For many Hoodoo offers a connection to a spiritual self that provides the tools to directly handle the issues that come up in daily life.
Hoodoo doesn’t have the barriers that many magical practices have—there’s just the work, and how you use it is up to you.
Hoodoo grounds it’s followers and helps find peace in troubling times.
Hoodoo has been around a long time and is actually its own practice with its own rules and history.
The practice isn’t known by “spells,” but “work” or “chores.”
Hoodoo is an African American tradition.
It was created by enslaved people from various spiritual practices that they adapted to the land they found themselves in.
Hoodoo is also known by other names, mainly conjure or rootwork.
People who practice hoodoo work with a number of tools, such as candles, curios, and, of course, roots and herbs, most of the work we do is concerned with healing and protection.
Hoodoo Isn’t Voodoo
Hoodoo and voodoo are very different. Voodoo, which is also spelled vodou, voudou, and voudun, is an actual religion that is believed to have originated in Haiti and has roots in West African spiritual traditions.
As a religion, voodoo has specific practices, some of which you have to be ordained to perform. It has religious leaders, known as mambos and houngans, who oversee these practices. It has a set of deities and spirits that are worshipped and respected.
We’ll discuss Voodoo more in a moment.
Hoodoo on the other hand does not have these things. Although there is a belief in spirits and life-giving energies, there are no specific gods or god that you must follow.
You are free to worship any gods (or not) that you want.
There is no organized hierarchy.
This isn’t to say there are no rules to working with roots—there are, but it does not have the specific structure associated with religion.
Hoodoo is based in the African heritage, and as such, it is usually practiced only by the Black community.
Hoodoo isn’t closed, it’s restrictive, honoring the African American ancestors who practiced it and you must do work from an Afrocentric perspective.
Even though many believe only members of the black community should practice Hoodoo, there are those who feel race really has nothing to do with it, it’s rather economic status.
Actually, each region of the South has its own brand of Rootwork/Conjure/Hoodoo.
That’s what makes these systems so personal.
The Appalachians have a brand of hoodoo practiced by both white and blacks.
New Orleans is very much the same.
So, even though it’s restricted, it’s more status than by race.
Hoodoo is the name of a conglomerate of different Southern Conjure folk practices.
Not all of them are related to the African American community.
The practices of Hoodoo/Conjure/Rootwork were founded out of repression.
Practiced in part by African Americans, some of which were slaves, yes, but who’d forgotten their gods for the ones of their masters. This is why Hoodoo/Conjure is so heavily influenced by Protestantism.
Or, in the case of New Orleans Voodoo, by Catholicism.
There is a major difference that lies between what Hoodoo defines, and what Voodoo defines.
Voodoo is the religion, or belief system, of many African Americans living in the Mississippi Valley.
Hoodoo, on the other hand, is the magic that has derived from the teachings of Voodoo, which was originally a part of Voodoo.
Hoodoo is the craft; the practice, where Voodoo is the mindset and monarchy.
New Orleans Voodoo is a cultural strand of the Afro-American religions rooted in West African Dahomeyan Vodun. Voodoo is a result of this African diaspora.
Most especially as a result of the slave trade, West African Dahomeyan Vodun was fused with Catholicism and Francophone beliefs in the South. Voodoo especially developed along the Mississippi in the south, mostly in the larger towns of Louisiana and Mississippi, and of course with its largest influence falling in the town of New Orleans.
An combination of French, Creole and Spanish influence, this melting pot of religion fusions is what brought us Voodoo Dolls, Gris-gris, Mojo bags, and such.
Voodoo’s belief system centers around one detached God who stays at a distance, and does not interfere in a person’s life unless called.
The spirits are the ones who truly help us with what we need on a daily basis.
There is a connection with the spirits around us through song and dance, writing, candle spells, symbolism, and connecting with our own spiritual self.
The use of snakes as symbols and loa (spirit forms) is like a current that runs through Voodoo; the snakes symbolize how knowledge and a connection to the spiritual self can heal. How insight and enlightenment can lift our spirits away from the dredges of what pain and misery have to offer.
Those who practice Voodoo today hope to influence the greater good, and the greater outcome, through an ever-deepening connection with mama nature, the spirits that constantly surround us, and our ancestors’ aid.
As a sign of respect to the spirits, the practice of rituals are done in private, showing commitment and integrity without ego.
Ego only stands to distract us from pure happiness.
When we allow our ego to take over, we lose sight of what we really care about.
We get too caught up in the ‘more’ of what we want and lose our focus.
The ego has the ability to dirty up our waters of purity.
When the ego is in play, we find ourselves always wanting more than what we have.
We find ourselves chronically dissatisfied with what we already possess, and we forget to find happiness in what is already in front of us, loving and urging us onward in our journey.
It is always important to not only maintain healthy boundaries with your own ego, but with those in your life who let the ego run their lives.
Voodoo and Hoodoo both are designed to improve life and strengthen the individual physically and spiritually.
Voodoo came to New Orleans in the early 1700s, through slaves brought from Africa's western “slave coast.”
Like so many things New Orleans, Voodoo was then infused with the city's dominant religion, Catholicism, and became a Voodoo-Catholicism hybrid sometimes referred to as New Orleans Voodoo.
Voodoo is a fusion of religious practices from Africa that is a derivative of the world’s oldest known religions.
It has been around since the beginning of human civilization.
There is no single founder of Voodoo and there is no approximate date for the origin of Voodoo spirituality.
According to the beliefs of Voodoo, and much like Shinto, there are thousands of Spirits that interact with humanity.
These Spirits, called Lwa were once human.
Voodoo vs Hoodoo-Are they the same thing or totally different?
Both Voodoo and Hoodoo are a melting pot of different beliefs, practices and religious elements; both have roots in Africa with aspects of ancient worship.
This is where their similarities end.
Voodoo vs Hoodoo – Differences
Voodoo is a religion that has two markedly different branches – New Orleans/Louisiana Vodou and Haitan Vodou. Voodoo is a religion that’s practices by thousands if not millions of people.
Hoodoo is not a religion, rather a set of practices that draw heavily from folk magic, especially that which originated on West Africa and tends to be practiced in Louisiana, though it’s practice is not exclusive to that region.
As Voodoo is an established and recognised religion that has set and established practices and traditions.
It has it’s own leaders, teachers, representatives, services and rituals.
It’s this organization that makes Voodoo and Hoodoo different.
Hoodoo has it’s base in folk magic and folk traditions calling on Loas using the saints from Roman Catholicism; where as Voodoo invoke Loas using African deities.
Voodoo practitioners don’t worship through the Catholic Saints.
Many Hoodoo practitioners are often drawn to other spiritual practices or traditions too.
Many who are practitioners of Hoodoo are known as Root Doctors or Root Healers.
For some who practice Hoodoo see it as a form of personal power to either help themselves or to help others.
Hoodoo practitioners help or guide others with their knowledge of herbs, roots, crystals, animal parts and sometimes a range of bodily fluids.
Hoodoo is practiced based on the person’s inclinations, desires and intentions.
With access to the Loas the Hoodoo practitioner can access the knowledge of the God’s and other supernatural beings to help in a wide range of areas in your life – from love, abundance and luck to banishing, protection and wading.
Voodoo is essentially the root from which Hoodoo grew because of the persecution of followers, but for those who are followers of Voodoo it’s more than just a religion, it’s a way of life, a core facet of their daily lives.
Voodoo is very popular in areas like Mississippi and Louisiana, being most notable in New Orleans. Voodoo was brought to the USA via Haiti which was a former French colony.
Hoodoo however was brought by those who were bound into servitude from Africa.
Voodoo is sometimes considered to be purer than Hoodoo, but Hoodoo is actually a denomination of Voodoo – like Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity.
Voodoo influences so many areas of society from music and art to justice and language and from medicine to spirituality.
It reaches far and deep into people’s lives whereas Hoodoo is only a small facet of the truth that’s held in voodoo and tends to focus on the spiritual aspect more than anything else.
Let the Spirits of the Earth, Sun and Moon Guide you.
The Summer Solstice will be here before you know it…
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
The summer solstice was especially important in Ancient Egypt because it announced the coming of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
Shortly after Sirius arrived each year, the Nile would overflow its banks and the flood season would begin, which the Egyptians relied on to nourish the land.
They believed that Sirius was responsible for the flooding and set their calendar based on the star’s arrival in the night sky.
As soon as the priests saw Sirius they declared that the New Year had begun.
Perhaps the oldest celebration of the solstice can be found in Ancient Egypt.
The ancient Egyptians designed their most important monuments to align with the solstice.
The great Sphinx on the summer solstice, the sun sets exactly between two of the Great Pyramids.
Ancient Egyptians also built a temple to Osiris that is illuminated by the setting sun on the solstice shines between two nearby hills.
Saturday, June 21st, is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and for many that means barbecues, pool parties, camping trips and vacations at the beach.
But for many of us, the solstice is a much more spiritual day and ancient traditions of honoring the sun.
For ancient civilizations this day had important significance.
It was a day critical to an agrarian calendar where crops and seasonal cycles had to be cared for, and a day that was held as a spiritual celebration of light over dark, and therefore, life over death.
ANCIENT CHINESE
In ancient China, the summer solstice was celebrated with a festival that honored the Earth, femininity and yin. This festival corresponded to the one held on the winter solstice that celebrated the yang.
The concept of yin-yang, still foundational to modern Chinese thought, derives from the belief that opposition forces (e.g., hot/cold, light/dark) are actually complementary and interconnected in all aspects of life.
Interestingly, it is the yang that was believed to reach the height of its influence on the summer solstice and so the festival actually celebrated the coming influence of the yin, which would gain power and influence until it reached its height on the winter solstice.
Honoring the balance between these two forces was and continues to be extremely important in the Chinese culture because if they are out of sync and an imbalance occurs, it will bring catastrophes such as “floods, droughts and plagues.”
ANCIENT EUROPEANS
The ancient Slavic, Celtic, Germanic peoples as well as the Vikings celebrated the Midsummer festival during the summer solstice. There was feasting and great bonfires.
The Vikings conducted much of their trade and legal transactions around the solstice because it was believed to be a time of great power.
In ancient Gaul the celebration was called the Feast of Epona and honored a mare goddess who protected horses. The Celtic Druids celebrated a Midsummer festival at the June solstice.
There are suggestions that the rituals took place at Stonehenge.
Built around 3100 BCE, some people believe it was designed to establish exactly when the summer solstice would occur.
Whether or not this is the true purpose of Stonehenge, many modern Druids continue to gather at Stonehenge to celebrate the first day of summer.
ANCIENT GREEKS
The summer solstice occurred exactly one month before the opening of the original Olympic Games. In addition, many festivals took place on and around the day of the solstice including Prometheia, which celebrated the Titan Prometheus, and Kronia, honoring the agricultural god Cronus.
Although the Greek calendar varied depending on the region and time period, for many versions the summer solstice was also the first day of the New Year.
NATIVE AMERICANS
Native American tribes celebrated the June solstice with great feasts and dances to honor the sun.
One of the most well-documented and elaborate is that of the Sioux, a celebration that continues to this day.
It is called the Wi wanyang wacipi, which translates to “sun gazing dance” and centers around a sacred cottonwood tree erected in the middle of a ritual circle.
The tree is “a visible connection between the heavens and Earth.” Teepees would encircle the tree to represent the cosmos.
Participants fasted during the dance, their bodies decorated in the symbolic colors of red (sunset), blue (sky), yellow (lightning), white (light), and black (night).”
Regardless of your heritage or where you are when the summer solstice arrives, there are plenty of ways to honor the day.
No matter what you do, you’ll be taking part in an ancient tradition.
