This is a classic hoodoo story with the exception of the sarcastic description of the devil as white with empty eyes.
You may recall the scene in the Coen brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, where a guitar player is graced with talent, fame, and fortune at the crossroads. First comes a red rooster, then after that the devil sends something else in the shape of a bear and after that he comes himself and takes hold of your hands and tells you to go on in the world and do anything that chew want to do.” “You go to the fork of the road on Sunday morning before day, go there for nine times in succession before the sunrise and make a special wish, a special desire, and whatever you want to do, if it's to be a conjure or to be a bad person, then the devil comes there. Harry Middleton Hyatt, folklorist and Anglican minister, transcribed the words of rootworkers in his 1970 book, Hoodoo-Conjuration -Witchcraft -Rootwork: This symbol is mirrored in the mystical space of a real crossroad. The cross-mark is drawn on a cloth or on the ground.
Conjure bag portable#
Tarot cards and palm reading by “Black Gypsies” have also found their way into the tradition.įor divination, “laying tricks,” or spell working, many practitioners make use of what can be called a portable crossroads or circle with a cross inside. The oldest form of hoodoo divination, throwing the bones or reading the bones, is a direct survival of a West African system. Because it is believed to contain the living essence of spirit, it is fed, anointed with substances like Florida water, whiskey, van van oil, or “bodily effluvia”, and worn next to the skin, safely hidden beneath clothing.īesides prescribing the contents of mojo hands, gris-gris, or tobys, a root doctor or rootworker may employ divination to help his or her client.
Made of red flannel or leather and tightly tied, the mojo bag contains the custom charms and herbs needed by its wearer. One of the most important tools of hoodoo is the Mojo Hand or conjure bag. Traditional formulae to bring luck and stop “evil conditions” carry names like “Money Stay With Me,” “Essence of Bend-Over,” “Compelling,” “Kiss Me Now,” “Hot Foot,” “Follow Me Boy,” “Law Keep Away,” “Fast Luck,” “Court Case,” and “Fiery Wall of Protection.” Spells timed to moon phases charms, curses and crossings dream interpretation candle magic incense sachet powders purifying baths floor washes symbols and sigils drawn on pathways potent herbs and roots soaked in conjure oils silver mercury dime talismans, and prayer bags anointed with sweat, blood or urine are just some of the methods employed in acquiring that lucky life we’re all after. Hoodoo is a rich and complex collection of beliefs and magical practices. Hoodoo Meaning: Charms, Mojos, Divination, and the Crossroads This one, by Bessie Brown from 1924, addresses the age-old challenge of keeping your man: Spirits, guides, and ancestors are called upon to help with mortal problems: warding off evil good luck in gambling attracting and keeping a lover cursing or jinxing an enemy gaining power, courage, money, sex, blessing, physical health, and good juju for life in general.Ĭat Yronwode, of the Lucky Mojo Curio Company, shares some of her collection of hoodoo blues lyrics. The concerns of hoodoo are earthly rather than heavenly goals.
Practitioners of hoodoo hold their folk beliefs comfortably alongside their Christianity. Irish, Romany, Cherokee, even Chinese, and Hindu symbology have found their way into hoodoo. Most hoodooists are Protestant Christians.) Over time, it has incorporated practices from other cultures. ( Vodou is a Haitian religion cross-bred with Catholicism. The misleadings of New Orleans tourism notwithstanding, it is not Voodoo. It Is and It Isn’t: Hoodoo MeaningĪlthough the practice of African American hoodoo is based on survival remnants of various African belief systems, it is not a religion. In the mid 19th century, cursed, abandoned “ghost ships'' were called hoodoo ships or were said to have been hoodooed.īut, if you were born on a Louisiana bayou, you know it’s a word for African American folk medicine and the ancestral ghosts and spirits it conjures. The earliest usage of the word “hoodoo” is connected with Irish and Scottish sailors, not African slaves, and may be a phonetic pronunciation of the Gaelic Uath Dubh (pronounced hooh dooh) which means evil entity or spiky ghost.
Conjure bag full#
Suggestive of ancient gods and goblins, the canyon lands are said to be haunted on full moon nights. Search for an online image with the word “hoodoo” and you will find photos of towering eerie sandstone formations in the American West. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Born on the Bayou,” 1969 I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'
0 kommentar(er)
