Detained Over Beads?

When I talk about problems faced by minority religions in our society, this is the sort of thing I'm talking about. Abu-Bakr Abdur Rahman, an Arkansas practitioner of the Voodoo religion, was detained for several hours by Judge Talmage Baggett for refusing to conceal or remove his beaded necklaces, even though he explained that displaying them were part of his religious observance.

Now I do understand that there are issues related to maintaining proper decorum in court, and in the photo above Rahman appears to be wearing quite the collection of necklaces. Nonetheless, it seems to me that this is a legitimate, sincere religious belief, and needs to be respected.

"(Defendant) appeared in court late after docket call w/ a huge wooden necklace w/ beads around his neck," Baggett wrote. "I saw him come in & advised him that he would have to tuck the long necklace in his shirt, that he did not have to take it off, but simply tuck it inside his shirt. "He very reluctantly did so."

Rahman said that after Baggett first told him to cover his necklaces, he called his priest to ask if that is acceptable. "He said, 'No. You put your beads in, you disown your religion.'" Rahman said. "So I took my beads back out."

A little later, Baggett saw that the necklaces were out. He again told Rahman to take them off or put them under his shirt. Rahman recorded that conversation.

"Sir, get outside, and either put it in or leave. That is your choice. Or come to the prisoners box. Now which would you rather do?" Baggett said in the recording.

"You're discriminating against my religion," Rahman said.

"I don't know of any religion that requires you to wear this kind of stuff around your neck," Baggett said. "I'm not familiar with your religion. I respect anybody's religion, but get it off."

And that right there is the problem. Whether or not the judge was familiar with Rahman's religion should be completely irrelevant to the situation.

Voodoo Paranormal

This probably won't end well. Years ago, I brought up the concept of a reality television show based on genuine practicing occultists. I noted at the time that main problem such a show would run into is that from the outside most of our practices either look pretty boring or downright laughable. If we're doing contemplative work, much of what we do is meditation. The internal landscape of what's happening during that practice might be profound, but to a camera it just looks like somebody sitting there. Even if we're engaged in more active magical work, most of what we do is put on odd clothing like robes and then wave funny-looking tools around while vibrating various names and words that have no significance to regular television viewers.

Apparently, though, somebody has now come up with the idea of adding magical elements to a regular paranormal investigation show. In the era before Ghost Hunters became a big hit a lot of those shows employed psychics, but the fact is that most of the material such individuals produced was vague and even the most detailed observations generally proved impossible to verify. The twist to this new show, Voodoo Paranormal, is that the producers are looking to integrate real Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Santeria practices into the show.

The production team is casting for its new unscripted paranormal reality show, Voodoo Paranormal.

"Voodoo Paranormal follows paranormal investigators as they investigate haunted locations in search of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins using sophisticated technology paired with vintage Voodoo spells."

The production team is looking for passionate people that are practitioners of Voodoo, Hoodoo, and Santeria.

Miami Animal Sacrifices?

It's generally well-known that Miami, Florida is home to a substantial population that practices Afro-Caribbean religions such as Santeria and Voudon. One of the issues involved when living in such an area is that occasionally the remains of animal sacrifices are discovered. This last weekend, the remains of a goat and several chickens were found in a bag floating near a South Beach luxury condominium complex. Investigators suspect that the animals were sacrificed as part of a religious ritual.

"I was looking in the water, and I see this blue bag and it looked like a leg of a goat coming out and some feathers," Floridian condo security guard Karim Mora, who made the grisly discovery, told NBC6. “So right there, I knew what it was."

The Miami Beach Police department declined to investigate because the apparent sacrifice didn't appear to target an individual, spokesman Bobby Hernandez told the Miami Herald. "Unfortunately, this kind of thing does happen around here with all of the different cultures," he said.

CBS Miami reports that after examining the carcasses, animal abuse activist Richard Couto of the Animal Recovery Mission suggested the animals may have been been killed in a rite for Santeria or Palo Mayombe, an even more obscure religion with Cuban origins. Police officer Nelson Reyes, who teaches a law enforcement course in Afro-Caribbean religious practices, suggested it might have been related to Haitian Voodoo.

Florida Animal Sacrifices

My "magick using dead things" file just keeps getting bigger. Authorities in Florida are concerned over a growing number of animals that are turning up dead, apparently sacrificed in some sort of ritual context, over the course of the last year. The animals involved include goats and chickens, many of which have been found decapitated.

Just days ago, people in Port Saint Richie awoke to chicken feet tied with ribbons around their door knobs. Residents there speculated, "They're supposedly into Santeria or voo-doo."

Last Halloween, headless goats and chickens covered a Miami street, prompting neighbors to tell reporters, "It looks like witchcraft, some type of Santeria."

In Tampa several months back, a string of headless animals turned-up along the Bay at the eastern end of the Courtney Campbell Causeway. Coastal clean-up volunteers gasped at the discovery, calling it "gruesome."

June 23rd, a security guard found a cow's tongue in a box with 100 nails driven into it just outside the Hillsborough County Courthouse.

July 3rd, Sheriff's deputies found another box outside the Falkenburg Road Jail. This one held a white goat, two baby chicks, a rooster, and a dove -- all headless.

Back in July I covered those last two incidents here.

Another Spell to Identify

So here's another round of "is it a spell or isn't it?" Involving, appropriately enough, more dead things. Whether this is some sort of sacrifice or flat-out necromancy, though, I'm not really sure. Last week several headless animals were found outside a jail in Tampa, Florida. Authorities believe that the killing may have been part of some sort of magical ritual, perhaps connected in some way with Santeria.

A white cardboard box was left outside the entrance that contained two roosters, a dove, a goat, and two baby chicks: each of the animals were dead and headless. The beheaded animals have left some in Tampa to question whether they were part of a ritualistic witchcraft killing. It wouldn’t be the first for the Tampa Bay area that seems to have an annual sprout of headless animals leaving many to wonder if the perpetrators are connected to Santeria.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Officer Detective Larry McKinnon spoke with ABC Action News and spoke about the ritualistic nature of the find, “It was a disturbing discovery, and we feel like it’s some sort of ritualistic killing. Someone was clearly sending a message to someone inside the jail.” Detective McKinnon also commented on another gruesome discovery made by the Tampa Police department just one week prior to the box of beheaded animals: A cows tongue pierced with approximately 100 nails.

Detective McKinnon stated, “A cows tongue with nails in it has been identified as a message sent to somebody to ‘Keep your mouth shut.”

So the big question is whether this is simply intended as some sort of warning issued to some individual currently incarcerated, or if it's part of a real magical ritual intended to produce some practical result. As in many of these cases, both/and is probably also a reasonable answer.

Is this something that anyone recognizes, or for that matter might have performed in the past? I haven't read up on Santeria in a number of years and I don't think any of the rituals I studied were all that similar to this one. My understanding is that animals killed in Santeria rituals serve as offerings rather than some sort of magical link to a target. Of course, since I'm not intiated into that tradition and have only read a couple of books there's a lot that I don't know about it. There's also some overlap between Santeria, Voudon, and Hoodoo in terms of ritual technology, so I'm thinking a practitioner from one of those traditions could be the caster as well.

And just as a point to whoever wrote the news article, Santeria is not "witchcraft." Just sayin'!

Is This a Real Practice?

One of the things you learn pretty quickly when studying true crime stories that are supposedly linked to esoteric practices is that prosecutors often exaggerate anything that sounds like an occult connection to sometimes ridiculous extremes. These exaggerations are usually obvious to magical practitioners like myself, but they sail over the heads of people who've never studied occultism and honestly have no idea what esoteric spirituality really entails.

For example, I've covered the case of Joy Johnson and Joseph Craig who were accused of sex crimes related to a "Satanic cult" that nobody in their area had ever heard of. The prosecutor went so far as charge one of their neighbors, I suppose in order to dig up somebody else so that he could justify the existence of a cult. In the end, however, the neighbor was released since it was pretty clear to the judge that she had nothing to do with any sort of cult, let alone any of the alleged criminal activity. Johnson and Craig remain charged with the sexual abuse of two other individuals and have yet to go to trial, but the "Satanic cult" elements have been completely dropped from the state's case - probably because the prosecutor made them up made them up when he found out the two practiced esoteric spirituality.

The conduct of the prosecutor involved in that story provides some context to this one.

A New York City woman has been accused of burning her 6-year-old daughter during a voodoo ritual and then ignoring her cries for help and sending her to bed.

Prosecutors say Marie Lauradin poured an accelerant over her daughter during a Haitian practice known as Loa and made her stand naked in a ring of fire, engulfing her in flames.

I'm not that familiar with Voudon, but I do recognize a few elements such as the ring of fire. I know that strong alcohol is also used in Voudon rituals, so that could be the "accelerant" prosecutors are talking about. However, I'm wondering if anyone out there can confirm whether or not this combination of the two sounds like something that Voudon practitioners actually do. Specifically, it seems to me that if it is common to have someone stand naked in the center of a ring of fire and then pour alcohol all over them there would be a lot more serious burn injuries going around the Voudon community than I've ever heard of. Or could this be the result of some serious technical problem in the ritual, like making the ring of fire too small or using too much alcohol?

I don't really know what happened here aside from the child being injured, but I also am well aware that statements from prosecutors can be profoundly unreliable when a case has anything to do with alternative religions or magical practices. Can anybody out there clue me in? Was this a poorly done version of a canonical Voudon ritual, or are portions of the charges outright fabrications?

EPA Considers Regulating Voodoo Practices

It's not exactly a proposal to license people who use magick or cast spells, but the EPA is considering regulating the use of mercury in Voodoo rituals. The article mentions that mercury is used in certain Latino and Afro-Caribbean religious practices, but there is no mention of whether or not it is used in African religions such as Yoruba which are the ancestors of Voudon and Santeria.

The use of mercury in these religions could make for some interesting historical research. European alchemical texts make frequent references to mercury, and if no link can be found between its use and Yoruba practices, this might indicate that European alchemy was one of the sources that contributed to the development of Afro-Caribbean religions in the New World.