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The Magickal Record of Louis Martinie': November 1996

Friday 1: RITUAL: Wedding at Voodoo Spiritual Temple
WILL: Union of two lives
LOVE: Litany of the Spirits. Special attention given to the Marassa, Erzulie, Ogun, and Damballah. It was the Great Snake who consecrated the Union.
SUCCESS: union
COMMENT: Two weddings around All Souls. To be joined on a day sacred to the Ancestors is a beautiful thing. Influence from Manman Brigitte and Ossague as they walk on the point of Adam and Eve? Their flags are the two newest at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Rob Lee and Marie down for the celebrations. A pleasure drumming together.
Saturday 2: Mishlen has an opening for her work at the Positive Spaces Gallery on Magazine Street.
Big ol' party at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Much drumming and dancing. Even more rum...I have never seen Luis more drunk. I can't believe how well he played after so much rum. I became a bit sporatic after I had a bit more than my share.
Sunday 3: Meditation...Voodoo Spiritual Temple. About 8 people in absolute silence. Street noise; "Man, You got a quarter?" drifting through the door. In the World...nice. A good note to end the week on.
Monday 4: Rest and catch up on e-mail after the the activity of last week. Loss of balance betweem stillness and occurence. I plan to reestablish that balance this week.
Tuesday 5: Ti Kala went away. Took a couple of hours to find her. Mishlen thinks that this is a sign from Blanc Dan-i that more attention is required to that Temple.
- MoonWeb work on MR section .
- Voted against Connick today for DA. I don't like the singing of his son. Stupid reason.
Wednesday 6: T and C putting up their art at Kaldi's. Plaster faces overlooking the the back room section of the coffeehouse. Like people breaking off bits of themselves and leaving these bits to enrich the places they have been.
Thursday 7: Drum ritual at Spiritual Voodoo Temple. Veve to Legba and Christopher dancing to the loa.
Friday 8: Rest to ballance the active and the passive. I find that I can become just as easily bored with to much action as with to much pasivity.
Saturday 9: To the Market in the Quarter. Yes...truly the World card in the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot.
Sunday 10: Meditation at Spiritual Voodoo Temple. Mishlen came. Silence...a beautiful way to end/begin the week. According to Mr. Crowley, "In silence comes the true consecration." These meditations are a consecration of the week past and of the week to come.
Monday 11: RITUAL: Session to Obatala and to the Loa of this City with Priestess Musima; Temple Blanc Dan-i
WILL: Honor and Respect
LOVE: Order of service: Litany/Obatala/Legba/Congo Square (Marie Laveau & Dr. John)/ Guedes & Barons & all of the Ancestors/Ogun/Yemaya/Oshun/Damballah & Ayida Wedo
SUCCESS: Good Strong Current flowed through the Court Yard
COMMENT: Mishlen was watching and felt the vertigo of possession. Fought it back. Raymond came in today from Canada right in the middle of the session. Something arranged by the Spirits.
Tuesday 12: RITUAL: Sending Drums to Ifa; Temple Blanc Dan-i...Cabal Tambor Dan-i; We were officiating.
WILL: To strengthen the drums; give them a stronger voice to call the loa.
LOVE: Heat up the space with Tibetan Overtone chanting/ Offering to Ancestors/ Expedition using mirror to find an ancestor to help carry drum to Ifa/Name of drum/leaves & clothed & fed the drums/ invited the ancestor to possess our body to begin the journey/ drums slept overnight
SUCCESS: This rite is only successful if the voice of the drum is strengthened. The ability of my drum to call the Spirits was definitely strengthened
COMMENT: A celebration of Steven and Raymonds visit from Canada.
Wednesday 13: RITUAL: Obatala and to the Loa of this City with Priestess Muslima; Creole Queen Riverboat.
WILL: Honor and Respect and introduction of the Spirits to the group watching
LOVE: Order of Service; as on Monday. More time was spent in honoring Damballa and Ayida Wedo than on Monday.
SUCCESS: Strong for ritualists and for audience.
COMMENT: A Santeria practitioner from Florida said she has decided to move to New Orleans after seeing this ritual. Cool...a bit too cool for Ti Kala. I spent most of the time before the ritual in the Men's Room with the snake under the hot air hand dryer to keep her warm. She stayed in the kitchen before dancing. Carried her around under my shirt...told people I was heavy with snake.
Thursday 14: RITUAL: Voodoo Spiritual Temple, Feeding of the Ancestors
WILL: Step in the process of Confirmation for Steven, Julia, and Christopher.
LOVE: Procession with foods to main Ancestor Alter in Temple. Offering. Each of us lite a candle in remembrance of particular ancestors. Then to Court Yard. Miriam spoke of the importance of slowing down, not rushing through spiritual exercises and of the need to appreciate the purpose of receiving the confirmations. The confirmations were to help in healing.
SUCCESS: Strong current moving toward balance.
COMMENT: This Confirmation and all rituals are SERVICE. It is very important for me to contemplate this. Service means to be of benefit to others. The Order Of Service is the ordering of how I can best be of service. Like most great truths, this is simple and obvious to those who would look deeply.
Service and its order is something to be honored and respected. It is an obligation, or better put, a privilege to be of service to others and to search for the most effective way to be of service. This can be described as Will.
The Order Of Service does not always include what one wants to do. For me, the strongest teaching of the ritual came at the end of the session. I dislike to leave before a ceremony is over but the Order of Service for me said I was to be home and writing by 11:00. The ceremony ran longer than usual and to be of service in the most effective way possible I chose to leave. My respect for ritual space said I should stay. My commitment to the Voodoo Spiritual Temple said I should stay. My respect and friendship with Miriam said I should stay. My responsibility as a drummer said I should stay.
But the Order of Service, the way I can most effectively serve others, said to go home and write. I am the only one who can write the particular piece I am working on and people are, on my word, waiting for the manuscript. This is quite a teaching to me; to live fully Order Of Service is necessary.
Friday 15: A great need for rest. This number of rituals along with work is draining. Averaging @ 4 hours of sleep a night. The rituals strengthen me but the lack of sleep must make itself known eventually.
Washing of the Heads at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple.
Saturday 16: Conversation with Christopher. I asked how the Head Washing went. Christopher said he received great insights. The insights have to do with emptiness or openness. The first is that we are composed primarily of space. "Solid" matter takes up a minute portion of the space we perceive as ourselves. The second insight is that in emptiness/openness there is no time or space because there are no reference points from which to compute measurements or comparisons.
It is hard to convey the importance of these insights. One's "head"/self is essentially a vast openness. Once this is experienced and established through the habit of practice (Invoke often), it becomes more easy to hear the voices of the loa, it becomes easier to invite possession by the loa.
Sunday 17: Meditation at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Luis brought his flute and its soft beauty. Focus on Breath (presence/isness) and alter to Marie Laveau.
Monday 18: MOONWEB - Looking into the origin of the word "Voodoo." The High Priest who visited from Wedo was distributing a mss that stated that the origin of the word "Voodoo" is lost. So...taking this into the practical context of ritual and Confirmation, it is the privilege and duty of each voodoosi to discover the meaning of the word through direct contact with the loa.
Tuesday 19: Priestess Miriam arrived to begin her retreat. Formal start in Temple Blanc Dan-i. It will be a silent retreat. To all of the loa and great spirits, in our silence, fill us with your voices. Fill us with your wisdom and compassion.
Wednesday 20: Day of Prayer and Repentance in Germany. Day of Peace and Contemplation in New Orleans...at least at the Maison. Walking into door it felt very good to into the silence. Scents of various herbs, perfumes, and incenses from Miriam's room.
Thursday 21: Drum Ritual - Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Arm hurt and not well from flu shot earlier in the day. Its like the Tibetans say, 'If you don't do the practices when you are well, how you going to do them when your sick.' Habit pulled me through. Adequate.
Friday 22: Work on MoonWeb. I would like to put (my) entire Mind on MoonWeb. This could be my contribution to MoonWebs creation.
Saturday 23: Temple Blanc Dan-i. Cleaning and moving objects. I exercise so little care of things so important...perhaps because they are so important. The lack of care is an acknowledgement of their impermanence.
Sunday 24: Rachel had an opening for her photographs at Ruby Fruit Jungle so the whole Temple went over. Afterwards to the Old Rosy Cross Temple of Soupro Street up by my house. Very egyptian and in great disrepair. Miriam is actively looking to open a second temple devoted to healing. There is some interest in buying that building. It is immense.
Monday 25: RITUAL: Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Honor and respect to the loa. WILL: Celebration and Thanksgiving. Show the Voodoo to about 50 professors of theology in town for a conference.
LOVE: Litany of the Loa. Particular attention to Erzulie and Ogun. Calls to Marie Laveau and to the good Dr. John. The Spirits spoke through Priestess Miriam emphasizing that the Tree of Life can be found within. That people search and search outward and what they really need to do is to look within.
SUCCESS: This was the coldest day yet. Temperatures in the low 50s and the rite was in the courtyard. Drums had a problem staying together with the cross rhythms. Took two or three tries before the ether heated up enough for the loa to enter. Strong from that point.
COMMENT: About 5 of the theologians stayed after the main body of people left. That is when the loa started pushing. An older grey haired woman took her shoes off and began to dance. Oh yes, things heated up.
Tuesday 26: Placed an old carpenters tray full of small bits of woods and rusty nails and a St. Joseph candle at the Legba alter by the door of Temple Blanc Dan-i. The association of Legba with St. Joseph is individual. Mom told me that Edward Martinie was my protector. He was my grandfather and a carpenter. Perhaps I associate his protection and love with that of Legba. To date I have sent 150 individual letters via e-mail this month. Paper letters lay unanswered going back months. A time of change; even for me. Surfing the web reminds me of reading magazines in a psychiatrists office. They are interesting and they are informative but once a year or so is often enough. Directed searches are quite another thing. This says more about me than about the technology involved.
Wednesday 27: Prep for MoonWeb meeting and trip to Cincinnati.
Thursday 28: Work on proposed logo for MoonWeb. When the M and the W are combined a Marassa like figure is created. Possibly a star above the figure and an earth below. Nice, this mirrors Julias insight at her Confirmation...The Marassa as the Hexagram...As Above So Below. The Marassa are unique, their name may mean Sea Of Asia, what Columbus thought he had reached. It could have come to mean something like uncharted space...the space one was brought through. - Genetic Reformulation, Mishlen likes the term as it applies to space seeding.
Friday 29: Mishlen has a flu. Best to stay in New Orleans to see to her care. Dr Apppointment. The Library has become a storage bin. It will be a good time to do some organizing.
Saturday 30: Many piles of paper...trash and treasure. I am beginning to be able to find books and mss. Many papers we could not put in the Archives are in the Library. Used to lend a lot of books out. Maybe again.

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