How Can We Recognize A True Spiritual Worker? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

How Can We Recognize A True Spiritual Worker?

The hallmark of false practitioners is to share with other people, not necessarily spiritual truths but rather their opinions, vendetta, personal accusations, and altercations. Unfortunately, these types are often successful because people don't bother to check the character of the individuals speaking and the spiritual paths these people are following for themselves.

For clients, patients, beginners in magic and esoterica, and experienced practitioners alike, it is critically important to have clear guidelines for accepting a spiritual worker as authentic and when not. Cruise the social media sites, and you will see endless arguments and fights among practitioners from different religions and spiritual paths and various self-proclaimed teachers, each making endless charges and allegations that are often unfounded and based on mere opinion instead of genuine non-religious spirituality.

So, we ask that as you read through this blog, please don't blindly believe what we espouse; rather, seek your spiritual community (spirit guides, angels, deities, Holy Spirit, or God) and use lots of discernment, and then make up your mind. It doesn't give us pleasure to expose charlatans and false practitioners and their teachings, actions, and works, but the thing is, unless someone explains WHY they are false, how can those new to this stuff possibly know what to watch out for?

False practitioners and charlatans are people who either want us to believe they have numerous 'special' capabilities or they are 'special' disciples, spiritual workers, or practitioners who have secret knowledge about God or different sorts of spirituality to impart to other folks - even though what they espouse, practice and do spiritually and mundanely doesn't line up with what their religions and/or paths are upholding. Especially heinous are the self-proclaimed priests/priestess and masters who insist on collecting money from their followers and devotees in exchange for promised or guaranteed fame and prosperity and those who have visions from different spirits and deities telling folks to stay away from other people or risk danger - things we already know, packaged in new verbiage. False practitioners also include those who twist immemorial disciplines, observances, customs, rites, ceremonies, and practices to suit their agendas, such as the irreverent rantings and bashings against other practitioners who try to restore or just even retain the age-old traditions and belief systems. The problem is many falls for nonsense like this.

Harriet Tubman, also known as Mama Moses, was a virtuous woman of Conjure. Born into slavery around 1820. Eventually, finding freedom after escaping to Philadelphia. She worked to free other slaves in the Underground Railroad as she utilized her spiritual gift of having psychic visions and lucid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God.

Like Christianity, the Hoodoo and esoteric community, in general, are severely splintered because, once some people find their way to these paths, they suddenly believe themselves to be all-knowing experts and scholars! Consequently, instead of simply coming together to discuss the beauty of Hoodoo or any other spiritual and magical paths, they sit around arguing or giving you tongue-lashing over many topics according to their respective thinking… on and on, it goes ad nauseum!

One of the saddest things about the community today is that people have resorted to bigotry and personal assault tactics when disagreeing with others. And instead of employing the method of taking a couple of witnesses to discuss with people respectfully, they simply post vicious gossip and slander all over the internet in hopes of turning others against them. You will know these types when you come across them because they stand out like sore thumbs!

Folks, please continue to be aware of lies and deceptions offered by the many false practitioners and charlatans today, and begin exploring and walking your path for yourself, WITH RESPECT! Stop following 'man' and start following your spiritual community - your guides and Highest Ideals; nothing else matters. If something doesn't align perfectly with your higher consciousness, it isn't of your God.

Spiritual gifts also do not descend on a person out of anywhere. It is a level of communion with the spiritual world only attainable to psychically attuned, right-minded, and spiritually principled individuals, and even for them only after long periods of intense preparation. As a result, we will only entertain that a person is a genuine spiritual worker if he is known to be virtuous – a person who is never ruled by his inclinations and/or grudges.

We certainly do not wish nor have the right to sit in judgment of anyone, and we do not want to sound self-righteous and pretentious either. Still, as spiritual practitioners, we must live by the guidance of our Spirits and not be afraid to point out when individuals speak or behave in a way that blatantly disrespects and deceives others. Of course, we all fall short of the glory of God and are guilty of committing sins, but we should never downplay the seriousness of those sins!

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.