To Pray Or Not To Pray? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

To Pray Or Not To Pray?

That is the question.

While God makes all spells work, sometimes they work differently because we may ask for the wrong thing without realizing it. A good parent will not lend the car keys to a teenager who does not yet know how to drive. All the pleadings or even sacrifices in the world will not get a good parent to change his mind.

But Hoodoo or conjure is our opportunity to move beyond these limitations. Conjure comes from the Latin word "conjurare," which means to plot, form an alliance, act together, or join an oath. When we perform conjure works, we are actually plotting, forming an alliance, or joining an oath with whom? To the spirits and also to God. This process means that we have a relationship with the spirit world.

Hoodoo or conjure work always involves a sincere prayer. And I was taught that it should always start by praising God, ancestors, and spirit guides. One purpose of this praise is to sensitize us to the spirit world's capacity to help. We take the time to recognize and appreciate all they do for us.

And they do so much! We know that our parents love us because of all they've given us, yet if one just knows how to have a working relationship with the spirits, they can give him infinitely more valuable gifts.

That's why when I pray when doing work on behalf of others, I begin with blessings that acknowledge what I possess, which my clients lack. These awaken my appreciation for all the gifts the spirit world has bestowed upon me and remind me how much the spirit world is so 'alive.' When we appreciate what we have, the spirits will want to give us more, even on behalf of others.

Suppose a spell (performed on behalf of a client) works. In that case, I ask him to make a thanksgiving offering that is brought to his perspective of Church and community, which he then eats as a festive meal in commemoration of having been saved from a dire situation.

Usually, I ask them to offer an enormous quantity of food, and all must be consumed within a concise amount of time - less than 24 hours. The reason for this, as my mentor explained to me, is that God wants to create a situation whereby someone will not only appreciate his good fortune but will share that appreciation with others. With all this food to eat, he will be compelled to invite family and friends to share the story of how God grants his prayers and how the spirits work for him.

Publicizing the spirits' works is how we strengthen our connection and belief. This is the reason why most rootworkers nowadays post their spellwork online or make public sanctification of the Catholic or folk saints' name and God's name.

To build a relationship with your spiritual community, you'll need a framework for the connection. Saturday or Sunday are good times to reduce the outside static and connect with your inner self and spirit world. You could invite some friends over, prepare a nice meal, light some candles, pray or devote yourself together, go to nature, study the culture of your ancestors, practice conjure and just enjoy the solitude.

As for the prayer aspect: Any relationship is built on communication, and communication has to come from the heart. The spirit world yearns to give us the pleasure of connection. You can pray in any language - aloud. To all those aspiring Hoodoo practitioners, always remember that prayers, speech, or songs are essential components of Hoodoo spell-casting. I learned how to pray from Black Baptist preachers and deacons, but most of the time, I vary when it comes to praying. I more or less work in speech style rather than in song.

But to help you start, here's a sample prayer demonstrated by Hasan Green. This is how most conjure doctors from the South pray and start their Hoodoo work:

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.