Cherokee -- Oklahoma, Cherokee, Cherokee incantations, Indigenous incantations, Oklahoma 

"Oklahoma Cherokee erotic magic, the authors of Walk in Your Soul tell us, has been preserved down the years in manuscripts possessed sometimes by the laity, but of course most often by medicine man. It has been found in everything from huge ledgers to stamp-sized slips of paper. "Grocery lists are enlivened with incantations for making a woman lovesick, and staid family records are spiced with information on how to 'rebeautify' oneself." It has, however, remained little known; the Space Age medicine man is as uncommunicative as his predecessors, and the modern layman has little acquaintance with it. Furthermore, proficiency in ritualistic Cherokee is increasingly rare.

Jack Frederick Kilpatrick and Anna Gritts Kilpatrick are among the few still having complete command of this ritualistic language and also having, through the credentials of their own ancestry, the confidence of a reticent people. They have gathered in this volume almost a hundred love incantations intended for a variety of purposes: to attract a desired woman; to create loneliness that will drive a woman into the arms of the incanter; to "rebeautify" or "remake" oneself (the one with primarily physical, the other with spiritual, implications) so that one will be more attractive; to humble a haughty, scornful woman; to retain a wife's affection or assist a bride in accepting her new surroundings; and to break up friendships, love affairs, and marriages.

The structural patterns of the incantations embody many symbolic elements found everywhere in Cherokee religious, medical, and magical texts, as well as in those of other cultures, some very ancient: for example, the use of the minor sacred numeral four and the major sacred numeral seven; a subtle color symbolism associated with both compass points and qualities; and a system of spirit bird and animal symbols.

The incantations often rise to heights of great poetic beauty. "At my back upon the Eternal White road will b the sound of your footsteps," the lover says. "I will be walking in the very middle of your soul." One "loneliness" incantation contains the line, "It was just decided that this will be your fate, night and day, until the White Pathways lying before you fade away."

Sometimes the lines need explanation before their unfamiliar images can become clear to the reader belonging to another culture. So for each incantation there is a valuable note by the authors, discussing words and images and giving the background and purpose of the lines." -- Book jacket.