Dr. John Montanee: The

Physician’s Message is Know Thyself

 

© 2014 Lilith Dorsey

 

As legends of New Orleans go, Dr. John Montanee is the original. There is more legend than fact surrounding this larger than life character. Many, myself included, view him as one of New Orleans’ Voodoo’s earliest drummers whose rhythms beat in our blood, in our memory, in our subconscious. There is not a ritual in or about New Orleans that does not flow forth from this forefather.

 

Legend has it that he was from Senegal, and it came to me the other night that he was the first “lost boy” the leader, the progenitor of what they could and would find in a world very different from their home. Recent history has seen a mass exodus from that country, and many of the struggles the displaced “lost boys” have found here regarding money and mentality are not unlike those demons that chased Dr. John. The inspiration he left behind is that he was a true doctor healing people on the deepest levels with divination and magick. He came to the U.S. from a land very different, but he made the necessary changes to survive and thrive doing whatever he could.

 

His message, as my Voodoo Priestess ears hear and understand it, is a Gede message, a message from the dead, “you take yourself with you, so you damn well better know your self.” We all create ourselves, and I can only imagine who Dr. John Montanee set out to be when he arrived on this planet hundreds of years ago. Transported to New Orleans he took on a new identity, and urban legend has layered on even more shades of meaning surrounding this man who was very much a magickal mystery. Fact has fucked fiction and the babe is beautiful.

 

Dr. John Montanee’s Ashe (sacred energy), rhythms, and movements when I have witnessed them are tribal and transformative. I have experienced dozens of rituals where we were blessed with the benefit of Dr. John Montanee’s Ashe. These ceremonies have been everywhere from the banks of the Mississippi with Priestess Miriam Chamani, to the large stage with Mac Rebennack (the world famous Jazz legend, Dr. John), to the Bayou St. John with my dearly departed friend Cayne, to the wild and wonderful Starwood festivals with Louis Martinié, as well as with my own amazing godchildren in my spiritual home. I have always felt his power as protective and unifying. He embraces with heartiness and love those who come to him with respect and honor. Dr. John Montanee is capable of infinite wisdom and limitless capacity, assuming you understand the perimeters. That statement isn’t a paradoxical caveat, it’s a doorway. Open it wisely.