Urban Voodoo: A Beginner's Guide to Afro-Caribbean Magic

Very interesting, educational where it needs to be, a new way of looking at things. Even in my 'regular' spellcraft I doubt I'll ever forego an offering on cake and wine or the like) again.

Unlike other critics of this book, I didn't buy it expecting to read about "Real VooDoo". I was just interested in the personal explorations of the authors, which is exactly what the book delivers. The authors are honest, and that is to their credit. However, the book radiates a psychological immaturity which compromises the author's message(s) and their explorations. Both seem to exhibit a fascination either with what I would call the "raw" or dark side of some VooDoo culture, such as the tearing up of live animals, or with what I'd call "sensationalistic" aspects of magic, which they seek in VooDoo. If what you crave is that all the street lights explode when you drive by them, then I suppose you can get that, but what's the point of it? In the end I believe you'll end up like Aleister Crowley did, who may also have been too oriented to Magickal sensationalism...substance addicted and sitting on the dung heap of life, a pathetic loser. If your Magical path doesn't include your own personal growth, what is the good of it, really? The authors seem blind to the contradictions and offensively simplistic views they express. Jason Black criticizes Pagans and Wiccans, who in his view are unmagical and as a result of that are too often poor, their magical ability insufficient to obtain wealth for themselves. He seems to think VooDoo practioners have the great advantage in that respect, but in this he exhibits a serious myopia. The VooDoo country of Haiti is surely one of the poorest nations in the world, with large numbers of VooDoo practioners apparently not possessing magic powerful enough to just obtain money pouring down on them from trees and the lwa, lifting them right out of the festering Haitian slums. Are Black American practioners of VooDoo notoriously wealthy people? I think not, or else Christopher Hyatt wouldn't be searching them out in the ghettos and back alleys that it seems to excite him to haunt. Christopher Hyatt seems to find it wonderfully "raw" that he learns about VooDoo by paying a prostitute to sit and talk to him about it, and she talks about using VooDoo to do revenge on johns who do her wrong. He fails to ask himself why, if she were so empowered by VooDoo, would she choose to remain in such a degrading profession. Why doesn't she use her VooDoo power to obtain for herself a more self-respecting line of work? Or does she really need the abusive johns, because without their abuse of her she wouldn't have as many opportunities to do the revenge magic she loves to do? Psychological questions need to be asked, which these authors show themselves oblivious to, something all the more incredible since Hyatt himself is apparently a psychologist. One gets the sense that the "dark" and "raw" realm these two authors need most to explore, is the internal darkness of their own psyche, not the external darkness of the seamy side of life. Hyatt also makes some astonishingly simplistic anti-Christian statements, such as "Christianity's main purpose is to take over the world and make it it's slave." A psychologically mature view would see that the rebellious anti-Christian stance such a view propels one into, makes one into exactly such a "slave." Disowned parts of oneself that we end up projecting upon others, have a way of enslaving us like that.

Amazing book and arrived on time.

I like this book because it is blatantly honest. It does not purport to be anything other than it is, a guide for those who work outside the system of Initiations, Lineage, and Tradition. This book, as stated by the authors, is for the Bokor, the sorcerer, not the Houngans, Santeros, etc...The authors worked together to present a factual, usable, and clear-cut guide to working with certain spirits to achieve one's goals. There is no disrespect towards the spirits listed here, quite the contrary, the authors talk about appropriate offerings, ways of working, and even better, give detailed personal examples of their own experiences doing the work.The first section of Urban Voodoo is in large part, a telling of how the authors became involved in the practices of Afro-Caribbean religions. These stories are personable, vividly described, and believable. The second section covers how to do divination with the shells, gives the graphic symbols (veve / firma / ponto / for certain spirits, along with appropriate incantations for the same. The authors go on to give a section of selected workings which can be done by the practitioner. Also included are a great selection of photographs.All things considered, this is a great book for those just beginning to explore and work with the spirits.For those who say you cannot do these things without Initiation, etc....I would like to quote from the book Rootwork by Tayannah Lee McQuillar, "If you call upon God and God answers, who can say you are wrong?"

To be clear: there's nothing resembling Voodoo, Vodou or any other African diaspora religion in this book. The authors get off to a rather pathetic start, labeling Haitian Vodou, Santeria and Macumba "the Voodoo religions" (um no) and positioning them as staunchly anti-Christian (they'd be shocked if they ever visited an actual Vodou community and learned how many Christian and Catholic Vodouisants exist.)The first six chapters describe in rambling detail some spells the authors performed including a wax doll, a love spell using theKeys of Solomon, a Goetic operation and a "conjuration of Ifa" (lol, Ifa doesn't work that way.) Sensing a pattern here? Yup, NO Voodoo - in a book called "Urban Voodoo"! Rather than consulting any actual Bokors or Houngans (i.e., people who've actually met these spirits) to learn about the Lwa and their attributes, they just conduct random spells they pulled out of their ass and then interpret the vague results as "Voodoo spirit contact." This includes the enormous disrespect of boiling a rat alive and smearing its blood on a statue of Legba. It's clear they know nothing about the nature of the Lwa or how to serve them, but just see them as vehicles for satisfying their petty greed, lust and revenge. Let's just say it becomes VERY clear early on the type of low-level trickster spirits they are actually communicating with and feeding.Beyond this, Chapter 7 is a weird interlude about the author's experiences with Black prostitutes (their objectifying language toward women and their bodies throughout is truly gross) and they then several more chapters are filled with edgy rambling about their hatred for Christianity, including a bizarre attempt to syncretize Vodou with Dionysian cults. They then present several divination techniques, at least one of which they apparently made up. The reader might find some interest in this chapter since it's the first piece of practical advice offered 137 pages in, but again, none of it is connected to Vodou in any way. They don't actually begin discussing any Lwa until Chapter 11(!), and then they randomly suggest (wrong and incorrect) methods for contacting Eshu and Pomba Gira, spirits of Quimbanda (again, NOT VOODOO!) They seem to make no distinction between Vodou, Santeria, Lucumi, Quimbanda, Palo Mayombe etc, just rolling them all together as "primitive" African religions that are waaaay cooler than Christianity because you get to kill animals. Their ignorance and disrespect for African diaspora manifests repeatedly in their racist language, calling Haitians "primitive" and "an alien ethnic subculture."Thankfully, the spirits they so ignorantly played with ate them alive, brought them to untimely deaths and continue to eat them in the afterlife, so all's well that ends well. Buy this only as a cautionary tale for other racist white magicians who think they can step into other people's religions and steal what they haven't earned because their own magic is tepid and boring.

This book is a little sassy, tells it like it is, no sugar coating. If you're easily offended, maybe skip this one. Very educational.