HOODOO FOR BEGINNERS: A Practical Guide to African American Folk Magic (2023 Beginner Crash Course)

By Christopher Sims

Hoodoo for Beginners is a comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide for those interested in learning about African American folk magic. This book provides a detailed overview of hoodoo, its history, and its significance in African American culture.

• Discover the rich

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Sims
• Release date: Apr 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9783988312815

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

What is Hoodoo?

Hoodoo is a popular magic that originated among the African American population of the American South. It has a strong syncretic nature because it has elements from Africa, Europe, and Native America.

People who use Hoodoo are sometimes called rootworkers or root physicians, even though rootworking (magic work with herbs and roots) is just one part of this magical system, albeit an important one.

In the past, most people who practiced hoodoo were African-American, but there have been some well-known white root physicians. Enslaved Africans created Hoodoo in the southern United States. It is known to have existed in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Illinois. Hoodoo practitioners can now be found in every part of the United States with a sizable African-American population, particularly in the great cities of the West Coast and the North East.

Hoodoo is neither a religion nor a magical system tied to a single religious tradition, yet its practitioners are often Christians. Hoodoo doctors used to be nomadic, traveling from city to city and offering their services. Others settled down and started businesses that sold the wide range of items used in this magical system. Hoodoo is not a magical system limited to initiates. Several basic ideas and practices are now part of the folklore tradition in African American communities and, more generally, in the south of the United States.

The European and Euro-American magic tradition has influenced hoodoo through its grimoires, especially the Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses, a European grimoire that claims to be based on Jewish Kabbalah but has few points of contact with true Kabbalistic doctrine. It has a lot of signs, seals, and Hebrew verses that talk about how Moses could do miracles. Moses is said to have written this book, but the oldest copy is from the middle of the nineteenth century. Hoodoo practitioners don’t usually do the rituals in this grimoire, but they use many symbols and marks.

John George Hohman’s Pow Wows or Long Lost Friend is another piece of writing that has influenced hoodoo. It is a collection of spells that was first published in 1820 and is based on the traditional magic of the Pennsylvania Dutch. This book was given to the hoodoo community in the early 1900s via mail-order catalogs of magical objects (a practice that continues today in both its classical form and through internet commerce) and has since become a classic hoodoo reference. In reality, Hohman’s spells are full of Christian symbols and prayers, which makes them easy to use in the hoodoo system. Furthermore, the book asserted that it was a protective amulet for individuals who carried it, much to the Bible’s hoodoo idea of a talisman.

The Hoodoo Worldview

The hoodoo worldview is predominantly Christian, emphasizing the Old Testament. This is most noticeable in the belief in divine providence and retributive justice dispensed by God. In the realm of hoodoo, God is seen as the ultimate hoodoo doctor, and even biblical people become models and masters: the Bible, therefore, becomes a primary source for rituals and spells, as well as a talisman.

Because of the prodigies he did in Egypt in connection to the biblical narrative of the twelve plagues, Moses is regarded as one of the most potent hoodoo teachers. This vision of Moses is at the root of the inclusion of the hoodoo reference texts of the lost books of Moses in the classical canon.

In hoodoo, the Bible is regarded as a holy scripture and the world’s most giant book of spells. The magical usage of biblical psalms, for example, is significant. The Bible is a potent talisman in and of itself. It is customary to carry it with you for protection or to keep it open on a particular portion pointing in a specific direction for a set number of days.

The Purpose

Hoodoo is used to access supernatural powers to enhance different elements of daily life such as luck, money, love, job, health, and vengeance. Hoodoo uses plants and stones considerably, and classic spell components include shards of animal bones, personal belongings, and bodily fluids (menstrual blood, urine, and semen). Contact with the spirits of the dead (including those of ancestors) and the magical usage of roots are both popular activities in the hoodoo magic system. Hoodoo’s objective is, therefore, to better ordinary life with nearly medical goals via the activity of supernatural forces working on love, health, everyday life, or job. Hoodoo employs animal parts, human body parts such as blood, nails, hair, and urine, as well as candles, incense, oil, and powders used in potions.

What Are the Differences Between Voodoo and Hoodoo?

Hoodoo is often mixed up with Voodoo. Although the two concepts share an origin, the primary distinction is that Voodoo is a religion (which incorporates magical activities), whereas hoodoo is a magical system in its entirety. Haitian Voodoo has its own cosmogony and theology, including the worship of the spirits of the loa (or lwa) in a practice that exhibits some syncretism with Catholicism and distinguishes it from the ancient African religions from which it stems.

Hoodoo, on the other hand, has no theology of its own, and, as a magical system, it is independent of any theological system. However, it is often (and historically) performed in a Christian environment. The differences between Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Louisiana Voodoo (or New Orleans Voodoo) are less apparent. Louisiana Voodoo (or New Orleans Voodoo), which developed in the French colony of Louisiana among the French-speaking or Creole African population, is a middle ground between the other two. It allows worship of the same Haitian voodoo loa but focuses on popular magic, like hoodoo.

Religions of Woodoo and Vodun

Voodoo rituals are done around the globe, most notably on the island of Haiti, in Africa, and in New Orleans. The term voodoo conjures visions of the dead, mystical rituals, zombies, animal sacrifices, and dolls stuffed with pins. Voodoo traditions differ depending on where they are performed.

The Yoruba people (also known as Ak or Lucumi) were the origins of the Vodun or voodoo religion, which may be found in West Africa (Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Sierra Leone) near the Niger River. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Yoruba population was made up of imported enslaved people who blended their faith with the Catholic beliefs of the surrounding French residents, giving birth to a hybrid religion on the island of Haiti: voodoo or hoodoo named Vodun or Vodoun, Vodou, or Sevi Lwa.

The foundations of the Vodun religion are those of the Yoruba religion, and the term vodun means spirit. The Vodun religion is part of so-called black magic (magic used to affect people negatively), even though some argue that the Vodun religion is part of white magic and that only so-called bad sorcerers (the Bokor) use the dark side of rituals to operate negatively. In the heart of a Vodun temple called Comfort is an altar decked with candles and other holy things where God and the spirits speak with mortals.

Hoodoo Vocabulary

The following is a collection of terminology and phrases often used by Hoodoo, Conjure, and Root work practitioners.

Unction: A phrase that refers to the rubbing of an oil. Condition on a person. It is sometimes used interchangeably with dressing.

Blessing: A form of magic or prayer used to spiritually cleanse a person, place,