Sorcerer's Notebook

Christopher Danowski Writing-as Katy Macleod and Geoff Cox Transart, Uferstudios, Berlin Summer 2015

The Sorcerer’s Notebook: Spellbinding (recovered)

� -Danowski1

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Representation - the engagement of the memory of the

living for the Dead.

All Memory is the realm of the Dead:

Embodiment is always possession, then,

and involves some kind of trance.

� -Danowski2

The Dead are always talking through the living.

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domain of the Dead.

The Living and the Dead are not Unaware

of each other, not unaware of our state of Temporary Separation. And it is this state of

Temporary Separation that is the

P R I M O R D I A L L I M I N A L I T Y

The Very First Threshold.

And every threshold after is a quotation

of this original threshold.*

(*Some quotes are only partial, & some

are lost inside double & single quotes:

“She said, ‘He said,” she said, ‘he said,

“he’d said, ‘the Dead speak through us.’”’”’”

And the Muerto said:

� -Danowski3

When I move you move (just like that))

If you are to return to that original place

(there is no such thing I know), the first

‘x’ that makes the spot where time +

space collide:

TIME + SPACE = TLA

Spell In The “West”

Living Dead

Trance Sleep

Altered State

Etc.

In The

Ritual Cultures

Performers Living Dead

Performers Are

Clocks

In The World Of

A Clock A Clock The Sorcerer

12 Life At

Zenith

9 3 Kalunga Living Dead

Line

Birth Death

6 Death At

Zenith

Secret Thought:

A Spell Works when you say, ‘You are

under a spell.’ It’s not Disingenuous,

or like a Charlatan. It works

the same way to say, ‘You are aware

of your breath.’ It makes someone

aware of what’s already happening.

� -Danowski4

I was under a spell. I don’t want to go back to a past where

there is no escape, so I protect myself,

chalk and the glitter from the corner of

the crescent of a Halloween Moon, and seal

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do something witchy with it for when she

came back...5 days with Oshún, and

it worked, oh Lordy did it work...at this

point, I suspected, but couldn’t know for

sure, but suspected...

When you put a Spell on Someone, you get

pulled in. I think it has to work that

way. You have to see through that lens too

� -Danowski5

or else you’re not seeing what’s there.

Beloved without Beloved seen

The spell from inside the spell

or even

Client. No spell. Client. From inside.

___

So...you need the capacity to see things

that are otherwise invisible (or perhaps

not even there) - it may or may not matter

if it’s really there.

Yes. Really.

Question: Does it get in the way

if you know that what you see may

only be a reflection of your own

mind? I don’t know, because I never

tell them This is Real.

That’s where Lacan comes back.

In the Realm of Desire and you

can’t trust what you do see.

� -Danowski6

2/Nov. Dia de los muertos *They’re always there whether we

see them or not.

1. CONCEIVING

2. GATHERING

3. CHANNELING before these

4. CONSULTING there is UNTYING

5. SWEEPING 0.

6. TYING

3. Channeling happens all through this

It’s always present, the Dead moving from

background to foreground & everything in

between - it’s all a question of focus. *

It could also be said that the movement

from Meditation Trance to Performance is not

a clear line - but a Tango between

3 &4.

Untying:

time or living &

space Dead

Because part of the reason the Dead come is

to speak through you to tell the story of

Time and Space, to you and to an audience,

� -Danowski7

1. Conceiving//Etymology of Conception

Opening the possibility -

the Chatty Part or taking together

*Gathering Together

(Step 2 is Gathering - so…

interesting…how does

0 opens the gathering work in each?)

representation of (1) Thought (2) Objects

this version of

the world

How do you gather thoughts?

Divination— proper invocation

then the number

Intentions then Osogbo or Ire.

Are Stated More This is kind of like that.

Here. ???thinking through…

-This is the platonic spell.

-The ideal performance.

-The play when it is in your head.

* [This is all in your head.] *

* conceive also - to be pregnant

to be Pregnant in the Mind

“to take into the work with

mind.” it.

an image

Take In And Hold that I can

C A T C H find somewhere…

� -Danowski8

(2) Gathering (Objects) Making the Charm

This puts the Spirit into the Object

And it puts the Capacity into the Mind of

the Performer/or Client

(It Turns on the Hologram)

irawo

-the falling star

How do you Construct or comet in Lukumí-

A Charm?

Practice, Man, Practice. -but also The Ancestor

S H I N I N G. in Bantu-

Um. Honestly. You keep making them.

And you get better.

This is very much like writing a play…

I have a haunted feeling

and start looking into that.

sometimes they What I hear and see. Images and

want something phrases and soon enough there

incense a cigar are people (spirit forms) talking

the right music and I transcribe.

� -Danowski9

THIS NEEDS TO KALUNGA LINE

TALK TO

THIS

This diagram is a vase filled with

eyes on my parents’ night stand.

I can't see, not because of a trick

of mirrors, but because the fabric is

ripped and I see and hear things behind

everything.

-My dad says this is all about seeing.

Hey. Hey you.

Hey. Hey.

Hey.

� -Danowski10

And the ingredients of the charm

will usually be obvious.

Like to bring a lover you need honey…

Wait! How do you know?!

How is that obvious?!

I’m sorry. I’m not taking

ontological questions today.

These are possible ingredients I know

(Talk to elders about other things)

Bones.

Plants: Any of them. All very specific.

Herbs: See above.

things i like: cinnamon basic mint hot pepper

Spices: same sugar salt

Mirrors: Tin foil. Any reflecting or flashing thing.

Nails, Pins, Blades

Thread rope string (& more —it’s complicated)

yarn

Beaded strings.

*Goopher dust*

Dirts various dirts

Sticks and Stones

Leaves and Gems

Photographs.

Hair. Skin. Nail clippings.

Love letters.

Keys. Coins.

� -Danowski11

While you gather, these become Metonymic* Objects for the Performer and/or

the Problem.

*Also Metaphoric

(Of Course)

And you have to tie it.

And you have to charge it.

Tying Makes it a Kanga

Charging Puts Life in it.

It becomes like a little Homunculus.

One they take with them.

Does the charm become the seed

of the character? / Like the seed

of the solution to the problem?

I really don’t know how it all works.

Tying - This is what makes a Kanga.

(Kanga means Tie or Bind)

So you could say when the Charm is Tied

the Spell Starts.

The ritual to close the performance

is when it stops.

Charge - It lives with the Spirit (usually

5 Days)

5 X 5 X 5 X 5 X 5

*****

� -Danowski12

(3) CHANNELING In Rehearsal: This is the Guided Meditation

that Opens the Connection with That

Thing that will become the

Character.

is like

In Writing the Script: That Furious

Place when they are all in my

Head talking all at once to

Tell me the Story.

(I am always feeling Other

when this happens, and, the more

I have that experience where

People Quote my plays and I don’t

know/recognize the referent, the

more I am convinced that the

writing is done in a state of Trance)

And in my cosmology (I think a lot of art is made

I would say that this Here)

is the Ancestors

working through

us. The Dead telling

stories to the Living.

is like

When the Shells Fall on the Mat

and the Orisha (or Muerto) is

Speaking…

� -Danowski13

When the Diviner speaks, that’s (4) Consultation - the Aché of the

Diviner enters to talk & interpret

in the presence of the Orisha.

Speaks Through Through The God is in

a Pot.

is like The God is in

Getting Mounted a Head.

Orisha, Muerto, Ancestor.

—Except.

What is it is not actually like that, but instead

is actually that?

Like in:

Some actors have experience

of possession that is phenomeno

logically the same?

That’s a tough word.

And knotty. The

closest I can get is

‘IT SURE SOUNDS THE SAME!’

� -Danowski14

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(4) CONSULTATION

*-> (I’m sure there’s more XXXXX 3 not yet XXXX-*

Interview Reflect / Open the Communication

The Performer becomes someone else in (3)

And after they come back, they talk about that in (4)

This (3) is this:

:Usually, our consciousness is this:

Ideally, we

E=EGO E X work toward

X=MUERTO this:

CHARACTER E

ETC. X

seeds of Dead

ones in our head full trance is this

QUESTION:

WHAT THE HELL CONSCIOUSNESS TENDS TOWARD

IS THIS MORE OF ITSELF

� -Danowski15

The Primordial Swamp of the Very Beginning. The Love Story that gives birth to Earth and

gives birth to Us.

Consciousness, then, looks like this

=U

Underlies

And

Underlines

Everything

U is the UH…

Where (E) tries to talk about (X)

in stage (4)

HMMM…

PERHAPS… R/U

I/X S/E

HAHAHA THANK YOU JACQUES!

� -Danowski16

In the interviews - The Performer (E) tries to talk about (X)

Being in the (X) state has taught them about

who they are (E)

Being in a trance (X) is where the shells

fall in the reading.

The energy of the ODU is open.

Consultation is talking about what that

Energy Is.

Same here. Performer talks about

what that Energy is - but I’m guiding

and directing them so they do not get

XXXXX. And I’m the Diviner, too, who knows

XXXXX possibilities, and can remember that

XXXXXne, this actor’s experience in this

XXXXXct, is a possibility that opened &

XXXXeans something.

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� -Danowski17

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Also…

The performXXX, in interviews, XXXX

stories about trance — those stories

are PATAKI and need to be respected

as such

Therefore. Interview techniques,

including reflexive, etc., need

to center around this idea.

To let the story be born from

their mouth.

� -Danowski18

After Consultation is Sweeping - (5) This cleans them &

is where I collect the pieces -

take mat outside and shake it off,

etc.

in order to see the shiny charm

in front of me.

This is cleaning them, then,

& editing video.

& writing. (the draft no one sees)

Preparing the video as a demonstration

of the documentation,

writing the drafts that are seen,

as well as…blocking the curtain call,

are all part of tying.

(6)

5&6 are linked.

And relate to how the work will be

analyzed, etc. But for now.

This question:

For (6) - the finishing touches of a play,

is much smaller, easier to grasp,

than the construction of the video

that demonstrates the documentation.

—because the latter holds potential

� -Danowski19

to reveal large things. Stephen (in a performance, no, the “cherry” Wrentmore

is an added touch to a sundae you

already understand)

It could very well be that within

(6) there is always a repetition of 1-5

Like Kubler-Ross’ 5 Stages

Except it’s

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

all contained

only here

This does happen with finishing touches

on a play.

The repetition.

But. It’s just not exhausting like documen-

tation is exhausting.

Because unexpectedly - this is

a new work of art

and a new spell,

just when you thought the work

was over, it starts again.

uh-huh.

� -Danowski20

This methodology is not a map to the Land of the Dead

is not an instruction manual for bringing the

Dead back to Life

It is a guide to having an Active Conversation

with the Dead.

*—>A *Spirit Book* for Performers and Artists.

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� -Danowski21

References

Martínez-Ruiz, Barbaro (2013) Kongo Graphic Writing and Other Narratives of the Sign. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Palmié, Stephan (2013) The Cooking of History: How Not to Study Afro-Cuban Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago.

Ruido, María (2002) Ana Mendieta. Donostia, España: Nerea.

States, Bert O. (1992) Hamlet and the Concept of Character. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Thompson, Robert Farris (1984) Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy. NY: Vintage.

Vannini, Phillip, ed (2015) Non-Representational Methodologies: Re-Envisioning Research. London: Routledge.

� -Danowski22