What Is Spiritual Power And How Do You Know You Have It? ~ Filipino Conjure & Rootwork

What Is Spiritual Power And How Do You Know You Have It?

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 buffoonery and tomfoolery.

The Hebrew word for prayer is "tefillah," from a root word that means 'to judge oneself.' I was taught that this signifies the examination of not only one's actions but also one's beliefs. We can always surrender each day all our actions and beliefs we interfered with the previous day and ask for a pearl of wisdom to see them in a higher light that we can use for the following days.

Each day, we can ask God and the spirits to help us be open to new views, meet essential people, and be able to hear more deeply what they have to share with us. As soon as we establish contact with our spiritual community through our prayers and devotions, we learn how to accept our mistakes and correct ourselves to be filled with spiritual light. This illumination, this spiritual light, is the true power that the Spirits can bestow upon us when we finally understand both righteousness and wickedness, or both good and evil paths, so to speak.

Anyone can also be 'empowered' regardless of whether he is a "Babaylan," a Hoodoo practitioner, a Tantric guru, or Theistic Satanist. True power is not based on what one is practicing.

So do we all have power? Yes, we do. But the workings of this power in our life depend on how we live. If you spend most of your time assassinating one's character to others just to show dominance, then that power you thought you already had is purely delusional.

Let us, therefore, commit ourselves to use our mind and soul to probe, investigate and research the depths of God and the spirits, surrender into the Higher Voice that speaks a greater truth, so that we may reach the level of a complete, wholehearted 'POWER' rather than using your mind and mouth to think and speak of accusations, insults, and lies you would throw to those who you feel are inferior to you.

Prayer and devotion are the source of one's power, not ego. (Photo courtesy of Dr. U-Wen Low)

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.