Magickal Record: Upstate New York, 2002

 

Drummers gave a “thank you” to Carolyn Long for finding the signature of Dr. John Montanee. A paper thanking Carolyn Long was passed around at the festival and later at the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple and signed by beaucoup drummers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(This is a copy of the note the drummers signed that helped to inspire Carolyn Long to continue her intense research into Dr. John Montanee.)

 

Magickal Record: 2010

 

This is the year of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We drove through oily rain on the coast by Pensacola, Florida. I stopped at a gas station to clean the windshield on our automobile and asked the attendant about the rain. He just said, “Yeah, don’t worry. It’ll stop when they plug the well.”

 

New Orleans Voodoo, An Order of Service: Upstate New York, 2010

 

During this ritual session drum prayers and rhythms developed at ceremonies held between 1995 and 2000 by the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple will be taught. These prayers/rhythms are part of a unique Order of Service based upon birthing. These rhythms are played with the head, heart, and hands. The session will end with an honor bound confirmation in this Order of Service given through the loa blanc dan-i. The prayers and rhythms can be learnt without participating in the confirmation. Emphasis in the session will be on paying honor and respect to Dr. John Montanee. Dr. John Montanee played with Marie Laveau on Congo Square and is a major loa in the line of New Orleans Voodoo Drummers and Doctors.

 

Prayer and Conjure to Stop The Oil!!!: Upstate New York, 2010

 

(See Gryphon’s Nest Festivals, Magickal Record, 2010  for the text of the prayer and the background of its reception.)

 

At this Starwood rite, we will pass out copies of the prayer with a veve drawn on the back using oil less waters from the Mississippi. A pure white feather from the wetlands (We live next to Saint Bernard Parish) will be used to clean the head of each drum before playing. It would be good for each of us to recite the prayer while playing with the prayer on the drum head. A tasty calinda rhythm will be taught and played. The copies of the drum prayer are from Maegdlyn and the feathers are from Mishlen Linden.

 

This is something we are all doing together. We are all spiritual warriors. It makes sense to use the power that we have to protect the beauty and lives around us for ourselves and others. A discussion of the oil will follow the prayer.

 

Magickal Record: 2010

 

A number of practitioners brought oil from the spill to the Starwood Festival. The oil was used in the prayer/conjure as a link to the spill. We rubbed the oil on our hands and then cleaned the oil off. No one knows if the well can be capped. There are globs of oil on the beaches and the shrimps and birds.

 

Dr. John Montanee, Drum Loa: West Virginia, 2012

 

Dr. John Montanee was one of the first and perhaps the most powerful of the early Voodoo Drummers and Doctors (approx. 1815 to 1885). An historical and a folkloric discussion of Dr. John’s life will be provided. This will be followed by a rite in which dust and waters from the Doctor’s gravesite will be combined with his signature and documents from his life to invite this grand loa to enter the hands and drum heads of the ritualists.

 

New Orleans Voodoo; An Order of Service: West Virginia, 2012

 

During this ritual session drum prayers and rhythms developed at ceremonies held between 1995 and 2000 by the New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple will be taught…as per Order of Service above… Dr. John Montanee played with Marie Laveau on Congo Square and is a major loa in the line of New Orleans Voodoo Drummers and Doctors.

 

Notes From Magickal Record: West Virginia, 2012

 

• I left DJ signatures out last night and we got a lot of rain, it was torrential so he got a lot of water. Water is a favored offering.

 

• Stand tall…Dr. John…stand tall and in that darkness look for signs. Stand tall and look for signs in that darkness…the darkness is the emerald tablet…that is the sky, that is the sky upon which I will write.

 

• Ritual; Dr. John Air…looking into the sky, looking for signs in the stars and in the dark places between the stars and in the day sky.

 

• From a woman attending the rite and making automatic drawings:

 “When I did it I didn’t look at it. And the first time I looked at it first thing I saw was I thought I saw a face, you know I see the hair…and I see a strong jaw…it is a really strong face. But then you look at it again and there is a path…if you look here it’s the crossroads. And there is a lot of depth to it…I remember when I did it…I did it the whole time that the ceremony went on…I put my pen down…it was automatic…this is something they did in the 1920s…it was afraid…but I figured what the heck…what I felt through the pen is that there are places where it glided and where it was slippery.”

 

• Badal Roy… stopped by and said his name means rain…it was raining when he was born, his father pointed to the sky and they named him. (DJ and the importance of water in his conjures; see records from Babalon conjures.)

 

• In the dome looking up at the night sky…Sallie’s drawing of the gesture “as above so below” with the Dr. John (Magus) card in the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot. Sallie’s art mirrors and foretells Dr. John looking to the sky for signs.

 

• Magickal Practice: Keeping my eyes half closed and in so doing the top part is the night sky. Dr. John looked to the night sky

 

• The tops of the trees around Caffinas Coffee House outline the sky creating an immense vessica. That is the sky upon which I will write. That is the sky upon which I will write…I just closed my eyes and in the darkness and I saw Dr. John Montanee’s name (signature). That is the sky upon which I will write.