How About Nonconsensual, Manipulative And Execration Spells? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

How About Nonconsensual, Manipulative And Execration Spells?

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 for a conjure worker to cast a spell on someone without their permission?

Every practitioner has to come to their own terms on permission, consent, and such. However, unlike in many Neo-pagan traditions, one rather extreme answer that a practitioner of Hoodoo would give to you would be: "not at all."

A less extreme position would be that while casting spells against other people's will is always pro-tanto wrong, other moral, spiritual, and divinatory considerations can sometimes outweigh the pro-tanto wrongness of manipulative or nonconsensual magic. People from different religious and magical traditions might think it is always wrong. Nonetheless, in Hoodoo tradition, conjure workers are known to weave spells or put roots on someone even if their target doesn't know they're being worked on.

Some countervailing moral factors might sometimes suffice to justify casting spells against others' will on balance. What might such factors include? One obvious candidate would be consequences. For example, the fact that a mother's successful manipulation of her son's resistant attitude and disreputable behavior through the Cast Off Evil spell would save her boy's life. Other factors might also be thought to be countervailing considerations like the intentions. Perhaps the immorality of the son's character, or the fact that he is acting on an evil desire or intent, is a countervailing factor that can outweigh the wrongness of his mother's manipulation.

So are we admitting that manipulation is wrong? Yes, to a certain extent.

In the Hoodoo tradition, we believe that God is also the source of wrongness or evil. Fundamentalist Christians will say no. They argue that man's free will is the source of evil. But didn't God create our free will? And doesn't that make Him the ultimate source of evil? In Isaiah 45:7, God said, "I form light, I create darkness; I make well-being, I create woe; I, Adonai, do all these things." If God isn't the source of evil, what can the Scriptures possibly mean when it tells us that "an evil spirit from God" came upon King Saul (I Samuel 18:10)? Even the prophet Jeremiah declared in Lamentations 3:38 (KJV), that "both bad things and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High?"

Vamoose! Hot Foot Spell could cause enemies, ex-lovers, and unwanted people to leave you alone and never return. We use traditional conjure supplies such as hot foot powder, red fire ants, and peppers to set your adversaries' feet on fire and drive them away and graveyard dirt to make the spirits haunt their minds. Annoying people and troublemakers won't linger long with hot foot spell on the job!

Biblically speaking, evil is an expression of the Divine and an aspect of our interrelation with the spiritual world. There is 'evil' in the sense of manipulation, execration, destruction, revenge, or violence – in other words, those aspects of existence in this world that we consider 'bad' or 'wrong' because they hurt us or inconvenience us in some way.

If God employs wrongness or evil in His actions, it is always for a virtuous purpose within the all-embracing scheme of His eternal and sovereign plan. For instance, He sometimes uses affliction to compel people to seek His face (Hosea 5:15). Similarly, He works all things, including trials and troubles, "together for good to those who love [Him]" (Romans 8:28). Humans are created in His own image. Just like Him, we may have any number of reasons for weaving evil, even destruction, and damnation, into the fabric of other individuals' experiences. Calling these actions immoral would mean that God is corrupt too. We are just imitating how the Divine works.

Good and evil, blessings and curses stem from the Divine. God is the sole source of all and is the essence of both good and evil. There is no other force independent from Him. Even a Hoodoo practitioner from the book, Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft, and Rootwork by Harry Middleton Hyatt, explained that:

"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.)

In the words of my mentor: "Good and evil descend from heaven. Good can be experienced only as such in our lives. Evil can emerge too from the Supernal One, but actually, it is a concealed good - a good that is subject to how we choose to receive and experience it. God and our willpower can change these heavenly blessings into curses, to subvert these positive energies into negative forces."

So, does it mean even cursing is good?

My mentors explained that even for specific human suffering, which is, in fact, a curse from the Divine and inflicted by His emissaries (destructive angels or demons), one must distinguish between Divine motivation in cursing and human dualistic motivations in punishing. A high percentage of humans punishing behavior is egocentric. With God, all curses are educational. Sometimes losing wealth moves a person forward spiritually. Sometimes a health crisis moves a person forward. These kinds of sufferings are opportunities given by God with the aid of some spiritual adversaries to shake oneself out of behaviors that have become second nature.

As conjure workers, this is how we should operate as well. Our cursing should be educational too. When cursing, we can discover how much ego is involved in human reactions. Intuitively, we know that our cursing or punishing behavior, as mentioned, is egocentric. We should never indulge in egocentric punishment. However, our anthropomorphic concepts of God and the spirit world often project this accusation onto the Divine and the spirits. This should not be the case at all.

In human punishment, there is usually a significant element: "You did something bad; therefore, you should suffer." In Divine or spiritual punishing, the approach is always, "You did something bad. Therefore you must learn your lesson so you will not repeat such actions." In this way, the 'evil' that we are employing in our works, or rather the 'concealed good,' is already being experienced as something other than an expression of the Divine loving relationship with humans.

By contrast, some might still hold that nonconsensual, manipulative, and execration spells are always immoral based on first impressions. And even though some acknowledge that sometimes manipulative or destructive response is a must, they still opt to stay neutral on this kind of topic. But this presumption can be defeated in some situations through reliable spirit communication and virtuous divination. When the presumption is defeated, manipulation or cursing is not considered a sin. On this view, we might say that while manipulative or execration magic is usually wrong, it is not wrong at all in some scenarios. We do not perform any kind of spell or spiritual work without consulting our spiritual community first through any divinatory methods.

It's merely a question of intent; do you want to 'defend' someone against something unjustifiable or 'attack' the cruel cause?

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, cruelty, and bigotry, you have chosen the oppressor's side. Suppose an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral for the sake of your peace of mind because you believe nonconsensual and manipulative magic is unethical. In that case, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

In some cases, even if it is not wrong on balance to cast spells on someone without their consent, it would still be morally preferable to avoid it in favor of some other, ethically legitimate form of influence. However, it should always be noted that whether a given instance is immoral will always depend on the facts of the situation, the spirit's advice, and the divinatory result or outcome, and the term itself includes (or should include) no presumption one way or the other.

Bend Over is a spell that is said to subjugate the will of another person so that they will greatly wish to please you, will do as you say, and will be more generous and flexible, without causing a confrontation of wills and arguments or disagreements with one another.

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.