Catnip Leaves ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

nepeta cataria

This herb is called a woman's love ally because it is said to make women desirable and enticing to potential lovers. The leaves and stems of the catnip plant contain a substance called 'nepetalactones,' which mimic pheromones in a cat. This chemical reaction gives a cat a sense of euphoria and overwhelming happiness when it smells. Because of its effect, people say that if a woman carries catnip on her or burns it with sweet-smelling incense such as coconut, lotus, and vanilla, the man she likes will be attracted to her like a feline to a catnip plant.

Some conjure doctors advise their clients to mix some catnip with menstrual blood or vaginal fluid and sprinkle it at the four corners of the bed to get her a sex partner. While some folks brew the leaves with raspberry leaves and use the tea water, they are told to wash their armpit and private part with it, collect the rinse water and sprinkle it in the man's food or mix it in his drink (preferably, alcoholic beverages) to seduce them.

It is also traditional to use catnip in love baths to increase vanity, allure, and physical beauty. A love bath with catnip, raspberry, and rose petals before going out for a date is a good idea. Put the said herbs into a quart of boiling water and let it steep for nine minutes. Strain the leaves, let the liquid cool, and add it to your bathwater. Then start washing, beginning at your feet and working up to your head while concentrating on your desires and speaking aloud the name of the man. One may add catnip powder to her make-up, astringent powder, perfume, or cologne.

Those who are into candle magic employ the herb by soaking it in Whiskey or Kananga Water and sprinkling the liquid at the front of their house every day for 21 days. Each day, light red, pink, and violet candles in front of your loved one's photo with a man's name carved on the candles.

For health benefits, sip this relaxing, minty brew after dinner or a heavy meal to encourage healthy digestion. It can also help folks to quiet their nerves, helps their body unwind, and promotes restful sleep. This is a good trick you can try when dealing with a difficult husband or male lover. Serve him a catnip tea before performing a spell on him!

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.