Don’t you mean Voodoo?

My, don’t we just love it, when someone actually listens at you, rather than to you? Some people’s ears work like mouse-mazes. You know, those fields of study where we strive to see if some rat is as smart as we are by limiting the range of choices they have in a safe environment? Oh, wait, most people do live like that. Except the rat has an excuse. This humongous being, thousands-of-times bigger than they are, picks them up, drops them into that field, and then lets them figure it all out. Well, maybe those who shove us into our places aren’t so different from us …. What were we talking about again? Oh right, Hoodoo.

First, Hoodoo and Voodoo are two entirely different animals. Voodoo is a system of beliefs held solely in the minds of anthropologists and movie producers to explain a plethora of practices found in and below the Caribbean. It is meant to neatly package several Cultures into one neat class, namely Santaria, Palo, Vodoun, and many others. With Hoodoo, the similarities and differences are like well-written factory novels.

What, don’t know what a factory novel is? Okay, a writer sets up a plot, some archetypal figures, and a story length. Then, she writes one story after another using that same plot and characters, only the names and places are changed to confuse the buyer. Now, if this is done poorly, the reader reads through, maybe three books, and can then tell you within five words what the next ten novels will be like. If it is done well, each book will be more like a hamlet in Ire, where everything is similar, but different enough to require our full attention.

So, pay attention!

Hoodoo and Vodoun are eclectic amalgamations of magical practices built within an African cultural matrix. Hoodoo is constructed by Central African (Bantu) slaves in America with Protestant and Native-American components. It shares some features with Vodoun: an appeal to the ancestors and ghosts rather than to the gods; use of herbs and animals; search for pleasure, knowledge, and power in a world that would otherwise deny such to the practitioners. They differ in many details. Hoodoo was built in a Protestant country by central African sources, Vodoun in a Catholic community by West African (Niger, Yorùbá, Songhai) sources, with Carribean components added in. We ought to recognize that, none of the African communities or empires were ever entirely isolated from each other [DuBois, The Negro]. There are places where Hoodoo and Vodoun practitioners can exchange ideas (such as Florida and Louisiana). Fundamentally, the differences between the two can sometimes seem … insignificant, unless you are a practitioner of any degree of skill. Then the differences are clear, and sometimes important.

Hoodoo, for example, appeals less to actual personalities and more on the essence of the ancestors. (Ancestors here to refer to any person who is among the living deprived. Hence, the ancestor will be someone’s, but not necessarily that of the practitioner seeking the help.) Like any good sorcerer, the Conjure Doctor will, of course, pay for the services he, she, or xe seeks. This will usually be in the form of libations with whiskey or rum … no need to be stingy or cheep, unless you want the ghost to be. Oh, and do be careful to let the spirits know, they can’t come home with you, or the party will continue there. (PS: A skilled Hoodoo practitioner could be called a root doctor, conjure doctor or a two-headed doctor: the label is dependent on location and wigg-factor.)

Vodoun, to various degrees, will appeal to personalities, the saints, one’s own ancestors living and dead, and to some order of authority within the culture. If one asks a Conjure Doctor who helped her, she need only point to the grave marker. Ask the Vodoun, and they may point to some saint, whether the Church has heard of that Saint or not is irrelevant. African Gods are not so well defined as they are in Euro-Indian cultures, or Egyptian. Yet, most of us know who our parents and their parents were, and how helpful and loving they were when alive. I suppose it is comforting to know death will not keep them from loving and helping us when we need it. Vodoun has more of a shamanic flavor to it, with heavy ritual and altered psychedelic phases of mind. This is always necessary in the pursuit of Magic; Hoodoo feels more like a prayer, Vodoun more like a spell or chant.

Some would assume that both are Pagan. Well, If you define Pagan as I have, as “a respectable relationship with nature that is rather uninformed by civilization,” then sort of. Such a Pagan can even embrace Christian beliefs. If you define Pagan as “not Christian,” then Hoodoo and its cousin Vodoun are … again, sort of. While some Christians will accept the Practice of Hoodoo within the framework of Christian culture, others would consider the Hoodoo practice “Witchcraft” and in complete war with Christ. Each is strongly informed by Christian traditions, though often these are of heterodoxic flavors. Like so many cultures across this planet, the old gods may become devils or saints in the garb of the Christian Faith (Vodoun), or even be reduced to folkloric heroes (Hoodoo). Sometimes, old spells are replaced or supplemented by psalms and prayers. Hoodoo often employs the folklore for changes and education; Bre’r rabbit has often helped the slave get through a difficult day. Hoodoo, itself, is informed with elements from Christian Qabala, the Doctrine of Signatures, and Hermetic Alchemy. Most of the practitioners either are genuine Christians, or would like you to believe they are Christians. (Except for being wary of Confidence Artists, it is no one’s place to decide whether they are or not, except the practitioner’s. If the practitioner says they are Christian, they are, even if we think it’s seasoned a bit.)

 On the side, I am not a Hoodoo Conjure-Doctor. I am a simple student of all the arts of nature and Magic, and have taken a correspondence course on the subject. (I do recommend the Hoodoo in Theory and Practice Course from the Lucky Mojo Curio Cº.) This will inform much of what I know in the future, and will flavor any essay that broaches on similar subjects. I have not been initiated into any Hoodoo sect, or been given any direct education on the subject. While I can speak about Hoodoo from time to time, I will not tell you that I can speak for Hoodooism in any degree of depth. Just so we are clear on that, fuzzy area of ethics. This would be like a biologist sharing some information on the functions of the body, but not giving medical advice.

… Anyway, that is my 2¢ into the Orphaned Dragon Fund.
For the Love of Mog Roith and Mhór Rioghain, Devils at the Crossroads.

    Warlock; Magus; ReiKi 2°;
BronzDragon; First Church of Satan; DarkSide Coven; Universal Life Church.