TUESDAY’S NEW CLASS ALERT: SERVE AND PROTECT!

Hi Folx!

As promised, I am coming to you on Day 2 of this week to lift up another of my new one-off classes! I often create these one-off courses because, even though I have my flagship Hoodoo classes, they cover so much material that if I added anything else to is, I feel like people my get overwhelmed. One-offs make more sense to me to give practitioners a deep dive into a certain subject area. In this case, this one is all about protection.

Unlike some others I have made, this course draws from THREE different traditions I practice: Hoodoo, Powwow and Solomonic Magic. What’s so cool to me is all three of them are related and intertwine into each other in the way they work. Even the formal and sometimes-rigid Solomonic magic does its own version of rootwork through European folk practices weaved into some grimoires. So we are working in the spirit of that in this class.

The other key to this course is that we are working with some of the spirit arcana of the 6/7 Books of Moses. The strength of this one-off is the way the spirits and your built-up relationship with them will power your protective practice.

I also follow loosely elemental lines in the sense that we use the 5 elements to organize the practical workings you will learn. I don’t know too many other instructors who organize things this way with Hoodoo. It is not an absolute, but rather my attempt to show yet another way to think outside of the box and incorporate practical magical correspondences. Again, my goal is ever to teach people how to see the value and potential of what they already know with what they are learning. We should never have to reject and throw out everything we have learned before to become something new—unless we want to.

I hope this class brings the benefit of protection into your practice and for those you may serve. The link to the class is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/serveandprotect/.

NEW CLASS ALERT: PORTABLE WONDERS!

Hi everyone!

So, I have an exciting week of new releases all at once. I have been working on FOUR new one-off classes for a while. All are locked and loaded at the Blackthorne School, but this week, I will drop a daily post highlighting each class and why it is vital to anyone’s practice. I am thinking about this, particularly for people trying to find a unique practice that fits and works for them. These posts are dedicated to everyone trying to find their way!

With that in mind, let’s begin! Our first Hoodoo Mini-Hack up this week is a fun class I have termed “Portable Wonders.” The primary purpose of this class is to equip you with the means of creating talismans and amulets that will provide protection and a host of other beneficial conditions for yourself or a client (yes, I assume some taking these courses will use them to build their own business, too). There are specific talismans and amulets taught, five of them to be exact, but that does not mean you are limited to those. The whole point of this class is to see the logic and approach behind taking materia, spirit conjuration and your intention and weave those things together to create an object of power.

As much as I work to keep things simple, sometimes we must dive into a specific practice more deeply to ensure it is anchored properly. Thus, this course has more ceremonial magic principles than one of my one-offs tends to have. But don’t let that dissuade you! You may also adjust this as you need.

Which brings me to my final point! I always assume folks learning Hoodoo likely have other occult practices they do. It is thus more than okay to look at this material and consider how you might jailbreak it. One talisman in here is the Triple Jack Hand, where I do just that. The original talisman the Triple Jack is inspired from has some ingredients that don’t make sense for our day. But I could look at that original working and easily discern what it was supposed to be about, then make changes based on my knowledge of Hoodoo correspondences. You all can do the same as well! Hoodoo is one of many traditions with correspondences, whether we are talking herbs, roots, religious symbols, or even spirits. So, the utility of this class is limited only by our imaginations!

I hope you enjoy it; may it bring blessings to you and those you might serve. The link to the class is here: https://www.theblackthorneschool.com/courses/portablewonders/.

WORKING THE SPIRIT: BEYOND THE REGISTER OF SPIRITS?

I enjoy doing Facebook Lives and interacting with folx who are both interested in my courses and want to have a little fun and shoot the breeze for an hour. The last one I had this past weekend was a good time for everyone. One question I was asked was, if someone is a practitioner with a devotion to another kind of spirit or deity outside of what I am teaching, is it okay for that person to incorporate Hoodoo into their work with that “outsider” spirit?

As I said then and say now, that is a FANTASTIC question. I immediately said yes and briefly explained, but upon further reflection, there was a qualifier or two I should have mentioned. My overall answer is still yes, however!

One essential qualification is that whoever the spirit is, it is best and appropriate to ask said spirit if it is okay to mix and incorporate Hoodoo into your practice with them. I tell this not to imply that syncretism is wrong in any way, but more that if it IS a spirit you have a strong relationship with, it is best to respect that relationship by asking about significant changes you are considering. I see it sort of like when two people are married. I knew an older couple that, when the man retired, he went and spent a massive chunk of his retirement money on a monster-sized pickup truck without consulting with his wife. He caused World War 3 in his house!

For me, it’s the same with spirits. I will not do arbitrary things in my relationship with a spirit unless it is a bonafide emergency, in which case I will do what I need to do and apologize later. But for standard everyday stuff, or just because I want to change something, I feel it is the right thing to do to ask.

Another qualification, especially when considering incorporating aspects of ATR/ADR traditions, is researching and ensuring what you plan to do aligns with the energies and nature of a spirit. Many of us can be guilty of this and jump head-first into the deep end of the pool when our swim technique is not ready for that. Horror stories also abound of people mixing spirits and their energies in rituals (sometimes in the same tradition even), only to have their lives turn upside down because they did not understand a historical or mythological contraindication.

So, what I am saying for real is to be careful. Hoodoo is a great crossroads practice. You can practice Hoodoo as its own discrete tradition, adding nothing of any other in it, and you can have a complete and fulfilling career of it. But just as many people, for a very long time, have been conflating Hoodoo with, for example, their “mother” religious traditions. Even Hoodoo itself, in its historical context, did some of this. The significant presence of Jewish and Solomonic magic is but one stark example of that. Enslaved people did not start Hoodoo with that knowledge because it was not a part of their tribal culture. It was later grafted into the tradition when the two ethnic worlds encountered each other and exchanged that cultural currency.

The thing that’s great about taking a class on Hoodoo is that it gives you the think tank to not only wonder about this question but experiment and report back to your student colleagues. A vibrancy comes from the check-ins; from my perspective, the material comes alive even more as students engage and reflect and engage more. Sometimes, I weigh in, while other times, I hang back and let the students lead their own discussions and debates. This, for me, is how a person’s practice becomes unique and effective for them. It is familiar, works with their strengths, and sustains a lifetime of practice. It doesn’t get much better than that!

WORKING THE SPIRIT: A BRANCH OF MY FOUNDATION

I often speak on these reflections of the parts of my practice that serve as crossroads, tying together the parts of who I am spiritually to make a coherent and consistent way of doing the Hoodoo I do. One of those is the practice of espiritismo, or what is known in English as Spiritism. Spiritism has its primary root in European spirituality, coming forth during a period where there seemed to be few options spiritually other than the overarching presence of Catholicism. Kardec, whose name is a pseudonym for Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, himself was a French Catholic. The period of his manifesting the practice of Spiritism occurred in the mid-19th century. For those unaware, that means this spiritual practice was developing during the period of American Slavery and global colonialism.

I cannot do Kardec’s life and work justice here, but suffice it to say that the Good Spirits, as we call them in Spiritism, made it known to him that he had been given the option of engaging in a divine mission of bringing a quasi-scientific method of spirit-work to the world. It was one he was promised would spread worldwide, which it eventually did (another post for another time!). Central to ALL forms of Spiritism is the foundational idea that our work with spirits is, first and foremost, to ennoble and elevate them. When we do this work, we elevate ourselves, for we are spirit. This elevation process is the chief means the Opposing Forces are thwarted. The manifestation of the Opposing Forces is both supernatural and within the machinations of the seen world. But when we earnestly do the work of Spiritism, it brings a Light to our world that the Darkness Without Light cannot undo.

How is this practice a crossroads piece of what I do, you ask? Well, because espiritismo is the most open of things I do. The tradition, especially its Caribbean variants, incorporates all kinds of spirits into each practitioner’s spiritual court: Congos and other Africans, Asian spirits, Roma spirits, angels, animal spirits, and much more. Racism and other isms make no sense to us, mainly because you are whoever you are from, wherever you are, but you can have spirit guides from anywhere and at any time. All the identity politics and power dynamics we use to control and oppress each other do not exist in that spirit world. So, practicing this spirituality gives you a perspective unlike what we see in our daily walk.

As I told someone dear to me recently, I also practice espiritismo because it reminds me that, as much as I work for and serve other people, I also need to uplift myself and the spirits who do so much of the heavy lifting with me. Yes, a spiritist may be trained to do practical magic at their Table, but we should always be setting time aside where we sit, meditate, pray, or sing. We need to connect and take in the Light to give us strength for the journey in a world that feels more broken by the day. That time sitting is not a passive thing either. There is a download occurring. A deepening and cementing of relationships. An impartation of knowledge and visions, much like the Prophet Joel’s words: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

This is the character of Spiritism. Its doctrines and praxis deeply inform my approach to spirit work and how I teach this in my courses. We get into some of this, as well, in the Working the Spirit class that starts Monday. My hope for all reading this is that your Good Spirits continue to guide you in the way you should go. As they do, I promise you will have some of the most extraordinary adventures you will ever know!