Magick, Hermeticism, Art, and Naughtiness…

This is the first in a series of articles I will be writing, in preparation for a Hoodoo Class I have planned for the near future.

People define “hoodoo” differently and I am not generally one to argue the true definition. Since hoodoo is a mixture of a variety of beliefs, it is very difficult to define it in a matter of a few words. And again, each person offering their view as to what it actually is, could offer a different definition and meaning as any other. To me, hoodoo is an American word. My guess would be that it came about around the beginning of the 19th century or possibly earlier than that. Most all would offer its meaning to refer to African-American folk magic. I think in my own personal experience through heritage would explain the definition as African folk magic mixed with a lot of Native American herbal knowledge with a little folklore mixed in. Most practitioners are generally black, but that is not to say other races did not practice hoodoo. My grandmother learned her “hoodoo” from her mother, who was ½ white/Indian and ½ black. She grew up in the mountains of Southern Appalachia. Her family lived in a cave for some years before settling near Bullet Creek and other areas on Starr Mountain in East Tennessee. My Mam-maw lived in an old house behind me when I was a child. Her husband had died, her family consisted of only a few members, none of which seemed very interested in taking care of her as she became bed ridden with cancer and other illnesses. I was around 10 when I started spending a lot of time at her house, taking care of her and killing rats in the woodpile at night. She would tell me stories and things she felt I needed to know. Before the bed became her “home”, she would tell me secrets of people that had wronged her and what she did to “fix them”. She showed me concoctions she made, roots, powders, salves, and other things she put together, usually to cause an ill effect on the person who had crossed her. I listened, passed it off as the beginnings of senility, and continued on until the day she asked me to wash her hair and braid it on top of her head like she wore it, back when she was able to go to church. It was not long after that she lay in her bed and recited scriptures from the bible over and over. She did not acknowledge anyone else was around, just recited the scriptures and appeared to be in great pain. I was 15 years old. I walked up to my house and informed my mother of what was going on. She made some phone calls and I stood in the living room of the 100 year old home and watched an ambulance take her away. I only remember seeing her once at the hospital where she lay in horrible pain for days before passing on. I missed her immediately, I still do. Thankfully, I was old enough to remember most of what she told me all those cold nights, while coal burned in the pot belly stove and I slept on a cot in the same room as her hospital bed. I have never had a desire to share her words or anything about that term “hoodoo” with anyone else. I have aged and what seems like a split second in time I went from a young maiden with the world in front of me, to an old crone with more of my life behind me than ahead. I feel drawn to share it now. For what purpose I do not know. But it has brought me to typing these words and who knows where it will take us.


Mam-maw rarely called what she did “hoodoo”. She never called it “witchcraft” or any other terms of that nature as well. I remember my mother referring to it as “witchcraft”. My Mam-maw used the word “conjure” once in awhile, but she mostly referred to it as “work” or “workings”. It was not until later in my life, after I did my bit with Christianity and explored other belief systems, that I finally came full circle and feel I am at a place I was supposed to always be. I prefer, as my Mam-maw did, to simply call it “workings”. “Rootwork” is another term often used in relevance to hoodoo. And indeed there is a lot of working with roots involved. There always was rootwork in this area with the Cherokee and other Indian Tribes. Working with roots, plants, trees, herbs, etc. was as natural as working with any other natural material offered by Earth.


Hoodoo, the word, is used to describe the act of magic involved, as well as the practitioner and the result of the magic. A noun, an adjective, a verb, it is all the same and the one word can be used as any of those. Some folks who practice hoodoo are often referred to as a hoodoo doc, hoodoo doctor, root doctor, etc. I guess the best way to describe what I consider to be hoodoo is a good healthy mixture of herbalism, root work, folk magic, ancestry, conjuring, workings, verbally translated through my Native American, black and white heritage dating back at least to the mid 1800’s through my direct blood line.


I do not think the origin of the word "hoodoo" is actually known. I may be quiet wrong in that statement, but I feel there can be a lot of debate and discussion to the origin, but there has not been enough proof to suit my skeptical mind as to the origin of the actual word. I have read it originated from an African language to mean “bad luck”, but again, I am skeptical about this. The reason being that I have also read that the word was used by Irish sailors who referred to ships as “hoodoo ships” when they wrecked at sea or became lost or other negative things occurred with the ship. This would mean the sailors, not the slaves, used the word in that form. It is possible they picked this phrase up FROM the slaves, but again, no one seems to know for sure. There is an account of a man named Daniel Cassidy mingling the word in reference to Irish Sailors and it being an Irish/Gaelic word Uath Dubh which was pronounced as hoo doo. This word means evil, dark, etc. Catherine Yronwode, in her book “Hoodoo, African American Magic” states “An Irish origin for the word would explain why a certain type of eerie geological rock formation across the Americas is also called a hoodoo -- Irish trappers and traders saw these weird objects as personified demons. The Irish origin of hoodoo does, believe it or not, make sense in terms of African American history, for a large percentage of American sailors during the 19th century, especially before the Civil War, were African Americans, and they mingled freely with Irish sailors in the Atlantic shipping trade and in seaports from New York to New Orleans.”


Others place the word as being Spanish. I found this possibility comically interesting, as my Mam-maw often insisted her mother was “Spanish” as to hide her true heritage out of embarrassment. Her mother was a product of an affair that her grandmother had with a hired slave. Then there are those who feel hoodoo is merely a mispronunciation of the word “voodoo”. I personally do not buy this explanation due to geographical differences in the two. In reference to America, people (particularly black) use the word hoodoo from a vast variety of geological areas. The use of the word “Voodoo” is primarily found in Louisiana. This would lead one to believe Voodoo originated from the Haitian community that resides heavily in that area and Hoodoo most likely came from another area of Africa and was spread to other areas of that culture. In Louisiana, the two words are not one in the same, they are completely different and referred to each other on their own, not melded into one belief or practice. As I was growing up, I never once heard the term “Voodoo” used in regards to any work my ancestors did with rootwork or any other conjuring, practice or workings in general. The term was never used or mentioned. We could argue the origin of the word for days, into weeks, and possibly never agree. Other words associated with hoodoo would be to “hurt”, “jinx” or “cross” someone if the work is done to harm someone. Uncrossing, jinxbreaking, etc. would be terms used to reverse the negative work placed on someone. Regardless of what word you choose to use, or what you choose as your definition and origin of the words associated with the practice, hoodoo for all intensive purposes is the use of herbal magic/lore, root work, mixing of cultures and lore to develop a work to cause change in the life of another, whether that change be positive or negative, requested or secretly imposed on the enemy.


There are no leaders, preachers, high priestess, etc. in hoodoo. Someone may CHOOSE to teach another individual, but there is no ladder to infinite wisdom, no title to be gained from knowledge or wisdom. It is simply “hoodoo”….simply! With that being said “Satan” is no part of hoodoo as well. There may be one deity that is recognized as “the black man” and some assume this is Satan of Christian belief, but it is not. He goes by various African names, but none of which are translated as the Christian Satan. One may call upon local spirits or spirits of ancestors when practicing hoodoo. You will not however hear a barrage of deity names called upon by general practitioners.