This is all good, but as spiritual people, we must take care that we don’t abandon God while embracing Goddess, or ignore the masculine forces of Nature.

It is especially disheartening for me, with Vodun as my home faith, to see people co-opting female/feminine Orishas without any understanding of them or their place in the Yoruba or diaspora pantheons.  Somehow, the vast majority of them pounce onto Yemaya without first, going through Eshu.  There is a reason that everyone must ask Eshu before approaching other Orishas.  If one does not have the proper attitude of reverence, one cannot successfully work with Nature.  There is a good reason that the Orisha we approach first with reverence is identified male, and it’s not just because his first human avatar was.  There’s a reason he chose a male body first, with whom to enter the human consciousness.

The female may carry babies and give birth.  This is no small task.  The male however, provides the seed, provides for the mother (or his female relatives in matriarchal or heavily matrilineal cultures), physically and psychologically protects her, and does the vast majority of the warrior and builder duties that keep societies functioning.  Without male presence, children would have to be born walking and talking.

Yet in western culture, maleness is being villainized.  We’re told that there is a rapist or murderer lurking in every dark place, waiting to strike, and we’re told that these are almost invariably male.  We are taught to suppress any hint of masculinity in our boys except as it directly profits a woman.  Some Pagan and Wiccan feminists even attempt to force feminist political agendas through magic, without considering the long term effects, much less what the spirits who nurture humanity may want.

A spiritual person should be able to see through all the mess, and should understand the need for reality and for balance.  A spiritual person should have a God in harmony with their Goddess.

A spiritual person should be egalitarian, not feminist.  The spirits do not have a political agenda.  Where you may have a closer affinity to feminine spirits if you’re female or have been driven that way because of a special talent (you may be two-spirit regardless of your orientation), you should have place for the masculine as well.

…and for goodness sake, if you’re incorporating spirits or paths from the Vodun or diaspora systems, get into Eshu first.

We all know at least one Goddess proclaiming person whose life is in shambles.  They’ve alienated the men in their lives as they are attempting to distance themselves from masculine spirituality.  Yet they claim that since they’ve embraced the Goddess, they’re doing the right thing.  As the years go by, you’ve seen them become ever more shrill in this proclamation, and yet become ever more hollow and shallow.  If you’ve ever been in a coven or group where it seemed like a competition to be the most “empowered” and felt uncomfortable with this, that was your animus and probably Eshu with Shango singing backup, telling you to get out of there, and rightly so.

Respect the masculine in harmony with the feminine, and you’ll find many things in your life improve naturally.  You’ll feel more free to let your Oshun aspects come out when you know there is a Shango around.

Suppressing masculinity suppresses femininity because both need each other to exist.  Even and especially if you are a naturally tough woman, you should be able to access the masculine spirits.  A good many if not most tough ladies became so with considerable contribution from their fathers or other positive male role models.  To balance expedience and honor, one must balance their masculine and feminine self.  Just as men and women need to learn to live in peace in the outside world, you need to learn to live in peace with your feminine and masculine self in your inner world.

Bochio (also spelled bocchio or bocio) are basically small dolls or figurines that serve as charms, amulets, or talismans.  They originated in west Africa, and are common objects in the antiques and artifacts market.  Often, people buy them thinking that they are simply figurines.  In more than one case, someone who has acquired one has received a blessing specific to it without even knowing that it was the bochio that helped to draw the energy to that purpose.

Bochio are generally made in secret.  Sometimes they are filled with objects intended to attract a positive energy or repel a negative one.  Sometimes they are solid, but the artist is putting energy into the object while they carve or sculpt it.

Aside of their magical usefulness, they serve the psychological purpose of acting as visualization tools and reminders of a goal or a wish.  Having them around can cheer up a room, keep a couple mindful to be considerate to one another, or even remind you to lock your doors when you leave the house.

If you have reasonable artistic talent, you can make your own bocio at home.  You can model it after an Orisha, or even a fairy, gnome, or sentinel depending on its purpose.  You’ll just need some DAS clay or other air drying clay, and objects that have to do with its purpose.

For instance, if you want to make a home protection bocio, you would gather some locks and perhaps various small household objects.  Think of how you would ornament the bocio with them, or use these as part of the sculpture.  You may also wish to add Eshu friendly ingredients to the clay since he is a well known guardian of gateways.  Oba is also a good Orisha to honor while crafting a bocio since she is the Orisha of home and hearth.

Once you’ve finished sculpting it, paint it colorfully, and if you like, dress it nicely.  Traditionally, bocio looked a bit…baroque, but yours doesn’t have to be.  It should at least look a bit flamboyant or wild.  Have fun with it.

They knew I was a healer, so they asked for my help.  I asked a few questions, and started to get very suspicious that there was foul play.  He said that it felt as if his intestines and stomach were full of snakes.  I asked him in private if he had done something that may have made someone very angry…angry enough to want him dead.  He couldn’t think of anyone.  He’s a good guy and got along with people.  I felt his stomach, and looked at it.  It was pretty obvious that he did indeed have snakes in his stomach.  I wondered who would do such a cruel thing to a good man, and decided to treat him.

I called Papa Jim’s phone line, and they treated it like an emergency call.  Within two days, we received a packet and instructions.  So we made the tea…actually more like a sludge that he was supposed to drink for two days.  It worked, and his stomach pains went away.

…but then he got a call from other members of his family.  Some of them had been having similar symptoms.  So we gave them the same treatment.

Knowing, from a scientific standpoint, where snakes in the stomach comes from, we asked questions about the water system there.  Apparently some areas get their water from underground wells that have old fashioned grids because they are also fed from mountain water.  When the level drops, various amphibians can get caught in them, and some apparently died and decomposed there.  There isn’t really a mechanical filter that can get rid of the poison that is made from dead frogs.  The water has to pass through charcoal or other mineral filters.

So we recommended that they put water filters on their houses until the state filtered their water lines or fixed the system that animals couldn’t get caught in them.

In short, the reason I like Papa Jim’s is because they don’t mess around.  They take every order seriously, and their recipes are the real thing.  His motto is “whatever works” and it does indeed work.

It doesn’t exactly fit into any of the commonly known categories.  It’s not quite Voodoo, and not quite Hoodoo either.  It’s something quite unique.  We usually call it “Roots”.

Most practitioners are non Catholic Christians.  I’d guess that most are Baptist or Methodist, though quite a few are likely non denominational.  Most I’ve encountered wouldn’t call what they do magic or roots work unless they’re doing it with the left hand.  For certain, wherever you see an Ellegua/Legba figure near or behind a door, that  individual is or has seen a Roots worker, or remembers something of African traditions.

One thing that is tragic, but does make secrets easier to keep is that many Roots practices come from Native American tribes or clans that were too small or wiped out.  Part of the reason for the extreme intolerance is the passing down through the generations of fear and ethnic shame.  The more westernized one was, and the more Christian one was, the more acceptable they were.  Roots was a threat to this idea, and still is.

The Celtic injection comes from those who lived and worked with, and often owned African and Native Americans.  Racial division was a problem in the south, it’s true, but the lines between ethnicities wasn’t always perfectly clear.  There was quite a bit of mixing of both genes and traditions.

Because of religious intolerance, most Roots workers do so as solitaries in total secrecy.  When they do tell others, it usually stays in the family or between a few select family members.  There are rules in some families about who can be taught, and traits that are said to mean that one has the gift.

If someone in the family pops up with an unusual trait that previous generations of Roots adept people had, then they were watched carefully both sides.  The extreme Christians would work extra hard to keep them away from anything remotely resembling “witchcraft”, and the less extreme would look forward to their first visions.

The systems of detection and initiation weren’t usually as elaborate as others.  Most just sort of grow into their practice.  Means of expression were in tandem with church or modern ceremonies and events.  A Roots worker may not have the organization around her/him to arrange for a group dancing ceremony, but they can have a house party during which most people there being drunk or high would cover the fact that they are actually in a trance state, and the existential and mystical talk is more than just intoxicated ramblings.

…and that a game of dominoes isn’t just a game of dominoes.