About me
Jack G. Montgomery: Biography Jack was born in 1953 in Columbia, South Carolina. His family though Christian, practiced elements of folk religions which he later came to learn stemmed from his maternal great-grandfather who was a Powwow Doctor who specialized in healing animals through sacred touch. Jack was raised not to fear, but to accept the presence of spirits, dream interpretation and spiritual visions. Jack earned his B.A. from the University of South Carolina in 1976 with a major in Religious Studies and Psychology and a minor in Anthropology. Jack earned his Master of Library Science at the University of Maryland–College Park in 1987. First, as a law librarian Jack worked in academic law libraries in Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri. In 1998, he made the transition to the general academic library and to Western Kentucky University in 1998 and retired in 2021. As a spiritual person, Jack has been involved with traditional American shamanism since 1974 as a folklorist and practitioner of Powwow and Hoodoo shamanic traditions. He received training in Hoodoo from James E. McTeer, 1903-1979, and others and learned Powwow/Braucherei from Hexenmeister, Lee Raus Gandee, 1917-1998 who wrote Strange Experience: The Secrets of a Hexenmeister. Their student/teacher relationship lasted from 1973-1977. Jack went on to meet and learn from other Powwow doctors in Pennsylvania and mountain magic from an Appalachian granny woman in south central Virginia. His own practice has led him to speak since 1976 at events in Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Georgia, North and South Carolina and even at institutions like Harvard University, Swarthmore College and as far afield as Pescara, Italy. He has authored numerous articles for spiritual magazines and his book, American Shamans: Journeys with Traditional Healers, was published March 2008 by BUSCA Press. The book is still selling well in the U.S., U.K., and Europe and as far away as Japan and South Africa. Jack discovered modern paganism in 1991 through a CUUPS group and has been going to gatherings like PCCO, PSG and PUF ever since. Jack also began studying guitar at age thirteen and played my first professional gig in 1967. He sings and plays guitar, harmonica, and Appalachian dulcimer. Musically, he is interested in pagan, Celtic and traditional folk music. He writes his own songs and poetry. His four CDs, Onward to Avalon, Everywhere I Look, Tradition with a Twist and Watersprite have enjoyed considerable airplay and sales in the US and abroad.
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