On October 19, 2022, religious studies scholar and Black and biracial educator Marcelitte Failla (Emory University) discussed the practice of Tarot reading, Black witches, divination, resilience, and the meanings, limitations, and possibilities of being a “scholar practitioner.” Failla is a Black and biracial educator and scholar of African-heritage religions. Through a Black feminist lens, her work explores how religions such as Yoruba Ifá, Haitian Vodou, and North American Hoodoo are used for collective healing and social justice.
Full transcript:
SPEAKER 1: Harvard Divinity School.
SPEAKER 2: Gnoseologies. Black Tarot-- African-American Women and Divine Processes of Resilience. October 19th, 2022.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Good afternoon and welcome to our first gnoseologies event for the 2022 and 2023 academic year. I'm very happy to be here again with you. My name is Giovanna Parmigiani, and I'm the host of this series organized within the Transcendence and Transformation Initiative at the CSWR at Harvard Divinity School.
This series focuses on ways of knowing that are often labeled as nonrational, traditionally referred to as gnosis in Western philosophical and religious traditions and often understood in contrast position to science. These ways of knowing are becoming more and more influential in contemporary societies, popular culture, and academic research.
What is the place of spirit possession, divination, and experience is perceived as out of the ordinary in our lives? How can we study and approach this type of phenomena? Going beyond dichotomies such as body and mind, ordinary and extraordinary, reason and experience, and matter and spirit, this series hosts scholars of different disciplines and practitioners interested in exploring and expanding the boundaries of what counts as knowledge today.
Before introducing today's guest, one announcement. The Q&A feature of Zoom is activated, therefore you can type there your questions for our guest, and I will try to ask them on your behalf if time permits. It goes without saying that if you have questions for us after the event, you can reach out to me by email, and I will share them with our speaker. You can find my email address in the chat or on the CSWR and HDS websites.
So it is with immense pleasure that I introduce today's guest, Marcelitte Failla. Marcelitte is a Black and biracial educator and scholar of African heritage religions. Through a Black feminist lens, her work explores how religions such as Yoruba Ifa, Haitian Vodou, and North American Hoodoo are used for collective healing and social justice.
As a practitioner of both Ifa and Hoodoo and a self-identified Black witch, Failla often holds ceremonial space in academic and community settings. Failla is a PhD candidate at Emory University, and thank you very much for being here with us today, Marcelitte. And thank you also for your work, because I think that besides being amazing, is really very much needed.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Oh, thank you. Thank you for that wonderful introduction, and thank you so much for having me. It is truly a joy and honor to be here.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thank you very, very much. So I first met you, Marcelitte, through your published work, I have to say. In particular I encountered the 2021 articles, Black Tarot-- African-American Women and Divine Processes of Resilience, and Black Femmes, Black Gods-- Magic as Justice, and the 2022 article, Assembling an Africana Religious Orientation. The Black Witch, Digital Media, and Imagining a Black World of Being.
So as both a tarot reader myself and a scholar of magic and politics, I was so happy to have found you and your research. So maybe let's start from here. Do you want to tell us about how you encountered your topic of research or maybe how it encountered you, so to speak?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's been lovely to chat with you. So my topic of research in terms of tarot or just in general?
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: In terms of tarot and of Black witch.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Black witches, yeah. Yeah, I encountered-- let's see, I am practitioner. So like I said, I'm a practitioner of Hoodoo and Ifa. I grew up in-- so like I said, I usually like to start with lineages. My mom's side is African-American from my people from Louisiana, and then on my dad's side they're Sicilian.
And my mom is a practitioner of eclectic spiritual practices. She does Kemetic, she works with the Egyptian gods, and then she also makes offerings to Orisha. So I grew up in it. But I came into this research mostly because I was looking for community and other people who were practicing similar traditions. And I'm also as a scholar of African heritage religions, it was a good fit.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Fantastic. Yeah, I think I read in one of your articles that your mom gifted you a tarot deck when you were very young, isn't it?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yes, she did. She gave me a tarot deck when I was 10. And so I was raised in rural Oregon and didn't have very many friends-- rural KKK America-- didn't have very many friends, and so I had a birthday party, and my mom invited-- a few kids came, and then she started reading people's cards. And I think it was kind of scared evangelical America. But after that, I started to realize-- even though I was embarrassed at the time-- I started to realize how important tarot is and how useful it is, and I use it to navigate all kinds of issues in my life now.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Yeah, that was the other question, I was thinking, yeah, what is the significance of tarot to you and both personally, as an object of research? And what did you find among the interlocutors you interviewed and you spent time with?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah, tarot-- so I mean, it's such an important process of connecting to oneself and connecting to the deities or connecting to your ancestors. So the article is about-- Black Tarot is about-- how African-American women connect to use tarot for resilience. And I pause a bit with that word because it can often mean the-- it can often imply the characteristic of the strong Black woman, like we're always-- nothing ever harms us. And that's denied resources for many people.
But a temporary state of being, a temporary moment of overcoming and moving through something. So it's about how tarot helps with that process. And I also look at how tarot is being constructed as an Africana religious cultural object.
So tarot originates in-- I think it's kind of unclear exactly where it comes from, but it's been linked to Italy, to Milan in the 15th century, so a traditionally European-derived deck or tool-- spiritual tool. And so the article looks at how it's turned into an Africana religious tool by connecting to the ancestors, by placing Brown faces where there once were white ones.
There are many amazing decks like Black Power Tarot. Dust II Onyx by Courtney Alexander is an incredible deck. And then Tayannah Lee McQuillar's deck, the Hoodoo Tarot-- which I have right here-- is really a phenomenal, phenomenal deck. But so yeah, so they're using it, so it's-- so Black tarot is using the tarot to connect to the ancestors or to connect to kind of an Africana religious worldview. And ancestor veneration is something that's prominent across different African heritage religions, so in Hatian Vodou, and Ifa, it's a very prominent practice.
And so I wanted to also share that in the-- let's see, in the-- article there's someone that I interview named Alicia, who talked about tarot being an important tool for her to navigate her relationship with her deceased mother and then also as a healing tool in conjunction with therapy. So she said, since my mom passed, I do a lot of consideration about what's on the other side. And I think tarot is one of those ways that I feel confident as a medium to do that. She says, I trust spirits on the other side to come through, much more than, she said, I would trust a person. More truth in tarot than in therapy.
She says, I love my therapist, I do, but it's not the same. She's really good about giving me skills and helping me understand myself, but with tarot it's more of a connection to the ancestors, and there's something that feels grounding and safe about that. She says as African-American people, I think tarot is a way to connect to the guidance of the ancestors that leads us to determine who we're supposed to become or where we're supposed to go.
As Black women, whenever you talk to people, you have to explain so many parts of your being and of your self and of your life and your experiences and your history. And with tarot, you don't have to do that. She said, the cards are ready now. And so they help you and your life without having to educate them.
So there's this connection. So I want to say that, I think tarot is often-- like I said-- often using in conjunction with therapy, but it is very much a tool of healing and well-being and resilience.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: That's fantastic, and fantastic research. But I am a bit curious about, as a tarot reader myself, what deck is your favorite go-to deck? Which one do you use the most? And if your practice as a tarot reader changed in connection with your interlocutors and your research, or if it transformed or remained the same, and how is the connection between your practice and your work, In a way?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Well, right now I'm really excited about Tayannah's deck. And I love it also because it has so much history is in the cards. So the Major Arcana are famous Hoodoo practitioners and she's just done so much research. And so you're learning as you're connecting with your people.
And has it changed? Yes, yes I think I do, just as a tarot reader, I think I reach out for readings more. Sometimes the cards stop speaking, sometimes I'm anxious or something, and the cards are kind of like all over the place. And so sometimes I reach out to more experienced tarot readers to-- or just another tarot of reader in general-- to kind of get a different perspective.
And so the research has put me in contact with a lot of incredible practitioners, and I feel honored to be connected with them.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thanks a lot. And I think we didn't mention where you mainly studied, did your research. Was it Brooklyn? Was it-- where? Where you mainly did your research, what area?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah, so I did research on Black witches for my dissertation, and I'm still-- still ongoing research. But most of my work was in-- I spent some time in New Orleans, I spent some time in Detroit, and I spent some time in New York City-- I was just actually in New York City last past weekend-- and a lot of online spaces too. Online is such a wonderful community.
I want to plug that next weekend, for folks interested, there will be the Dawtas of the Moon-- Black Witch Convention. I think you can still register. And it is Saturday, all day Saturday. And it is fantastic, so please go.
But yeah, so I spoke with practitioners who are leading Black witch discourse through their publications of books, through conferences like Dawtas of the Moon-- Black Witch Convention or Detroit Hoodoo Festival, and those who have shops such as the Motown Witch's shop in Detroit, Michigan. And so for instance, I spoke with Iyalosha Osunyemi Akalatunde, who is a phenomenal Black witch.
She is initiate to Ifa. I believe Oshun is her deity. Yeah, got to be, yeah. Oshun. And she has a YouTube channel where she shares. She encourages mostly Black women and femmes to love themselves and find and take their power through an understanding of Africana religious traditions. So for instance, she uses the Aje to talk about power, the Iyami Aje to talk about internal power. So just some phenomenal people doing fantastic work.
Another great Black witch is Daisy October, Latifa who has a Blitz Fund, where she donates money to Black women in need and employs bone divination to decide on the fund's recipients. Yeah, so I'm just kind of calling in their work and exploring what is come the broader political, religious orientations that are developing out of their work.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thank you. So I'm very curious about a number of things here. But first off, I would like to ask you whether you can give us a link to the events on Saturday and to the web pages of the blog, which you just mentioned, maybe not now because we are talking but after the event I can share with the audience. And to ask what is the YouTube name for the Ifa priestess you were just speaking of, can you [INAUDIBLE]?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah. Here it's got2boshun.org. Her name, got2boshun. I think this is it.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: I think we can maybe share it--
MARCELITTE FAILLA: I'll send it.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: --later. I will try to find a way to reach all of you and share all the links to the shout outs that we are making today, which are important ones. But if you can repeat the name of the event for Saturday, I think that would be helpful. Can you repeat please?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: It's Dawtas, D A W T A S, Dawtas of the Moon. And it's dawtasofthemoon.com I believe is the website.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thank you very much. So there are a number of things I'm very interested about you and your research. So one of the things that-- one of the direction I would like this talk with this conversation to go towards is your role as a scholar practitioner. And I'm asking you this because I have lots of students at HDS who are very interested in positionalities, that are different from traditional academic ones in the study of religion.
And as a ethnographer who were Native myself, I am sometimes a scholar of some of the things that I practice, not all the time. But I wanted to ask your take on it because you are very clear in presenting yourself as a scholar practitioner. So I'm very curious about your take on this.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah, I think it's so important, especially in African, Africana religions and heritage religions. Being a practitioner, like I said, it's what got me into the work. It's what makes me invest in the work beyond my career. It is, yeah, it's why I do this work.
And I think that it really helped me know the traditions more. So I was reading a lot of books when I first started most of my coursework and even before that. And even as a solo practitioner and honoring the Orisha, I don't think I really understood Ifa until I joined Ile and started dancing to songs for Shango and started making offerings and doing all of the work that's involved. It's a lot of work.
So then I really started to understand the materiality of the religions themselves, and it's a really hard to get that in books. And I think a lot of scholars are practitioners, especially in these traditions, my guess would be most. I think some people who are openly out about being practitioners are Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley who practices Ifa, Jacqui Alexander who practices Ewe Ifa as well, and the late Karen McCarthy Brown, of course, who practiced Vodou initiated, and of course Zora Neale Hurston, who talks about being initiated into Hoodoo many times.
So I mean, there's so many, and that's just a short list. But I think that it's an important part of how-- especially for ethnographers-- in how you build connections with people and build trust and stay in it for the long haul because often ethnography is a long process. And so that kind of practitioner-scholar relationship helps you stay in it.
And so and it also makes me think about spirit writing and how recently there is-- people are talking a little bit more about it. There was recently an article about Lucille Clifton, and she was spirit writing. She was connecting to the dead through her writing. And she was connecting to, I believe, her deceased mother, and then also this group of people who she calls the ones who were there to kind of help her realize that humanity, we need to support each other as a species.
But so what spirit writing, how I see spirit writing is I see it as a version of what Saidiya Hartman calls critical fabulation, so a filling in of the archives with storytelling and with critical theory. Sometimes that's missing, right? So in pedagogy, pedagogy is a crossing. Jacqui Alexander talks about how she was reaching out, she was in the British archives for a long time was, wasn't finding anything on this Trinidadian woman, Kitsimba.
And so, in order to connect to Kitsimba, she had to, she says, quote-- well, she had to connect through spirit to the spirit realm. And she said that she affirms the belief that books are-- affirms that the belief that books are the dwelling place of wisdom is mistaken. She says, we must look for knowledge in spirit, the Earth, and the self. So sometimes when the archives don't have it, we need to supplement with more information.
Another example is Maryse Conde's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, where she talks about Tituba, the Black witch, who was accused of witchcraft in 1692. She was one of the first people accused. And the only archives that are available are-- the only information in the archives that are available are her confession that she said in order to be free.
And so in order to connect to her, Maryse Conde connected to her spirit and imagines that she is a practitioner of African-derived and African heritage religions and uses these tools to get free. Conde says, I had the feeling that Tituba was involved in the writing. Even when I left my pages at night in my study, I believe that she would go look at them, read them, and eventually correct what she did not like. I cannot say when we really started conversing. However, all along during my writing the novel, I felt like she was there. I felt like I was addressing her.
So I think that this is frequent, actually. I think it's quite common that scholars kind of blur this line between the practitioner and the scholar. And it's up to the academy to catch up. How are we kind of navigating this line of the sacred and the secular in ways that are actually true for what's happening on the grounds versus the-- I don't know-- the other way is that the text-based idea is that we tend to stick to.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Did you find some limitations or difficulties within the academic setting inhabiting this space as a scholar practitioner?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Limitations within the academy?
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Well, within the academy, within your own work. I think there are lots of benefits in embracing openly, as you just said, the fact that we are studying often-- or sometimes, at least-- what we are personally involved with. But there might be also some limitations in the practice of the broader research practices and limitations within the academy.
We are in a very unique space here at the CSW, where we carved ourselves a niche where we can really talk about this type of things openly and really put them at the center of our discussions. But in my experience, there are not very many places like this one in which we can do that. And so I was curious to listen to your experience and your take on this.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah, I think some of the limitations-- well, I guess it makes me think about, my desire is to implement this in the classroom. So I've been experimenting with virtual in the classroom for a few years now. I've done it in some college classes. I've done it in some conference at the NWSA and some community settings and have been working on doing rituals like manifestation. Or talking about Hoodoo, how can we do maybe something like a petition?
Or if we're talking about dreams and the Congo, can we talk about our own dreams? Or can we talk about how dreams have been sites of knowledge for African-Americans for a very long time and that has African roots to those kinds of ways of knowing? And so, I think some of the limitations-- I think some of the limitations are, you don't want to mold rigor, making sure that students are-- that there's some way to evaluate rigor in the classroom.
And then, and two, making sure that we're not imposing certain beliefs on our students and making sure that people feel comfortable with these practices and that their own religious traditions don't necessarily conflict. Yeah, I mean, I think due to Christian supremacy, we have some rules and grounds around this separation between church and state. But also then, how can we maybe do this differently when we're thinking about Africana religions?
So that's a little bit of a challenge, I think. In my experience, though, it hasn't really been a problem. Students have been very receptive and have enjoyed it, actually, have writing or thinking about their own dreams or doing meditations or whatever. In the classroom setting, it feels like a nice alternative to the, I'm talking at you for an hour or something.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Am I cold calling you, asking you if you want to do a small ritual within this space?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: No, not at all. I was hoping you would ask. [LAUGHS] I was hoping you would ask.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Well, If you, audience, are OK with that, we would like to do some-- Marcelitte, do you want to explain what you want to do?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yes, yes. OK, good. So this is based on the fantastic Hoodoo reader-- Black Hoodoo reader-- Tatiana Tarot. Follow her on Instagram. I'll send you her stuff. But I wanted to do like a mini reading with you all. And OK, let me go around a little bit.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Just to give a bit of context, I think this is one of the things that you might do in the academic space that you just talked about, right? And so I think this is a great place to experiment with other ways to be academic and use the academic space. So let's try it out.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: OK. So I just ask you all to ground a little bit. Put your feet on the ground. Big deep breath in and a deep breath out. Breathe out. Breathe in one more time, then breathe out. And one more time. And out. OK, so I want you to just think about something that is on your mind right now, that is just overwhelming-- a question that you have for your ancestors, a question that you have for your people, a question that you just need some guidance on for the rest of this week.
It can be anything. It can be about your love life. It can be about your money. It can be about your job. But just think about what do you need to know around this particular issue. What would propel you forward? What would move you forward?
Take another deep breath, then just sit. Think about what's been going on for you right now. Have you been overworking? Have you been anxious? Have you been feeling depressed? Have you been feeling thrilled? There have been good people coming into your life? What are ones that you need to move forward from? Think about that.
OK, and I want you to pick a number between one and three. Card one, card two, card three. Pick a number. Whatever comes to you first is correct. So card one was from the Hoodoo Tarot, the 10 of coins. And I'm going to read from the book, just so make sure I get it right. And you can kind of see what Tayannah-- Tayannah's approach to this deck.
So she says, 10 of coins, happy affluent family is spending time together during family game night. So the coins they are wearing and playing with were passed down from generation to generation. Every now and then ancient coins from as far away as Greece, Rome, and China are found throughout the United States. In Hoodoo, old coins are considered very lucky.
This is upside down, so you can read the cards right side up or you can read it upside down. Upside down is usually negative, which says broken families, shameful legacies, poverty-stricken families, money problems, rejecting one's heritage, fighting over money, unconventional behavior that causes family problems, new money, and pretending to have more money, material things, and you actually do.
I think what she's saying in this deck-- I think if you picked one, then you would just be mindful about any issues with family and stuff right now, maybe healing some family issues that might be arising.
Card two. You picked card two. It Is the two of coins. I'm reading lots of coins today. There's a juggler-- I'll show you the card-- a juggler rides a unicycle as a huge tidal wave rises in the background. He has drawn a circle of protection around himself in the sand and hopes that all will be well in the end. And so is upright, so the positive of will be the positive.
She says, a well-balanced life, having your priorities in the right order, splitting responsibilities, reliable partnerships, multitasking, and adaptability. So if you picked two, I think it's just a reminder to stay balanced, to remember where you're putting your energies and that that is-- just be mindful about where you're putting your energies, and to ask for help when you need it as well
If you picked three, lots of coins, yeah. The four of coins. Four of coins. A man uses the downside to search for gold. He's using pine crosses, goose feathers, and brimstone as charms to aid him. It was common for whites to utilize the aid of route workers to find buried treasure.
So the positive meaning-- it was positive, it was right side up-- financial security, material gains, sound investments, inheritance, careful budgeting, living with one's means, and saving for a rainy day. The message just being to just be mindful of your money. To be mindful of your money and be budgeting and just to be aware of where your resources are coming from and honoring those places.
So, yeah, OK. Take a deep breath and just that those messages stick with you for a moment, around family, around money, around being mindful about where your energy is going and making sure that you have balance in your life.
Yeah, that's the Hoodoo Tarot. That's Tayannah Lee McQuillar's deck. And as you can see, it's Black tarot. But I think that tarot is just such an important way to direct at the decisions that we make. There's been so many times that I've used tarot to make decisions in my career, to make decisions about who's in my life. And it impacts scholarship. It impacts, yeah, I just think it impacts a lot of what we do as scholars.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thanks a lot, Marcelitte. I think was very generous of you offering us this ritual moment. And I encourage the audience, if you want to share with us some of your thoughts, feelings, emotions around this little ritual, you are very welcome to do that.
I think it's great recognize that we as academics as scholars, as human beings arrive in this space with our own baggage of thoughts, concerns, desires, and recognizing officially that space within the academic setting. I think it adds value to-- especially for us who study religion-- to what we do. And it's a community-building practice.
So thank you so much for sharing this and for doing that with your students in university. And we have a few minutes left, and I would like to give some space to the audience questions, if you want. Ancie asks, has there been any pushback from traditional Ifa practitioners regarding using tarot as a medium to connect with ancestors?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So there are two schools of thought around Ifa. I am a member of [NON-ENGLISH] Ile, which is an Ile that practices traditions as close to Yoruba and Nigerian traditions as possible. And so for them, they believe that you should pretty much exclusively practice Ifa and that as you're practicing other traditions, that can kind of interfere with your connection to the Orisha.
There are other organizations like UNIOV. What Is it? The United-- the acronym, I believe, is the Orisha Vodun-- I can't remember the acronym. But they're another organization that believes more in terms of using what works and using the available tools-- using the tools that are available to create the desired results. And so for them, they will practice Vodun, they will practice Hoodoo, tarot is very common.
So, yeah, so it's a point of conflict. A little bit of a conflict between some Ifa temples. It kind of just depends on the people. But what I wanted to say about tarot, what I really love about tarot, is I do love its accessibility. And I think that Hoodoo-- going back to Hoodoo, I think Hoodoo was a tradition, is a tradition, that was created in order to meet the needs of practitioners during slavery. And so it was a means of using whatever was available to help people be OK.
And I see tarot as kind of the same way, like sometimes the traditions-- like Ifa traditions-- might be closed, and you have to find a mentor, and it might be more difficult. But there's beauty in just having something that you can buy at a regular store-- I was going to say at Hot Topic-- but buy at regular store and connects to your people and connect the dead in the ways that feel good for you.
So yeah, so to come back to that question, I think it's just a matter of Ile.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thanks a lot. So Samantha asks, what are your thoughts about practicing tarot, as it's said to be a closed practice from Romanian women? But I'm sure if this is the fact. I have not heard this before but I wanted to hear your take.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: I don't know. I don't know about tarot or Romanian women. And I have never heard of it being a closed practice. Yeah, so I'm not really sure.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: For what I know, if I can chime in, to go back to Italy-- Renaissance Italy, so the northern part of Italy, has been spread since. So this is new information to me. So thank you for bringing it out. I wanted to mention because I think-- Samantha, thanks-- I think it was worth it. But this is new to me. So I don't know.
So a question about reverse cards. So Terry asks, I read that there are some schools of thought-- like mine, actually-- that do not use the negative side of cards. Whether face up or down doesn't matter, all are read on the positive side. What do you think about this?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah, I think that's true. I mean, I read it that way because she has such that-- because Tayannah has such distinct meaning for each card. But I was actually-- the way that I was taught was to read them all right side up for the positive meaning.
I also have a deck that is circular. And so if it's going-- if the energy is going-- in one way, if there's like a rod in the middle. It's going in one way, then it's negative. And if it's going back up, it's in a clockwise motion, then it's a positive. So I've seen that as well.
But yes, I have seen and I have read as just reading the cards upright.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Yeah, I think that most cards have all the meaning in itself. And I often read reverse cards as advice, rather than-- personally-- rather than sort of positive negative is not by no reason that I like. And I want to add that Ancie says the origin, it has been told, was in Egypt. Yes, I read about this version too. Yeah, I just wanted to mention this.
Sheila says, what do you think of the philosophy of resisting using reversal in reading and instead, accounting for the spectrum of energy indicated by the card versus the binary approach of positive versus negative, and do you connect with mermaid culture as a spiritual gateway?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Mermaid culture. I'll take that question first. Yeah, mermaid culture. When I think of mermaids, I think of Mami Wata, and I think of a collection of spirits from West Africa. I think of Yemoja, the Orisha of the oceans and of water and of mothering and taking care of the young, and I also think of the Simbi from the Congo. And they're also a part of Hoodoo beliefs and practices and are often attributed as being water spirits as well.
Sometimes they're seen as land spirits that dwell in caves, but they are typically understood as energies that go through a process of reincarnation in the world of the dead. And sometimes they may be more recent ancestors, or sometimes they're really, really, really, really, really old ancestors that just kind of take on the form of the water or of the rocks. or--
Yeah, so I think of them as mermaid spirits. Like I said, Yemoja is walking with me right now, so I feel very connected to that energy. What was the first part of the question? Oh, I can't hear you,
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Sorry. Reversals, positive versus negative, I think we approached the reversal aspect of it. Heather says, I adore Tayannah's Hoodoo Tarot. It's been revolutionary in being a deck that connects directly to the land I occupy in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was curious if you have thoughts on regionalism and tarot when it comes to ancestors of place as well as one's personal family ancestry.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Regionalism. In terms of connecting to a place-- Yeah, I mean, I think I connect to tarot. I mean, I connect to Hoodoo from my Louisiana ancestors, and in this way I'm connecting to the Hoodoo Tarot.
I like how Tayannah integrates a lot of the Native American Indigenous Hoodoo practitioners and practices and she at least speaking as clear about where people are coming from. Also, Hoodoo does-- before Hoodoo really became the widespread Hoodoo that we know today-- after the Great Migration, Black folks moving North, that's when you kind of see it become more of a collective practice with more established rituals.
But before that, it was regional. So you have versions in the Louisiana, Mississippi area. You have versions in some of the Gullah, South Carolina areas. But all along the Southeast, Hoodoo was developing based on these particular regions also based on the African-- enslaved African-- folks that were there and the languages and the customs and practices and then also the pharmacopoeia.
So what did people have access to in terms of the herbs to heal or harm or poison or whatever? So yeah, and now as we have a more of a mass practice, I don't know. Side thought. It makes me-- when we think about regional-- it makes me think now what online spaces are doing to Hoodoo, and how it might be changing some of the beliefs and practices, based on shared. No longer being regional, but kind of having different practices in different parts of the country and creating even more of a cohesiveness around Hoodoo's practice.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thanks a lot. So Teagan asks, as white witches and new pagan people work to deconstruct and decolonize their practices, what are your thoughts on what people working with the Orishas?
MARCELITTE FAILLA: What are my thoughts on white people working with the Orishas? I tend to think that Africana, African heritage religions, because it can be so ancestral, even in Orisha traditions, there is a lot of-- the first entities, deities, spirits that people say to go to is the [INAUDIBLE], is the ancestors, the Egungun. And there is a connection-- there's a cultural connection-- to African ancestry even there.
So I do think that these Africana religious traditions, at least on the-- are more reserved for people of African descent. I know that there are many European practitioners, but I think that more and more, there's also a political kind of orientation to these traditions, to that-- and this is kind of what I was wanting to say about a religiopolitical identity. Because some people will say for Hoodoo, for instance, the ancestors that help produce the desired results that happen in Hoodoo are of African descent. So like High John the Conqueror is from Africa, or they are enslaved Africans.
And so the way that a lot of my interlocutors spoke about it is that those ancestors are doing the work for the African descendants. So in this way, it's kind of an element of the Black separatism that we saw in the 1960s with groups like the Nation of Islam. There's still some kind of understandings of Black totality.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thanks a lot. Since we started a little bit late, I think, and there are very many questions for you, Marcelitte, I think we have time for another couple of one with maybe shorter answers, if you want.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: I am long-winded.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: No, no, they require lots of contextualization on, but maybe if you feel we can do shorter answers, I can ask you more questions. That's it. One of it is, have you done any study on the experiences of African-Americans whose familial past has completely been cut off from African and Black practices? What might that journey of return look like? This is Brenda.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Aw, I love that question. That's so many of us, right? I worked with the great Luisah Teish once upon a time, and she told me, she said, just say, the great and honorable ancestors, and that's enough. She said that's enough. So even if we don't know them by names, even if they've been cut off from us, they're still there.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: Thanks a lot. And anonymous says, why the word witch? In Haitian, Hoodoo witches are seen as antisocial. I wonder how practitioners respond to those labels.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Yeah. OK, so I chose to work with the term witch for two reasons. One, because people were self-identifying as such-- Black witch in particular. Daisy October Latifa has a fantastic term, Blitch. B-L-I-T-C-H. And I do not have the definition in front of me, but I have it almost memorized.
She says, it's a conjurer, worker, Hoodoo saints working with African and African diasporic practices to heal and fortify themselves, their children, their elders, and the next generation of children to be. Yes, I memorized that. [LAUGHS]
So it's a wonderful term because it speaks to the Africana religious orientation, but it also speaks to healing and taking care of one another. So I love that. And then also, I also chose to move forward with it because I really wanted to focus on a sense of self-- a sense of self that is innate, a sense of self where one has powers such as speaking with the dead or healing through energy transfer or manifesting one's desired results.
And those kinds of abilities exist outside of structures of religion. Religion I see as more as the structures, the rituals, the protocols that help harness someone's innate abilities. And yeah, so there's a-- and I think there's so much power in this reclaiming that's been happening. It's a feminist reclaiming, it's a Black feminist reclaiming. And it's I think Soraya Jean-Lewis, who was a artist in New Orleans, she said-- and I think I have this quote memorized-- she said, just saying the words Black witch, she says, is like saying, get thee back, patriarchal capitalist demon, get thee back. [LAUGHS]
So she's saying that these two terms are very opposition-- very much in opposition-- to white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. And so, yeah, we are going to define ourselves as such.
GIOVANNA PARMIGIANI: It's a wonderful conclusion. I think it's time to wrap up, sadly. I wish this went on for a longer time. Thank you, Marcelitte, for your participation and wonderful conversation. And thank you all for having been with us and for the wonderful question. And by the way, if you want to, write them to me after this event. I will make sure forward them to Marcelitte.
Please stay tuned on the activities of the CSWR, the Transcendence and Transformation Initiative and of Gnoseologies. You can find all this information on the CSWR website, so that you can find in the chat box, including the registration link for our next Gnoseologist event that will be on November 2nd.
I will have a conversation with Professor Cristiana Giordano, UC Davis, and Professor Greg Pierotti, University of Arizona, on affects theater and collaborative meaning-making, where we will discuss my guests' innovative methodology, affect theater, and how it can transform academic research. They will talk about the role of affects, emotions, and collaborative practice in academic and nonacademic processes of meaning-making.
Thank you all for having been with us, and I wish you all a great rest of your day. Bye-bye.
MARCELITTE FAILLA: Thank you. Bye-bye.
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SPEAKER 2: Sponsor-- Center for the Study of World Religions.
SPEAKER 1: Copyright 2020, the President and Fellows of Harvard College.