I can teach before it gets into the aspects you need a teacher/mentor for. But I wanted to write a bit more about the background so you might also understand a huge part of my spirituality and why I say many of the things I say.

I believe that spiritism originated in France. It began with an academic pseudonymously named Allan Kardec. He was not super religious, nor did he initially believe in the occult. I think he was invited to attend a séance, and when messages came through for him, they roped him into this fledgling tradition. Soon after that, he encountered what is known as the Good Spirits. They told him that his life mission was to teach and expand the practice of Spiritism to the known world and, in that way, combat the encroaching darkness of the Opposing Forces. They also warned him that those Forces would do everything possible to stop the spread of the Light, disrupting humanity’s ability to progress and evolve as a race. And that if he accomplished this, Spiritism would spread all over the world.

You can argue that Kardec accomplished just this. The practice had modest success across Europe. Then, as Europeans either traveled, immigrated, or were kicked out of their mother countries and into the so-called New World, the practice DID go global. The Caribbean, Mexico, and other parts of Latin America quickly grasped it. In these places, Spiritism also connected to the various indigenous and African cultures and practices and took on a different flavor altogether, almost to the point that you would not recognize espiritismo from European Spiritism. But they are related.

When espiritismo was adopted by non-white people, it underwent a fascinating transformation. It became more earthy, less formal, and less scientific in approach. It stressed experience, the passing of spirits, and the development of spiritual sight. This adaptability is a testament to the resilience and evolution of espiritismo, inspiring us to embrace change and growth in our own spiritual journeys.

Spiritism adapted once more when it hit American soil. When it came here, it became what’s called Spiritualism. Also, because America has always had a race problem (which European Spiritism also had), racism caused there to be two different sects. Numerous Black Spiritualist churches combined elements of Protestant, Catholic, and Spiritist ways. The white churches were much the same, but they tended to see non-white spirits as lower in intelligence and power. Spiritualism is mainly where the concept of candle color came into American magic. Before this, our ancestors used oil lamps and beeswax candles (and preferred lamps). This is why you have heard me say that color magic is cool but unnecessary. It’s not “native” to Hoodoo.

Espiritismo is so important to me because, besides my Christianity (my oldest practice from my childhood), it is the part of my spirituality that ties them all together. It is what has taught me over and over again that the divisions religions and human beings make are primarily artificial and self-serving some group, somewhere. It is the practice that moved me away, the older I get, from an anthropomorphic understanding of God, toward one of God as Light and Intelligence Who stands above all concepts of religion, but is accessible to any and everyone. It is the practice that makes all the isms we persist in holding onto as utter nonsense, because any of us have spirits from any place, time or culture. It is the tradition that helped me accept the possibility of reincarnation NOT as a sideways Hell like Hindus and Buddhists tend to articulate but as merciful opportunities to grow and learn and evolve ourselves over lifetimes.

It is ALSO the practice that the more I do it, the more I experience the Divine in every spiritual place I go. One of my mentors said that an espiritista who is earnest in practice can walk into any spiritual space or place of worship and feel that Presence. I have experienced this personally. Espiritismo leaves me open and helps to hold back any tendencies I have in myself of absolutes and black-and-white thinking that limits me. Few spiritualities can do this because most of them out here are concerned with declaring what is Truth. But espiritismo leads to beautiful places when not limited by our prejudices.

As you navigate your spiritual journey, I encourage you to explore practices that resonate with you, much like espiritismo has resonated with me. May the heart of life always reveal itself to you as something good.

CABRINI: SOME POINTS OF REFLECTION ON THE MOVIE

I had the chance to see the movie Cabrini at the beginning of this past weekend. And don’t worry—I won’t say much about the actual film here! The movie did inspire me to write this post, however.

What I was most struck by in the movie was the depth of the hatred for newer European immigrants by older European immigrants. This took place in the late 1800s, so it was not far after the end of the Civil War and American Slavery. Many people also do not know the tumultuous history of New York City during this period. The City nearly burned to the ground two or three times, if my memory serves me. When the movie “Gangs of New York” came out, I thought it was a historical fantasy. In later years of going to seminary and taking specific theological courses centered on Critical Race Theory, I learned that the history in that movie was entirely accurate. Before white people decided to stop hating and killing each other and lay down the false narrative of older European immigrants being more American, they picked up the mantle of whiteness. They invited most European immigrants who came here to join the club. That began what we are still under as a nation today.

The hatred Mother Cabrini dealt with was quite real and unending. Making matters worse, the patriarchy of both the Catholic archdiocese and the secular authorities of the city merged for a particularly virulent opposition. She was also gravely ill in the latter part of her life and illness. As I watched all of her triumphs and sorrowful defeats and setbacks, I was reminded of the power of faith. Her keeping hold of a bigger picture, a reality larger than her reality, made her keep going, one foot in front of the other. I think we can sometimes lust for burning bushes, much like how occultists lust for results sometimes. But the real strength of having faith, any faith, is the grit it gives you. It is the growing edge Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman speaks of in this poem:

All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born;

all around us life is dying and life is being born.

The fruit ripens on the tree,

the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth

against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit.

Such is the growing edge!

It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung,

the one more thing to try when all else has failed,

the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor.

This is the basis of hope in moments of despair,

the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason,

the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash.

The birth of a child — life’s most dramatic answer to death —

this is the growing edge incarnate.

Look well to the growing edge!

She called that growing edge God and seemed to walk closely with it until she couldn’t. Times are hard in our day and time, too. The movie actually could not have come out at a better time, where in America, racial hatred and xenophobia seem at an all-time high to me. In the face of that, Cabrini would probably ask us what kind of an America we want to create now? We have that opportunity right now. We can continue to repeat the toxic and hateful patterns of those in this country who went before us. Or we can acknowledge to ourselves and our communities that all that does is give us a false sense of security that eventually crumbles.

I think it’s time to look for the growing edges in our day—the places where weeds and plants stubbornly shoot through ghetto concrete. I know they’re there; I see them and sometimes feel them. My prayer is to perceive this more.

Where do you see the growing edges?