Hoodoo is a well-recognized magical tradition that condones, tolerates, and even sometimes promotes nonconsensual spells. Its adherents even utilize and prescribe spiritual supplies for domination, control, and enemy works. Because of this, it is very likely for people to question if it is unethical...
A cut piece of clothing from the target's shirt was made into a packet charm. Hoodoo packet charms, or some people from the Deep South called 'package,' are magical amulets that root doctors make during spell workings or rituals. These curious objects have evolved from Kongo fetishes called "nkisi...
homo sapiensThe employment of human bones has a long history in African and African-American folk magic. Just as the skull is emblematic of the mind, so are the fingers symbolic of getting, clasping, holding, and keeping something that the conjurer wants; and of the facility in specific creative fields,...
True power has to find its source in prayer and devotion to God and our spiritual community (spirit guides, ancestors, guardian angels, patron saints, etc.), not from other people. If you believe that your self-proclaimed master is giving you power such as telepathy or telekinesis, then that's plain...
cimicifuga racemosa, cimicifuga serpentariaAlso known as black cohosh root, it has tall white feathery racemes or flower spikes and thick knobby roots that resemble rattlesnake's rattle or scorpion sting; that is why it is also called rattlesnake root. It is highly protective and lucky. Hoodoo...
Folk Judeo-Christian magic is hard to imagine without candles. We use them often for a variety of spiritual and magical purposes. This week, for example, we did our traditional ancestral veneration, and for hours a memorial candle shed its light in our home to remind us of their ongoing presence in...
Coins, especially old ones or coins passed down from generation to generation; old coins from other countries; and non-monetary metal tokens are considered lucky in Hoodoo. But, there is a particular preference for the Mercury dime, silver dime, or Winged Liberty Head dime among experienced conjure...
In many magical traditions from different cultures, both ancient and modern, the concept of sympathetic magic plays a crucial role. Scottish social anthropologist James Frazer distinguished between the two fundamental types of sympathetic magic - the imitative and contagious. For him, the first type,...
Pebbles soaked in conjure oil and chalk dusted with conjure powder are employed for this trick. The small white pebbles are arranged in a cruciform pattern, while wavy snake lines are drawn on the ground using the dusted chalk. The trick that I personally laid down, which I shared above, is an...
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.
