Further on Lucky Hoodoo

This is a follow up post on my last one. I realized my last post on this topic had gotten quite long winded and I wanted to cut it short and provide some links for further research by my readers on this topic. I mostly discussed three rituals presented in the Lucky Hoodoo Grimoire, or LHG for short, and in this post want to examine some of the other techniques included in the grimoire including the spiritual development techniques that Michael Bertiaux discusses in the text.

One of the more interesting lessons in the LHG is the third lesson on the development of "mind power" or spiritual development as Mr. Bertiaux associates mental development with spiritual development. This can be a bit confusing but if you study the Monastery lessons you get the idea of what Bertiaux is expressing in equating mental development and spiritual development.

This lesson focuses on development of the powers of imagination and other areas. He talks about using these techniques to develop your connection with the spirits of Lucky Hoodoo. One form is the shadow bath, performed after a real path and while still naked you enter a very dark room with only a black light or a single candle providing lots of shadows. Then without touching your body you run your hands around your body very slowly. You can actual feel a crackle as you do this technique, like an energy inbetween your hands and your body as you go. In my experience it is very difficult to not accidentally touch yourself a few times but it becomes easier with practice. This exercise should be performed every night before going to bed and also it is advisable that it be performed before each ritual you seek to perform out of the grimoire and in general, I think it is a very powerful exercise. Interestingly it leads to another practice suggested by Mr. Bertiaux which is dream work. After performing the shadow bath climb into bed and perform a light meditation to prepare yourself for sleep and when awake try to remember your dreams for in your dreams are messages from the spirits. I've always thought a dream diary was essential to the practice of magick. I started with Donald Michael Kraig's Modern Magick where he directs you to keep a dream diary as part of your work. Eventually by writing something in the dream diary every day, even if you didn't remember your dreams, you will start remembering your dreams and find messages contained in them. Here Bertiaux essentially suggests the same thing without the broad explanations about dreams provided by Kraig in his manual.

Two other techniques are explored in the same lesson. Silent prayer and Holy House of Hoodoo spirits. The way in which the LHG is written, it doesn't get into technical terms like astral projection etc. but here in the Holy House method, Mr. Bertiaux is instructing his reader to astrally project and talk with the spirits, be fed by them and clothed by them.. The method of silent prayer is really meant to lead into the Holy House method. It is simply that, think to the spirits and tell them how you feel, what you want and focus your energies and listen for the response. It trains you to be in tune with the spirits and get used to how they choose to communicate with you.

Using the four techniques, deceptively simple as they are, leads to a strong relationship with the Hoodoo spirits and spiritual development and empowerment from the spirits. It also trains the imagination for more intense work later but not in the same way that the Golden Dawn pathworkings and visualization exercises do. There is actually something purer and as much as this may sound like New Age schlock and day dreaming, trying to "find your spirit animal" and other faux shamanic techniques, my experiences with it have been profound and led to me honestly seeing the spirits with visual manifestation and not some imaginary presence or visualization exercise. The spirit appeared as real as you or I and I could count the threads in his fine suit and see the craftsmanship in his shoes. It is willed projection.

These are wonderful and fascinating experiences that seem triggered by the performance of the dedication rite and basic request ritual of the first two chapters but such experiences take time to develop and learning a special syncing of the mind to different states. That a lwa appeared to me in such a state and not through a possession spoke to me in ways that I can't begin to describe and helped re-enforce my firm belief that these being, the Hoodoo spirits and even the Goetic and similar grimoiric spirits, are not some aspect of myself but actual beings that we can learn to perceive and communicate with if we find the right tools and develop the right powers.