Post by Allan on Aug 14, 2007 16:52:02 GMT -5
Its in the Hoodoo Bag
by Stephanie Rose Bird
Nothing makes my blood boil quicker then hearing the Austin Powers character perpetuate the myth concerning mojo as being a metaphore for sexuality. The glazed look and sophomoric grin and gleam in his eye when he mentions his mojo, baby, is insulting. But not to blame Mike Myers too much. After all, blues singers often have included the term in their lyrics in their songs.
The True Concept of the Mojo
Few people who aren't familiar w/ Hoodoo culture understand what a mojo hand is. Perhaps because of the sexual tension in much of the bules, people of African descent have been looked upon by the American culture at large as having a strong sense of sexual being. As a result, this perhaps has contributed to a general confusion about the term. But understand, mojo does not mean "sex".
Dont get me wrong. A mojo can certainly be used to enhance sexual attraction, but that is only one of its multiple purposes. To thoroughly understand the meaning of mojo it is necessary to turn away from popular culture and look instead to the root source of the term, Mother Africa.
The Key Concepts of Mojo
Ashe is the invisible power of nature. It is present in certain herbs products and natual objects. Herbal teas, incense powders, spiritual washes, healing balms, soap, charms, and even the purposefuly spoken word all contain ashe. The Igala people of Nigeria for example, consider any type of vegetation to be filled with medicinal powers. Medicines, whether designed to address spiritual or physical complaints, are believed to derive their power from ashe.
Consumable productssuch as tea, washes, soap, and powders are effective, yet they lack the permanency and strength encapsulated in a power object. Power objects can be shields, masks, sculptures, amulets, or charms. Each type of power object is a conglomeration of different elements of ashe. GBoth the Bamani Komo Society masks and Boli figurative sculptures are encrusted w/ feathers and quills. The mystical powers of the bird and protective nature of the porcupine are bound and coaxed to share its ashe w/ the object. Encrustation is the result of feeding the power object. Food is an important tool, for it sustains the life of the power object. Feeding may consist of ground stones, plants, or bones; animal skins, teeth, sexual organs, or horns; chicken blood; seemen or saliva. Tha Yaka, Kongo, Teke, Suku, and Songhai pack a cavity in the belly of their sculptures w/ a wide array of ashe-providing materials: bones, fur, claws, elephant foot prints, crocodile teeth, scales, bones, and remants of suicide victims and of warriors. The figurines are then covered w/ the skins of power animals: buffalo, wild cats, lizards, antelope horns, and snail shells indicate surivial. Leopard pelts, claws, and teeth symbolize elegance, beauty, ferociousness, and nobility. These sculptures are also decorated with raffia, cloth, bells beads, metal, and nails. Combining the animals with metals further enhances, centers, and binds the animal energy perrmanently to the object.
Some of the best examples of these magical figures or accumulative sculptures come from Central Africa. The Yaka, Suku, and Kongo peoples prepare sachets made from shells, baskets, pots, bottles or food tins, plastics or leater bags. The medicine bags are charged with an infinite variety of natural materials, thoughsome, such as glass and gunpowder, are manmade.
Kongo power figures are called mimkisi. Nkisi incorporate elements of land, sky, or water. Nkisi are powered by nature spirits. They help people heal, and they can serve as a safe spot or hiding place for the soul. They might contain sea shells, feathers, nuts, berries, stones, bones, leaves, roots, or twigs. They are as divers and plentiful as types of illnesses.
Nkisi nkondi are a type of figure that utilzes nails as a binder of its powers. Leaves and medicine combine, and the joining of elements increases the strength of each. Each ingredient has an action on humans--the brining together of various natural forces the source of healing.
Ne Kongo, a cultural hero, carried the first healing medicines with him from heave to earth. He prepared the medicines in a clay pot, and set them on top of three stones or termite mounds. His actions founded the expertise that a healer later used as medicine. The healer's therapy involves the proper mixture of plants w/ natural and manmade elements.
The Bamana of the western Sudan use power objects such as medicine bags that are imbued with ashe for addressing various ills. These objects are used to express power as warriors, to fight supernatural malaise, and to foil evil intentions. The bags contains medicine and a soul.
Kongo and Angolan groups brought the concept of bilongo and mooyo together in the New World as mojo bags. The mojo bags are prepared by a specialist akin to the banganga, wo is called a rootworkeror conjurer in hoodoo practice. The objects within each bag guide the spirits to nderstand why their help is being sought, while also directing their actions. The idea that materials have particularly strong ashe, such as human or animal foot prints, survived slaver and are alive in American Hoodoo. Other materials encased in a mojo include ephemera associated withe the dead, suchas coffin nails, ground bones, or graveyard dirt. The objects--seed, pod, herb, stick, ston, bone--have corresponding spirits.
It is because the bags have a mooyo that they are alive w/ ashe. Hoodoo practitioners feed their mojos powered herbs magnetic dust, herbal oils, dusts, and foot track dirs as needed. The owner of the bag must continue to feed the bag periodically to sustain its life force. Even stones must be brought to life by charging them. To charge stones, bury them in soil for one week, soak them in a pan of salt water for a day and then Sun-dry them. or simple place them in the Sun for a week or so.
by Stephanie Rose Bird
Nothing makes my blood boil quicker then hearing the Austin Powers character perpetuate the myth concerning mojo as being a metaphore for sexuality. The glazed look and sophomoric grin and gleam in his eye when he mentions his mojo, baby, is insulting. But not to blame Mike Myers too much. After all, blues singers often have included the term in their lyrics in their songs.
The True Concept of the Mojo
Few people who aren't familiar w/ Hoodoo culture understand what a mojo hand is. Perhaps because of the sexual tension in much of the bules, people of African descent have been looked upon by the American culture at large as having a strong sense of sexual being. As a result, this perhaps has contributed to a general confusion about the term. But understand, mojo does not mean "sex".
Dont get me wrong. A mojo can certainly be used to enhance sexual attraction, but that is only one of its multiple purposes. To thoroughly understand the meaning of mojo it is necessary to turn away from popular culture and look instead to the root source of the term, Mother Africa.
The Key Concepts of Mojo
Ashe is the invisible power of nature. It is present in certain herbs products and natual objects. Herbal teas, incense powders, spiritual washes, healing balms, soap, charms, and even the purposefuly spoken word all contain ashe. The Igala people of Nigeria for example, consider any type of vegetation to be filled with medicinal powers. Medicines, whether designed to address spiritual or physical complaints, are believed to derive their power from ashe.
Consumable productssuch as tea, washes, soap, and powders are effective, yet they lack the permanency and strength encapsulated in a power object. Power objects can be shields, masks, sculptures, amulets, or charms. Each type of power object is a conglomeration of different elements of ashe. GBoth the Bamani Komo Society masks and Boli figurative sculptures are encrusted w/ feathers and quills. The mystical powers of the bird and protective nature of the porcupine are bound and coaxed to share its ashe w/ the object. Encrustation is the result of feeding the power object. Food is an important tool, for it sustains the life of the power object. Feeding may consist of ground stones, plants, or bones; animal skins, teeth, sexual organs, or horns; chicken blood; seemen or saliva. Tha Yaka, Kongo, Teke, Suku, and Songhai pack a cavity in the belly of their sculptures w/ a wide array of ashe-providing materials: bones, fur, claws, elephant foot prints, crocodile teeth, scales, bones, and remants of suicide victims and of warriors. The figurines are then covered w/ the skins of power animals: buffalo, wild cats, lizards, antelope horns, and snail shells indicate surivial. Leopard pelts, claws, and teeth symbolize elegance, beauty, ferociousness, and nobility. These sculptures are also decorated with raffia, cloth, bells beads, metal, and nails. Combining the animals with metals further enhances, centers, and binds the animal energy perrmanently to the object.
Some of the best examples of these magical figures or accumulative sculptures come from Central Africa. The Yaka, Suku, and Kongo peoples prepare sachets made from shells, baskets, pots, bottles or food tins, plastics or leater bags. The medicine bags are charged with an infinite variety of natural materials, thoughsome, such as glass and gunpowder, are manmade.
Kongo power figures are called mimkisi. Nkisi incorporate elements of land, sky, or water. Nkisi are powered by nature spirits. They help people heal, and they can serve as a safe spot or hiding place for the soul. They might contain sea shells, feathers, nuts, berries, stones, bones, leaves, roots, or twigs. They are as divers and plentiful as types of illnesses.
Nkisi nkondi are a type of figure that utilzes nails as a binder of its powers. Leaves and medicine combine, and the joining of elements increases the strength of each. Each ingredient has an action on humans--the brining together of various natural forces the source of healing.
Ne Kongo, a cultural hero, carried the first healing medicines with him from heave to earth. He prepared the medicines in a clay pot, and set them on top of three stones or termite mounds. His actions founded the expertise that a healer later used as medicine. The healer's therapy involves the proper mixture of plants w/ natural and manmade elements.
The Bamana of the western Sudan use power objects such as medicine bags that are imbued with ashe for addressing various ills. These objects are used to express power as warriors, to fight supernatural malaise, and to foil evil intentions. The bags contains medicine and a soul.
Kongo and Angolan groups brought the concept of bilongo and mooyo together in the New World as mojo bags. The mojo bags are prepared by a specialist akin to the banganga, wo is called a rootworkeror conjurer in hoodoo practice. The objects within each bag guide the spirits to nderstand why their help is being sought, while also directing their actions. The idea that materials have particularly strong ashe, such as human or animal foot prints, survived slaver and are alive in American Hoodoo. Other materials encased in a mojo include ephemera associated withe the dead, suchas coffin nails, ground bones, or graveyard dirt. The objects--seed, pod, herb, stick, ston, bone--have corresponding spirits.
It is because the bags have a mooyo that they are alive w/ ashe. Hoodoo practitioners feed their mojos powered herbs magnetic dust, herbal oils, dusts, and foot track dirs as needed. The owner of the bag must continue to feed the bag periodically to sustain its life force. Even stones must be brought to life by charging them. To charge stones, bury them in soil for one week, soak them in a pan of salt water for a day and then Sun-dry them. or simple place them in the Sun for a week or so.