Hoodoo
Hoodoo is referred to in:
Hoodoo
Based on elements of Voodoo, Appalachian folk magic, and related traditions, Hoodoo is a 200-year-old practice of magic. A gris-gris bag is a type of hoodoo charm.
(from the book Hoodoo - African American Magic, by Catherine Yronwode:)
Hoodoo is an American term, originating in the 19th century or earlier, for African-American folk magic. Here is how i define the word "hoodoo":
Hoodoo consists of a large body of African folkloric practices and beliefs with a considerable admixture of American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. Although most of its adherents are black, contrary to popular opinion, it has always been practiced by both whites and blacks in America. Other regionally popular names for hoodoo in the black community include "conjuration," "conjure," "witchcraft," "rootwork," and "tricking." The first three are simply English words; the fourth is a recognition of the pre-eminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and the casting of spells, and the fifth is a special meaning for a common English word.
Folk magic is a world-wide phenomenon. The beliefs and customs brought to America by African slaves mingled here with the beliefs, customs, and botanical knowledge of Native Americans and with the Christian, Jewish, and pagan folklore of European immigrants. The result was hoodoo.
The hoodoo tradition places emphasis on personal magical power and thus it lacks strong links to any specific form of theology and can be adapted to any one of several forms of outward religious worship. Although an individual practitioner may take on students, hoodoo is not an obviously hierarchical system. Teachings and rituals are handed down from a one practitioner to another, but there are no priests or priestesses and no division between initiates and laity.
Like the folk magic of many other cultures, hoodoo attributes magical properties to herbs, roots, minerals (especially the lodestone), animal parts, and the personal possessions and bodily effluvia of people. The African origins of hoodoo can clearly be seen in such non-European magical customs as jinxing, hot footing , foot track magic , crossing, and crossroads magic, in which are embedded remnants of the folkloric beliefs of the Yoruba, Fon, Ewe, and Congo people, whose religions in African and the diaspora are variously known as Santeria, Lucumi, Ocha, Palo Mayombe, Umbanda, Kimina, Condomble, Orisha-worship, Loa-worship, Nkisi-worship, etc. A generic term for this class of folk-magical operation is tricking or laying down tricks.
The influence that Natives had on rootwork is openly acknowledged, for the concept of the "powerful Indian" or "Indian Spirit" is endemic in hoodoo and crops up again and again in the names given to hoodoo herbal formulas and magical curios. Many of the most famous rootwork practitioners of the 19th and 20th centuries came from mixed-race families and proudly spoke of learning about herbs from an "Indian Grandma." More information about the Native American sources of hoodoo herbal and zoological curios can be found in my book "Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic."
Hoodoo also freely incorporates European botanical folklore -- e.g. the notion that carrying a buckeye nut will cure rheumatism, which is German and Dutch in origin. Furthermore, since at least the early 20th century, most hoodoo practitioners have familiarized themselves with European-derived books of magic and Kabbalism such as the "Albertus Magnus Egyptian Secrets" compilation, "Pow-Wows or The Long-Lost Friend," "Secrets of the Psalms," "The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses," and so forth.
However, although African-American root doctors work with information about herbs derived from Mediaeval and modern European folklore, the typical hoodoo practitioner does not place much emphasis on European systems of word-magic (gematria), number-magic (numerology), or astronomical magic (astrology). And while an altar, candles, and incense are almost invariably part of any hoodoo practitioner's set-up, hoodoo conjurations themselves require none of the neo-pagan accoutrements such as knives (athames), cauldrons, chalices, or wands.
Probably the one thing that most distinguishes hoodoo from other systems of folk magic is the centrality of the mojo bag or mojo hand. This item, also known as a conjure hand, toby, trick bag, jomo, or nation sack, frequently takes the form of a flannel bag filled with roots, herbs, minerals, and other "curios." The mojo bag is usually carried on the person, but it can also be hidden in the bedroom or at a place of business, or placed behind a doorway. There is a taboo against anyone who is not the owner touching it.
