Is Hoodoo The Same As Voodoo, Palo Or Santeria?

This is a widespread misconception among beginners in Hoodoo. Many people, mundane and magical alike, falsely equate Hoodoo to Voodoo, Santeria, or Palo religion. The difference between them is mainly that Hoodoo is a system of African-American folk magic and spirituality, with practitioners mostly Christians. On the other hand, Voodoo, Santeria, and Palo are three different African-based religions.

When we, who follow Folk Catholic tradition, work with saints, it is essential to note that we are petitioning the 'saints' themselves, not as syncretized images for "Loa," "Orisha," or "Mpungo," since Hoodoo is not an African or Afro-Caribbean religion.

An altar to the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and the seven Archangels.

St.Martha the Dominator and our votive offerings to her: Florida Water, perfume, Holy Water, St.Martha oil, and a small broom.

Some Catholic Hoodoo practitioners like to dress holy candles when petitioning or praying to the Catholic Saints or invoking their power, presence, or assistance in magical rites.

I have joined some Hoodoo communities online and interacted with practitioners from the Deep South. Interestingly, none of them follow a pagan, pure African, or Afro-Caribbean religion. There are few Roman Catholics, but most are members of Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Spiritualist Churches. 

I have heard opinions like, "But Africans did not come to the U.S. with the Bible in their hands?" Yes, most Africans brought to America indeed observed indigenous tribal beliefs, and some were even Muslims. Still, they are talking about when Hoodoo was not even born yet. Also, contrary to popular belief, in the Kongo area, Christianity had already made deep inroads into BaKongo's minds even before the slave trade. Historically, Catholicism had been present in the Kingdom of Kongo since the 15th century, and the king converted in the first years of the Portuguese regime, so some aspects of the Christian religion had thus far spread among the population.

When the Portuguese first introduced Christian iconography and symbolism to central Africa, aspects of their religious configurations resonated profoundly with local spiritual precepts, such as the Kongo cross cosmogram. (Photo courtesy of Met Museum)

Furthermore, the Hoodoo tradition started to develop when Black ancestors began incorporating the Bible and Jesus in their works. It did not originate and develop in pagan Africa, pagan pre-Columbian America, or the pagan Caribbean and Latin America. Instead, it grew up in primarily Protestant Christian colonies of America. Hoodoo started when the slaves became Christians and went to Churches. Indeed, Hoodoo has an incredible repertoire of African folk religious and magical practices, but it is not an African religion. In fact, Hoodoo for some folks, is not and has never been an organized religion at all, but as Reverend Washington Phillips says: "No matter what your church, you better have Jesus, I tell you, that's all."

A simple altar of a Folk Christian Hoodoo practitioner.

Ring Shout

This book by Art and Margo Rosenbaum shares the history of the shout's African origins, a collection of commentaries and stories of observers and folklorists, and the shout songs performed by present-day African-American shouters.

Like sacred dances in West Africa, the African-American Ring Shout is seen as a spiritual work performed in a sacred context by some traditional Hoodoo practitioners, especially those from the American South. In this folk practice, the practitioners utilize the power of music, inspiring ecstasy or euphoria and sometimes even prophetic vision. The shouting was first described by early outside observers on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia during the Civil War.

Ring Shout may have originated from the Islamic ritual of pilgrimage called "tawaf," which enslaved Muslim Africans from Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, Susu, Temne, Mende, and Vai ethnic groups brought to the West Indies and Low Country region of the United States. If so, the term 'shout' may come from the Afro-Arabic word "shawṭ," meaning 'to run... until exhausted', such as the seven-time circumambulation around the "Kaaba" in a counterclockwise direction. According to some resources, though, such as the book Mojo Workin: The Old African-American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard-Donald, "the counterclockwise movement is believed by some scholars to represent the full cycle of life through the phases of birth, childhood, adulthood, death, and rebirth as represented by the Kongo cosmogram and that Ring Shout trace the circle of cosmogram on the ground."

Members of the Gullah community were doing ring shouts at a local praise house in Georgia circa 1930. (Photo courtesy of Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution)

Ring Shout is an important ritualized activity, a form of worship, and an expression of the slaves' deep and intense emotions. Ring Shout, to the accompaniment of call-and-response singing, feet shuffling, clapping, shells shaking, stick beating, and sometimes tambourine (all derived from African practices), often took place during congregational assemblies, prayer meetings, or Church services in praise houses, homes of the Elders, or even in the woods or barns.

Even though Ring Shout is an African-Muslim influence, drums are not traditionally used in the said practice. This is because the colonial assembly during the slavery period banned the slaves from using drums, as indicated in Article 36 of the Slave Code of South Carolina, which was instituted in 1740 and was later adopted by the other states due to the fear of the slave owners that drums were being used to gather the Africans together to plan rebellion: "It is essential to the safety of this Province, that all due care be taken to restrain Negroes from using or keeping of drums, which may call together or give sign or notice to one another of their wicked designs and purposes." Without access to traditional drums, slaves began using whatever they had to create sound and beat, such as walking sticks, broomsticks, farming tools like hoes and shovels, and large mortar and pestles. 

Songs and movements for shouting have been handed down from generation to generation from the period of the antebellum era, from which we learn that there were folk songs and dances in every mundane or spiritual activity of the slaves' lives, often imparting Christian values while also describing the hardships of slavery. The shout movement begins in a two-foot shuffle, slow at first and accelerating to an appropriate tempo, in which the feet never cross; the practitioners maintain that passing the leading foot would be unholy dancing, whereas shouting is in the service of God. Most of the dance motions are of the Kongo survivals, as they strongly resemble the dance patterns in the Northern Congo. On another note, the essential elements of the songs include cries and hollers, blue notes, call-and-response, and various rhythmic aspects of traditional African music that mirror melodic religious ceremonies among people like the Yoruba, Ibibio, Efik, Bahumono, and Kongo.

During the Great Migration of African Americans, the shouting and dancing associated with their religious activities were presumed to cease. The many discussions about shouting and folk dancing include opinions ranging from lukewarm compromise to outright ignorance and destructive criticism by White missionaries and Black clergies. However, it continued while taking on new forms as they evolved into negro spirituals, gospel songs, blues, and jazz. Ring Shout became known again in 1980 when McIntosh County Shouters and other Geechee groups from the Sea Islands came to the public's attention.

One of my favorites is this African-American slave shout song from the Coast of Georgia, "Pharaoh's Host Got Lost. " I usually sing it during Passover.

It invokes the image of God's chosen people and shows the wondrous works of God in the lives of our Israelite and African-American brethren when He saved them from the bondage of oppression and persecution.

This song served as a reminder for the African-Americans during the slavery era that God would one day remove them from the tyranny of the European settlers and would give them the 'justice' and 'freedom' they were asking and praying for, just like how God delivered Israel from the land of Egypt.

PHARAOH'S HOST GOT LOST

by McIntosh County Shouters

Leader:

Moses, Moses, lay your rod

Leader and group:

In that Red Sea--

Leader:

Lay your rod, let the children cross

Leader and group

In that Red Sea

Chorus:

Ol' Pharaoh's hos' got los', los', los',

Ol' Pharaoh's hos' got los'

In that Red Sea

They shout when the hos' got los', los', los',

They shout when the hos' got los'

In that Red Sea

Leader:

Moses, Moses, lay your rod

Leader and group:

In that Red Sea--

Leader:

Lay your rod, let the children cross

Leader and group

In that Red Sea

Chorus:

Ol' Pharaoh's hos' got los', los', los',

Ol' Pharaoh's hos' got los'

In that Red Sea

Leader:

Moses, Moses, lay your rod

Leader and group:

In that Red Sea--

Leader:

Lay your rod, let the children cross

Leader and group

In that Red Sea

Chorus:

Ol' Pharaoh's hos' got los', los', los',

Ol' Pharaoh's hos' got los'

In that Red Sea

Such a weepin' when the hos' got los', los', los',

Such a weepin' when the hos' got los'

In that Red Sea

Ritual Water Immersion

Ritual Water Immersion is an ancient spiritual practice observed by Jews, Africans, Caribbeans, and some Protestant and Folk Christians. Throughout history, people have used the sacred power of water in combination with natural ingredients such as minerals like salt and herbs like hyssop to heal diseases, remove negativity, cleanse ritual impurity and uncleanliness, and clear the path for communion with the Spirit or Divine.

Many people are unaware that ritual water immersion was integral to daily life for both men and women in biblical times. This ritual was once a part of the preparation necessary before entering the Temple in Jerusalem.

Many Christians think that the spiritual rite that John the Baptist performed on Jesus is what we know now as 'baptism.' Still, it is a biblical ritual that Ancient Israelites have practiced since Moses' time, which Jews call "mikvah." 

Unlike the 'baptism' we know nowadays, immersion or "mikvah" in Jewish customs is not only done once. Still, it is also universally practiced in every Jewish home as lighting candles for the Shabbat. For the Jews, immersion is not about getting clean. It's about getting pure, blessed, and alive. We see the Bible obsessing with 'purity' and 'blessing' because it is obsessed with 'life' itself.  

Moreover, in Kongo belief, springs and rivers are more than just bodies of water. They are living manifestations of Spirit, and they personify both the womb and the grave and consequently symbolize 'rebirth.' They are regarded as a pure, unadulterated path of connection with God. For that reason, they are considered a place where the soul is transformed and renewed, and life is reawakened and strengthened. Immersion in rivers and springs also represents death and resurrection. A person underwater enters a death-like state, like a person crossing into the realm of the dead. When he comes back out of the water, the person is now more than just a simple human but a new creation.

Bodies of water are also believed to be guarded by Central African nature spirits, called "simbi" spirits in the Kongo language. Some academic historians who researched the Gullah-Geechee nation recorded that some bisimbi served the enslaved people of the early Lowcountry as spiritual helpers around which captives of diverse African ethnic origins and those born in the Lowcountry built their communities. Gullah people and some Hoodoo practitioners call these spirits "cymbee" due to Pro-slavery activist Edmund Ruffin's misspelling of the term in his documentations of his travels. The words, although they differ in spelling, not only match in pronunciation but also their definition. Some Black churches in the American Southeast still pray to Kongo-derived simbi spirits during ritual water immersions. This practice demonstrates this aspect of an otherwise Christian rite. Also, in the Kongo religion, bisimbi forces or energies inhabit river rocks, shells, pebbles, and anything found in bodies of water. Due to this, conjure workers collect some as they believe specific stones can influence the fertility and well-being of those who own them. This practice was similar to Ashanti's version of water immersion, where their water spirits were invoked. 

Tim has been working with this simbi spirit known as Mami Wata since the beginning of his Hoodoo journey. Her name is related to the Sierra Leonean Krio word mami wata that refers to mermaid in Krio folklore. Her depiction is a combination of images of West African water spirits and European merfolks.  

Hoodoo, being a Kongo-based spiritual system and Folk Judeo-Christian tradition, practices this ritual water immersion in a manner consistent with traditional African and biblical approaches. 

In the African-American Church tradition, participants are typically asked to wear a white headscarf. Headwrap symbolizes respect and modesty and is a powerful medium to maintain the awareness that participants must be inner-directed. The head, which is our antenna or connection to the physical world, is covered when we participate in such sacred rites; in a sense, our head is reserved exclusively for God in this particular moment.

The ritual traditionally begins by praying to God and the spirits of water, explaining the nature of water immersion, and asking each and everyone's intention in participating in this rite. The minister then leads the participants to the water while the assembly sings praise or gospel songs. After that, people are escorted one by one. It is customary to plunge oneself into the water three times, framing his immersion with the following:

• Before the first plunge, consider the things you hope to leave behind.
• Before the second plunge, consider where you are now and what things you must fix yourself.
• Before the third plunge, think about where you hope to move forward.

When a person goes down into the waters of the river or spring, wherein the body is fully submerged from the tip of the hair down to the soles of the feet, he leaves behind his old ways, bad habits, and adverse conditions—symbolically dying to his old life—and rises up out of the water like a newborn child. He is, in essence, reborn.

After immersion, he is asked to join the other participants, who are gathered into waiting arms and covered in white towels, to witness the remaining immersions.

The Negro spiritual below is an African-American folk song first published in New Jubilee Songs as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1901. This song encourages people to engage in water immersion for healing and transformation. Its chorus is based upon the narrative of John 5:2-9.

WADE IN THE WATER

by Ella Jenkins and the Goodwill Spiritual Choir of Monumental Baptist Church

(Wade in the water)

(Wade in the water)

Wade in the water

Wade in the water, children

Wade in the water

God is gonna trouble these waters

Wade in the water

Wade in the water, children

Wade in the water

God is gonna trouble these waters

See that band all dressed in white

God is gonna trouble these waters

It looks like a band of the Israelites

God is gonna trouble these waters

Wade in the water

Wade in the water, children

Wade in the water

God is gonna trouble these waters

See that band all dressed in red

God is gonna trouble these waters

Look like a band that Moses led

God is gonna trouble these waters

Wade in the water

Wade in the water, children

Wade in the water

God is gonna trouble these waters

My Lord delivered Daniel well

Daniel, well, Daniel well

Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel well

Then why not every man?

My Lord delivered Daniel well

Daniel well, Daniel well

Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel well

Then why not every man?

Man went down to the river

Man went down to the river, Lord

Man went down to the river

Went down there for to pray

Man went down to the river

Man went down to the river, Lord

Man went down to the river

To wash his sins all away

Washed all day, washed all night

Washed till his hands were sore

Washed all day, washed all night

Till he couldn't wash a-no more

(Hey)

Man went down to the river

Man went down to the river, Lord

Man went down to the river

Went down there for to pray

Man went down to the river

The man went down to the river, Lord

The man went down to the river

Washed his sins all away

Wade in the water

Wade in the water, children

Wade in the water

God is gonna trouble these waters

Wade in the water

Wade in the water, children

Wade in the water

God is gonna trouble these waters

God is gonna trouble these waters

God is gonna trouble these waters

Urban spiritual workers not close to natural water sources, such as springs and rivers, do spiritual baths for themselves or prescribe in-person spiritual cleansing to their clients. It is important to note that water immersion or spiritual baths are one of the most essential rituals in the Hoodoo tradition. As Christopher Bradford said, a Tata Nkisi Sima Ngango of Palo Mayombe and a Hoodoo practitioner, "a Hoodoo who doesn't work with baths and washes is hardly a Hoodoo at all." Water for bath comprises natural God-made ingredients such as salts, herbs, essences, holy water, or rainwater, which are sanctified and prayed over to remind us that the message of immersion is to bring heaven down to earth and the Spirit down to our bodies.

Below is one of the oldest three-ingredient recipes that we may try for mineral bath and wash known to spiritual workers as 'Blue Bath'; it contains:

- Bath salt or Crystal salts (a mixture of table salt and Epsom salt - this particular ingredient is always counted as one)
- Laundry bluing powder (a mixture of washing soda and ultramarine dye)
- Florida Water

Many different spiritual bath combinations are passed down in African-American families; most, if not all, baths are comprised of mineral, herbal, and liquid ingredients.

Red Brick Dust

This mineral curio is beneficial and efficient in creating protective boundaries before performing spellwork, rituals, seance, etc., as well as psychic or energetic walls and barriers to keep your house or space safe, secure, and private. 

Red brick dust is considered to be one of the most powerful mineral remedies for protection and warding off evil spirits, nasties, and bad jujus. It is popularly used in Louisiana Voodoo, Hoodoo tradition, and ancient magic.

The origin of its magical usage can be traced back to the Kongo use of "tukul," a red pigment consisting of iron oxide-rich clay. Tukul was sparingly applied to Kongo power figures' stomach mound, beard, and chest.

I use red brick dust in Business Money floor wash, which I usually make with cinnamon powder, sugar, Chinese Wash, or Pine-Sol. Once the floor wash is prepared, I scrub the office doorstep or shop inward for quick, continuous cash inflow.

We make our own version of Chinese Wash with broom straws and lemongrass leaves, a bottle of Pine-Sol with fresh pine needles, cinnamon bark and powder, white sugar, and red brick dust.

The reddening is also customarily incorporated in a powerful Home Protection scrub. This is done by urinating at your doorstep and then washing it with water mixed with holy water and protection oils such as Fiery Wall of Protection, Run Devil Run, Cast Off Evil, or Van Van oil, or by washing your threshold with urine in a bucket of water then followed by sprinkling red brick dust mixed with ashes of name-paper of the Captain of the Police or graveyard dirt collected from a soldier, policeman, fireman or a vital family member's grave.

Red brick dust is most often employed at the front gate or stoop in New Orleans and St. Louis, where red brick buildings are typical.

In Hoodoo, practitioners believe the older the bricks are, the better. We obtained our red brick in Fort Santiago, Intramuros, an ancient fortress in Manila built in 1590 and renovated in 1733. We add this mineral curio to our Fiery Wall of Protection and Law Keep Away formula.

Can Conjure Doctors And Rootworkers Practice Wicca Or Traditional Witchcraft?

African-American Hoodoo tradition is firmly planted in a Judeo-Christian framework; we worship God (Jehovah, Yahweh, YHVH) alone and heavily use the Bible in our spiritual works. Most practitioners will not agree with you if you claim you're a rootworker, yet you're trying to get rid of the Bible, or you worship Hekate, Morrigan, or any other pagan God as your principal Deity.

We do not accept the Threefold Law, Wiccan Rede, Witches' Pyramid, Rules of Witchcraft, and any other principles from European Neo-pagan traditions simply because they are not biblical. If any of us follow a particular law, it is always within the framework of Judeo-Christianity, and most of us do not have stern restrictions to limit our magic. We assume complete responsibility for our actions and submit to the consequences.

Yes, some practitioners claim to practice 'hoodoo' and still follow a set of rules from European pagan traditions. They worship a different Deity than the Biblical God and incorporate pagan rituals or practices to 'charge or empower' their spiritual supplies. Sure! You can do whatever you want. But I would say to you, you are no longer practicing Hoodoo.

I am not against Wicca or pagan traditions; I respect all religions. I'm only speaking to those pagan people claiming they're also practicing Hoodoo, but in reality, they are NOT.

Gerald Gardner, the founder of the Gardnerian tradition of Wicca, evoking and compelling an entity.

Do I Have To Be Christian To Practice Hoodoo?

Actually, one doesn't need to be part of any 'religion' to practice Conjure and Rootwork; however, Hoodoo is, far more often than not, always practiced in a Judeo-Christian context. Hence, the Deity or the Spirit that authentic practitioners of Hoodoo are worshiping or working with is the Biblical God or the Holy Trinity. The Bible is also considered the most powerful talisman, especially the collection of Psalms. Most conjure workers are also Protestant Christians; therefore, if you choose to approach Hoodoo without utilizing some of its Christian elements, then you are not actually practicing Hoodoo. 

How can you say you are practicing Hoodoo when you are not even keeping up with and observing its traditions? This reality actually becomes a matter of disagreement for some would-be practitioners.

Hoodoo developed when our Black ancestors combined their African culture with Christian tradition and other multiple spiritual paths, giving birth to a new folk practice. The truth is, we cannot separate Christianity from Hoodoo more than we can remove the influence of Central West African spiritual and magical practices from it. It is an outright and blatant dishonor and disrespect to the ancestors who preserved this practice in the face of slavery if you wish not to keep the tradition intact. That said, if one simply cannot get into the Bible, pray to the Biblical God, or even say "in Jesus' Name," then Hoodoo is not for you. 

19th Century African-American Christianity.

We could actually say that Hoodoo is the folk magic of Black American Christians—in the same way that one could say that "Lihim na Karunungan" is the folk magic of Filipino Christians. Hoodoo is not a religion but the folk magic of a community of generally religious and spiritual people who also inherited this knowledge and practice from their Christian ancestors. 

No matter who instituted that "Hoodoo practice is free for all," in the slavery time and reconstruction era, rootworkers and conjure men worked with the Holy Trinity, Jesus, angels, and prophets; read and studied the Bible; regularly attended their respective Churches for worship and service; and the fact that renowned conjure workers such as Allen Vaughn, Adam Rascoe, and Jim Jordan amongst others are lay preachers and Church leaders is irrefutable evidence that no Wiccan, Santero, Hindu or any other pagan was known to have a primary significant hand in Hoodoo tradition. The Christian rootworkers and conjure men and women assembled and congregated to pray and devote themselves to God, heal the conditions of people, and prophesize with the help of the Holy Spirit because they knew nothing about other theology and spiritual paths other than Black Theology and Black Christianity.

Bishop Charles Harrison Mason Sr., founder, Chief Apostle, and first Senior Bishop of the Church of God in Christ, currently the most prominent African-American Pentecostal Church in the United States, used roots and gnarled and twisted woods to discern God's will.

Bishop Charles Harrison Mason Sr. was another famous conjure worker who was spiritually baptized as a Christian. He was a Pentecostal denominational leader and the founder of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) based in Memphis, Tennessee. One of the most critical events in Mason's life was surviving a yellow fever epidemic when he was twelve years old. His recovery was attributed to prayer and rootwork. His mother, Eliza, formerly enslaved, was known in the community as very powerful and spiritually gifted, which people believed he eventually inherited. 

Although COGIC's founder had known to use rootwork and divination as his methods for him to both communicate to the saints and prophets of God and deliver the message of Pentecostalism to the Church followers, there are now very few rootworkers who belong to the said Church as they now denounce Hoodoo as sinful. The congregations or communities that still accept conjure workers and root doctors as members are Missionary Baptist Church, African Methodist Episcopal, Holiness-Pentecostal Movement, and Spiritualist Church Movement.