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conjuremanj · 5 months

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Cologne And Perfumes In Your Practice.

Now in my previous post I spoke on spiritual colones, waters like Florida Water and their uses and while this is one way to use it, there are other ways to tap into the power of these products. When looking at colognes and perfumes, try not to see them as just fragrances. They were made from herbs, resins, and oils in an alcohol base.

Beside Florida Water, Rose Water Cologne or Kananga Water there are other colognes and perfumes that are made to be used for spirits deities and workings. It's not enough to buy a spiritual perfume and begin using it.

To get the most out of them, they need to be consecrated. This means that you need to declare what the purpose of the perfume is and going to be used for. This can be something like, "I dedicate this perfume to drawing prosperity into my life." You also need to meditate & pray over it, giving it the power to do what it's is intended for.

If you choose, you can ask your guides, angels, saints, or deities for help to make it more effective at whatever you want it to do for you. Basically you're making an holy item or spiritual item.

Colognes Perfumes As Offerings: while many deities have their own type of offering that is giving to them, these colognes could be good to be used as a wash to honor your deity or spirit. Other deities like receiving perfumes that contain their favorite ingredients like Ezurli or any love deity, that created specifically for them.

Scents Used In Your Space: Perfumes and colognes are placed on the body to give their properties to the wearer, they can be added to washes or sprinkled around the boundary of a place. Like Saint Michael.

Saint Michael for instance a perfume dedicated to him can be used to help fortify your home and protect those within it and also be used as a offering to him on his fest day. Use it as a floor wash, or sprinkling around the perimeter.

Using It In A Ritual Bath: Sometimes, adding perfume to rituals might be a good idea. If you perform a healing ritual that involves drawing a bath, for example, you may choose to add Saint Lazarus perfume to the water while praying for healing.

Working Bath For St Lazarus: Useing natural water not faucet water, you don't really know what's in it. ( Rain Water is good). Add a little St Lazarus cologne or use a St Lazarus wash or both is fine too. You can add his oil if you choose. Add that to the bowl of water, place his colored candle in the middle of the bowl and light it. This we'll get St. Lazarus attention, then pray his prayer and tell him what you need. Let it burn. After use that water as a wash by pouring it starting from the top of your head on down.

Perfumes as Spiritual Food Just as perfumes can be given as offerings to spirits, they can also be offered to mojo's, washes, dolls, crystal etc. If a liquid is called for in a ritual, often a cologne or perfume can be used or added to it to power the liquid with its properties.

List Of Some Of These Perfume/Cologne.

#Spiritual perfumes and colognes #like and/or reblog!#spiritual #google search #rootwork #conjuring #southern hoodoo #traditional hoodoo #follow my blog #Hoodoo colognes #Spiritual perfumes.#Spiritual offerings #rootwork questions #southern spirits #southern root work

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the-cat-and-the-birdie · 8 months

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Hii ik saw me many times but i love your blog so much about hobie and Miguel i have questions have any hc hobie being west African hc of that been there since watched movie i cannot get it out

I AM GOING TO SCREAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM AT THIS BECAUSE YES YES I CAN

(also sorry if this is kinda Yoruba centric!! cause that's the area I know the best - for reference I myself am Bajan/Quechua (West Indies - Barbados / Indigenous Peruvian))

West African!Hobie Headcanons:

And because I'll never get a chance to talk about this again I'm gonna start off with the one I love most and the one people know most about (and that is demonized - literally - the most)

Hobie and Vodou (aka VooDoo):

Yeah, I said it. Hobie can work. He got juju. He rootworks. He conjures. Whatever iteration, whatever title - if Hobie followed any religion it would either be Buddhism, which some argue that some sects can double as a moral philosophy,

-If he'd respect any religion. It'd be a Traditional African one and I'm putting money on Vodou.

[And heads up, I am not an initiate of Vodou, but I do actively practice African Traditional Spirituality (HooDoo/Rootworking) and Ancestral Worship. So take from that what you will.]

First of all - how punk would that be??? A West African religion demonized by the western world for centuries from Africa to Haiti to Louisiana - that praised ancestral worship and community first???

YES PLEASE. Some people might not really understand all of this but:

First things first, yes, he speaks Yoruba and if you call it 'Speaking African' he's going to flay you alive.

Like????? Hobie sweet talking in Yoruba??? I'll throw my self on the floor right now!!

Hobie practicing ancestor worship - and thanking all the oppressed people who gave their lives and suffered daily so he can live his life?

He'd have an altar in his house, a small one he keeps out of sight, even to Gwen.

Leaves offerings and bits of his meal on the altar. Cause he was once food insecure, but now that things are a little better, he can do that

Like even if he practiced a form of HooDoo or another sect that derives from Traditional African Spirituality (that doesn't involve initiation)

He'd want to give back to his ancestors, learn how to use natural herbs and work them, learning how to make powders, doing floor washes, sweeping a certain way

And having all of these routines related to his African spirituality that are so subtle but he thinks about always

Prays to his ancestors to give him strength when he's struggling with being Spiderpunk

BUT IMAGINE IF HE WAS INTITATED THO ????

Hobie in all white during ceremony???????

HOBIE BEING A CHILD OF SHANGO??????????

NAH THEY AINT READY FOR IT

But even so -whatever Orisha got that boy head be putting in WORK.

And you know he keeps his beads on forever and always even under the suit!!!!

And the style!!! Hobie AfroPunk?!!!

I don't know if they have this elsewhere, but in NYC there's a music festival called AfroPunk - and it's full of black artists, and black people come out in these amazing outfits - and the goal is to incorporate as much African influence as possible

HOBIE WOULD EAT THIS UP.

The inside of his vest being lined with African textile!!

He takes it off in front of you and you see that little pop of that of classic orange-gold color

You just know he's wit it!!!

And the BEADS

(He should wear beads he's royalty compared to the raggedys at HQ)

[Cough] red and white shango beads [Cough]

Imagine Hobie giving his girlfriend a coral bead bracelet too AWWW

And telling them the significance??!!

He loves a woman in a headwrap. GELE ESPECIALLY but any type

And if you wear waistbeads UMMMMMMMM

As soon as he sees it peeking from under your shirt - IT'S GAME OVER

He's gonna wanna test if they working how they supposed to IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW.

AND The FOOD!

First of all - Hobie hates that British manners shit.

Was raised eating with his hands and loves it

He hates old white people who wanna stare cause he eats with his hands

He loves goat. Not me projecting he LOVES goat.

He really appreciates rice based dishes because they can fill you up - and you can't just buy them anywhere

Prefers Waakye to Jollof Rice but still loves Jollof

With FUCK UP some Fufu if he can get it

I say he eats standing up so he's just there at his kitchen counter eating Fufu and the most random shit in his fridge???

Like he'll be eating left over KFC with fufu - like what are you doing??? Thats - not a meal bro

He loves Okra (ew nasty ass) and he'll eat it all the time.

Especially fried okra but okra soup is cool too he's fine with that

His fried plantains go INSANE. They go SO HARD. They're to die for

He always picks the sweetest ones and it cooks them till they're all caramelized and shit YUMMMMM

(can you tell I like my plaintains sweet and soft cause I DO)

Extra Headcanons

He was not playing that when Gwen first came over - as soon as she stepped on the houseboat with shoes he was like "Girl-"

The first time Peter B. heard him speaking Yoruba he went "Wow, Hobie, Your Nigerian is great!"

Hobie, who already hates Peter B, looked at him like he was the dumbest mfer on earth like

'Right, and you speak American, right? Fucking bellend. I hate you. 'Nigerian'. It's Yoruba.'

(He's only saying that cause he hates Peter personally and wants him to have a bad day)

Meanwhile Gwen was nice enough to just ask "What language is that?" (The correct way to do it, do not assume language names like Peter)

First time he went over to Peter B.'s place (on Gwen's insistence), Mary-Jane accidentally swept over his feet before setting her purse on the floor

and in the moment he knew he had to leave.

He's a streetkid, but since he's in the neighborhood so much he has like 45 different women he calls auntie - and they make sure he has good food to eat because 'you are so skinny! you need to eat more.'

He does that auntie shit where you're walking with him and you see someone you know and now they're in a long ass conversation

Or when he says 'goodbye' then stands by the door having a conversation and you're standing there in your coat like....'fam are we out or not cause i can sit back down'.

He always goes to meet the elders of whatever house he's in to introduce himself, very respectful of black elders and enjoys helping old the older black folk in his neighborhood.

He enjoys giving them respect and hearing their stories, helping around the house. Plus he gets great food out of it

ANNDD That's all of them I think!! Sorry if any of these were off the mark - a lot of these are from personal things I know about West Africa and things learned through Spirituality. I hope I got everything okay!

Thanks for this by the way I LOVE Hobie and culture you know he'd be SO proud!!

[If you've read this far - maybe take some time out to learn a bit about African religions - they're beautiful practices (open to black people - we're worshipping black ancestors) - but you can still learn about them and understand how modern culture often demonizes these types of religions. If anything, I hope you learned a little from this! Hoodoo, Vodun (VooDoo), and Santeria (Latino witchcraft) are not scary, dark practices!] And because I spoke about spirituality, imma put this here cause DO not be playing yknowwhatimean

🧿

#I love talking about African Spirituality I hope I did it alright and justice #Most Vodou practitioners I know are Haitan so excuse any differences #no proofread as usu #hobie brown #hobie brown headcanons #spider punk #spiderpunk #across the spiderverse #atsv #across the spider verse

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nyxshadowhawk · 2 months

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Hi, weird question maybe, I'm just some guy who stumbled on your quora answers and figured you're pretty knowledgeable. I'm Italian and I'm wondering if you knew of any forms of magic that could be compared to what in Italy is referred to as 'low ceremonial magic', usually practiced by farmers / poor people. I'm looking for similar traditions in other parts of the world because I'm trying to figure out what kind of magic is most practiced by low income people historically. Thanks a lot

Great question! I'm still in the process of learning about "low magic" or "folk magic." I usually call it folk magic, to distinguish it from ceremonial magic, although the lines between the two are pretty thin and there's significant overlap. (The difference seems to be mainly a class distinction.) If you want to research it, I recommend using "folk magic" as your keyword.

My own country, the United States, has several robust traditions of folk magic that tend to go unnoticed by people who aren't in contact with them. Appalachian Magic is one of the big ones, and Southern Conjure is another one of the big ones. New England has its own variant of English "cunning." Hoodoo and Rootwork are both African diasporic traditions, based in Vodou and practiced mainly in the South. There's also "Pow-Wow," which is mainly Pensylvannia Dutch, Curanderismo and Brujeria (Hispanic), various magical traditions that stem from indigenous religions, and the extremely popular New Age variant of folk magic (which is apparently called "manifesting"). I'm not intimately familiar with all of these systems, but I highly recommend reading New World Witchery by Cory Thomas Hutcheson for a primer on North American folk magic.

The one I know the most about is English "cunning." I just did a project for which I translated part of Bald's Leechbook, a medieval book of herbal remedies written in Old English that was intermixed with some folk spells. I've observed that folk magic tends to be very Catholic, or Catholic-syncretic, because Catholicism has a lot of folk-magic stuff built right into it (like saints' medallions and votive offerings) that were intentionally rooted out of Protestantism. But hey, new folk traditions are always popping up all the time. Tarot cards are only about two hundred years old, but they're a valid and effective divination method, and you can find them in any mainstream bookstore these days.

Finally, I feel the need to say that folk magic is very dark. There's a common idea, mainly in New Age and neopagan circles, that your spells will rebound on you if they're unethical. This has no historical grounding. Curses, forceful love spells, bindings, and other baneful spells are really common. Frequently, magic was the only source of power or agency for people with no other options. Sanitizing folk magic does it a disservice. That doesn't mean that you have to practice baneful magic, only that you should understand why it exists and respect it.

#folk magic #folk witchcraft #witchblr #witchcraft #history of magic #occultism #occult #folklore #folk spellcraft

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southernmermaidsgrotto · 1 year

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Welcome to the blog!

🔖 To navigate, the tag directory:

#Brujería: Here’s compiled blog posts and reblogs about latin american folk magic and latine practitioners of magic.

#Curanderismo: here be blog posts and reblogs about the latin american traditions and lineages (plural!!) of folk healing, both spiritual and medicinal.

#Hoodoo: Here you’ll find posts and reblogs about the african american tradition of hoodoo.

#Rootwork: here you’ll find information on black herbalism from Africa and the African Diaspora.

#ATRs: posts and reblogs about African Traditional Religions

#Divination: Posts & reblogs about multiple reading mediums such as tarot, playing cards, etc.

#Tirandocartas: where past readings are and where you may find the #Guidelines for free readings.

and more to come!

📩 Askbox:

General & witchy questions: open! & please, before sending a question, check the tags and read older posts! the answer may already be there.

Free Readings: closed!

#witchblr #Brujería #Curanderismo #Hoodoo #Rootwork #Divination #Tirandocartas #Guidelines

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collectivecartomancy · 2 months

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Dandelion & Diabetes

Hey Everybody! Here’s my final for Rootwork Herbals People’s Medicine School.

Once it’s accepted, I’ll be a real, live community herbalist and I’m so excited! 🥹 🥹 🥹

Please feel free to put any questions or concerns in the comments, or email me directly at [email protected].

Thanks for bearing witness to this wonderful experience :)

As ever, wishing you well,

Cyree Jarelle

Dandelion/Taraxacum officinale: Overview

Dandelion is a perennial flowering herb that grows from a long taproot.

Its name has been associated with the Persian tark hashgun, which means wild endive.

Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs, suggests an origin in the Greek taraxos is more likely. Taraxos is a Greek word for "disorder" and as Rodale's writes, akos means remedy.

This is the relationship that humans have kept with Dandelion. It's abundant, nigh unkillable, and easy to identify. The designation officinale refers to Dandelion's inclusion in early apothecaries. Its earliest written virtues are in the Tang Bencao, written during the Tang dynasty.

Dandelion has a history in Europe and the United States, where it's used to treat diseases of the liver and GI tract.

Dandelion is a bitter stimulant with diuretic and laxative properties.

Unlike other diuretics, dandelion does its work without depleting potassium in the body. This is due to the potassium richness of dandelion itself.

Type 2 Diabetes & Dandelion

Diabetes is an endocrine disorder. It primarily affects the pancreas, an organ in the digestive system found in the upper abdomen. The pancreas produces the hormones to control blood sugar, including insulin, glucagon, peptides, and somatostatin. It also makes enzymes essential to the digestion of food.

Diabetes has many risk factors and symptoms, but all types of diabetes involve insulin.

Type 2 Diabetes is characterized by the pancreas no longer making enough insulin to process sugar in one's diet. This can cause disruptions throughout the body, with notable impacts on the heart, liver, and eyes.

Wirngo et. al published "The Physiological Effects of Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) in Type 2 Diabetes" in 2016. There they attribute Dandelion's anti-diabetic properties to its "bioactive chemical components." These include "chicoric acid, taraxasterol (TS), chlorogenic acid, and sesquiterpene lactones," they write.

Wirngo et. al. assert that herbal medicine and other traditional medicines have "demonstrated potential to alleviate diabetic symptoms, enable recovery, and improve health." Dandelion does this by fighting inflammation, which can harm tissues throughout the body.

Dandelion's bitter taste is due to "sesquiterpene lactones." These include "taraxacolide, dihydro-lactucin, ixerin D, taraxinic acids, phenyl propanoids, and ainslioside." These constituents have have anti-inflammatory properties. Dandelion's foundational action as a bitter facilitates proper digestion.

Dandelion is so rich with CGA that it is a viable alternative to proprietary antioxidants. CGA itself is anti-diabetic, and it's best in it's natural form according to Wirngo. It also contains high levels of CRA, which combined with other inulin rich herbs such as Burdock Root and Chicory, helps people metabolize fats better.

When we metabolize fats better, it can decrease our cholesterol. CRA can also make us produce more bile, which breaks down fat and helps flush waste from our livers. CRA is also a strong anti-diabetic.

Bile breaks fat down into fatty acids. Fatty acids provide our bodies with a source of energy. Their presence also impacts the body's response to hormones, including insulin.

In fact, the way our bodies work with fatty acids can be very important for individuals with diabetes. This is because many people with type 2 diabetes have insulin resistance. Their bodies may not be able to store fatty acid as easily.

As a result, these fatty acids may deposit in the liver. This can cause Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver disease, which allopathic doctors cannot treat well. They generally just tell patients to lose weight and lower their cholesterol. (Ask me how I know lol.)

According to Sears and Perry, "90 % of obese type-2 diabetic patients have NAFLD." Even people without diabetes are likely to have NAFLD though, due to poor nutritional options in the United States. They go on to note that researchers expect 50% of Americans to have NAFLD by 2030.

Dandelion is a beautiful medicine for people in this position because it supports the liver and helps lower cholesterol. It does this while also stimulating the metabolism, and aiding digestion. It's highly anti-oxidant and anti-carcinogenic. Dandelion root is also among the vegetables highest in beta-carotene. Beta-carotene becomes Vitamin A in the body.

Vitamin A improves eye function, helps the immune system and keeps our skin healthy. This is essential for people with diabetes, because they are prone to complications with all three, many of them serious.

Dandelion has the potential to ease symptoms of diabetes at low cost.

Specifically, it can lower the cholesterol, which is a major risk factor for the heart and liver complications of type 2 diabetes. This is essential because 80% of people with diabetes live in countries without high incomes.

As Chen et. al report in their article "Income-related inequalities in diagnosed diabetes prevalence among US adults, 2001−2018" the " burden of diabetes falls disproportionately on low-income populations."

In the United States, the people experiencing the strongest correlation between poverty and diabetes are Black and Latina women between the ages of 45-65.

These are the people who have the most to gain from dandelion medicine. It's free in most cases, can be cultivated even in small spaces, and it's cheap. It's identifiable even by children, and abundant nearly everywhere.

Dandelion reduces blood sugar through its caffeic, chicoric, and chlorogenic acid components. It also "effects glucose uptake directly and indirectly" through its "alkaloids, glycosides, amino acids, terpenoids, inorganic ions, steroids, carbohydrates, and galactomannan gum" components.

Importantly, Dandelion has extremely low toxicity.

Dandelion Vinegar

Many diabetics avoid alcohol. If you're not into alcohol, try this vinegar!

Ingredients:

- Fresh dandelion tops

- Fresh dandelion leaves

- Dried dandelion roots

- Apple Cider Vinegar (with the mother, if you can get your hands on some)

Directions

1. Clean a glass jar of your choice

2. Sterilize the jar with boiling water.

3. Let the jar dry

4. Wash your fresh ingredients so that they are completely free of dirt and bugs.

5. Grind all ingredients down as fine as you can using a clean coffee grinder, clean blender, or a mortar and pestle.

6. Fill cleaned and sterilized jar up halfway with Dandelion parts.

7. Cover Dandelion parts with vinegar, then fill jar up to 1/2-3/4inch from the top with vinegar.

8. Stir and release any air bubbles

9. Top with a plastic cap. If you have no plastic caps, use parchment paper between the metal of the jar top and the rim of the glass jar.

Works Cited

The Role and Anatomy of the Pancreas. Animated Pancreas Patient. Youtube. September 6, 2013. Accessed January 26, 2024.

Article Source: Income-related inequalities in diagnosed diabetes prevalence among US adults, 2001−2018

Chen Y, Zhou X, Bullard KM, Zhang P, Imperatore G, et al. (2023) Income-related inequalities in diagnosed diabetes prevalence among US adults, 2001−2018. PLOS ONE 18(4): e0283450. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283450

Choi UK, Lee OH, Yim JH, Cho CW, Rhee YK, Lim SI, Kim YC. Hypolipidemic and antioxidant effects of dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) root and leaf on cholesterol-fed rabbits. Int J Mol Sci. 2010 Jan 6;11(1):67-78. doi: 10.3390/ijms11010067. PMID: 20162002; PMCID: PMC2820990.

Fan M, Zhang X, Song H, Zhang Y. Dandelion (Taraxacum Genus): A Review of Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Effects. Molecules. 2023 Jun 27;28(13):5022. doi: 10.3390/molecules28135022. PMID: 37446683; PMCID: PMC10343869.

Gamboa-Gómez CI, Rocha-Guzmán NE, Gallegos-Infante JA, Moreno-Jiménez MR, Vázquez-Cabral BD, González-Laredo RF. Plants with potential use on obesity and its complications. EXCLI J. 2015 Jul 9;14:809-31. doi: 10.17179/excli2015-186. PMID: 26869866; PMCID: PMC4746997.

Kania-Dobrowolska M, Baraniak J. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale L.) as a Source of Biologically Active Compounds Supporting the Therapy of Co-Existing Diseases in Metabolic Syndrome. Foods. 2022 Sep 15;11(18):2858. doi: 10.3390/foods11182858. PMID: 36140985; PMCID: PMC9498421.

Li J, Luo J, Chai Y, Guo Y, Tianzhi Y, Bao Y. Hypoglycemic effect of Taraxacum officinale root extract and its synergism with Radix Astragali extract. Food Sci Nutr. 2021 Feb 26;9(4):2075-2085. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.2176. PMID: 33841825; PMCID: PMC8020951.

Li Y, Chen Y, Sun-Waterhouse D. The potential of dandelion in the fight against gastrointestinal diseases: A review. J Ethnopharmacol. 2022 Jul 15;293:115272. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2022.115272. Epub 2022 Apr 8. PMID: 35405251.

Pfingstgraf IO, Taulescu M, Pop RM, Orăsan R, Vlase L, Uifalean A, Todea D, Alexescu T, Toma C, Pârvu AE. Protective Effects of Taraxacum officinale L. (Dandelion) Root Extract in Experimental Acute on Chronic Liver Failure. Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 Mar 24;10(4):504. doi: 10.3390/antiox10040504. PMID: 33804908; PMCID: PMC8063808.

Sears B, Perry M. The role of fatty acids in insulin resistance. Lipids Health Dis. 2015 Sep 29;14:121. doi: 10.1186/s12944-015-0123-1. PMID: 26415887; PMCID: PMC4587882.

Seo SW, Koo HN, An HJ, Kwon KB, Lim BC, Seo EA, Ryu DG, Moon G, Kim HY, Kim HM, Hong SH. Taraxacum officinale protects against cholecystokinin-induced acute pancreatitis in rats. World J Gastroenterol. 2005 Jan 28;11(4):597-9. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i4.597. PMID: 15641154; PMCID: PMC4250819.

Suo C, Polanski K, Dann E, Lindeboom RGH, Vilarrasa-Blasi R, Vento-Tormo R, Haniffa M, Meyer KB, Dratva LM, Tuong ZK, Clatworthy MR, Teichmann SA. Dandelion uses the single-cell adaptive immune receptor repertoire to explore lymphocyte developmental origins. Nat Biotechnol. 2024 Jan;42(1):40-51. doi: 10.1038/s41587-023-01734-7. Epub 2023 Apr 13. PMID: 37055623; PMCID: PMC10791579.

Wirngo FE, Lambert MN, Jeppesen PB. The Physiological Effects of Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) in Type 2 Diabetes. Rev Diabet Stud. 2016 Summer-Fall;13(2-3):113-131. doi: 10.1900/RDS.2016.13.113. Epub 2016 Aug 10. PMID: 28012278; PMCID: PMC5553762.

#Dandelion #Diabetes #Chronic Illness

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miniaturemoonheart · 9 months

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Festival Logo

FESTIVAL BLOG

AMERICAN GINSENG, RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Ginseng, Hoodoo, and the Magic of Upholding African American Earth-Based Traditions

February 24, 2021 | Asia Smith | Comments

Ginseng roots on a woven basket platter on a black backdrop.

Photo by whaltns17, Pixabay

Ginseng has been used in my family for generations, but I still had many questions about the botanical. Where did it come from? Is it rooted in any African American traditions? For many African Americans, ginseng is a vital root, one that spans generations, yet historical evidence of its use is sparse.

As an intern with the American Ginseng project, I started “digging” into ginseng. I began my research by examining the narratives of enslaved people. The Works Progress Administration’s Slave Narratives, collected between 1936 and 1938, contain more than 2,300 primary source accounts, including photographs and interviews with formerly enslaved people from fifteen states. Sifting through the records and filtering for any mention of ginseng, I discovered that, particularly in Western Appalachia, ginseng roots were a means by which enslaved or formerly enslaved people earned extra income. They would “dig seng” and sell the roots at local market centers. They also used ginseng for its medicinal properties. For instance, they treated fevers by wrapping the afflicted person in ginseng leaves to help alleviate pain.

One of the strongest connections between ginseng and Black Americans is Hoodoo, which combines preexisting African religions and spiritual practices with Southern African American culture. Hoodoo was created out of necessity by enslaved African people during the Transatlantic Slave Trade period. There are documented accounts of enslaved people using Hoodoo to rebel against their captors in the eighteenth century. During a 1712 uprising in New York, a freeman and Hoodoo practitioner by the name of Peter Doctor aided enslaved people in burning down the township. He concocted a “magical powder” and applied it to the clothing of his comrades to protect them.

Today, Hoodoo is carried forward through the active practices of African American people throughout the United States. Using various herbs and roots, Hoodoo practitioners formulate special understandings of each element in their practice. According to author and Hoodoo practitioner Stephanie Rose Bird, “In Hoodoo, there is a feeling that herbs and roots are alive and need tending throughout the day.”

Because many ginseng roots resemble a walking man, Hoodoo attributes vitality and strength to the root. For instance, Hoodoo believes that ginseng increases sexual prowess, specifically in men. Perhaps a related belief is that ginseng may bring good luck. According to The Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells, a guide to the magical ginseng is a “Wonder of the World Root” that will grant a wish etched onto a root that is then placed under running water.

Black and white illustration of a cloth pouch.

Ginseng may also play an integral role in the use of Mojo Bags by Hoodoo practitioners. Bird explains that each bag is a collection of power, and that the strategic placement of disparate elements will magnify the bag’s power. For example, Hoodoo—Conjuration—Witchcraft—Rootwork contains a spell, “Adam-and-Eve,” which may get someone “under control.” It calls for one ginseng root, one Adam root, and one Eve root. Adam and Eve roots come from a species of orchid known as Aplectrum hyemale, which is found in parts of the Eastern United States.

The Eve root has a round shape while the Adam root is thinner and longer. After gathering your materials, you must “mash” them together to produce a powder. Place the powder on a hot stovetop, then add flour to the powder and “scorch” the mixture. After that, place it in a bag made from any material, and dust the mixture around the house for nine days. This is one of many existing Hoodoo spells that use ginseng and that illustrate how Hoodoo is a highly individualized practice to help people navigate their daily lives.

Bird has written two books explicitly on Hoodoo. Based in Illinois, she is one of many Black women who actively use Hoodoo as a way of life, often by resourcefully making use of what is readily available. “I am a Hoodoo,” she explains. “I have been studying and practicing Hoodoo since 1999. I hope to inspire others, particularly people of color, to engage with Hoodoo through my writing, retreat work, and workshops. Hoodoo is an important collection of magickal and spiritual folk practices, especially for me as a Black woman, in the otherwise quite white world of earth spirituality.” Undoubtedly, Bird’s work speaks to the necessity of carrying on Black earth-based traditions and practices.

Profile of a woman outside, standing against a background of foliage.

As a solitary practitioner with her own garden, Bird does not use ginseng as often as other roots, but she thoroughly appreciates ginseng’s role in Hoodoo. “I understand ginseng as an age-old cure-all and have employed it to build and restore physical and spiritual energy for myself and others. I enjoy its warming ability, and through its soul-warming heat, it opens us up to the possibilities of love and self-healing.”

Moreover, Bird believes that Hoodoo provides tangible approaches to “everyday concerns,” such as “finding love and keeping it close, finding and then spiritually cleansing or maintaining an appropriate home, getting a good job and dealing with the boss, office, and coworkers, court cases and other legal matters, holistic health, and wellness, and much more.” She believes Hoodoo’s “wisdom and proactive approach” are “distinctly African American and harken back to the Motherland. This aspect of Hoodoo is uplifting, freeing, and empowering.”

Where does Bird see Hoodoo in the future?

“I hope the current interest in Hoodoo isn’t a passing fad. I hope people will be open to modern and contemporary twenty-first-century adaptations to rootwork, spells, and rites, to keep it a lively part of the ever-evolving spiritual conversation.”

You can learn more about Stephanie Rose Bird’s work by visiting SRB Botanica and reading her published works, which include 365 Days of Hoodoo: Daily Rootwork, Mojo and Conjuration (2018); A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for the Body and Spirit (2009); Four Seasons of Mojo: An Herbal Guide to Natural Living (2006); and Sticks, Stones, Roots, and Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo and Conjuring with Herbs (2004).

Asia Smith is a sociology and anthropology student with a focus in foodways at Kalamazoo College and a former intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

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90363462 · 1 year

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These Black Witches Are More Magical Than Halloween Myths Would Have You Believe

Source: Sergey Mironov / Getty

Black magic originated as a term to describe magic by Black folks. Over time “black magic” has been equated to darkness, demons, and evil. This was intentional propaganda by white supremacy to separate Black folks from our ancestral magic. MADAMENOIRE spoke with five modern-day Black witches to separate the truth from myths surrounding black magic and witchcraft. For the purpose of this article witchcraft is a catch-all term to describe nature-based spiritual practices and a witch is someone who participates in these practices.

Black Witch

Black Witch is a non denominational Pagan who grew up in a Christian household. At 15, after listening to the band of Christians P.O.D—short for Payable on Death—she started questioning Chrisitanity and realized that she didn’t believe most of what she was taught. She happened across Paganism after reading a book called Where to Park Your Broomstick by Lauren Manoy and felt more at home with a nature and metaphysics based belief.

Dianté Vance-Jewett

Dianté is a Black queer witch. Although he wasraised in an open-minded Christian household,he found some of the teachings of the Church demeaning. He sought a spirituality that didn’t view him as an abomination. With his Rags to Witches podcast co-host Fiona, he wasintroduced to crystals and tarot reading in college and learned he was a witch.

Frankie Nicholson

Frankie is a Puerto Rican and Black Pagan witch. After watching The Craft with his aunt at five years old, he realized he was a witchbecause he could do the same thing the characters did. From there, he learned more about being a witch. Although he grew up in a Catholic household, as he got older, he realized that there was santeria and rootwork present in his family’s faith.

Juju

Juju, the host of A Little Juju podcast, is a Hoodoo and Orisha devotee. She was baptized Catholic and switched to many different Christian denominations. In 2016, through online circles and community conversation, she learned that Hoodoo has always been a part of her life as a Black American even if she didn’t have the language for it. It was after watching Beyonce’s Lemonade visuals, that she sought out more information about Orishas and found a house and a godparent.

Keon

Keon, known online as Millennial Soul Food, is a Hoodoo who’s initiated into Ifa Isese. They were introduced to Hoodoo through their grandma who was a Seer, and in 2014, they joined a Hoodoo coven in Chicago. After a series of random synchronicities while living in New Orleans, they received a reading from a woman who later became their godmother when they were initiated into Ifa Isese.

MN: Thank y’all for agreeing to speak with Madame Noire. What do you think the media gets wrong about witchcraft and Black magic?

Dianté: In the media, you never really see the races mixed together. It’s not showing that witches are inclusive. It’s still showing that we’re kind of segregated.

Black Witch: It’s more than some random White girl chanting bad rhymes over a candle and it isn’t some stereotypical voodoo queen with wild hair. Men can be witches. A witch is a person, not a species. Folk magick is built into culture, not some weird outlier in opposition to science and medicine. And there certainly is a rhyme and reason in magic but new age and pop culture heavily erodes and ignores that, which is both aggravating and insulting.

Frankie: It’s like, “Let’s get this money. Let’s be beautiful.” They make it more about the outer when it’s about the inner. I noticed on social media, especially with younger people, everybody wants to do a hex. Everybody wants to do a love spell. Everybody wants to get somebody back. That’s not what it really is about.

Juju: It can do all of those bad things that y’all show, but that’s not the full story. The scale is uneven when showing the negative impacts of witchcraft and not the healing aspects of what it is.

Keon: In a lot of occult arts there’s left hand and right hand paths. Left hand is cursing and the right hand is uplifting. The media misconstrues a lot of primary focuses of witches and occultists. Most of the time it’s about figuring out your own limitations and using your spiritual practices or magic to fill in the gaps or find out more about yourself.

So, witchcraft is not demonic. It’s not a consumable good and it’s not all about curses. Why do you think the media focuses so heavily on these things?

Juju: Why would you want someone to know who they are if you’re trying to enslave them and you are enslaving them? Why would you want them to have faith? Why would you want them to feel that they have power? Why would you want them to conjure a new reality? You wouldn’t. I think that’s a partial reason as to why [the media says] “We’re gonna show the evilness and demonic nature of these traditions because we don’t want you to know that we actually are very afraid of them because we know what they can do, and we don’t want y’all to do that.”

And what can witchcraft do?

Juju: It is a healing tradition. It’s accountability. It helps you ground yourself in identity. Black folks are always striving to understand more about ourselves, who we are, and who we come from—whether that is a continent or whether that is South Carolina. Knowing those roots and being able to pinpoint some family history or personality traits or even the generational traumas and generational joys.

Keon: A big part of witchcraft is working with your shadow, and to become a more powerful witch you have to understand your own shadow and vulnerabilities. Understanding my own intergenerational trauma has really helped inform my magic and also mentorship with people. Witchcraft is also about returning to nature and getting in alignment with practices that are hundreds of years old.

Frankie: Setting intentions, being consistent with your prayers, doing the work, and then watching it manifest. That’s the real magic. Because if you don’t do the work, you can sit on the couch all day and nothing’s gonna change.

It seems like being a witch is about discipline, consistency, and healing. How has being a witch changed your day to day life?

Frankie: I’m blessed. As a child, you think you know what spirituality is. You think you know what prayer is. You think you know what faith is, but now that I’m an adult, I realize I know what it is now.

Juju: I know I’m able to wake up and ground myself in a practice, and I have ritual to rely on. I truly believe that ritual can change your life. Whatever you decide to practice regularly and internalize can completely shift your day and shift your experiences and your outlook on life. These traditions, particularly ancestral veneration and talking to my dead people shift my outlook all the time. I’m able to have a level of accountability that I didn’t have before because I can consult spirits. I can talk to people who see so much farther than I see. I think that in itself just impacts everything else.

Black Witch: I’m happier in it far, far more than I would have been in Christianity. I have hardships like everyone else but at least I feel like I can handle them better. Plus I like polytheism, it works for me since I feel like it helps me understand the world around me better.

Dianté: Witchcraft has helped me dive deeper into myself. Ever since I discovered I was a witch, I’ve been focusing on healing myself. That’s helped because for a long time I was such a people pleaser. Discovering that I’m a witch means I don’t have to go through this. I can manifest my own destiny.

Keon: With Ifa, it helped give me a blueprint for my spirituality. It helped me learn more about my spiritual gifts. It’s really helped me ground myself. With Ifa, specifically, there’s a set of character principles and then if you’re initiated you get taboos to help with structuring your life. It’s helped me understand more about my spiritual boundaries, my approach to relationships, and different mantras I need to focus on for my own spiritual path.

Do y’all have any advice for Black people who are interested in magic?

Frankie: Black people, know your roots. Before the slave trade, what were our ancestors practicing? Who were they praying to? What were they worshiping?

Juju: It’s important to know that there are things that exist that want us free because we see so many lies and tales about the things that don’t want us free, but imagine if we ground ourselves in the things that people have used that even got them free.

Black Witch: It isn’t a magic cure but it does help to become more comfortable in the self. Black culture already has things like ancestor worship built into it, folk remedies like ginger for a bad stomach, and ideas such as “speaking something into existence.” In a way, it is kind of already woven into the culture already.

So a lot of Black people already practice witchcraft?

Frankie: When people pray to God, you’re setting an intention, and you’re praying for something to happen. When you light up that candle and you look at it, and you blow that candle out for your birthday, you did a spell. When you sit there and you go to the cathedral and get that holy water, you bought a potion. When you take a shower after a hard day at work, you’re washing off old energy.

Since it’s Halloween, I’m curious as to why it’s such a big event for witches?

Keon: In the Northern hemisphere, specifically, we see the weather go from warm to cold as a time where a lot of spiritualists, pagans, and witches see the veil as becoming thinner because we see death occur more in nature. That’s why we see people celebrating Halloween because that’s the harvest of the seeds the ancestors have helped us sow.

The concept of liminality is also important because in nature, we see the trees change colors, the leaves change colors as they go through the liminal phase between living and death. That is a central concept to Halloween and the Day of the Dead as to why you see people giving more offerings to ancestors like Brujería in Mexico, Fèt Gede with the Haitian Vodou people, and Halloween with witches. It’s more about remembering and honoring the harvest and honoring the cyclical transitions in nature.

Thank you. I’ve never made that connection before. Final thoughts?

Frankie: Just better yourself. Try to do as best as you can because the world is going crazy. We have a pandemic. We have a lot of deaths going on which is weird. We have a lot of people saying their opinions on the Internet that don’t pay no one else’s bills, but everybody’s got to be heard. It’s too much going on. Just focus on yourself, focus on your spirits, focus on being your best self, because I’d rather go out smiling than being angry in my heart. I’d rather go out smiling.

The practice of witchcraft is self-love, self-respect, and honoring yourself. It is a lot of magic to it and it is weird, but it’s very real.

RELATED CONTENT: Hoodoo Heritage Month: Conjuring, Culture, And Community

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flamingkorybante · 11 months

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Announcing: AMA with Rocket and Alder of the Agdistine Order! - Saturday June 17th, from 5-7 pm ET

Hello all! Saturday June 17th, from 5-7 pm ET, we will have an AMA with Rocket and Alder of the Agdistine Order.

Description of the Agdistine Order:

The Agdistine Order is a liberatory spiritual project working to build a transcendent mystery tradition that meets the needs of modern transgender and gender nonconforming practitioners. It honors the Anatolian mythological figure of Agdistis, a nonbinary Earth daemon with a powerful appetite for pleasure, and strives to provide practitioners with tools for transformation of trauma, shame, and dysphoria as well as a shared focus for ancestral veneration. This is accomplished through a mix of ekstasis and enthousiasmos, using both ancient and modern techniques. The Order is a work in progress, with particular attention on crafting effective rituals, while also not forming the bad kind of cult. The dramatis personae of The Order include Dionysos, Cybele, and Attis, all of whom had mystery cults in antiquity, but far as we know, Agdistis has never before had a mystery cult of their own. You don't have to be trans to venerate Agdistis but we make no guarantee that you won't be trans when they finish with you. If you'd like to do the reading before the AMA and come with questions, you can find the essay, "The Passion of Agdistis: Gender Transgression, Sexual Trauma, Time Travel, and Ritualized Madness in Greco-Anatolian Revival Cultus," first published in "Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries" in 2018. The piece includes very frank discussions of transphobia, transmisogyny, violence, and sexual assault, so please take care while reading.

Some info about Rocket and Alder:

Rocket is a cultist and mage of the Agdistine Order and the founder of the Anarcho-Surrealist Wizard Brigade, fully dedicated to 1) Cybele Magna Mater, and 2) being the weirdest pervert in the mystic groupchat and the weirdest mystic in the pervert groupchat. On the clock, Rocket can be found destroying the institution of marriage and teaching at law schools, and the rest of the time, they write poetry compulsively, glue rhinestones to things, organize with other leftist weirdo Jews, and push the flesh to its limit for art, magic, and pleasure. Rocket’s writing can be found in the Queer Magic Anthology, Nerve Endings: The New Trans Erotic, the Texas Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Advocate, and the Brill journal of Religion and the Arts, and Rocket can be found on Tumblr at @ flamingkorybante and in meatspace on a trans commune on unceded Lenape land. Alder Knight was raised as an animist and got into witchcraft in 1998. They began their work with Dionysos in 2012. As neither a classicist nor a reconstructionist, they rely heavily on divination, personal connection with the divine, and trial and error in their Dionysian practice. They are an herbalist and a rootworker, with a focus on local plants and a light touch, and they prioritize using their skills and resources to seek out healing, community resilience, collective liberation, and the ecstatic. A mystical experience in 2014 propelled them into intensive work with the transgender dead, which culminated in the annual Transgender Rite of Ancestor Elevation, @ trans-rite on Tumblr. Similarly, a mystical experience in 2015 planted the seeds of what would become The Agdistine Order. Their day job is in clean energy and climate education, and they live with Rocket and others at the all-trans intentional community they co-founded in 2018 on unceded Lenape land. You can find them on Tumblr at @ thegodwhocums.

Looking forward to this AMA! Mark your calendars!

#agdistis #the agdistine order #dionysos #mystery cults #cult shit

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