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------MARDI
GRAS ----
Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is the high point
of Carnival followed by the quiet of Ash Wednesday. It is good to remember that
Carnival literally means "Farewell to Flesh" (Carnis= LATIN: "flesh"
and vale= LATIN: "farewell"). Carnival is a celebration of great excess.
It is a time when the flesh and all of the material pleasures that it apprehends
are set ablaze in the passion of the moment. The fat, so to speak, is in the fire
and one is left with the ashes on Wednesday.
Carnival
is usually only thought of in terms of external events and happenings. But the
most important of events are internal. Carnival and The Mardi Gras are both external
and internal events. Carnival, to be most effective, must take place within the
Self as well as on the streets. As the Flesh is pushed to its limits through the
pleasures of the streets, so must the Self be stretched to its limits through
a willed violation of its "I am THIS/ I am not THAT." Only then can
the Flesh and the Self join together and burn brightly enough to produce the Ashes
from which Spirit will rise, renewed as the Phoenix.
The
Jungian Robert Johnson has described Mardi Gras in a recent interview (Parabola;
vol.22, # 2, p. 22) as one of the two Festivals of the Shadow left in the USA;
the other being Halloween. In his words, "(they) are highly intelligent ways
of honoring the shadow...There used to be many more, but we salvaged only these
2." Le Grande Zombi is the Great Snake of New Orleans Voodoo.
From
Le Grande Zombi flows immense power that can be transmited from the Mombo or Houngan
to those present at the ceremony.
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----------MARIE
LAVEAU
-------------------------------The
VOODOO QUEEN
There's much more to Voodoo than the stereotypical witch
doctor fiendishly jabbing needles into dolls, and those who dreaded the wrath
of a particular woman in old New Orleans would readily attest to that.
The
most prominent figure in the true history of Voodoo in America was Marie
Laveau, the legendary "Voodoo Queen" feared and revered
throughout 19th century Louisiana. The ancient rites of Voodoo -- along with a
heaping helping of down-to-earth shrewdness -- propelled her to a profound level
of influence among the common folk and the aristocratic gentry alike, a feat nearly
unimaginable for a black woman in the oppressive days of slavery.
Read About The MARDI
GRAS INDIANS
More on
MARIE
LAVEAU
"PoorBob"
Sushko (guitarist from Frank Messina's Spoken Motion) is a swampin'
git-slinger from NJ where he and former SpoMo drummer, Wes "The Professor"
Jensen along with Billy "The Reverend" Christiani (StirFried)
Jay "JayBird" Roosa and Danny "Doc" Lane (Avalon
Ballroom) make up NJ's only Swamp Rock Blues band, PaPa HooDoo. Click
Here to learn more about PaPa HooDoo!
For
More Swamp Sooth from PoorBob on Samhain
(Halloween), Click Here!
