<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: All Religions and Spiritual Arts Are Syncretic--Get Over It!
Review: Anyone who's met Ray Malborough knows of his passion for the melting pot mix of cultures, religions, and magick that meet in Cajun country. Ray could find easier ways to make money than reaping his .35 per copy royalty. In this book he is making an honest presentation of the Hoodoo he was taught in that polyglot of ancient and modern spiritual and magickal practices that gives his native New Orleans it's mystique. All "old religions" have made compromises that allow them to exist today, so much so that NO RELIGION in our age of instant information can be called "pure" (whatever that means). All are syncretic or blended, and in different places the oral traditions have merged in unique ways. What is wrong with everyone? Read your posts. You're not reviewing a book, you're critiqueing a person. You don't have to like his book, but can't you find a way to say why without the slanderous personal attacks? Someone will find things inside this book of great value. No book is wholly bad or wholly good, and not every slant on spirituality is right for everyone. (Good luck, Ray!)
Rating: 
Summary: Bunk - nothing but bunk
Review: I have studied many of the religions he is talkign about here and nothing he writes is accurate. From the tree of life to the spirit pot to everything.If you really want to learn about Hoo Doo, go get some books by Zora Neal Hurston, or go to LuckyMojo.com and look through her on-line book
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and informative
Review: I have this book and truly liked Mr. Malbrough's honesty in the way he uses footnotes in The Hoodoo Mysteries to indicate where certain beliefs come from and tries to clarify misconceptions. As a trained Spiritist in Puerto Rico I was surprised to hear that he knew of the Spiritual Coronation trained mediums receive. This is indicated when he talked about the head pot or pot de tete. As he says that the use of this object is not standard practice in genuine hoodoo. Although in Spiritism this is not called a head pot or pot de tete but is given as a piece of magic to protect mediums from evil and harm. I suspect that Mr. Malbrough knows more than what he writes about. I was enchanted on the topic of spiritual baths in The Hoodoo Mysteries and many make use of these baths in Puerto Rican folk magic also with fumigating the body after a bath. The history interested me. After reading the chapter on divination I wanted to pick up a deck of cards to do a reading with. My spirit guide tells me that Ray Malbrough knows what he is talking about.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have stuck to the chapbook about baths
Review: I was not impressed with Ray Marlbrough's _Hoodoo Mysteries_; I understand it's an "expansion" of a chapbook about spiritual baths which Marlbrough originally wrote in 1999. If that's the case, he should have stuck to his original subject, as that's easily the best part of the book. The rest is poorly written and organized. For instance, Marlbrough mentions that the [Vodou] lwa are not served in hoodoo -- rather, the practitioners serve the Catholic saints instead. Then, literally a few paragraphs later, he gives an example and diagram of a traditional hoodoo altar with an egg in the middle to symbolize Damballah [who's a lwa of Haitian Vodou, not a Catholic saint, naturally]. Huh?!?!?? As earlier reviewers mentioned, there are many more sections of the book where Marlbrough seems to get hoodoo confused with other African diasporic paths: he mentions making a "hoodoo pot tete" [from the pot tet of Haitian Vodou], a "spirit pot" [clearly modeled after the prenda of Las Reglas de Congo] and a bunch of "medium's necklaces" [very similar to the elekes one receives in the Yoruba tradition]. To my knowledge -- and I checked with friends who grew up in New Orleans -- NONE of these are part of traditional Louisiana hoodoo practice... It's all right for Marlbrough to mix elements from different paths into a blend which gets results *for him*. But I think he should be honest about what he's doing, rather than claiming that his system is "traditional hoodoo".
Also, there are several much better writers who've combined African-diasporic traditions with European magic in far more interesting ways; why don't you go out and buy a book by Stephanie Rose Bird, Sallie Ann Glassman or Draja Mickaharic instead??? Or, read Catherine Yronwode's "Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic", for a very detailed and scholarly account of African-American folk magic practices.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and informative
Review: What I thought to be very interesting is the historical background and how hoodoo has developed in the state of Louisiana. I appreciated Ray Malbrough's honesty about what he added in his own spiritist practice. The chapter on the spiritual baths is excellent. The commentary on the similarities with Louisiana hoodoo practice and other religions was also interesting. I think he should write a book on Voodoo since he also quoted the differences between Haitian Voodoo and New Orleans Voodoo which is percieved if anyone really takes the time to read the book which is an easy read.
<< 1 >>
| 
