RESEARCH FOR 'THE TATTOOED ROSE'

A FRIEND OF MINE RECENTLY ASKED ME HOW MANY WORDS I WRITE A DAY. I told him I didn't want to talk about it. Lately, it seems I've been researching and reviewing all the prior study I have done as I write this next section of The Tattooed Rose. Right now, the setting is on Xaymaca, as Jamaica was originally known. Today, I moved ahead by thirteen words only, which accounts for my grumpiness with my friend's question. I had to rewrite a section to more closely reflect what I think was the mix of the cimarrones, or the run-away slaves, that populated the island in 1550. These people would have been made up of the few Tainos who had not been wiped out by smallpox, as well as slaves from the Yoruba, Fon, Akan, and Igbo tribes of western and central Africa. Plot-wise, I've been trying to make reasonable choices as to how to depict a multi-cultural diaspora and the various religions that come from it. I've been looking into Vodou (which today, is mostly associated with Haiti), Santeria (Cuba), and Obeah, which is Jamaican. It's been an interesting study.

One of the decisions I need to make is whether or not I depict the gods of Obeah as they are known, or if I change their names slightly. I'm inclined to change the names, mainly because I don't want to be disrespectful of any faith. When I originally wrote The Tattooed Witch, I had written it as a rejection of repressive Catholicism and the Spanish Inquisition, but I was never comfortable with that slant, so I changed it to reflect rather than represent. Even if history has shown us terrible things done in the name of organized religion, it doesn't necessarily mean that those who practiced it were all horrible people. Some of them were saints. (I give St. Teresa of Avila as an example). Like people, religion can have both its bad and good elements. It evolves, hopefully for the better.

I thought I'd share a few tidbits of what I've learned lately. Hopefully, these aren't spoilers. A lot of plot can change between the first and final drafts.

Did you know....

1). That today, there are no poisonous snakes on Jamaica? There might have been in 1550. One particular species may have been brought over in hollowed bamboo canes by the Caribs to use as biological weapons against the Taino.

2. Among the Akan people (and others) a child's name is based on the day of the week a child is born, his or her birth order, and special circumstances. There is some thought that Daniel Defoe may have created his character Friday in Robinson Crusoe, by using this device.

3. Like my character Miriam Medina who summoned and communicates with Alonso, a dead High Priest, in the religion of Obeah, Obiu-women interpret the wishes of the dead.

4. Many African peoples, including the Akan, practiced tattooing and scarification known as Adinkra. Some of these marks indicate tribal affiliation.

5. One type of divination is practiced by tossing cowrie shells. These offer 256 different signs known as odu. A simpler type of divination for 'yes/no' answers only, uses four pieces of coconut shell. This is known as the biague oracle.

I'll share more in the weeks to come. This weekend, I'm at the Pure Speculation Festival here in Edmonton, launching The Tattooed Seer on Saturday night. If you're attending, I hope to see you there.

- Susan.

SYNCHRONICITIES, COINCIDENCES, AND SOME FUN RESEARCH for THE TATTOOED ROSE

AS A RULE, I DON'T POST ANY MAIL THAT LOOKS LIKE SPAM or includes links, but here's part of a note I received the other day. Other than tightening it a bit, I haven't changed the spelling or punctuation. I think that's part of its charm:

"Hi, I am ------ from USA, i went to share my testimony to the world on how i got my husband back after two(4) years of marriage, my husband left me with two kids . I felt like my life was about to end.... Thanks to a spell caster called Dr Johnson which i met online. On one faithful day, as I was browsing through the internet, I came across allot of testimonies about this particular spell caster. Some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back, some testified that he restores womb, cure cancer, and other sickness, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on....

This is an advertisement for a Hoodoo practitioner. Hoodoo is a variant of Voodoo, one of the syncretized mystery religions that came about as a result of the African slave diaspora being forced to adopt Christianity in the New World.

As it happens, I'm right in the middle of some really interesting research on Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah. The note above doesn't look as if it stems from any religious practice, but it is an aspect of it. What delighted me was its synchronicity and timing. I had planned on refreshing my mind on what I already knew about Voodoo for my third book, The Tattooed Rose. This note came two days before I was about to start. I am half way through the book's first draft, around the 60,000 word mark. Miriam and company are about to make landfall in the Caribbean.

Here's another coincidence that surprised me today:

In The Tattooed Witch, Miriam carves herself with her first tattoo, a triple goddess symbol that is featured on the cover of the book. In The Tattooed Seer, she receives additional tattoos from her Tribe. These resemble a ring of interlinking snakes swallowing their tails, ourbourus-like. In The Tattooed Rose, (spoiler alert) Miriam encounters Maroons, run-away slaves of mixed Taino, Spanish, and African blood. Understandably, they don't like or trust her because she is both Spanish and white, but her tattoos change things. This is what I found today, from Mysteries and Secrets of Voodoo, Santeria, and Obeah, by Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe. (For reference, a Voodoo loa is like a type of demi-god):

"Damballah is regarded as the most important of the Voodoo loas. He is at the core of much Voodoo magic, where he is seen as the serpent-god who devours his own tail....a wheel, like the traditional Wheel of Hecate, is used to represent Damballah....right at the top of this complex circle design is a magic square containing representations of the moon in its various phases."

Synchronicity in action? That description is eerily similar to Miriam's tattoos. The triple goddess symbol is well known in pagan circles, but the snake chain came from my imagination. To find that it has an unexpected connection with Voodoo not only surprised me, but to find the two tattoos in tandem blew me away. I am delighted this detail works so well for the plot.

Some say there are no coincidences. I'm not sure what I believe. There is no way to prove or disapprove that. But no matter from where our ancestors come, I suspect their early religious ideas weren't so different. The pagan sources I draw upon for The Tattooed Rose and the rest of the trilogy have much in common with other religious roots.