Can Rootworkers Use Synthetic Chemicals In Their Practice? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

Can Rootworkers Use Synthetic Chemicals In Their Practice?

Spiritual supplies with synthetic chemicals, artificial compounds, and toxic substances (petroleum jelly is used for burns and for creating herbal ointments; Florida Water cologne which is widely used for cleansing, has denatured alcohol as its base ingredient; artificial turpentine is used for blessing and purification as well; Pine-Sol is a household and Hoodoo cleaning product that contains abrasive chemicals such as alkyl alcohol ethoxylates and sodium sulfonate; and mineral oils which are traditionally used in making dressing oils for enemy works).

If a synthetic (as opposed to natural) chemical is available and handy, we can always find ways to convert it into something magically useful. Hoodoo magic is about using what we have on hand to empower our desires and intentions, and I believe there's a bit of magic in everything.

Everything around us, natural or man-made, is essentially a result of our mental boundaries. In other words, we sustain the continued existence and the image of things because we only think of them that way. For instance, even though a lot of magical books out there discourage the use of synthetic fragrance oils since most people look at them as mere imitations of the natural essences of herbs and flowers, I still look at them as sources of magical energy that can be used into any spiritual supply we want to produce and can cause changes within oneself.

Yes! I agree that back in the day, condition oils were mainly created with natural essential oils and organic leaves, roots, flowers, and bark, but that was simply because they had no choice but to use natural ingredients. However, with the rise of laboratory-made fragrances, conjure workers began to use them as substitutes for natural essential oils for reasons of economy. Remember that Hoodoo is folk magic of a community that lived frugally due to widespread economic discrimination and hardship, so it would be impractical to buy expensive ingredients for their spiritual supplies.

I believe if a folk magic practitioner wants to make his own conjure oil and essential oils are beyond his financial reach, then he is justified to use fragrance oils as long as he will add some plant matter to the blend. However, if the herbs are similarly expensive as the oils, one can use whatever herbs he has locally or anything readily available. As for the record, it is customary for Hoodoo workers to rethink and retool their workings as even their slave ancestors, when they were brought to the New World, substituted a lot of things as they had no more extended access to the magical and spiritual ingredients and tools that were abundant in Africa. I think the problem here comes from introducing the concept of recipes. We all have to understand that each rootworker or each family has its own formulas that pass from one generation to another. So one person may include five-finger grass in his Fast Luck oil while the other may add ground nutmeg in his own version, even though its original recipe does not have any of the aforementioned herbs.

Old-fashioned conjure oils where rootworkers only soak the herbs in their base oils.

Also, herbs and roots are essential in condition oils. When African-Americans were still enslaved, down-home rootworkers only soaked dried leaves and root chips in a carrier oil (mostly cooking oil) and used that as-is as a dressing oil on their candles and anointing oil on people. The use of essential oils just occurred during the time when enslaved Africans began working as hairdressers, barbers, and make-up artists in parlors. Retailers of hair-care and cosmetic products knew about aromatic oils, and this was only reinforced when Jewish folks began to market and sell condition oils, as most customers demanded the strong scent of the herbs or roots in oil. Hence, folks added herbal essences to provide their distinctly volatile and ethereal aroma.

Magic in Hoodoo refers to the mind and spirits cooperating with the material plane or the body to manifest certain activities. Magic works depending on what we seek as its deal or as our guide. Like I said a while ago, everything has magic, and the magical properties of the objects are only manifestations of the spirit forces crying out for expression.

That being said, I believe it doesn't matter at all what oil one uses and has. It doesn't matter if a simple conjure worker uses synthetic oils while I use unadulterated essential oils. Both of them I consider genuine spiritual supplies, just like how most conjure workers treat synthetic chemicals such as some household cleansing solutions (like Pine-Sol and Murphy's Oil Soap), toilet waters (like Florida Water and Kananga Water), laundry bluing (like Mrs. Stewart's Liquid Bluing and Reckitt's Crown Blue), petroleum jelly (like Vaseline), lye (like Red Devil Lye), mineral oil and even aerosol sprays as genuine spiritual supplies, in which we can channel the forces and our energies to draw the effects for our intents and desires. Both of them can give an extra boost to one's magic. But the true magic comes from within and from the Spirits.

This belief that all things are good to use, both mundane and magic, has freed me from misconception; the idea that only this object is appropriate (because the book says so) and all the rest are inappropriate.

I believe that magic is in everything; there's magic in herbal essences, and there's magic, too, in other sorts of aromas.

In our case, as we have developed our own unique conjure oils, the Tim + Neal condition oil collection contains genuine essential oils and fragrance oils, and organic dried herbs and roots.

Our very own condition oils.

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.