Hoodoo Heritage Month, But Really, Spanish Moss & Loving Lichen

Hoodoo Heritage Month

It’s Hoodoo Heritage Month. & as with any African descended faith practice, time is devoted to contemplation and maintenance of our relationships with the world — seen and unseen. I thought it would be a germane time to look at two exciting new patterns in the shop that reflect my relationship with nature. 

Geography has always influenced my work. Each of Earth’s locations resonate at their own frequency. There are places where I am more inspired, or called to teach, or have an easy time earning money. Places which urge me to write, places that insist I work three dimensionally and yet others that demand I paint. I carry all of my disciplines everywhere I go, but, some places seem to make certain things easier.

There are places I’ve visited where it feels as if the Earth was rising up to greet me with love. Barbados is one of those places.  I feel the ancestors, themselves — my very specific ancestors — call out a chorus of welcomes. Carnival Butterfly Baby is a design that arose from that connection.

Closer to home, High John, Hey! reflects my connection to Turtle Island & the consanguinity of our ancestors in common. How we adapted to and adopted this particular soil with a determination and a defiant resolve to make it deliver:

1. a high quality of life, 
2. the promises of the premises for founding that it boasted about itself globally, or 
3. both.   

Read more about it at the blog post: "High John, Hey!"

New Designs

For me, it is impossible to discuss spiritual practices without also including contemplation on our relationships with the seen and unseen world. The two new designs I’m sharing are inspired by the natural world. The absolute perfection of divinity is within eyesight every minute of every day.  We simply have to become aware enough to witness how the whole world glows with energy.

In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Shug & Celie have a magnificent conversation about God. (If you haven’t read it in awhile and want to know a little bit of something about something, I highly recommend going back and re-reading it.)  The most famous passage from this conversation is, ”I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.” 

But, the quote most relevant to the designs I’m writing about is, “You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?” 

Most members of my spiritual community hard relate to that quote. It speaks to the way in which we aren’t just being in the world, but being in relationship with the world. 

Spanish Moss

The new design Spanish Moss came from my love of the flora in temperate climates. One of my favorite parts of the Southern landscape are the trees heavy with Spanish Moss. We can all picture the delicate grey green fern-like vine draped like lace shawls on the shoulders of southern trees. 

Latin name, Tillandsia usneoides, this plant is not a moss at all, but a bromeliad. (Whypipo naming shit.) A unique and stand out quality is that it does not feed off of the trees from which it grows. It is quite independent.  

One of Spanish Moss’s most “magical” facts is that it has no roots. Propagation is done by seed, wind born fragments or nesting birds. Think deeply upon that for some connections about enslavement, destruction of families, stripping of languages and cultures. Spanish Moss prevails in glorious abundance, every which way it can figure.

There is all manner of lore and legend about Spanish Moss. Gullah Geechee Elders used to place it in their shoes to deal with high blood pressure. The Natchez & other nations used it medicinally for chills and fever and also woven as a garment denoting maturity and elder status.Yet others associate Spanish moss with baneful workings — including stuffing poppets. 

The opening line In Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo,” “reads Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic, who can share or not share her powers. A woman with a moon falling from her mouth, roses between her legs and tiaras of Spanish moss, this woman is a consort of the spirits.” Later in the novel Ntozake Shange’s character Sassafras states you put Spanish Moss in your shoes to better hear the ancestors.  

All I care to say is that everytime I see it, my heart wells up with an odd mixture of nostalgia, awe and connectedness. 

The pattern Spanish Moss is a manipulation of a photograph I took of some Spanish Moss when I was traveling. I haven’t been south for a while and I missed it. So, I thought, I’ll make a way to carry it with me all the time. 

In this pattern, you feel like a majestic tree draped in her lace shawl, or a person engaged with the pursuit and practice of wisdom.  Regardless, I hope it soothes and supports you.

Lovin Lichen

So overlooked, and yet so very amazing is Lichen. But what is it? Is it a plant? If so, what kind of plant. No! It is not a plant.   

Lichen is what happens when completely different life forms decide to become mutually interdependent on each other. (Kind of like allyship — or more preferably, accompliceship.)  

Lichen is what happens when fungi teams up with algae and/or cyanobacteria to survive the dominant culture of the Tree World. I adore trees,  but in the forest, they are the dominant culture. Fortunately, they are generous and considerate hosts to the many life forms with whom they cohabitate. But, I digress.

At a political rally, think of it this way.  Lichen forms up thusly: 

The fungus is like the White queer friend who supports and shields their Black friend, the algae, from the police. 

Lichen exists because nature knows that sometimes a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship is the only path forward for survival. The fungi shields and protects the algae. The algae synthesizes all that good sunlight into the deliciousness that is nutrients and shares a little with the fungus. The fungi knows it is dependent on the algae for all the deliciousness necessary to survive and the algae knows at this very specific moment in time, that without some protection, it won’t make it. 

Imagine what could happen in the world if we all saw each other as connected and mutually dependent on each other. Diversity is an amazing thing when we do not focus on our sameness and instead take the time to recognize and honor our differences.  Everybody brings something unique to the table. & if we are diligent in acknowledging each other’s strengths, we can create something new and wonderful. 

It is imperative to note that we don’t evolve into lichen overnight. There is so much repair and restoration necessary for this evolution. But when we turn to the lessons nature has to offer, we can find so many ideas for how to achieve this goal. 

When I walk in the forest, I am always happy to see Lichen. This design is a manipulation of a photograph I took of some Lichen chilling out, being its amazing inherently intersectional self. It called me to make a pattern that carries this energy/ lesson with us wherever we go.

See the work 

Lovin Lichen

Spanish Moss

Pictured: Spanish Moss T-Shirt Dress

Visit our entire collection of root-based designs Spirits, Roots & Magic