I asked Joseph about the services he performs for his clients.

“You name it man. Anything you want done for you I will do it. If you want a visa I have something for that. If you woman leave you I can get her back for you. If you have a court case I will deal with that too,” Joseph pounded his fist into his palm as he spoke and his eyes widened with excitement. He explained that $14,000 will get you a visa to any place in the world you’d like to visit and if the love of your life was silly enough to think she could leave you and go cavorting around town with another, he would get her back for you for a measly $7,000.

I asked Joseph how he got into the white magic business in the first place.

“Well, when I was 15 somebody try work science on me. Dem put a powder in my hymn book at church and it make my head feel like it was going to tear off! I was sick bad. I decide that I wouldn’t want anybody to have that power over me again so I start to read all kind ofbooks. My father was a great science man himself as well so I learn from him and carry on the tradition. I was the only one of his children who carry on the teaching and the work for him,” Joseph said.

Full Story: Jamaica Gleaner.

(via Padre Engo)

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“The goat tethered to a tree outside Max Beauvoir’s home is doomed. Mr. Beauvoir, tall and majestic with closely cropped white hair, is a voodoo priest who was just named the religion’s supreme master, a newly created position that is aimed at reviving voodoo.

His grand residence on the outskirts of the Haitian capital serves as a temple for voodoo practitioners and a late-night hangout for those paying customers eager to take in an exotic evening of spiritual awakening. The temple, the Péristyle de Mariani, is where Mr. Beauvoir and his followers dance around a giant totem to the beat of drums. It is where they light bonfires to summon the spirits. And it is where they drain the blood of animals like that scrawny white goat to, among other things, heal the sick.

On a recent night, Haiti’s voodooists convened for a special ceremony. With music blaring and devotees dancing with all their might, two children threw white rose petals on a red carpet. Then along came Mr. Beauvoir.”

(via The New York Times)

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Full Story: Hatch 23.

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Key64. Vol2 #1

Featuring:

• Mordant Carnival tells you how not to end up in a tin foil hat!
• Trevor Blake on the invisible sky monster murder defense!
• Taylor Ellwood takes body language from the external to the internal!
• Lupa on Neon Genesis Evangelion and shamanism?
• Michael Szul asks difficult questions about ecology!
• Adam Lammiman gives instructions out of the Chapel Perilous!

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

EXPANDED Living the Myth by James Curcio!

Nick Pell on light, life, love and liberty!

The Return of the Enigmatic Padre Engo!

Introduction to Zoetics!

PostModern Gnosis!

Plus!

Klint Finley on the not-so-secret history of Key23!

Datamancer interviewed!

Donald Tyson reviewed!

Christopher Penczak personally insulted!

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Part of me wants to just not bother with this and this, since no one really seems to be taking Jason and Shivanath seriously anyway. But, since I have endorsed work by both of them in the past, and still have a lot of respect for them, I feel like I’ve got to say: yes, they are spewing disingenuous bile. They have their own agenda evangelizing for their own New Agey religion, and are not any more “neutral” than Gypsy Lantern is on the subject.

Says “Johnny Templar”: “That voodoo hoojoo is just a recipe for human misery.”

But I gotta ask: aren’t Buddhism and Hindu also a recipe for human misery?

I don’t consider myself a practitioner of Vodoun, or of Tantric Hindu but have an interest in both. If I had to pick which one was “better” I’d pick the religion of the only successful slave revolt in history, not the religion that kept the Dalits ‘in their place’ for centuries. I’d pick the one that lets women and homosexuals be priests. That said, I’ve been influenced by Tantric and Hindu thought, particularly by Shivanath’s writings on the subject.

Readers of this blog know that I consider religion in general to be a recipe for human suffering and call myself an atheist. I believe that there are elements of religions that can be useful for individuals, but there is no objective utility any of this. Jason and Shivanath’s campaign against voodoo is silly at best, and creepy and cult-like at worst, especially when Jason’s throwing around statements like these: “Nobody invited you here. You came into *my* temple looking for a fight, and you are not welcome here.”

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My brain hurts. Bad.

(it’s also available for pre-order from Amazon).

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The Phenomena Interview Padre Engo: New York’s Voodoo High Priest, Militant Messiah, Music Producer and Musician Dateline:

Ed – You have stated that you are the incarnation of a Mexican god. How did you discover this?

PE – Yes I am Quetzalcoatl in the flesh. I am the first and there will be other avatars of the Feathered Serpent to come after me.

Only a black man can hold this spiritual title. Also, being a Moor (a black Muslim) and an avatar of Quetzalcoatl is not a contradiction in terms. Most people have no idea as to who Quetzalcoatl really is. All the so-called New Age books on Quetzalcoatl fail to tell you who he really is. Quetzalcoatl was not a ‘White Man with a beard’. The Mexican Indians never believed such nonsense. This idea only exists in the letter Cortez wrote to the King of Spain. Quetzalcoatl is a West African god that was always viewed as a black man from the East. This has been proven by the Harvard Professor Leo Weiner.

Quetzalcoatl is the product of the Mandingo magicians that colonized Mexico long before the birth of Christ, and again in the 1300s. He was originally depicted by the ancient Mexican Indians as a black man with a beard wearing a white ‘Islamic’ robe. His white robe is why he is often called a ‘White God’.

Full Story: Key 23.

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Catherine Yronwode’s book in progress about hoodoo.

I get the funny feeling I’ve linked to this before, but can’t find it in the archives.

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Along the back roads of Abomey, bird flu is more than just a public health hazard. It threatens a way of life that has survived for centuries: voodoo.

And despite chasing evil spirits, people here are at a loss as to how to counter the potential devastation of a deadly virus.

Abomey, once as famous as Timbuktu, is known for two things: the birthplace of the African slave trade and of voodoo.

Full Story: ABC News.

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“As of today I would say it’s pretty dead,” Glossop said. “Even the tourist shops are in jeopardy. There is a chance for a huge loss here.”

Voodoo has long been entrenched in New Orleans, quietly practiced in homes with altars, candles and incense to solve problems of the heart and wallet. Before the storm tore through, about 15 percent of the city’s population actively practiced, according to Lisa Fannon, a tour guide, though estimates vary widely.

Newsday.

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