How Do Hoodoo Reconcile Their Spirit Work With Worshipping The Jealous Biblical God? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

How Do Hoodoo Reconcile Their Spirit Work With Worshipping The Jealous Biblical God?

First of all, I would like to make it clear that this religious spirit work or working with other deific spirits mainly occurs to those who are Folk Catholic Hoodoo practitioners and not to those who work within Protestant tradition since we have to remember that Protestants view devotion to the saints and the Virgin Mary and veneration to other deities or spirits from a different culture as idolatry.

Coming from the Folk Catholic stance, we believe in the two types of "servitus" St. Augustine of Hippo distinguished during his time and later detailed more explicitly by St. Thomas Aquinas:

The first is called "Latria," the highest form of worship and adoration; this is given to God alone. Worship or latria is a kind of 'service' rendered to the Supreme Being, encompassing the attitude of veneration and love toward God and the activities, spiritual works, and rituals in which the homage finds expression. For us, the fabric of worship is woven of many strands. In our tradition and practice, we follow; these may be summarized as acts of cleansing and purification, sacrifices and offerings, charity works, the observance or celebration of festivals and feasts and other appointed times, and meditation or prayer understood in its broadest sense.

Invoking the aid of Catholic miracle workers, St. Martin Caballero, and Budai or Hotei, the Laughing Buddha in a Money Drawing Spell.

To answer the question if one can work with a deity or a spirit without worshipping them, it depends on who you will work with. But since most of them are otherworldly kings, princes, and judges, they require and seek the veneration of men. However, in our tradition and my personal experience, some deities are acceptable to work with, and many don't demand people to worship them.

Upper altar at Missionary Independent Spiritual Church. (Photo courtesy of catherine yronwode, Lucky Mojo Curio Co.)

We have seen Hoodoo practitioners who work with and pay homage to Papa Legba or Eleggua; Hotei, Budai, or Pu-Tai, best known as the Laughing Buddha; Ganesha and other deities and spirits from different cultures. In my case, I venerate and work with many spirits from other cultures, from Judeo-Christian to Oriental to African to the Caribbean and even Goetic. I don't worship these entities but venerate and/or work with them.

This second type of servitus is called "Dulia." We call this veneration given to the Catholic saints and other non-Christian deities and spirits.

Worshipping for Folk Catholics means complete obedience and observance to God's statutes. But if one just chooses to 'venerate and work with other spirits and deities, we are not required to obey their religious decrees and statutes conservatively and orthodoxly like their initiated devotees do.

But this does not mean one should blatantly ignore or completely disregard the deities' culture and tradition he is venerating. Because gods and spirits still prefer specific offerings, sacrifices, or veneration. Yes, 'veneration' is personal but also cultural and traditional. Every culture and tradition has its own system of veneration and beliefs. Your actions and materials in venerating should comply with the deities' cultural and traditional standards.

Some conjure men and practitioners, though, who are not Catholics but consider or identify themselves as Christians yet work with other deities and spirits uphold the African religious belief that the distant and unfathomable Supreme Creator is unconcerned with the affairs of humanity, as such, they must invoke the power and assistance of lesser spirits such as deities from other cultures, spirit guides, ancestral spirits, folk saints and even Catholic Church saints for intercession. I know many Protestant Christian Hoodoo practitioners working with St. Expedite and St. Cyprian of Antioch, with deities such as Shiva and Mercury, with intermediaries spirits such as Baron Samedi and Mami Wata, and with folk saints such as Santa Muerte and San Simon.

A private altar to Jesus and Shiva in the home of a Christian Spiritualist worker. (Photo courtesy of catherine yronwode, Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers)

So, you see, worship and veneration are two different things. Worship (Latria) is the service given to God alone. At the same time, veneration (Dulia) is a service that is different in nature and degree from that given to God because it is paid to the saints, angels, non-Christian deities and spirits, and even demons.

Conjure doctor/shaman's working altar to St. Expedite. (Photo courtesy of Ariel Marzan)

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.