#vudun

[instagramerviajero]

(vía Vudu Pensamiento Vudun)

[bijoumikhawal]

the distancing from Africa thing in the introduction has only gotten more funny

Nothing like an academic book that's been out for over 5 years that you can't find a pdf rip of. Especially on a topic people tend to ignore or blatantly repeat false info about a lot

[milfzatannaz]

If yall start using vudun as a fun quirky plot device in iwtv fanfics im gonna personally drown you all in the Mississippi River

[kiragecko]

So, want to know why Voodoo is sometimes called Vodun these days?

It's because of Nasal Vowels!

But first - technically, Voodoo and Vodun (and Vodou and Vudú) are different things. Vodun is a West African religion, while Voodoo is a Louisiana descendant (with a lot of other influences, from West Africa, the Americas, and Europe). The other descendant religions throughout North and South America have slight variations in spelling, pronunciation, and differences of belief.

Now that we've got that out of the way, back to spelling!

Nasal vowels are a really common thing in languages. French has them. Sanskrit had them. A lot of West African languages have them. A lot of languages of the Americas have them. Basically, you say a word like you're going to say an 'n' after the vowel, and then ... don't. Your nose lets air move through it, and the vowel sounds different than a non-nasal vowel.

They're a pretty simple thing. But the Latin alphabet SUCKS at showing them.

So it's an 'every language for itself' situation. Every language has a different way of showing you if a vowel is nasal.

Turtle Island (North American Indigenous) languages often use an ogonek (ą, ę, į, ǫ, ų). Sanskrit and its descendants tend to use an anusvara (अं) or candrabindu (अँ), both usually written in Latin as 'ṃ.' The IPA and some languages use a tilde (ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ). French and West African languages tend to use an 'n.'

You can distinguish this 'n' from the normal 'n' that's a consonant because it doesn't have a vowel after it (but does have one in front of it). It's either word ending, or followed by a consonant.

'Vodun' is pronounced 'voh-dõõ' ('vo-dṹ,' with a high tone on the 'dũ' that we aren't dealing with here).

English speakers have no way to indicate a nasal vowel at all. Usually they're ignored when we're absorbing other people's words. So 'vodun' was spelled 'vodoo' or 'vodou' and the variant form 'vudun' was spelled 'voudou' or 'voodoo.'

-

You can also remember about nasal vowels when reading about Orisha (Òrìṣà) - Yoruba dieties that show up on Tumblr reasonably often.

'Ọlọrun' is pronounced 'aw-law-rõõ' (ɔ‧lɔ‧rũ)

'Ọ̀rúnmìlà' is pronounced 'aw-rõõ-mee-lah' (ɔ̀‧rṹ‧mì‧là)

'Ṣàngó' is pronounced 'shãh-goh' (ʃã̀‧gó)

etc.

-

I am sharing this because nasal vowels are cool, and because I remember being confused when I first saw the word 'Vodun.'

"How badly did we mangle that word to get 'Voodoo'?" I thought.

But in this case we didn't! English just doesn't have a way to show nasal vowels, and we aren't likely to guess that an 'n' is part of a vowel sound.

[elhoimleafar]

From St. Cyprian to Marie Laveau, every big sorcerer, conjuror and witch, have fill the life of their followers and believers with all kind of recipes for love, healing, protection and fortune.

Each one of them from a different background and from a different view, perspective and process. But every one of them share a simple deep true, your ritual, is a representation of your knowledge, and your magic, is a manifestation of your inner power to connect with something bigger than you.

Inspired after read again my own book "The Magical Art of Crafting Charm Bags" 😅 I need guidance in the process of work, lol, so I consult different books including mine 🤣

.

.

.

#TheMagicalArtOfCraftingCharmBags #Charmbags #Mojobags #GriGri #Grisgrisbags #Spellbags #Hexbags #Voodoo #Hoodoo #Folkmagic #Candomble #Wicca #Sorcery

[afrocentric-divination]

You are the first person I thought to ask, not necessarily because I assumed your practices but I thought you might have followers that would know the answer: for closed religions (I’m thinking of voodoo right now) if I found an authentic practitioner it’s ok to engage with voodoo in that brief moment when they invite me in, isn’t it? And even though I don’t plan on worshiping the loa, but is it ok to acknowledge that they exist and sort of “tip my hat” in respect, so to speak?

Others can jump in, but the answer will generally be yeah. Especially if you were invited by a practitioner. I would see it as rude if you didn’t.

[phantom-spiyider]

Mmhmm

[enlightenednewtorker]

Sometimes self mastery can led to isolation from the world🌏, certain relationships👫, and norms of a false reality that never tells truth🤐... The more authentic you become, the more hidden knowledges you take in, the more experiences you have with the actions you take, the more you believe in convincing of your godself, the more you grow into something indestructible because your heightened awareness or senses you know are creating everything... Claim your power for yourself and by balancing you... Watch everything be control by your will and imagination whenever you want it or need it... .... #enlightenednetworker #magick #demons #archangels #occult #sorcerersofinstagram #selfdeification #vudun #kemet #ascendedmastery #soultravel #orishas #lucifer #santamurte #inituition #invoke #noreligion #draconiangnosis #layersofreality #chaosdragons (at Like.Share.Follow)

[sag-dab-sar]

I hate the term "voodoo doll" with a passion.

[instagramerviajero]

(vía Vudu Ritos del propio vudun)

[queenofcandynsoda]

Gods Among Us: Hephaestus

Hephaestus works as a blacksmith, mechanic, and repairman in the Lower East Side Near Katz’s Deli. This apartment is a three bedroom apartment with a bathroom. He has several neighbors inside, who are usually older people.  His mortal name is Javin Ganas. Hestia is aware that Hephaestus is living there but never told the rest of the Olympians in respect of his wishes.

It’s called “Etna Anvil”. Though it looks small, it’s very spacious inside in New York standards. The first floor is meant to maintenance for cars, usually taxis. The basement has two levels meant for crafting weapons, metal working, stone masonry, and repairing. People from around Manhattan would always come to his shop

He is remarried to Ayizan, the Vudun goddess of commerce and gold, who works with him as a goldsmith and an artisan. Her mortal name is Orelia Chrysanthe-Ganas. They are happily married for over 40 years (they got met since the 50s but got married in the 70s). They have two children together. A toddler son born without legs named Ogun and a baby girl named Anaisa-Pie. He had completely cut off all contact with his family before the beginning of the Industrial revolution as Hera and Zeus made it clear that they don’t consider him to be their son and only have him around since he’s useful. Afterwards, he said that he was happier since he don’t have to deal with the constant verbal abuse. He also changed his mortal surname and sees Ayizan, their children, Thetis, and Achilles as his family instead of the Olympians. He is no longer bitter about Ares and Aphrodite’s affair.

[galemalio]

Mindful Consumption of Hazbin Hotel’s vodoo Content

There is no such thing as Voodoo; it is a silly lie invented by you whites to injure us. —William Seabrook, The Magic Island 

(Article and Study Link Sources will be in the reblogs because Tumblr doesn’t let linked posts appear) 

First of all, I’m not writing this as a Vodou practitioner. Or as a Creole POC. I’m simply an outsider making an effort to educate herself for mindful consumption of Hazbin Hotel content and avoid perpetuating misrepresentation of a religion.

(Image: Alastor with Vodou symbols and Vodou-inspired symbols behind him)

The portrayed dark magic of Hazbin Hotel’s Alastor is heavily themed with Hollywood Voodoo or the misrepresentation of Vodou in film. This can also apply with Dr. Facilier in “The Princess and the Frog.” Both characters are from New Orleans [18], [19] where Louisiana Vodou Vaudou is practiced. Both are therefore assumed to practice an evil version of said religion. 

During my consumption of Hazbin Hotel content, someone once pointed out the worrying factor of Alastor’s magic abilities identified as Hollywood Voodoo. 

According to my research, Hollywood Voodoo is a film outlet of “Imagined Voodoo” or the age-old White anxieties on Black people.

What Is Vodou?

(Photo taken from Huffpost)

Haitian Vodou is a religion of African descendants brought as slaves to the French colony of Haiti. It combines west and west central African religions with Native American and European cultural and religious elements.[1]

It is also known as Vodoo, Vodoun, Vudu and Vudun. But to avoid confusion, the term “Vodou” will be used consistently throughout this post when referring to the religion.

Slaves from Haiti are brought to New Orleans where it infused with its dominant religion, Catholicism. The Vodou-Catholicism hybrid religion is sometimes referred to as New Orleans Vodou.[2] 

(Photo provided by Cheryl Gerber)

All Vodou rituals are healing rituals. It's focused on the celebration of ancestral spirits (Lwa or Loa) through feasting, singing and ecstatic dance rituals to heal ailments and restore social bonds.[1]

Vodou practitioners believe of the visible world connected to the invisible world that can be transitioned to through Death. In the invisible world, the Lwa watch over and inspire us. The Lwa can be archetypes of human personalities such as Ogun the Warrior or predecessors. There is also the Bondye or their version of the supreme God who is loving but distant from individual human concerns. [3]

But despite this, a majority of foreigners synonimize “voodoo” with Haitian “black magic” or “sorcery.”[4]

What is Imagined Voodoo?

A Harvard study termed "Imagined Voodoo" to refer to the imagined religion and magical system of the American brain linked by the following White anxieties:

Black uprising

Black fetishization

Intermarriages that could lead to the dissolution of the White race

All under the guise of history or harmless entertainment, it negatively affects Black religiosity and in general, Black subjects. Unless we arm ourselves with information to prevent its perpetuation through us.

Alastor’s Themes and Voodoo Stereotypes

Stereotypes are often used in stories to save time on informing the audience through widely held and fixed oversimplified assumptions. The following Voodoo stereotypes are present in Alastor’s character traits and themes.

His Roots 

According to Alastor’s Wikia page, he is part Creole.[20] In New Orleans, the term can refer to many kinds of people. In early history, "Creole" is a term for:

A slave born in the New World[5]

A free Person of Color[5]

People of Mixed Heritage[5]

Later on, White French and Spanish people residing in New Orleans adopted the term to differentiate themselves from Americans whom they found greedy and ambitious.[5]  

A Creole person can be White, a POC or of mixed race from different places such as Haiti and Louisiana. 

The team behind Hazbin Hotel may have made Alastor part Creole in order to avoid religion appropriation. However, Vodou is not an exclusive religion. [6] (EDIT: Vodou is an exclusive religion.) And even if they want to represent mixed Creole people, pairing Alastor with Hollywood Voodoo may not be a good way to do it.  

Vodou practitioners today are targets of hate crime, especially in Haiti (sacred mapou trees are regular targets of vandalism and arson, worshippers risk harassment and violence, with lynchings not unheard of).[7] If the media continues to portray Vodou as evil, it may have a role in perpetuating the hate.

(Image of a Vodou ceremony from a video of The Guardian)

Depicted As Evil Magic

In America and Caribbean, Vodou was first practiced by slaves of African descent. Their religion was dismissed as superstition, their priests as witch doctors and their God and Lwa were denounced as evil. [3] 

“They were treated as cattle. As animals to be bought and sold; worth nothing more than a cow. Often less,” anthropologist Ira Lowenthal stated.[7]

“Vodou is the response to that. Vodou says ‘no, I’m not a cow. Cows cannot dance, cows do not sing. Cows cannot become God. Not only am I a human being – I’m considerably more human than you. Watch me create divinity in this world you have given me that is so ugly and so hard. Watch me become God in front of your eyes.’”[7]

During the Haitian Revolution, many of the slaves were Voodooists and some of their military leaders were priests who inspired and organized them to fight for freedom. The imagery and vocabulary of Vodou became threatening to European and American colonies and was then brutally repressed. [3]

(Image from Lisapo Ya Kama)

Years later, Hollywood Voodoo is rooted in racism and acts as an outlet for White anxiety of Black vengeance. One example is the movie, “The Skeleton Key” where Black hoodoo practitioners (who had been lynched) stole the bodies and identities of White people for years.

For Alastor to continue using Hollywood Voodoo themed magic may continue the misinformation of Vodou by inspiring baseless fear and horror. 

Voodoo Dolls and Pins

Voodoo dolls are universally associated with Hollywood voodoo and therefore, Vodou. But voodoo dolls are unheard of in the original Haitian Vodou. 

In reality, they were inspired from the "poppet" of European witchcraft after an American writer heard Vodou is a witchcraft [8]. This American writer is most likely Victor Hugo Halperin where voodoo dolls first appeared in White Zombie (1932) [9].

Dolls are used in Vodou but only to represent Lwa and Bondye, sometimes the dolls are nailed on graves and altars, in order for the practitioners to communicate with them. The dolls also act as lucky charms and are not used to curse or cause harm with pins. [10], [21]

Cannibalism

(Screenshot of Alastor the Deer Demon eating a deer)

On February 13, 1864, 4 men and 4 women were executed for abducting, murdering and cannibalizing a 12-year-old girl by Fabre Geffrad, Haiti's reformist president, who wished to make an example out of the 8 killers labelled as vodouists and leave the backwardness of its African past and its folk religion. With Haiti claiming their independence, the Westerns' view on Vodou was proof that the "black republic '' cannot claim to be civilized.[11]

No transcripts of the trial survive. The most detailed account of the crime was written by Sir Spenser St John, the British charge d'affaires in Port-au-Prince -the place nearby the village where the murder happened. It was his account that defined Haiti as a place where ritual murder and cannibalism were common and often goes unpunished.[11] 

(An artist’s engraving of the 8 “voodoo” practitioners found guilty of the murder and cannibalism of the 12-year-old Claircine from the Smithsonian Magazine.)

However, there was no other information supporting St. John's claim that cannibalism is a norm for 19th century Haiti. The only two reports of cannibalism provided was from a French priest in 1870s and a white Dominican ten years later. Both have no evidence and both are suspected from their claim that they have penetrated secret ceremonies wearing blackface -if they have been undetected. However, they have influenced Victorian writers who have never visited Haiti.[11] 

In the 19th century, American Jesuit missionary, Joseph W. Williams claims that sexual arousal from voodoo "orgies" causes devolution to lower animal states that causes them to cannibalize in an act of sexualized violence.[1] 

In Joseph Murphy's psychoanalysis, Imagined Voodoo allows White people to project their most disturbing desires onto a cultural Other.[13] 

"The erotic and ecstatic elements in African-derived religions are selected and transformed into images of unrestraint and become vehicles for white sexual and aggressive fantasies... What is ‘dark’ and ‘black’ within the white psyche is projected onto what is ‘dark’ and ‘black’ in the social environment."[13] 

Because of the accusations of cannibalism, Vodou is seen as savage. Alastor is hinted to be cannibalistic (as seen by a speed drawing of him, a deer demon, eating a deer).[12] To continue to associate cannibalism with voodoo practice may continue the harm of misinformation.

Vodou Symbols

When Alastor uses magic, Vodou symbols or veves would sometimes appear. 

In Vodou, different veves are used depending on the lwa or spirits the practitioners desired to invoke. 

(Veve image from Catherine Beyer)

Damballah-Wedo is believed by the Vodou practitioners as the Sky Father and primordial creator of all life. He is depicted as a snake or serpent and is seen as a loving father of the world whose presence brings peace and harmony. [23]  

(Veve image from Catherine Beyer)

A part of a veve in the screenshot is from the veve for Papa Legba -the gatekeeper of the spirt world. He is associated with the sun and is seen as a life-giver that transfers the power of Bondye to the living world. Rituals are started by praying to Legba to open the gates so that they can connect to the other lwas. [23]

(Ayizan Voudou Veve copyright 2009 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.)

The veve above is the veve of Ayizan. Ayizan is the lwa of commerce and herbal healing. She is associated with love and Vodou rites of initiation. Ayizan is believed to be the first archetypal mambo (priestess) and the protector of religious ceremonies.[14] 

(Veve Image from ErzulieRedEyesArtAndSpirit)

The veve above is taken from the veve of Papa Loko. He is believed to be the first Vodou priest. His name has nothing to do with the American  (EDIT: Spanish) slang word "loco" meaning crazy. Papa Loko is a revered knowledgeable spirit who offers spiritual guidance to those seeking formal initiation into Vodou.[15] 

Met Kalfou is the master of the Crossroads. He is the crossroads where magic manifests regardless of which lwa is using magic for. He allows it to travel without judgement.[16] 

Met Kalfou is often mistaken as some kind of demon or evil. He is believed to be the force through which all magic flows, be it good or ill. Met Kalfou is also the spirit of luck. As a manifestation of crossroads, he can see multiple outcomes of a situation. [16]

Santa Muerte is believed to be the personification of death itself.[17] 

Using veves to portray evil when it incorrectly relates to what they symbolize can result in misinformation. Even if only parts of the veve are taken to be used to portray malice, it doesn’t change the fact that they still came from sacred symbols. 

Is Alastor a Hoodoo Practitioner?

(Photo: Image of Hoodoo Candles from Wikipedia)

Hoodoo is based heavily on folk magic. It is not a religion. Although their beliefs have elements of African and European religions. Its tradition emphasizes on personal magical power with the intention to improve daily lives. Its a combination of African practices and beliefs and American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. It’s heavily practiced in the Southern US.[22]

Unlike Vodou, they have no designated priests or priestesses and no difference between initiates and laity. Hoodoo spells are commonly accompanied with Biblical text but are not performed in Jesus’ name. It uses tools, spells, formulas, methods, techniques. Tools can be herbs, roots, minerals, animal parts and personal possessions.[22]

Alastor MAYBE a hodoo practitioner. But there are possible problems of associating an occult of a minority as a tool of evil. It might be best if Alastor is only depicted using deer-radio-themed dark magic instead.

In Short...

Misrepresentation of Vodou has its roots on White fear of Black retribution as well as White “othering” and projecting of taboo concepts such as fetishization and cannibalism. This results in stigmatization of Black topics and Vodou practitioners. The continuation of Hollywood Voodoo plays a role in perpetuating its misrepresentation. However, informing ourselves may stop the perpetuation in us. 

[tanadrin]

now i want to hear your distinct rants on all those religions, but especially taoism, vudun, and norse paganism

Norse paganism is Super Problematic: human sacrifice! nothing wrong with pillaging from Constantinople to Ireland and back! slavery entirely condoned! Plus a mythology so depressing that the whole religion was abandoned en masse almost as soon as missionaries showed up and promised the existence of a loving god and a world that wasn’t going to abruptly end one day because all the gods were going to get eaten by a wolf.

Side rant: deeply spiritual reconstructions of pagan religion usually miss the fact that historically rites and rituals in polytheistic traditions (including Norse, Roman, Celtic, and Greek traditions) were all about a purely transactional relationship between gods and men; you sacrificed to Odin not because he was a Jungian archetype of the human spirit, but because if you did your raiding expedition would be successful. If your “paganism” 1) doesn’t literally believe in the existence of the gods, and 2) doesn’t treat them as a supernatural vending machine (Insert Entrails, Receive Blessing and/or Curse), I’m pretty sure what you’ve got is a cosplay situation that takes itself too seriously.

(unless you’re up front about the fact that recovering the exact mindset and traditions of the past is impossible, and any attempt to do so will always have to confront the fact that you cannot entirely forsake the material and social conditions that inevitably color how you view the metaphysical, in which case, respect)

Taoism is a political philosophy that got eaten by supernatural speculation; but even the core political philosophy was... not very good. It was, essentially, a kind of primitivist authoritarianism, that saw the best way to ensure prosperity and prevent war was to fragment society into tiny states that barely needed any kind of leadership, to keep people tied to the land and ignorant of their surroundings, and to eschew learning and scholarship. While it can be seen as a reasonable reaction for the time against the turmoil of the period in which it was written, at least the Mohists were capable of direct action (many became siege engineers, on the principle that helping cities defend themselves discouraged wars of conquest!). And the existence of the Mohists, like the existence of the Carvaka school of Indian philosophy, kiiiinda disproves that “well, they did the best they could for the time in which they lived.” Empiricism and rationalism did well enough in the last millennium BCE that we still know the names of major philosophical schools and philosophers that led them; they just weren’t expedient to authority, and so other schools, like Legalism and Confucianism, were preferred.

So Taoism sucks on its own merits, and on purely instrumental ones. Plus, in the form it persisted--with extremely hit-or-miss-or-downright-dangerous medical and alchemical speculation bolted on to it, full of supernaturalism--I think it’s fair to say that it has probably caused more harm than good in the millennia since. The best you can say about alternative medicine out of the Taoist school is that the placebo effect is a thing, I guess; but considering there is an entire Wikipedia page devoted to how Chinese alchemists have poisoned themselves to death, and that Taoist alchemists had to come up with a variety of excuses to explain how their immortality elixirs were supposed to work when the alchemist in question was lying dead on the floor, I am gonna say tentatively that the harms outweigh the benefits here.

Vodoun and its new world relatives does not seem especially worse than your bog-standard traditional oracular mysticism-cum-supernaturalism, but it also doesn’t seem any better.

Also AFAICT (I welcome correct on this point) every religion in this ask and in the other one fails the basic test of “is slavery OK” and “is homosexuality OK”, except for maybe Taoism and homosexuality. Though some obviously fail these tests harder than others. Special mention to Norse Paganism, which--as much as I love the ancient Norse--is just terrible.

[darklingichor]

Odd Thomas, Forever Odd & Brother Odd by Dean Koontz *MAJOR SPOILERS* Long post

I've written a little bit about these before. My goal was to listen to all seven of the Odd books plus the two short stories... I couldn't make myself do that.

I use to really love those books. I use to really love Dean Koontz, just recently, the writing has started to annoy me. Since I haven't read any of his new stuff since Saint Odd came out, I can't say it's because the writing has changed. I think I have changed, I'm just not sure in what way. So, I'm going to look at the first three books in the series because 1. I like them the most (sort of). 2. Because I honestly feel like the series should have either ended there or jumped to Saint Odd. 3. Because I'm going to see if by writing about them, I can figure out why reading Koontz in my 20's was like a breath of fresh air, but in my 30's it feels like when the air conditioner is some how making everything too cold, yet not cooling things down at all: uncomfortable and bafflingly frustrating.

Odd Thomas is a 20 year old fry cook in the small california desert town of Pico Mundo. He's seen as sweet but strange to all but a few people in town. He grew up with a mostly absent father, a crazy mother and a loving but wild grandmother, the last has already gone to the great beyond, so what family he has, he has found.

He has a girlfriend named Stormy, they've been together since they were sixteen, his boss at the Grill where he works, Terry, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Elvis Presley, a 300 lb mystery writer named P. Oswald Boone (Little Ozzie), his landlady who is afraid she'll turn invisible, and the cheif of police.

Odd also sees ghosts, or The Lingering Dead as he calls them. He trys to help them crossover. Sometimes it's as simple as talking to them (though they don't speak back, "the dead don't talk")  oftentimes is complicated and dangerous. Hence why his close relationship with the cheif comes in handy and also why it formed. He has other gifts. The occasional prophetic dream that usually only gives him bits and pieces to work off of, he sees these spectors of calamity that tend to show up right before something bad happens (like an earthquake or a shooting) they are black shadow things that Odd calls Bodochs, and psychic magmatism, where  he can find anyone he's looking for by wondering around with a clear picture in mind.

Everyone in his circle knows about his gift other than his landlady who is slightly and gently insane.

There is one other person in his circle, the ghost of Elvis who Odd had been trying to help crossover since he was in highschool.

The first book takes place over the course of three days.

To avoid a blow by blow, I'll summarize. After an eventful morning during which he helped a murdered twelve year old cross over by catching her killer, Odd goes to his shift a the Grill. There, he sees a creepy little man that reminds him if a mold and fungus, followed by a group of Bodochs. He finishes his shift, goes looking for the guy he's dubed Fungus Man.

He eventually finds his way to Fungus Man's house, breaks in and finds it unnaturally cold and silent. He discovers a room that is pitch black except for a small red light. He soon finds that what has made this room so black and the house so cold and quiet is the mob of Bodochs occupying it. After the Bodochs stream out, Odd is able to see that the room is an office and Fungus Man (aka Bob Roberts) is obsessed with serial and mass murderers, he has a file cabinet full of folders on them and posters of famous murders on his wall. Bob seems to be planning something, but Odd doesn't know what, as his only clue is a planner page in a folder from the killer cabinet. The folder is labeled with Bob's name and the date is two days away.

A series of happenings eventually leads to odd trying to stop a horrifying plan

*SPOILERS STOP READING RIGHT HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE END*

So, Bob is a satanist in cahoots with a couple of other satanists to shoot up and blow up the Pico Mundo mall, among other places. He is able to stop them from completing their goal, but some people do die, including Stormy who was working at an ice cream shop at the mall.

Forever Odd

It's months later and Odd has moved into Stormy's apartment. He wakes up to find the ghost of one of his best friends's stepdad at his bedside. Strangely, Danny, a guy with brittle bone disease, with whom Odd grew up, was not mentioned in the last book.

So, the ghost of Danny's stepdad convinces Odd to go to his and Danny's house. Once there, Odd finds stepdad's body and discovers that Danny has been kidnapped.

What follows is a slightly weird story.

Odd eventually finds Danny and his kidnappers. One is a bug-shit woman Danny was talking with on a phone sex line. To impress her he told her about Odd. She's into her own twisted form of the Vudun religion and decides that Odd can show her the lingering dead and wants him become one of her crew. She kidnapped Danny to lure him out.

Danny is rescued, bad guys defeated, and Odd decides he needs to get out of Pico Mundo for a while.

Brother Odd

Odd has spent the last several months at the St. Bartholomew's Abbey, in the California Mountains, as a lay visitor among the monks and nuns. The Abbey is also home to a a community of disabled children. Odd becomes  close with four people in particular The Mother superior, The Priest at the head of the monks, Brother Knuckles, an ex mob guy turned monk, and Brother John, a wealthy guy turned monk. Only the first three know of his gift.

Waiting up to see a snow storm break, Odd finds Brother Timothy unconscious or dead on the grounds. He is then clubbed on the back of the head and knocked out. A search for Brother Tim leads to a strange mix of science and the spiritual that I for one found really cool.

** SECOND SPOILER**

Elvis crosses over in this one and Odd contemplates becoming a monk. Two reasons I think that this should have been the last one. Another reason is that he comes very very close to connecting with Stormy though a conduit to the otherside. Third, this is the last book where Odd is truly Odd.

See, Odd hates guns and will only use one as a last resort. In the first, Odd takes out most of the bad guys with a baseball bat, in the second, bug-shit lady was killed by a cougar, the bad guy in this one was killed by someone else.

Although his ability to see and help the lingering dead is not the main focus of the second or the third, it's still something he does. There is character progression from the first to the third. When we meet Odd he is trying to carve out a life dispite his traumatic childhood and while trying to do right with the gifts he has. After he loses Stormy, the second commitment becomes more intense, because of his conviction that the only way he will meet Stormy on the other side is to live his life in the best way he can, and that means using his gifts to help people. He's sadder, slightly less heedful of danger, but still fully committed to flighting the good flight, in his unconventional way.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, in the fourth through the seventh, the train is derailed, possessed, and also on fire.

Not only does his primary gift take a back seat, but the fight he is flighting isn't between the forces of good and evil, or even between justice and injustice, it's a culture war.

And the side of the war that Odd is on is peopled with climate change deniers, dooms day prepers, anti-government people who supply other "good guys" with guns,  other anti-personnal gear, tech that circumvents federal guidelines. All the "bad guys" are anyone with any sort of power judges, lawyers, cops, corporations, politicians. Their victims are the hard working Americans, the waitresses, the truck drivers... Strike that. The victims are the Christian hardworking Americans who evedently are being "persecuted in their own country" (this might be a different rant for a different blog but I maintain that there is a big difference between Persecution and Denial of Entitlement. Persecution is being in danger of being harassed, hurt, killed or imprisoned for your beliefs, ethnicity or culture. And when that happens justice is less likely to happen for the person or people targeted. Denial of Entitlement is when a person, or people, cry injustice because they either can't dress up their persecution of others in their beliefs, or can't force those beliefs on others, through law, or through being amazingly obnoxious).

Not only are anyone in power corupt, they are satanists, not are they satanists, they are the same sect of satanists who attacked Pico Mundo, not only are they the same satanists that attacked Pico Mundo, they have an actual connection to Satan. Like they can call up demons and monsters.... Yet for some reason they still use bombs, guns and weponized diseases to wreak havoc.

Now, if Koontz wanted to showcase some characterization of how to fight against a corupt system, that's cool, I mean I'm all for calling out people in power. But this vears into government lizard people territory, and if that was the type of book he wanted to write then that's cool too,but he essentially highjacked Odd's story to do it.

I have a hard time believing that when Odd picked up the ghost of Frank Sinatra at the end of Brother, and walked off into the sunset, that the original intent was to end up in the middle of a plot to plant nukes around the country and then, accompanied by pregnant girl who is some how The Virgin Mary's mother, to a house where time travel is possible and mutant pigs fade in from a post apocalyptic future and want to eat people, where they pick up a sort of dead, sort of immortal child, who is neither of those any more. Only to then to leave them to go on a road trip with an old lady, who some how has connections to the metaphysical, and a microchip planted in her ass that makes it to where she doesn't have to sleep, to rescue kids kidnapped by the powerful satanists to be used as human sacrifice. Along the way, they meet up with some fighters in this coming war, who while they do not wear tin foil hats, they have the cheerfully bloodthirsty air of cult members waiting for the end times. (Side note about the roadtrip book: Deeply Odd is the most boring, yet weird book I have read since Breaking Dawn. Say what you will about the crazy pigs and time travel in Odd Apocalypse, it's at least interesting).

And then to end up back in Pico Mundo to fight said satanists. The in increasingly nonsensical plots really just there to deliver commentary on how the world has gone to shit and everyone is to focused on the material.

Again, remember that Odd is pretty apolitical. He's never voted, owns only the clothes on his back, prefers Shakespeare and old movies to tv, which I figure also includes the news. How does this not equal out to a kid being a patsy for this group, which essentially takes over the narritive. I mean, yeah, he's still doing his thing, but he has many of his moves ditcatated by this group. This includes carrying a gun, all the time.

Again, Odd hates guns. Granted, by the last book, he has spent three books killing people with guns while talking about how much he hates killing people with guns, but up till the last two books, his hatered of guns is seen as a virtue, and then suddenly, he's an idiot if he doesn't arm himself to take a piss.

This makes very little sense to me. Odd is a simple guy, he wants to live his life as long as he has to, do right by the dead and make his way back to Stormy, all the while perfecting his pancake recipe. How the fuck did we get from this to "Everything is shit, there are three type of people, those in power who are working for the devil, those on the side of the angels and the idiots who don't see what's going on. And dispite all the supernatural stuff, we still need to busta cap in someone's ass.

I know that Koontz is Catholic, and I speculate that he had a renewal of his faith somewhere, but also somewhere along the line he took a turn into conservative libertarian territory if that is a thing that can exsist.

I feel like originally, the idea was to have Saint Odd follow Brother Odd, at least in some incarnation. It makes sense, the satanist sect want to come back and finish what was started, and take out the town and Odd, who cocked it up to begin with. In the first book Odd describes Roberts and his cohorts as playing satanists but just using it as a delivery system for their sick want to kill people and be famous for it. It follows that others who are also playing at being satanists would come back to town to get revenge for their fallen brethren. This also trucks with Forever Odd where the bug-shit lady was playing at being a Vudun, and with Brother Odd where people played at being faithful.

This is how ai think it should have gone:

Odd goes from the Abbey, where he is shown, yet again, that evil is a human driven force, that those who wallow in pride, in want of adoration and perfection can be the down fall of themselves and others, back to his home town to defeate these sad delusional people once and for all.

Or

Odd goes home for Christmas at the end of Brother, decides he wants to take vows, and goes about the process of becoming a man of the cloth. Maybe he goes back to St. Bart's, and he figures out a way to help the lingering dead from there, or, after he is confirmed in whatever capacity, he goes back to Pico Mundo and works along side Stormy's priest uncle. He sort of Father Dowlings it until he passes.

Instead, suddenly the structured feel of all of the supernatural things, which (implied by the third book) are based in science and the laws and rules of the universe that God laid down, turns into... Magic?

Doesn't matter how or why, what matters is there is a war! And the little fry cook shall lead them!

Seriously. Five years of Christian School has me seeing the turn that Odd's story takes, a couple of ways.

First it is either an overworked Christ story, where Odd is swept up in a war between the oppressed and the opressers, even though his life and mission is mostly one of mercy. In the end being a sacrifice that saves millions (by preventing the spread out f a weponized strain of rabies) but his sacrifice will only be remembered by a handful of people at first. The difference is of course that Odd buys into the culture war even though it make no sense.

Or, it's a Saint's story. Struggle, strife and miracles. See, it use to be that to be canonized, you had to have three miracles. His miracles? Well, first, his helping of the dead to cross over could be one, the preventing of whatever demon the satanists summoned in Deeply Odd, could be another, and finally, somehow managing to send Little Ozzie the manuscript for Saint Odd after Odd himself had already died, could be the last.

Either way, books four, five, and six are completely unnecessary.

So why does knootz's writing annoy me? It's self righteous and condicending. Poking fun a people who watch tv, enjoy unsophisticated things, bemoaning those who don't see just how stupid it is to buy into media, and how people are just marching their own way to misery because they just don't Get It.

It's the same time of people who look down on adults who do kid stuff sometimes "Why would you read John Green when you can read Dickens? Why would you watch Inside Out when you can watch Citizen Cane?"

Why would you eat coco puffs? Adults don't do that!"

I'm sorry, have I outgrown fun? A book is a book, a movie is a movie, breakfast cereal is breakfast cereal and you should be able to watch anything you want on tv without being shamed by a book that has an exploding cow in it.

[elhoimleafar]

#Witchcraft #Hoodoo • From time to time, I enjoy give a little spotlight to my own work 🙂 so here, a little story:

We was working on the cover of the book during the last days of a very long process of edition, cause I write the whole book in spanish to later translate to english, I bring all those recipes from home, so I need look for the correct terms of each plant and mineral available in different countries, and this requires a lot of searching.

We have (thanks to my incredible editor), some guidelines to help to create the cover, but in that moment we don't have much money 😅 we was living the complicated part of the tale of being immigrants in NYC, was very hard times and in a process of manifesting, and Manifestation takes a lot of work when you're in a different place.

I was doing readings day by day, working in many places at the same time, and selling charm bags custom made in streets, squares and parks. So when they ask to us to create a pic for the cover, was a Saturday morning, I just have that day (ohh big Thoth I'm crying writing this!!) I literally take everything I have that day from my bag to work and in my little altar, and I buy some herbs in the market next to home, we create a nice set up for the pictures in the space around our couch 🤫

I take those pics with my phone, and those Charm bags you can catch in the cover are real Charm Bags made to sell, a red one for activate the energy of money, orange for self care and protection, green for balance and healing, pink for friendship and kindness, white for understanding and opportunities, and two bags you can't see in the cover, a golden one to honor the Sun and a silver one to honor the presence of the moon.

Sage, ribbon, roses, chamomile flowers, lavender, mugwort, yarrow, candles, including that little golden stars in there, each one of those elements literally represent everything I have with me that day before go to work 😭😭

We made a total of 216 pictures that day in the couch, and the chosen picture now is in the cover of my book, in homes of every witch and conjuror around the world celebrating old magic 😊🥳

#TheMagicalArtOfCraftingCharmBags #Oldwitchcraft #Hoodoo #Voodoo

[hexandbalances]

October Reading Selection: Witches! Know Your History

The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege by Marilynne K. Roach

Based on twenty-seven years of original archival research, including the discovery of previously unknown documents, this day-by-day narrative of the hysteria that swept through Salem Village in 1692 and 1693 reveals new connections behind the events, and shows how rapidly a community can descend into bloodthirsty madness. Roach opens her work with chapters on the history of the Puritan colonies of New England, and explains how these people regarded the metaphysical and the supernatural. The account of the days from January 1692 to March 1693 keeps in order the large cast of characters, places events in their correct contexts, and occasionally contradicts earlier assumptions about the gruesome events. The last chapter discusses the remarkable impact of the events, pointing out how the 300th anniversary of the trials made headlines in Japan and Australia. 

Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials by Marilynne K. Roach

The first work to use the lives of a select number of representative women as a microcosm to illuminate the larger crisis of the Salem witch trials. By the end of the trials, beyond the twenty who were executed and the five who perished in prison, 207 individuals had been accused, 74 had been "afflicted," 32 had officially accused their fellow neighbors, and 255 ordinary people had been inexorably drawn into that ruinous and murderous vortex, and this doesn't include the religious, judicial, and governmental leaders. All this adds up to what the Rev. Cotton Mather called "a desolation of names." The individuals involved are too often reduced to stock characters and stereotypes when accuracy is sacrificed to indignation. And although the flood of names and detail in the history of an extraordinary event like the Salem witch trials can swamp the individual lives involved, individuals still deserve to be remembered and, in remembering specific lives, modern readers can benefit from such historical intimacy. By examining the lives of six specific women - Bridget Bishop, Mary English, Tituba, Ann Putnam, Mary Warren, and Rebecca Nurse - Marilynne Roach shows readers what it was like to be present throughout this horrific time and how it was impossible to live through it unchanged.

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses (2nd Ed.) by Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English

As we watch another agonizing attempt to shift the future of healthcare in the United States, we are reminded of the longevity of this crisis, and how firmly entrenched we are in a system that doesn't work.

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, first published by the Feminist Press in 1973, is an essential book about the corruption of the medical establishment and its historic roots in witch hunters. In this new edition, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English have written an entirely new chapter that delves into the current fascination with and controversies about witches, exposing our fears and fantasies. They build on their classic exposé on the demonization of women healers and the political and economic monopolization of medicine. This quick history brings us up-to-date, exploring today's changing attitudes toward childbirth, alternative medicine, and modern-day witches.

Who Cooked the Last Supper: The Women's History of the World by Rosalind Miles

Men dominate history because men write history. There have been many heroes, but no heroines. Here, in Who Cooked the Last Supper?, is the history you never learned--but should have! Without politics or polemics, this brilliant and witty book overturns centuries of preconceptions to restore women to their rightful place at the center of culture, revolution, empire, war, and peace. Spiced with tales of individual women who have shaped civilization, celebrating the work and lives of women around the world, and distinguished by a wealth of research, Who Cooked the Last Supper? redefines our concept of historical reality.

Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts by Anne L. Barstow

Over three centuries, approximately one hundred thousand people, most of whom were women, were put to death under the guise of "witch hunts", particularly in Reformation Europe. The shocking annihilation of women from all walks of life is explored in this brilliant, authoritative feminist history Anne Llwellyn Barstow. Barstow exposes an unrecognized holocaust -- the "ethnic cleansing" of independent women in Reformation Europe -- and examines the residual attitudes that continue to influence our culture.

Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany by Lyndal Roper

This book is a gripping account of the pursuit, interrogation, torture, and burning of witches during this period and beyond. Drawing on hundreds of original trial transcripts and other rare sources in four areas of Southern Germany, where most of the witches were executed, Lyndal Roper paints a vivid picture of their lives, families, and tribulations. She also explores the psychology of witch-hunting, explaining why it was mostly older women that were the victims of witch crazes, why they confessed to crimes, and how the depiction of witches in art and literature has influenced the characterization of elderly women in our own culture.

Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Ronald Hutton

The first full-scale study of modern pagan witchcraft, otherwise known as Wicca. Meticulously researched, it provides a thorough account of an ancient religion that spread from English shores across four continents. From cunning village folk to Freemasons and from high magic to the black arts, Hutton chronicles the process by which actual practices evolved into what is now a modern religion. He also presents biographies of Wicca's principal figures.

This is a small selection. I want to hear from you what books you recommend that tell our history, especially if it's Santeria, Vudun, Asatru, or any other tradition.