Harmonizing the Dark and Light Within







This Winter Solstice provides us with a more serious time of self reflection.  On the darkest day of the year we are given an opportunity to connect to what we consider our “dark sides”. We are being urged to go within and confront the innermost aspects of our beings that often go neglected.  These neglected pieces are an essential part of our truth and exist whether we acknowledge their presence or not.  The shadow gets a bad rap.  This is because we often neglect her wild call until she ferociously asserts her presence.  She exposes the lies that we have been telling ourselves about our nature.  The human mind is so powerful that we often are able to blind ourselves to these lies, but the divine within nudges us towards wholeness by forcing us to confront our shadow through immersing us into the darkness.  At this point, we can no longer ignore the things that challenge our self concept.  Pluto and Uranus are urging us towards a revolutionary transformation and Neptune has forced us to accept the illusions we have created.  Spirit attracts to us the very challenges that will lead us closer to our true selves.  Solstice is a reminder that light and dark exist concurrently.  On the darkest day of the year light is being birthed. As you confront the darker aspects of yourself, make way for revelations of light.  This battle between light and dark exists only in restricted minds.  They exist harmoniously together, but only when acknowledging and honoring both aspects can we choose their expression.


Today honor the self by listing your many aspects of your own expression and pay homage to the dark and the light.  Is your confidence sometimes expressed though arrogance?  Does your playful nature sometimes present itself as immaturity?  Mindfully acknowledge your shadow and allow it to pass without dwelling on its presence. In other words, identify with the darkest parts of yourself but choose to LOVE yourself anyway.  By doing this we unify our many parts and are able to birth light.

PRIVACY & ITS RITUAL FUNCTIONS, PART II

The ritual of affliction is a type of spontaneous ritual in that the practitioner utilizes it to overcome sudden and cosmic disorder in her own world. The confessional mode helps us categorize these forms of ritual action to understand just how transformative this ritualized moment in Shange’s narrative is. Indigo prefaces her ritual instructions, stating, “Though it may cause some emotional disruptions, stand absolutely still & repeat the offender’s name till you are overwhelmed with the memory of your encounter.” She acknowledges that suffering is part and parcel to her liminal circumstance, yet she does not shirk her duty as one who moves between worlds. This reticence is characteristic of the confessional mode. “Rituals do not tidy what is messy in ordinary life; they express them and perform change.”  By ritualizing the process of healing, Indigo “performs her becoming”; she discards all identification with victimhood and her confessions of vulnerability and strength demand that the cosmos do the same.

The spontaneous and personal ritual helps the neophyte overcome individual obstacles and assistsher efforts to negotiate intergenerational conflict between herself and her immediate community, such as how or whether or not “to be mo’ in this world.” And while Indigo recognizes the power of renewal in other worlds, her mother can only see danger. Although Hilda Effania represents a conservative and limiting voice in Indigo’s life, she also fosters in Indigo an artistic sensibility and understanding of her self-worth. Likewise, each of Indigo’s lady friends represents a “personification of the self-evident authority of tradition.” Indigo—who has just experienced menarche—and her elderly lady friends epitomize the tense relationship between the initiate and her elders. While Indigo does cherish and engage with various aspects diasporic traditions, she still begets a womanhood that is unfamiliar to her own mother. Mrs. Haydee trains Indigo in midwifery, Mrs. Yancey acquaints her with acquisition spells, and Sister Mary Louise unveils to Indigo the nature of magic during her menarche ritual. Each of these conversations forms “an alternative educational system,” which constitute the basis of Indigo’s ways of knowing.

Indigo clearly loves and respects the women who have informed her perception of the cosmos, but this star child neophyte cannot ignore the dynamism of her cosmic cycle. Like I mentioned, in the liminal state, the neophyte is compelled to reflect on structures of power. “The essence of the complete obedience of the neophytes is to submit to the elders but only in so far as they are in charge … of the common good and represent in their persons the total community.” Herein lies the reason Indigo cannot fully oblige the ritual practices of her elderly lady friends or the admonishments of her mother. Her elders cannot constitute “the total community” as they represent various, fluctuating value systems. While the magic they employ may facilitate order in one realm of the cosmos, it is not certain that that magic will sustain the transformative act required in another realm. Thus, Indigo must adhere to certain traditions and diverge from others. She takes what she needs and leaves the rest. In doing so, she negotiates her own vision as a healer and gatekeeper within an undeniably fragmented world.


While the personal construction of ritual facilitates autonomy and freedom of expression, it incurs risks nevertheless. Indigo has to forgo the protection of the exclusively traditional magic she practices alongside her lady friends in order to accurately interpret the urgency of her affliction and improvise her own healing acts. In doing so, she experiences the powerful transformational quality of spontaneous ritual construction. In this confessional mode, Indigo alone determines the extent of her transformation.

At the end of the novel, Shange signals to the reader that Indigo has, indeed, successfully undergone her ritual of affliction and obtained healing. Indigo muses to herself, “Would they understand [I] just wanted where they [her mother, lady friends, her people] came from to stay alive?” Indigo’s question suggests she has emerged from the liminal state. She realizes that it is her discretion that will now determine the magic she needs to function well and whole. She has more faith in her capabilities as a star child of Geechee magic. Indigo’s performs her becoming through her resolution to take only the elements of magic she needs from her elders, signaling her willingness to take responsibility for her ethical and spiritual development. Her very personal ritual text, “To Rid Oneself of the Scent of Evil,” denotes her profound transformation of identity.

The fact that Indigo is able to function as a productive and creative member of her Charleston community—post-affliction—indicates that healing has taken place. For example, over the course of the novel, Indigo learns to play the fiddle. At one rendezvous, she encounters a “brown-skinned man with … leathery hands, and a tiredness in his eyes”—clearly, he is weary of cosmic disorder. With her fiddle, Indigo “bring[s] her soul all up in his till she’[s] ferreted out the most lovely moment in that man’s life.” Even Aunt Haydee, the conjurer-midwife, notices and appreciates how people now seek “Indigo for relief from elusive disquiet, hungers of the soul.” This Geechee initiate has managed to emerge from her liminal state as productive, creative, and fearless as ever. In her essay, “The Cartography of Memory: An Ecocritical Reading of Ntozake Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo, Anissa J. Wardi notes, “The seemingly illusory world that claimed the young Indigo has, by the novel’s end, materialized into a life that empowers her as a community healer.” Remarkably, Indigo’s spontaneous rituals manage to, not only propel her from an “ambiguous and paradoxical condition” but also to sustain the transformative growth and healing of those in her wider community.

I love Shange’s novel because she beautifully depicts the fluctuating nature of human existence; sometimes we are joyful; sometimes we make space to mourn. Sometimes we play the fiddle; sometimes we spend afternoons on the corner with the neighborhood drunkard. Especially, though, I’m enamored by her reverence for ritual practice. Shange, expresses on the page what many of us know intuitively: Ritual allows us to maintain order internally anddd to exert our power over circumstances seemingly outside of ourselves. Melanated women have BEEN using ritual to negotiate our existence in a rapidly changing, oftentimes dangerous world. Ritual renders the melanated women innovator. Officiating priestess.

Do you have a favorite ritual? When do you call it on it especially? Are you a Shange die-hard? Share share share!


Suggested Readings:

Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth. “Introduction: On Their Way to Becoming Whole.” Middle Passage and the Healing Place of History: Migration and Identity in Black Women’s Literature. Ed. Elizabeth Brown-Guillory. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2006. 1-13. Print.

Driver, Tom F. The Magic of Ritual: Our Need for Liberating Rites that Transform Our Lives and Our Communities. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Print.

Elder, Arlene. “Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo: Ntozake Shange’s Neo-Slave/Blues Narrative.” African-American Review. 26:1 (1992): 99-107. Web. 6 December 2013.
                          
Gennep, Arnold van. The Rites of Passage. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1960. Print.

Grimes, Ronald L. Beginnings in Ritual Studies. Lanham: UP of America, 1982. Print.

Seligman, Adam B., Robert P. Weller, Michael J. Puett, and Bennett Simon.Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity. New York: Oxford U P, 2008.

Sered, Susan Starr. Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister: Religions Dominated by Women. New York: Oxoford U P, 1994. Print.

Shange, Ntozake. Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1982. Print.

Thompson-Cager, Chezia. “Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo: Resistance and Mystical Women of Power.” NWSA Journal. 1:4 (1989): 589-601. Web. 30 June 2013.

Turner, Victor W. “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage.” The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. New York: Cornell UP, 1967. 234-243. Print.

--. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. “Communitas: Model and Process.” Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1977. 131-165. Print.

Tweed, Thomas. Cross and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2006. Print.

Wardi, Anissa Janine. “The Cartography of Memory: An Ecocritical Reading of Ntozake Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo. African-American Review. 45:1-2 (2012): 131-142. Web. 4 December 2013.

Washington, Teresa N. Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Àjé in Africana Literature. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2005. Print.

Privacy & Its Ritual Functions, PART I




Ntozake Shange’s 1982 novel Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo chronicles the lives of three sisters and their widowed mother in Charleston, South Carolina. Sassafrass, the eldest, is a weaver; Cypress is a dancer; and Indigo, the youngest, is “a star child, [who] walks between worlds.” While both older sisters have left home to pursue careers and relationships, Indigo remains under the tutelage and watchful eyes of her elderly lady friends and her mother, Hilda Effania. Shange depicts Indigo as an otherworldly and fearless child, always “talkin’ wit the unreal [and] movin’ to an understandin’ of other worlds.” Geechee[1] magic constantly compels Indigo, much to the chagrin of her mother, who fears Indigo's sensuality will be used against her.

For Hilda Effania, Indigo’s danger is two-fold: she will not only face threats on account of her burgeoning woman-ness; Indigo will also face trouble from those who perceive her Geechee nature. Geechees are the legendary children of African immigrants and Native Americans who married during the early history of the Atlantic slave trade. During this period, the Native Americans were still strong and independent enough to offer the Africans substantial protections against European colonizers. This history of resistance and independence has meant that the offspring of this politico-conjugal union is notoriously considered exceedingly prideful. Additionally, the Geechees are considered some of the strangest Blacks because of their legendarily magical ways. For her mother, Indigo’s Geechee-ness is another factor that could incite an “offender’s” anger against her, as the star child cannot stifle her magical nature. 

Recipes, letters, and ritual texts by the sisters and mother frequently interrupt the narrative, thereby communicating the richness as well as the perils of their life cycle events. My favorite ritual, “To Rid Oneself of the Scent of Evil,” was created by Indigo following her rape[i] at the hands of the owner or the local drugstore, Mr. Turner.

Indigo’s predilection for “make-believe” and “elemental magic[2]” is precisely why she is able to recognize the potentially debilitating effects of her sexual assault and, by herself, undertake the ritual measures to ward them off, thereby proactively healing herself. While her social community strongly informs her foundation of knowledge and ways of being, Indigo must ultimately assume personal responsibility for her ritual practice for the sake of her own moral and spiritual development. In doing so, she reaffirms her right to this legendary magic as well as the necessity of personal and spontaneous ritual construction[3] to address unexpected and often violent conflict.

In its unabashed reverence for ritual, Shange’s narrative raises several themes: The transformative power of magic; the devotee’s need for particular, or personal, ritual practices, evinced by Indigo’s ritual of affliction; and the orientation towards the personal versus that of the communal, manifested specifically in intergenerational conflict. Shange’s novel illuminates how magic and ritual function to name and explain the experiences of Black women.

In Beginnings in Ritual Studies, Ronald Grimes offers: “Magic refers to any element of pragmatic, ritual work. If a ritual not only has meaning, but also ‘works,’ it is magical.” Almost a decade later, Tom Driver elaborates on Grimes’ theory, in The Magic of Ritual, to explain the transformative potential of ritual. Ritual creativity compels practitioners to directly address oppositional structures of society, with the aim of altering some part of the world with their works. Thus, the practitioner stands in contradistinction to society as well as a part of it, effectively changing the ordinary reality of social interaction. The practical yet transformative characteristics of magic are salient in Indigo’s ritual construction.

Personal, spontaneous ritual construction is imperative for taking responsibility for one’s personal development and maintaining agency. 

The confessional mode is “existential and life-urgent” in that it requires practitioners to “perform their becoming,” thereby taking responsibility for their transformation. This mode of ritual is “highly personal” because it is often “concerned with identity and self-disclosure.” 

These observations speak to a tension between the personal and the communal in that the former addresses specific and urgent individual concerns in a way the latter cannot.

Ritual studies scholar Victor Turner discusses personal and communal conflict in his essay on liminality, “Betwixt and Between.” He argues that during the liminal, or transition period, the neophyte, or initiate, is compelled to reflect on structures of power. So, according to Turner’s theory, the intergenerational conflict Indigo experiences with her mother and elderly lady friends is an organic symptom of the life cycle, which personal rituals can mediate as they transform both the practitioner and the world she inhabits. Following her rape, Indigo enters a liminal period in which she enacts her spontaneous ritual.
[1]“The Geechees are the legendary children of African and American India marriages that occurred early in the Atlantic slave trade history, when the Indians were still strong enough to offer runaway slaves protection. As legendary figures, these children are noted for their fierce invincibility and fighting spirit in the struggle for freedom” (Thompson-Cager 595).

[2] “Elemental magic” refers to aspects of the natural world that allow one to be creative and productive (Thompson-Cager 600).

[3] A spontaneous, personal ritual construction is a ritual practice that is not bound to traditional praxis. Rather, it stems from the practitioner’s creativity in order to redress sudden, unexpected cosmic disorder.



[i] While Indigo never names the experiences as such, I believe Shange implies Indigo’s rape through the narrative style of the scene. I’m open to a discussion with all you Shange die-hards.


Laws of the Coven: Trust

Memoirs of a Witch

My mother always told me, "Don't trust anyone who talks about people behind their back.  “Sneak dissing” is more detrimental than one might imagine.  Our thoughts and our words carry energy.  The same energy that creates worlds and destroys them.  The same energy used to conjure.  Well the day that I decided to ignore that truth is the day that I learned a very important lesson.  My mother also said, “A hard head, carries a soft behind.”

Tiger's Eye

Crystal Magic
Tiger’s eye is a protective stone.   The stone embodies strength and grounding energy.  This stone comes in various colors—golden yellow, deep red, and anything in-between.  The stone is characterized by different combinations of colors and dark stripes which give the stone their identifiable “tiger” look.

Tiger’s eye is a member of the quartz group. This gemstone is usually cut out of metamorphic rock and has a silky luster. It is usually found in tones of red-brown to gold; if the gemstone has not completely silicified, it makes a rarer blue color, called Hawk’s eye.
Tiger’s eye stones have mystical qualities. Like a tiger, one who wears the tiger’s eye has the patience to wait for the most opportune moment to move forward on a goal and demonstrates great powers of concetration and determination. The wearer of this gem will have the courage and strength ro fight negative energy whether it is illness or an outside influence. The stone also brings harmony by providing calm and help with meditation.  Meditating with tiger’s eye will assist in creating complete calm and total concentration. Through clear planning, concentration, patience and a clear and protected auraic field wealth and abundance can be yours. Use your tiger eye stone for protection from negativity and increased clarity and strength.

Pisces Lunar Eclipse

Full Moon


As we prepare for the sidereal Fullmoon Lunar Eclipse in Pisces, it would be wise to bring our attention to the nature of fish and their ability to dive deep. Water has long been associated with spirit. You are being urged to go deep within and connect with you spiritual essence. Release all thoughts that hinder you from embracing your truest desires. Only you know what they are. And if you don't... get quiet, take a bath, meditate or create something. Maybe even gaze into a clear glass of water. What is revealed might surprise you. Simply engage in a Piscean past time and allow spirit to speak. Whatever you choose, do not waste this potent lunar energy.

Wake Up The Healer Within

Earth Medicine

Examples of traditional African Medicine
Plants have been used medicinally long before recorded history.  During ancient times, our ancestors understood that Mother Earth contained all that our bodies needed to achieve optimum wellness. The ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) people left to their decendents papyrus writings that describe the medicinal uses for plants as early as 3,000 BC.  The Ancient Chinese people have a legacy of healing modalities that are still popular today. All indigenous cultures used herbs in their healing rituals, in conjunction with developing traditional medical systems. Researchers have found that people in different parts of the world tended to use the same or similar plants for the same purposes.  So the question becomes, “When did the way we heal ourselves change?”.  It begain during the 19th century when chemical analysis first became available. Scientists began to extract and modify the active ingredients from plants.  Chemists then began making their own version of plant compounds and, over time, the use of herbal medicines declined in favor of drugs. Almost one fourth of pharmaceutical drugs are derived from botanicals.

Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some part of their primary health care.  Are your taking advantage of the Earth Medicine that is available to you?  


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