Ritual Water Immersion ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

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, 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

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.

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.