Seekin' Ritual ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

The Geechee ceremony of "Seekin'" is defined by Gullah community leader Emory Campbell as "a traditional Gullah ritual to become a member of the church: to meditate for a period of time, which nightly dreams are recalled and told to a spiritual leader for interpretation, a sacred place in the forest is visited three times daily – for day, midday and evening in determining eligibility for Baptism and subsequently church membership."

Seekin' ritual is similar to coming-of-age ceremonies or transitional rites of passage in West and Central African secret societies, which were later adopted by the Gullah spiritual leaders and Church ministers and combined with Christianity.

Hoodoo tradition does not demand that all would-be practitioners must undergo this ceremony. Old and experienced rootworkers already explained that anyone who faithfully believes in Jesus and reads the Bible earns a proper place in Conjure and Rootwork; however, since the Gullah people were the ones who retained the practices of their West African ancestors, including this ceremony, which is now collectively known as African-American Hoodoo, then I believe there's nothing wrong if those who practice the said folk spirituality go through it as well.

The practice of Seekin' came from, as mentioned above, Central West Africa. The traditional African coming-of-age rituals have been seen as consisting of three main phases:

Separation from the community - initiates are physically removed from the community and taken to the 'bush,' which is typically very distant from the village. During this time, initiates usually do soul searching and self-reflection.
Transition period - initiates learn the skills necessary to participate in society as adults, often involving various tests and ordeals, many painful, such as circumcision and tattooing, while others are death-defying activities. A supreme trial culminates the rite.
Reincorporation into society - initiates are reintegrated through public ceremonies and celebrations and reintroduced to the community as adults.

Other rituals incorporated in coming-of-age ceremonies varied from one ethnic group to another. Seekin' tradition, according to some historians, is actually derived from the initiatory rites of specific societies or organizations called Poro and Sande, introduced by Vai and Gola people (possible source for the name of the Gullah people) to some tribes such as Mende and Kpelle tribes (who were all at some point settled in Low Country region). Membership in such a fraternity or sorority is not just a custom but a necessity. This is where adolescents learn about their law, proper sexual conduct, agriculture, housekeeping, and the military.

On a deeper level, just as the bodies of the young initiates are growing and changing, their minds, hearts, and souls are also growing and evolving. A new level of the soul comes into awareness at this time. This is when moral awareness and sensitivity fully develop, enabling young people to take responsibility for their actions, marking the transition from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to maturity.

One's actions after reaching this stage of life are considered more significant for another reason: the customs and precepts are being observed and performed because he understands that he is bounded by sacred tradition passed down from generation to generation within his own society, is considered more significant than tradition observed by preference. This is because a person naturally dislikes fulfilling an obligation or requirement. Overcoming this aversion is a sign of maturity.

During the slavery era, many slaves were stripped of their native belief systems, such as the coming-of-age rites, and denied a free religious practice. Slaves managed to hang on to some traditions, especially those in plantation areas, where some organized underground churches and hidden spiritual assemblies, where slaves were unrestricted to integrate their traditional African beliefs into Christian worship and service.

Methodist denomination was primarily practiced during the 19th century in Low Country and Sea Islands. Black Methodist ministers who were taught to ask those who were being initiated into Christianity to 'seek Jesus' embraced the African transitional rites of passage and devised a unique interpretation of seeking Jesus, which most Black Baptists nowadays accepted as evidence of Christian conversion.

Seekin' ritual in Gullah tradition is also a three-step process:

Become part of the congregation - seekers are urged to participate in Church services and shun all social or worldly pleasures.
Communicate with ancestors and spirit guides - with the aid of the elder in the community or the chosen spiritual parent who is usually pointed out in a dream, seekers learn how to commune with their ancestors and spirit guides to ask for wisdom, guidance, and protection.
Separation from the community - seekers are asked to fast and 'go into the wilderness' (graveyards, marshes, and cotton or cornfields), where visions and divine messages usually are perceived through spiritual travel.

Aside from those processes, initiation involves fasting and ordeals accompanied by the learning of dream lore, conjure, and remedies. According to American sociologist and folklorist Newbell Niles Puckett, one initiation procedure required that the seekers drink a pint of Whiskey mixed with rainwater-steeped bark gathered from two small saplings which rubbed together in the wind.

Customarily, during the initiatory rite, as one elder said: one needs to 'sacrifice.' To the Western ear, this sounds like a drastic action, but is there a reason for what the African ancestors did? And where did they find the strength to lay down their lives for their tradition?

Aside from the fact that this ceremony is believed among the Geechee folks as an act of maturation with the intention of the seeker becoming a vital part of the Black Christian community, the reason why other folks still practice it is to show their strong drive to find purpose in life and to make a difference. We see that a Gullah mother will send her beloved son off to the wilderness and sleep there at night - with the genuine risk of danger - because she believes in the moral purpose of the cause.

Elders advise the seekers to find a meaningful cause that they would forfeit their temporal life for it during the isolation period. Because if one does not know what he is willing to die for, then one has not begun to live. If one does not have meaning in his life, even with all the physical enjoyment, bliss, and pleasure, he will feel that something is missing.

This is the primary purpose of Seekin'. Because when one goes ahead and 'lives' for the cause he has found, it is with unparalleled power and pleasure.

So what are these causes?

The world takes for granted values - belief in Almighty God, respect for the elders and ancestors, unconditional love and humility, justice for all, equality, coexistence, the preciousness of life, etc. So though Africans were seized, enslaved, oppressed, persecuted, and beaten, in the process, they had to proclaim their 'faith' and 'hope' in God's providence. This is an enormous impact, and they accomplished it under the most adverse conditions.

Adherence to these ideals is only possible by a tenacious commitment to African cultural heritage preservation and Church service. Without their unwavering dedication to them, Gullah folks could never have made an impact today. When faced with challenges, one should know he has to fight to keep the Afro-Christian message alive.

A Gullah folk from Georgia once revealed the secret of her greatness. She said: "W'en uh bin 18, Uh mek recishun to gitt'ru de akshun of Seekin' ritual. Uh tek'um all of Gullah' en Christian t'aw't 'en practice, 'en emptied muhself of eh. Uh dun top obserbin' warruh my ancestors taught me. Uh pit eb'ryt'ing on de tubble so uh could stan at eh. Uh stan at ring shout, fuh sample, en quizzit muhself: Warruh dis? Hu do uh relate to eh? Warruh aspects do uh' admire, and wich'n side do'n uh onduhstan?" She continued: "Uh needed to grow up en become my'own pusson. De ritual mek my'own fait' in Chryse en convictions strong en unshakable. Uh know'um who uh 'em, en mo' portun'ly, wuffuh uh'm libbin fuh." (When I was 18, I made a decision to undergo the process of the Seekin' ritual. I took all of the Gullah and Christian thought and practice and emptied myself of it. I did not stop observing what my ancestors taught me. I put everything on the table so I could look at it. For example, I looked at the ring shout and asked myself: What is this? How do I relate to it? What aspects do I admire, and which side don't I understand. I needed to grow up and become my own person. The ritual made my faith in Christ and my convictions strong and unshakable. I know who I am and, more importantly, what I am living for.)

That being said, I suppose it is a good practice for us practitioners of African-American folk magic to seek our cause as well. And also, to ask these questions to ourselves: What is the value of conjuring, belting hymns and spirituals before our altar, practicing rootwork and herbalism, making charms and power objects, and helping people to find a resolution to their problems?

Why be a rootworker?

When they came of age, young folks would live out by themselves in nature and seek their cause.

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.