Most indigenous religions contain a magical or medicinal aspect that is intrinsic to that tradition. In New Orleans Voudou, the magical tradition is what is referred to as Hoodoo (also referred to as conjure and rootwork) and gris gris. At some point in the early 1900s - likely spurred by both the onset of a viable commercial Hoodoo sector as well as practitioners going underground to avoid harassment and prosecution by the police - Hoodoo was separated from Voudou and was reduced to a stand-alone ethnobotanical folk magic tradition that spread throughout the country. A person could practice Hoodoo, conjure and rootwork and not work with the saints or spirits if they didn’t want to. It was not necessary for conjure workers to be Voudouists; in fact, many conjure workers today are Christians and divorce themselves completely from Voudou. Interestingly, gris gris did not suffer the same fate as Hoodoo and has remained an integral part of New Orleans Voudou since Marie Laveau’s time.
Hoodoo, conjure and rootwork is an African American system of healing, harming and protection. It relies on spiritual powers harnessed through ritual actions to affect change. Slaves used the system to cope with oppressive environments and the harsh conditions of slavery, as well as a means of dealing with slaveholders and conflicts between members within slave communities (Fett). Illness was often believed to be the result of conjuration and so finding forms of spiritual protection was necessary to achieve and maintain good health. Healing and harming methods were employed to establish dominance within a community, to exact revenge when necessary, to conserve resources, to seek justice and to achieve balance. The system of healing, harming and protection continued to serve folks post slavery as change was not at all immediate and the same basic human needs were present, whether one was enslaved or not.
This section provides some examples of conjures, cures, roots and remedies in the Laveau Voudou tradition.
[1] The differences between hoodoo and Voudou are delineated on a plaque hanging on the wall inside the New Orleans Voodoo Museum.
Hoodoo, conjure and rootwork is an African American system of healing, harming and protection. It relies on spiritual powers harnessed through ritual actions to affect change. Slaves used the system to cope with oppressive environments and the harsh conditions of slavery, as well as a means of dealing with slaveholders and conflicts between members within slave communities (Fett). Illness was often believed to be the result of conjuration and so finding forms of spiritual protection was necessary to achieve and maintain good health. Healing and harming methods were employed to establish dominance within a community, to exact revenge when necessary, to conserve resources, to seek justice and to achieve balance. The system of healing, harming and protection continued to serve folks post slavery as change was not at all immediate and the same basic human needs were present, whether one was enslaved or not.
This section provides some examples of conjures, cures, roots and remedies in the Laveau Voudou tradition.
[1] The differences between hoodoo and Voudou are delineated on a plaque hanging on the wall inside the New Orleans Voodoo Museum.
THE CONJURES
Click on the items below for examples of conjures in the style of Marie Laveau
Drain the Swamp
Working roots for social change. This is a Drain the Swamp Jar spell, and you get to decide who goes into the jar.
|
Bottle Tree
While not bottle spells in the sense that we know them today, bottle trees have their roots in Congo culture.
|