Do Conjure Doctors Believe In Karma? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

Do Conjure Doctors Believe In Karma?

Personally, I believe there is no randomness in the universe, and human conduct sets mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual forces that eventually materialize in physical effects, manifesting their consequences.

My belief, however, as a Hoodoo practitioner, differs from the Eastern 'Law of Karma' or the Wiccan' Threefold Law' in significant ways. First, the Eastern belief about the 'Law of Karma' is strictly personal; an individual who rapes someone would be raped too, in this incarnation or the next. On the other hand, Wiccan's Threefold Law has a more radical approach, as anything you do is believed to come back to you three times. The individual's rudeness will revolve back only on himself. It can't cause others to suffer and it can't force other consequences. Many people DO believe in it, and it works for them, but the concept doesn't resonate with me as a conjure worker.

In Hoodoo, it credits our actions with a much broader effect. For instance, a person who performs a Money Drawing spell could cause someone to lose money, or a person who does a Cast Off Evil work for his alcoholism may avert a massive auto accident. The spiritual or energetic channels of effect run far below the surface, sometimes untraceable but powerful.

We believe in every choice we make; there's a fair consequence, whether pleasurable or not.

A second significant difference is that karma is irrevocable; a misdeed once committed is, as they say in Oriental teachings, like the tusks of an elephant; it can't be retracted. Hence, the sum of a person's actions in his current and previous lifetimes determines his destiny in his future existence. I personally believe it's inexorable if one doesn't do something about it. On the contrary, since most Hoodoo practitioners are Folk Christians, we accept the concept of repentance and correction, meaning we can admit, regret, forget, and change our mode of conduct. When we do, past actions are spiritually erased. As laid out by my mentor, this process of repentance includes three stages: confession, regret, and a vow not to repeat the misdeed. The true penitent, as my mentor says, is the one who finds himself with the opportunity to commit the same sin or crime again yet declines to do so. Suppose he does it again, in this case, he has a serious problem, and a severe consequence of his action is awaiting.

This concept also resonates with traditional African beliefs; some priests from Yoruba, Igbo, and Ewe do spiritual readings and use verses from their sacred literary corpus to look for particular patterns or mistakes in past and present lives. Once found and interpreted, the priests can guide people in the right direction and fix or correct the issues or problems to prevent them from reoccurring. This priestly guidance not only gives verbal and ceremonial advice but also offers recommendations that can be performed by themselves or on their behalf. In West African spiritual paths, it is believed that humans are not given destiny by God; humans choose their own destiny. They just forget their chosen fate and past lives as soon as they are conceived. This traditional impression provides a good reason why humans can alter parts of their destiny through ceremonies and offerings. The ancient African belief concerning destiny was eventually assimilated into the Hoodoo tradition. Thus, a skilled conjurer can dramatically change a person's fate through natural magic and spirituality. This means a Hoodoo practitioner can destroy someone's life by conjuring destruction onto them or protect a person's destiny from other forces trying to change it. Divination is utilized to know a person's destiny. Through what some practitioners call psychic or spiritual diagnosis, divination is also used to know what rituals should be performed and what charms should be worn to protect or alter a person's destiny.

And so that's it! I reckon most Hoodoo practitioners will agree that there is no such thing as a cosmic tally system that keeps track of our good and evil deeds in our tradition. That idea doesn't make much sense to us.

Regarding the application of karma in our magical workings, conjure workers and root doctors DO NOT believe in karmic backfiring. Hoodoo practitioners bless and curse, just like the God in the Bible. Conjure men and women are known to use the Bible and God Himself for both blessing and cursing justice and revenge, and healing and infliction. One can use certain Psalms and biblical verses for these kinds of work.

I heard people saying it is not Christian to do such a thing. For the Fundamentalists, perhaps, because even Jesus once cursed a barren fig tree. Folk Christian exegesis regarding this parable includes giving us the authority to condemn those who are wicked and fruitless. Catholic Hoodoo practitioners even invoke the powers and assistance of hot saints such as St. Rita for revenge, St. Martha for domination, St. Raymond Nonnatus to shut up one's enemies, St. Cyprian of Antioch to curse one's enemies, and a whole lot more. Even Jesus can be called unto when doing justified enemy works. Christ demonstrated violence when provoked to genuine anger when He cleared the temple of the moneychangers and animal sellers (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-18; John 2:13-22). Baptist exhortation sermons are also available, which some Protestant Hoodoo workers use as curses when doing enemy works. A popular one is called Hitler and Hell, recorded by African-American preacher Reverend J. M. Gates during World War II.

This is not a sign of an incompassionate heart. We are rooting our prayers on pure love for God, His statutes and methods, and compassion and dear to our clients who desperately need help. This is not to say that conjure workers are free to throw curses at random people. We refuse to do a job if it is deemed unjust in the eyes of God through divination.

When people don't want to shut their mouths and mind their own business, the good old beef tongue shut-up work is handy. The cow's tongue represents the enemy's evil tongue, and the spell uses obvious symbolism to sew and tie that tongue up and stop them from slandering or bad-mouthing anyone! Experienced Hoodoo practitioners are encouraged to cast magic like this without fear of repercussions.

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.