​Hoodoo in Hollywood

I love to educate. I think I was born to be a teacher. When I was five years old I was in dance class and kept telling the other kids how to do the dance steps. Some people called my instruction, “bossy,” but they just did not recognize my natural teaching abilities. (ahem…cough, cough)
However, it can get really old trying to explain that Hoodoo is not Voodoo, and that Hoodoo AND Voodoo are not evil, or that what is depicted on T.V. and in Movies is NOT real. It is Hollywood, and not what Hoodoo or Conjure is. Hollywood is an entertainment industry and a business. They need to put butts in the seats at the theaters, and many people will pay good money to be scared.
So Hollywood “exaggerates” and creates a spooky environment and wraps Hoodoo/Conjure up in the horror genre, all to sell tickets. Because, let’s face it, a woman in the last half of her life, mixing herbs and oils and setting them on a shelf is just not edge of the seat entertainment.
Are there scary parts of Hoodoo/Conjure? Sure. There is what is referred to as the “left hand path” the “hard work” or “shadow work.” Sometimes you will hear this work called, “laying tricks” or “hexing.” But you have to remember THIS IS NOT WICCA.
Not every practitioner works that path, and those that do take steps to ensure their protection from the backlash that can occur. There are rituals to follow and it is not something to dabble in.
Actually, I think that is where the real scary comes in. If you have spent years studying this form of magic then you know how to protect yourself (hint: it involves more than lighting a candle or casting a circle) and if you haven’t it can get REAL very quickly and that shit just don’t rub off. All the Florida Water in the world won’t help. You have to know what to do BEFORE you play around with this stuff. Because if there is one thing I have learned in my 40 years of working the root….this shit works.
But, back to Hollywood. Since this is the Hoodoo world that most folks are familiar with they don’t read about, or attend classes that will educate them to the wonderful, practical magical practice of Hoodoo/Conjure. Most of Hoodoo is concerned with practical, day to day stuff: getting a job, finding love, making more money, bringing luck into your life, keeping your home safe and happy. These are things everyone wants. And, no, once you start practicing conjure you are not opening the door to evil. There is no “slippery slope.” Those are very Christian concepts and while many practitioners are Christian they just stay clear of the more, shall we say, negative, practice. Many of those who know of Hoodoo also think that if they have the local root doctor put the hex on their ex there will be no backlash on them personally…after all they did not work the magic. So my advice to you is either learn to work the root in a positive manner, or learn how to counter act the negative magic. There are no magical moral police. Magic in and of itself is not good or bad. Magic is neutral. It is the practitioner that decides how they will use their magic that determines whether it is for good or not. And working the root does not look much like what you see on T.V.