What Is Will? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

The Magician in the tarot represents willpower and concentration. Factors we all need to acquire to succeed.

Will is a mental practice and spiritual power unique to us, a moral and spiritual application or exercise. But don't mistakenly think morality is the choice between 'good and evil.' Although some Hoodoo practitioners believe in duality, it is only exhibited by being 'in balance' or 'off-balance.' If one is off balance, some spiritual workers advise their clients to make offerings to the spirits to correct or fix their situation. Nevertheless, we are still responsible for our actions, and thus, we reap their consequences.

Everyone chooses to be 'good' - even the most sinister sorcerer and notorious mass murderer. Adolf Hitler, for instance, rationalized that the Jews, Africans, handicapped, homosexuals, and people against Nazis were the enemies of the world, so in his mind, he justified that as doing 'good.' Therefore, morality is the choice between 'creation and destruction' and not good versus evil. Such duality does not traditionally exist in Indigenous African spirituality and culture. Though most Hoodoo practitioners agree that cursing is harmful magic, we believe cursing is not inherently evil, irresponsible, or unethical because sometimes, harm must be used to help resolve a situation or move someone to a better place or position. One practitioner from the book, Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft, and Rootwork by Harry Middleton Hyatt, explained it as follows:

"In hoodooism, anythin' da' chew do is de plan of God undastan', God have somepin to do wit evah' thin' you do if it's good or bad, He's got somepin to do wit it ... jis what's fo' you, you'll git it." (In hoodooism, anything that you do is the plan of God, understand? God has something to do with everything you do, whether good or bad; he's got something to do with it... You'll get what's coming to you.)

Will is also more than mundane preferences. Picking up a basket and carrying it to the laundry room, wiggling your toes, and uprooting a tall tree out of the ground with bare hands is simply the exercise of mundane preference, just as the goat and sheep choose to eat grass instead of hay. In magic, it doesn't describe will in that way. A true will is the subconscious aspect of divinity that pushes us toward spiritual development. I agree that focused intention is represented through deliberate action, but we should distinguish it from personal preference.

Focusing on our will needs self-awareness - becoming aware of our decisions we are making. Decisions that could shape our lives and determine our fate. Decisions that affect the desired change in the course of events. It also demands 'self-evaluation.' This means we shouldn't remain bound to guidelines and determinations other people made years ago or even to ones we made yesterday. This also means examining our assumptions and ensuring they're ours and not someone else's. Will focusing also needs 'determination between body and soul'; make our body desire what the soul and mind want. Our bodies should go along with the soul. Yes, it demands deliberate action!

However, the problem is most people don't make their bodies like what their soul or mind wants. We'll achieve the highest form of living when this is our prime interest. We're focusing our will by merging with the most influential and powerful force in the universe: the Divine.

Attach our body to our mind and soul, and we'll be attached to our visualizations and dreams. If we can all do this, we'll be good conjure doctors.

Actually, it all starts with visualization. Many folks have a hard time doing this, so I know this is not as simple as many think. Our power of visualization is one of the most valuable abilities human beings have. With our ability to envision, we can develop every positive trait, state, pattern, and way of being we wish.

One might ask me, "so does it mean that if I mentally picture myself being, let's say... wealthy, and I can easily visualize a scene where I will certainly be able to feel rich and/or famous or whatever, it will happen?"

Well, my answer is true that will requires faith. I am aware most people assume that magic refers to blind faith. However, this isn't the case for us, practitioners of folk magic. I know some people seek a scientific explanation to the point that they make their own version of science. Most conjure workers, on the other hand, especially those in a rural areas, don't necessarily have to understand everything rationally because they have faith. Blind leaps of faith have nothing to do with knowledge; they are expressions of what one wants and desires to be accurate, not what is, in fact, necessarily true.

I assume most practitioners of conjure and rootwork would agree with me that our faith begins in God as spiritual faith, formed after challenging devotions, spiritual works, and even study and research. Ultimate contemplation of the spirit world and how they respond to the living helps us achieve this spiritual faith. Now, I just want to clarify that Hoodoo emphasizes willpower, so Hoodoo is believed to be accessible to any individual of faith (but it is still inseparably bound to Christianity, especially for the Southern practitioners).

Knowing in our soul or spirit how God and spirit work is the first step for us to have faith. After we readily acknowledge this, we can work on developing our intuition and slowly begin to feel it internally. Rather than pure intellectual belief, our faith should be defined as the act of knowing beyond any accepted reasons. It's the essential requirement of faith. And contrary to popular belief, one does not need to join or be part of any religion to have faith. Almost all conjure workers believe that faith is a very individual thing. It does not need to abide by or bow to religious rules established by religious leaders. One may practice his faith completely alone and follows no man.

With time and dedication, Hoodoo practitioners live a life permeated by faith. Faith is developed throughout many years and demands to be repeatedly contemplated. Intuition or clear knowing becomes essential when life throws us a wrecking ball which may cause us to lose balance and doubt that these perceived things are for the best.

Through our will, we choose whether to trust our intuition (despite any obstacles) or ignore it because of its seeming illogicality. Faith is a clear understanding that we can't explain and understand the totality of our intuition, but recognizing and accepting that everything serves a purpose despite this.

Once we know logically how God and spirits work for us based on our personal experience, and we've started practicing trusting our intuition regularly, we can now use our true will in magic. This faith gives us a sense of security, knowing that we're doing the right thing as our minds, emotions, and actions are individually directed and handled by our will.

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.