#obeah

[kemetic-dreams]

Onesimus (late 1600s–1700s) was an African man who was instrumental in the mitigation of the impact of a smallpox outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts. His birth name is unknown. He was enslaved and, in 1706, was given to the New England Puritan minister Cotton Mather, who renamed him. Onesimus introduced Mather to the principle and procedure of the variolation method of inoculation to prevent the disease, which laid the foundation for the development of vaccines. After a smallpox outbreak began in Boston in 1721, Mather used this knowledge to advocate for inoculation in the population. This practice eventually spread to other colonies. In a 2016 Boston magazine survey, Onesimus was declared one of the "Best Bostonians of All Time"

Onesimus's name at birth and place of birth are unknown with certainty. He was first documented as living in the colonies in 1706, having been brought to North America as an enslaved person. In December of that year, he was given as a gift by a church congregation to Cotton Mather, their Puritan minister of North Church, as well as a prominent figure in the Salem Witch Trials. Mather renamed him after a first-century AD enslaved person mentioned in the Bible.The name, "Onesimus" means "useful, helpful, or profitable".

Mather referred to the ethnicity of Onesimus as "Guaramantee", which may refer to the Coromantee (also known as Akan people of modern Ghana). 

Mather saw Onesimus as highly intelligent and educated him in reading and writing with the Mather family (for context, according to biographer Kathryn Koo, at that time, literacy was primarily associated with religious instruction, and writing as means of note-taking and conducting business)

In 1716 or shortly before, Onesimus had described to Mather the process of inoculation that had been performed on him and others in his society in Africa (as Mather reported in a letter): "People take Juice of Small-Pox; and Cut the Skin, and put in a drop." In the book, African Medical Knowledge, the Plain Style, and Satire in the 1721 Boston Inoculation Controversy, Kelly Wisecup wrote that Onesimus is believed to have been inoculated at some point before being sold into slavery or during the slave trade, as he most likely traveled from the West Indies to Boston.

The variolation method of inoculation was long practiced in Africa among African people.

The practice was widespread among enslaved colonial people from many regions of Africa and, throughout the slave trade in the Americas, slave communities continued the practice of inoculation despite regional origin.

Mather followed Onesimus's medicinal advice because, as Margot Minardi writes, "inferiority had not yet been indelibly written onto the bodies of Africans."

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

T.G. Cooper - Obeah, The God of Voo Doo - Nuclassics and Science - 1978 (cover design by Gerald Landon)

[blacklocsdeux]

Can the Hoodoo Practitioners , Obeah Practitioners, Black Witches, and anyone who is black and does magic reblog this post so I can follow y’all?

[theblissfulstars]

March 7th, Full Moon in Virgo

The full moon taking place on March 7th, 7:42 a.m. Eastern standard Time is going to be taking place in the mutable earth sign of Virgo.

This Moon carries with it the energy of a bated breath. With the sun and moon in a T-square configuration with Mars in Gemini, This speaks to an incredibly nervous, anxious and excitatory energy. This denotes an explosive, or cataclysmic quality particularly in regards to information. Lies, secrets and information That is otherwise obfuscated will be exposed. This can be the start of conflict, intention on a personal and collective level. This tension is elevated by the stellium in the zodiac sign of Aries including Vesta, Jupiter, Chiron, Venus and Juno. The conflict is being brought towards the surface to reach a fiery climax and conclusion. Emotions will be high during this moon, and people will be prone to outbursts of anger. Beware of physical danger this moon, such as cuts, burns, and accidents. This can also manifest as wildfires.

With the sun in Pisces being conjunct mercury in detriment and Neptune dignified, this portends a time of metaphorical and literal flooding. This is a bad planting season,with this configuration and Ceres in retrograde position in Libra so hold off on your spring planting.

With two major hitters at the anaretic degree (29°) and one being 29°59 there is a suspended element of anxiety and collective strife and a final gift from Saturn before he exits the place of power, most likely related to harmful collective legislation, technology, and social media. he's been in power since 2017(Capricorn-aqua) this is an experience we will not have for another 20 years. When we wake up, Saturn will already be in pisces changing the energy dramatically to one of confusion,dreaminess, and melancholy fantasy. Mutable signs(rising,sun,moon, stelliums) are in for a doozy this full moon.

Uranus is making positive aspects this moon denoting radical, surprising and positive changes and financial opportunities for the environment and collective.

Use this moon to get lot prepare for the upcoming changes

Workings:

Power

Domination

Sex

Healing

Cutting ties

Release

[blackfolksintime]

Prison inmates serving sentences for ‘obeah’ at the Antigua jail in 1905.

[ashshanea101]

Follow me on Insta: Tarot_withAsh

[siryl]

"Witch Puppet" by Keith Thompson.

[thebarroomortheboy]

Witchcraft + Shamanism (OBEAH)

Weird Woman dir. Reginald Le Borg (1944)

The Twilight Zone: S3 E12 The Jungle (1961)

Night of the Eagle dir. Sidney Hayers (1962)

[enchanted-moura]

The girl's steaming cure‐all was a potpourri of lemon‐grass, horehound, limes, olive bush, soursop leaves, circe bush, honeysuckle, cowfoot, guava, sage, jackin‐the‐bush, thistle, elder, bitter tally, cochineal, duppy‐basil and grape and ringworm bush, all steeped in the right combination of rainwater and seawater.

 -  Obeah Is a Fact of Life, and Afterlife, in the Caribbean By Lindsay Haines

[hitennorurouni]

I haven't drawn Obeah in a whiiiiiiiile, but here she is. She's a fire genasi, onomancer (that means that she does the magic of true names). I tried something with the lighting of her hair, but... eh.

Some old art of her as well, since I don't think I've ever posted her.

[forthosebefore]

Queen Nanny of the Maroons

Nanny, known as Granny Nanny, Grandy Nanny, and Queen Nanny was a Maroon leader and Obeah woman in Jamaica during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Maroons were slaves in the Americas who escaped and formed independent settlements. Nanny herself was an escaped slave who had been shipped from Western Africa. It has been widely accepted that she came from the Ashanti tribe of present-day Ghana.

Nanny and her four brothers (all of whom became Maroon leaders) were sold into slavery and later escaped from their plantations into the mountains and jungles that still make up a large proportion of Jamaica. Nanny and one brother, Quao, founded a village in the Blue Mountains, on the Eastern (or Windward) side of Jamaica, which became known as Nanny Town. Nanny has been described as a practitioner of Obeah, a term used in the Caribbean to describe folk magic and religion based on West African influences.

Nanny Town, placed as …[Read more here]

Source: BlackPast.org, Wikipedia

Visit www.attawellsummer.com/forthosebefore to learn more about Black history.

Need a freelance graphic designer or illustrator? Send me an email.

[gravalicious]

Source: Diana Paton - The Cultural Politics of Obeah: Religion, Colonialism and Modernity in the Caribbean World (2015: 178)

[harloqui]

Wordsmith

I've read some of the books on the San and the n|om-kxaosi. I'm not done with them, but I've read enough to help me get an idea of what the San might be experiencing. In relation to my own experiences, they sound incredibly similar, but off in certain places where it counts. I've never seen God's magical ostrich egg, I can't do some of the shaker rituals, and some of their beliefs conflict with my own, but overall, if you were to squint your eyes hard enough and ignore those differences, we could pass as the same thing. I'm not a n|om-kxaosi, but this helps put things into perspective for me.

Then, I circled back to my own culture's beliefs, because I realized that what I described here might have been a spiritual awakening? I do think now I was a bit overzealous in considering it a form of shifting, but in some ways it still fits that description, since I am taking an animal form... even if nonphysical.

Physical shifting is observably physical, so it doesn't fall into the realm of spiritual. The spiritual stuff can bleed into the physical world, so that gives me some trouble with differentiating the two, but I've found that the physical just... feels physical, for lack of a better word? I described it in a previous post, but the physical shifting typically affects my body in a way spiritually shifting does not.

I'm kinda coming to the conclusion that whatever I am is somewhere in the realm of "shaman/spiritualist/witch", or something along those lines. There's the spiritual part, which not every shifter has - it can be a part, but it's not neccessary to be a shifter - and then there's the physical part, which obviously not every shaman/spiritualist/witch has. Shamans are known for being shapeshifters - even if it's a stereotype, it is a stereotype with a grain of truth to it - and witches have been treated as shifters since the dark ages. Spiritualists aren't really associated with shifters, but they're associated with a host of other paranormal phenomena, and some of those are variants of physical shapeshifting. If you identify me with them, you've got a good portion of my beliefs down.

I think what's making this extra hard is that I'm not really doing anything with these abilities. I'm not trying to save others or shift to help the community, my abilities are mainly for myself and my friends, if anything. It's not for (direct) spiritual enlightenment and so it's causing my experiences to differ substantially from those who use their talents this way.

...Honestly, my culture does have a name for all of this, but I'm reluctant to use it. This is technically Obeah, but the word has a sort of stigma to it. It's not a valid stigma, but it still makes me a little reluctant to use it. The word does fit my practices and beliefs, but I'm also worried that I would be using it inappropriately - obeahs are born with the gift, but sometimes go through a form of training, and if I don't have that, can I call myself an obeah? ...Though even obeahs nowadays just use the internet and learn on their own instead of searching for a teacher, since it can be difficult (and sometimes dangerous) to find one.

...I think for now I'm going to use the words that come naturally to me, and worry about the details later. I shouldn't have to fit my experiences into a box; all shifters are different and have different reasons for being the way they are. Seeing as how I'm still human and I'm not a "purebred", I don't see why I couldn't experience multiple types of shifting, or even types humans only experience, like the spiritual stuff. I've felt a mild pressure to use older or cultural variants of the "modern" terms I use now to satisfy older shifters and avoid getting heckled by outsiders to the community, but if it's not something I feel comfortable doing, then I shouldn't do it. I'm actually kind of happy using the Westernized versions and terminology I've grown accustomed to, and I don't think my usage of a "newer" word should invalidate my experiences.

I'll still seek out terminology for information purposes, but I think I'm done with my search for more words.

[theblissfulstars]

Astrology of March, 2023

Are you ready for the great transition? This upcoming month of March is presenting the momentous time for not only personal development and progress, but collective as well. With multiple planets finally exiting positions that they've been stationed in for years, particularly Saturn, who's been in a position of dignity since 2017, and Pluto who's been in Capricorn for 15 years and will finally ingress Aquarius where he will stay for 20. Have hope these big changes are bringing in goodness.

This period is marked with incredible changes that are going to be infrastructural and revolutionary. With the dwarf planet Ceres in retrograde motion and re-entering her dignity of Virgo this month, we can expect even more environmental catastrophe and upset globally as the fight for our earth intensifies in the month of March.

Re-shifting focus back to the planet of Saturn, on March 7th we have Saturn finally exiting Aquarius and entering ethereal, nebulus and profound Pisces. We're going to be seeing a dramatic shift in collective relationships to religion, escapism and fantasy. All of the people who had gotten into new age spirituality over the course of Saturn in Aqua are going to be leaving it behind to revolutionize the vestiges of traditional conventional religions. There's definitely going to be greater moral dilemmas, restriction of power and trials also surrounding religious institutions during this time. Our seas, oceans and lakes are going to become a focus for us during this period as Pisces forces us to reckon with the damage you've done to our waters. We may see an end to offshore drilling during this time. Themes of isolation are still present here however they are turned inward, we are no longer going to be allowed to escape into ourselves and our vices during this time.

With Venus and Juno entering Taurus mid March we can expect an even more dreamy, romantic and enchanted feeling to our month as we shift our focus towards money, our values and how business affects our morality. There's going to be a great focus on art, a revival of fashion, aesthetics and beauty in the mainstream especially with Jupiter joining Taurus this April, but I digress.

Mars has been in Gemini since August 20th of 2022 and will finally be exiting giving us a rest from that mental exertion anxiety and disquiet. He will be entering his fall, Cancer, heightening feelings of emotionality, the need for safety, national pride and family. Almost immediately he will be in a trinw with Saturn in Pisces showing a period of rebuilding and restructuring centered around home, spirituality and family. This is actually a very productive time and it builds us up to Pluto entering Aquarius which will be ushering in revolutions on a large scale, innovation and relief from hierarchical chains.

March Major transits:

2nd- Mercury in Pisces (detriment)

7th- Saturn in Pisces

12th- Juno in Taurus

16th- Venus in Taurus (dignified)

20th- sun in Aries (exalted)

23rd- pluto in aquarius

25th- mars in cancer(fall)

[kemetic-dreams]

Pericoma Okoye was a singer, songwriter and traditionist. He was predominantly known throughout Igboland for his style of music and strong belief and practice of the traditional religion of the Igbo people, named Obeah.

His title was 'Arusi Makaja' he allegedly performed several feats which defied several rules of physics . A good percentage of the people from Arondizuogu, his community, saw him as a little god. Several displays of "supernatural powers" or "sorcery" as it was often tagged, and back-to-back victories in contests, earned him the alias "Lion of Africa" He featured in a movie titled Lion Of Africa alongside Nollywood Legend, Pete Edochie. The movie, which was in two parts, was a biography of his early life. He is the father of internet personality and musician Speed Darlington.

On one faithful day on his way to Onitsha, he was waylaid by tax collectors at the then notorious Upper Iweka. These tax collectors, not knowing who he was, demanded for his tax receipts, but he ignored them.

One of the thugs lifted him up, placed him on his shoulders, and carried him to their office. He did not utter a word nor complained. On the way, he suddenly became too heavy such that the guys who carried him wanted to put him down, but he could not. For several hours they begged him to come down but he refused, and insisted that the gods must be appeased for him to come down. He made several requests which included certain amount of money. His requests were all provided and he majestically came down from the guy's shoulder after several hours. This brought about the popular saying "Pericoma na anyị ajọ alo" That incident was said to have put an end to the menace of illegal tax collectors at Upper Iweka. He was prime minister of the Arondizogu community in Imo