bought a computer program that analyzed past lotto results in detail.
Not just numbers that came up more often, but numbers that tended to
occur together, etc. I made a little money (profit over what I spent)
using that system.
(That's exactly what one of these books is, Barbara -- a "relative numbers" book or "rundown system." In the days before computers, a man who wrote under the pseudonym of Professor Hitts actually analyzed the winning numbers for many of the popular numbers games and tracked their follow-ups for years, publishing his results in a series of booklets. This is now tracked by computers, but Professor Hitts' work is the foundation on which all such rundown systems are based. There are more rundowns in the series of booklets i currently have on hand, and i shall be writing them all up and describing them in the near future. At the end of the descriptive phase, i will go back and write an introdctory page explaining the difference between rundowns and workouts -- and their relationship to the use of dream divination. This section of HITAP will be developed within the next month or two, i expect. --cat)
I was introduced to the 'numbers' game back in Philly. The
African-American office workers played it all the time. You could also
see various predictive booklets and sheets at every newsstand.
(You have touched precicely on the reason i am including these books in "Hoodoo in Theory and Practice" and carrying them in the shop. Thank you.
(What motivates my write-up of the dream divination, rundown, and work-out books in that teaching conjure to a world-wide audience, i absolutely do not wish to separate rootwork from its culture. Hoodoo is not interchangeable with any other form of spell-casting, witchcraft, religion, magic, or sorcery. It is a part of African American culture, and when describing the magical phases of hoodoo, especially to white students, i try to bring as much of the broader cultural background into the picture as i can. In this case, we are speaking of gambling.
(In some cultures (African, Native American, Asian, Jewish, etc.) certain forms of gambling are greatly esteemed, and gaming is a great part of daily social interplay. To augment skill at gaming folks in most gambling-positive cultures use religious prayer, magical workings, dream divination, and/or "system" methods-- separately or, as is common, in combination. Meanwhile, in other cultures (Calvinism-influenced Protestant Anglo-American, for example, and Neo-Pagan religions peropled with converts from that background), gambling may be practiced by individuals, but it has historically frowned upon and considered a "vice" almost as bad as the other "vices" such as recreational drug use and frequenting houses of prostitution.
(Although the legal strictures against gambling have been radically decreased during the pasy few decades, as state lotteries and Indian casinos have sprung up all over the nation, still, there are aspects of African American gaming that are not known to the generally inward-looking white "television" culture. Among these are the use of dream divination, rundowns, and work-outs to select numbers for lottery play, the carrying of amulets and talismans (including gambling hands) to enhance luck, the wearing of special lucky perfumnes, dressing the hands with lucky powders or wshing them with lucky washes, and the burning of vigil lihgts while out at play. Increasing gambling luck is an important use of hoodoo, similar to the better known uses such as finding love or making more money through business. So that is why a large portion of HITAP deals with gambling luck.
Hey, thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble on a little bit there. I may use some of what i just wrote in the new web pages i am working on.
--cat)
