Conjure Craft: Hoodoo, Rootwork, and Conjuring for the 21st Century

Hoodoo History
Once upon a time, we were Africans, involved in a unique lexicon of beliefs, lore, stories, and customs designed to help integrate us into an environment filled with plants, animals, elements, and a complex array of spirits. With the advent of slavery, those who had stayed the longest severed the physical bond with the Motherland, but like seeds lifted from a flower by wind, we found fertile ground in distant lands. The freshly sown seeds took strongest hold in sunny climes reminiscent of our Motherland.

Separated physically, we remained united as brothers and sisters in spirit. The various hybrids of traditional African-based religions continue to thrive in coastal Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba in the form of Candomble, Shango, Lucumi, Umbanda, and Santeria. In Louisiana and Haiti, our spirituality thrives in the form of Vodoun. In the southern United States, Hoodoo took root in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Hoodoo was established during slavery using the types of plants available in the United States. Our knowledge of African herbalism was enhanced through the generosity of Native American tribes such as the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chocktaw, and Seminole, who understood our suffering intimately. Many Black Indians were the result of this interchange. The proof to this is within our recipes, appearance, and of course within Hoodoo.

With immigration and migrations of freed slaves in North and South America, the African-based religions spread from the older cultural centers of Bahia, Brazil; Havana, Cuba; and Yorubaland, West Africa. We settled in dynamic industrial centers such as New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Some of our traditional practices were transformed into systems that incorporated Catholicism. For example, the elaborate system of saints, priests and priestesses, deities, and ceremonies honored by Catholics is integrated into Santeria of Spanish-speaking countries and Vodoun in predominately French-speaking areas. Santeria, Shango, and Vodoun are unique blends of Western and non-Western religious rituals, ceremonies, prayers, invocations, and blessings, but they are also open to include the darker side of the world, including curses, hexes, and banishing.

Hoodoo and Candomble are primarily healing traditions involved with herbs, plants, roots, trees, animals, magnets, minerals, and natural waters combined with magical amulets, chants, ceremonies, rituals, and handmade power objects, which empower the practitioner to take control of his or her own fate rather than placing power in the hands of deities or religious leaders like priests or priestesses. Hoodoo and Candomble are distinctly American (North and South); therefore, they are multicultural and reflect strong links between various indigenous groups, the Judeo-Christianity of the dominant cultures, and West African magical and medicinal herbalism of the Yoruba, Fon, Ewe, and others.

Since Hoodoo is an American tradition widely practiced in the areas were my earliest American ancestors settled and mingled with Cherokee people and Chickasaw, it is the primary Africanism that was passed down to me. The word "Hoodoo," however, was seldom spoken by African Americans, though it was passed on. This eclectic collection of African holdovers survived the middle passage and slavery through songs, recipes, and rituals. Popularly called both hoodoo and voodoo by the uninformed, the term is of mysterious origins, most likely the creation of the media as an adulteration of Vodoun. The word "Hoodoo" wasn't spoken in my home, yet its tenets were evident in my upbringing. The term is a useful way to give form to the colorful and specific folkloric beliefs practiced by a wide range of believers, including the Gullah of people of Georgia and the Carolinas, black folk in major metropolitan areas, white folk of the Appalachians and other rural areas, European immigrants, and Native American groups, primarily from the southeastern coastal regions.

Since it is not a religion, Hoodoo has always been practiced by a variety of people. Its attractiveness lies in the fact that it is natural, non-dogmatic, and practical. Primary concerns include blessing the home and keeping the domestic environment running smoothly. Other concerns are gaining a faithful mate who is loving and doesn't cheat or abandon his or her spouse; general health and happiness; predicting the future; controlling people when necessary and freeing oneself or others from undesired control; using hexing and unhexing to alleviate situations; drawing luck in employment, career, school, prosperity, luck, and happiness; common concerns to humankind. It is also one of few paths that contains work that specifically addresses gay, lesbian, and bisexual people directly.

"Cultivating a great respect for nature is the ultimate goal of all the customs concerning the sacred wood."
—Excerpt from The Healing Drum by Yallo Diallo and Mitchell Hall

• Use but we don't abuse, cause pain, or destroy her gifts in the process
• Approach the Earth Mother as she exists today
• Shun overuse or neglect of nature, animals, the ocean, and fragile plants

• Listen to her whispers late at night under the light of the moon
• Hear her calls early in the morning carried on the wings of birds and butterflies
• Watch her sigh and undulate with the ebb and flow of the currents
• Seek out her advice when working herbs and roots
• Stay mindful that there are limitations to earthly gifts when tapping the source
• Open your eyes.
• Work with her and not against her.

1. Badgers:Badgers' teeth were and in some cases still are used in mojo bags. The badger is an awesome creature—low to the earth, adept at digging, and extremely aggressive when crossed. They are symbolic of the hunter/warrior spirit, since they can take on animals as ferocious as bears or dogs. There are about fifteen subspecies of badger in the Americas. In West Africa, there is the species Mellivora capensis, also called honey badger or ratel. These guys have a skunk-like appearance—they have brown or black fur with a distinct white, pale yellow, or gray covering on top. Honey badgers are found in the Ituri forest of Northern Zaire. A characteristic useful to consider regarding all species of badgers is that their skin is so tough that even a porcupine quill, African bee sting, or dog bite can barely penetrate their skin. They appear to be completely devoid of fear. They attack animals such as horses, antelope, cattle, even buffalo, although they are no larger than a raccoon.
   
   
2. Alligators and Crocodiles: Alligator teeth have been a component of mojo bags. Crocodiles are in a group of related reptiles called Crocodylidae who populate both the Americas and West Africa in the form of O. t. tetraspis and O.t osborni, also called West African Dwarf Crocodile and Congo Dwarf Crocodile. The American alligator and the West African Dwarf Crocodiles are crocodilians that share key characteristics admired by African warriors, hunters, and Hoodoos. Crocodiles are tough, tenacious, cunning, and difficult to penetrate.
   
   
3. Raccoons: Raccoons are omnivores whose species lives in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. There is a great deal of folklore surrounding the raccoon in Native American folklore. The name raccoon is derived from the Algonguin word arachun, or he who scratches himself. Other Native American words for raccoon indicate that they are considered witches, sorcerers, or demons. The raccoon is another cunning survivor that we admire. The penis of the raccoon is sought after for love draw magic.
   
   
4. Snakes: Snakes of various types have a prominent role in African myth, legend, and everyday life. The qualities of snake that are admired are its ability to survive on land and in the water; its ability to camouflage itself and blend quietly into its environment; its ability to hunt and eat much larger, more powerful prey; and the potency of its venom.
   
   Dr. Buzzard, a renowned Hoodoo, is remembered as someone who could implant snakes and other reptiles into his human victims with the power of his mind, handshake, or a blow of dust. This is a well-documented practice in Africa. Anthropologist and authors Paul Stroller and Cheryl Olkes document snake venom sorcery in their book, In Sorcery's Shadow (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London, 1987), centered around the Republic of Niger.
   
   The rattle of the rattlesnake is an emblem of ancient Egyptian Goddesses Hathor and Isis. Isis used her sistrum, a rattlesnake-like rattle, to motivate gods and humans, to become active rather than passive. Isis, or Auset as she was called in Egyptian, brought the cobra into being. Snakeskin and rattlesnake rattles are used in various Hoodoo formulas, including the infamous Gopher's Dust.

• Carnelian, garnet, or ruby stones or beads are representative of blood.
• Apple cider, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, or tomato juice is recommended instead of real blood in Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham (Llewellyn 1985).
• Fossilized bones offer another rich possibility, but my favorite of all is working with the generous purity within the life force of various animals. I companion and tend to four animals indoors and many wild creatures outside—all of which serve as spiritual companions and messengers.