Is Hoodoo The Same As Voodoo, Palo Or Santeria? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

Is Hoodoo The Same As Voodoo, Palo Or Santeria?

One of the most common misconceptions I’ve encountered in my exploration as a guest learning the history of Southern Rootwork is the tendency to lump Hoodoo together with Voodoo (Vodou), Santería (Lucumí), or Palo Mayombe. While these traditions all share African roots, they are distinct paths with very different heartbeats.

As a student of these histories, I’ve come to understand that Hoodoo is not an organized African religion; rather, it is a sophisticated system of African American folk magic and spirituality that developed primarily within a Christian framework.

Saints in the Folk Catholic Tradition

For those of us following the Folk Catholic tradition, working with saints is a direct practice. It is essential to note that we petition the 'saints' themselves as divine intercessors. They are not used as syncretized masks or "stand-ins" for spirits like the Loa, Orisha, or Mpungo, because 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.

The Deep South and the Church Connection

My interactions with practitioners from the Deep South have been eye-opening. While there are certainly Roman Catholic rootworkers, the vast majority are dedicated members of Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Spiritualist Churches. As a guest, I’ve observed that the "power" in their work doesn't come from a pagan pantheon, but from the Holy Spirit and the authority of Jesus.


In the practice of Conjure, the physical tools of the rootworker serve as vessels for divine authority; Hoodoos draw power from Christian spirits to activate the curios and roots used in their spiritual labor.

Christianity in the Kingdom of Kongo

I often hear the argument that "Africans didn't arrive with Bibles in their hands." While it is true that many brought indigenous or Islamic beliefs, history reveals a more complex story. In the Kingdom of Kongo, Christianity had actually made deep inroads as early as the 15th century—long before the height of the transatlantic slave trade.

When Portuguese missionaries introduced Christian iconography, it resonated with the BaKongo people because it mirrored their own spiritual precepts, such as the Kongo cross (the Yowa). Therefore, many enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas already familiar with Christian symbols, allowing Hoodoo to develop as a "braided" tradition of African logic and Christian faith.

Kongo-Christian Brass Crucifix: A historical case study in syncretism showing how early Central African believers merged ancestral “root” traditions with the imagery of the Church.

A Tradition Born in America

Hoodoo as a distinct tradition began to develop when Black ancestors incorporated the Bible and the figure of Jesus into their spiritual work. It did not originate in "pagan" Africa or the Caribbean, but rather grew within the primarily Protestant Christian colonies of America.

Hoodoo reached its full form when the enslaved became Christians and formed their own churches. While it contains an incredible repertoire of African folk magic and religious practices, it is not an African religion. For many, it isn't an organized religion at all, but a way of working that is centered on faith. As Reverend Washington Phillips famously said: "No matter what your church, you better have Jesus, I tell you, that's all."

A simple altar of a Folk Christian Hoodoo practitioner.

References & Further Reading:

Fromont, Cécile. (2014). The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo. University of North Carolina Press.
Thompson, Robert Farris. (1983). Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy. Vintage Books.
Thornton, John K. (1998). The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684–1706. Cambridge University Press.
Long, Carolyn Morrow. (2001). Spiritual Commerce: Quackery, Ritual, and Religion in the African American Market. Louisiana State University Press.
Hazzard-Donald, Katrina. (2012). Mojo Workin: The Old African-American Hoodoo System. University of Illinois Press.
Orsi, Robert A. (2005). Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them. Princeton University Press.
Phillips, Washington. (1927). "Denomination Blues" (Recorded Song).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Research on Central African Christian Iconography and the Kongo Cross).

See, What Our Path Is

Being immensely interested in African diaspora religions and Folk Catholicism, we primarily honor our ancestors, Church saints, angels, folk saints, and Afro-Caribbean spirits such as loas and orishas. If we absolutely have to put a label on ourselves, we prefer the label of “Folk Judeo-Christian” as we live according to the customs and traditions of conjure workers and root doctors from the Deep South and syncretic followers of Christ in various nations of the Caribbean and Latin America.

Our spirituality includes West African-based Caribbean-style tradition as well as Esoteric Christianity and Yoruba religion. Generally, we practice Gullah folk magic popularly known in the Deep South as Hoodoo or Lowcountry Voodoo; the ancient wisdom founded by Orunmila in Ile-Ife called Ifa, and a bit of Lihim na Karunungan (Filipino Esotericism or Philippine Mystery Tradition).

Respect, What Hoodoo Is

Despite visible evidence of Central West African, Islamic/Moorish, Native American, Judeo-Christian, European, and even a few East Indian/Hindu, Chinese, and Latino/Caribbean retentions, influences, and admixtures, this does not mean that Hoodoo is an open and unrestricted system of eclectic magic.

Conjure, and Rootwork is rooted in African-American culture and Folk Protestant Christianity. Any practitioners of Hoodoo who did not grow up within African-American culture should still have a fuller understanding and high regard for its origin.

In the beginning, the early conjure doctors were entirely Black. The students were all Black, the elders were Black, the teaching was Black, and they focused only on Blacks as their audience. But other races were accepted when they had also been brought into the Hoodoo community and learned the tradition. Even so, we should still acknowledge that Hoodoo, Conjure, or Rootwork is not ours but only belongs to the Black community. We are just believers who are grafted into their rich yet humble tradition and, by word and deed, embrace genuine African-American folk spirituality and magic. This is all we can do for all the blessings we received from God and our Black ancestors.

Hoodoo's lack of religious structure and hierarchical authority do not mean that any person or group can appropriate or redefine it. If one cannot respect Hoodoo as it is and for what it is, then please, do not play with it.

Learn, How Conjure Is Worked On

Authentic Conjure is not all about blending and selling oils and casting spells online to make money. Hoodoo has its own spiritual philosophy, theology, and a wide range of African-American folkways, customs, and practices which include, but are not limited to, veneration of the ancestors, Holy Ghost shouting, snake reverence, spirit possession, graveyard conjure, nkisi practices, Black hermeneutics, African-American church traditions, the ring shout, the Kongo cosmogram, ritual water immersions, crossroads magic, making conjure canes, animal sacrifices, Jewish scriptural magic, enemy works, Seekin' ritual, magical incorporation of bodily fluids, etc.

Unfortunately, they are currently missing in marketeered or commercial Hoodoo, as they are being removed, disregarded, or ignored by unknowing merchants who simply want to profit from an African-American spiritual tradition, thus reducing Hoodoo to just a plethora of recipes, spells, and tricks.

Tim and I are completely aware that we are not African-Americans, so we are doing our best to retain and preserve the customs and traditions of the slave ancestors to avoid unnecessary conflict with the larger Black-Belt Hoodoo community and prevent them from labeling us inauthentic outsiders and our practice as mere 'cultural misappropriation.'

Accept, Who We Are

The byproduct of eons of slave history, Black supremacists believe that only people with African or African-American blood are real Hoodoo practitioners and are often inclined to consider themselves as the elite of the Hoodoo community; a place in which they believed that Whites, Latinos, Asians or any other races who do not have Black ancestry do not belong. Black supremacists are prone to be very hostile towards both “outsiders” and those accepting of them, fearing that their promotion and acceptance would dilute or even negate the Black identity of Hoodoo.

Although we do understand why some Blacks hold this stance, since a lot of people nowadays are misappropriating many aspects of Hoodoo and teaching the spiritual path even without proper education and training (for purely monetary purposes), we would, however, want to say that not all non-Black Hoodoo practitioners are the same.

WE respect what Hoodoo is, and we never try to change it, claim it as our own, disregard its history, take unfair advantage of it, speak against the people who preserve it, and mix it with other cultures (like our own) and call it Filipino/Pinoy Hoodoo, Gypsy Hoodoo or Wiccan Hoodoo because there are no such things.