My journeys with HJC for High John the Conker Day #HoodooHeritageMonth
I have been studying High John for two years from a place of fear that I mistook for reverence. I listened to podcasts, read texts, walked in the forest. I was terrified when a tall Black figure stood before me pouring blood on my head. I was empowered learning HJC is that nigga & I didn’t have to tolerate white nonsense. I felt part of something old and sacred and secret to be living among the pine forest and mountains. I kept learning in solitude. Leafing through passages and walks in the woods. Discerning whose who. La llorona and the many crying mothers and Gaspar Yanga and Nat Turner and I followed the ravens/crows, the mothers that open for High John to travel between the realms. The black rainbow.
High John strikes us like lightning with a power that reminds us that the escape and liberation we are desperately seeking is within us. While it is confirmed and supported by what is outside of us, it is about what is within us first. High John travels through the circuitry of the skies, between the heavens and depths. And so do I.
High John born of the middle passage and the continent and in diaspora? Or without birth and arriving with the birth? High John’s story is described as part of the collective ancestral spirit, including an African prince who was enslaved then escaped; Gaspar Yanga escaping slavery to create a maroon colony in the foothills of Veracruz, Mexico. Who does this collective ancestral spirit evoke for you? If we know that High John is a collective ancestral spirit who arrives in times of suffering to bring ease, laughter and a way through, why do we fear and are troubled by the labor of determining an initiation process? Are not those who are Black and suffering already initiated? Isn’t an initiation process only a reminder of what was in you all along?
High John is not a deity but an energy and lifeforce - and in that energy and lifeforceness being an ascension and force to be reckoned with, impossible to pin down or destroy. Working through this story of High John is solidifying my role as an oral historian - realizing that it isn't something to get a degree in. Instead it is something to be shared and practiced. Please move through my references and offer what you have learned. A collective spirit is built and nourished together. Who is High John showing up and showing out for? With discernment, share your testimonies with those you trust.
“To believe in flight is the opening to heights of cultural freedom.”
-TBN
About the Author:
Tyrell Blacquemoss is a prophetic dreamworker and descendant of a long line of African priests and Turtle Island medicine people. As a scholarly researcher with a Bachelor’s of Fine Art with an emphasis in Africana Studies and Indigenous Studies, TBN reclaims and continues their family legacy of the science and art of dreaming. For more information visit www.causereign.com.