About Us
Welcome to Hoodoo Crossroads. We’ve built this site as a resource for you to learn about hoodoo spells, get ideas for rootworking spells of your own, and to get an idea about the kind of work we do as rootworkers for our clients. Hoodoo Crossroads is a shared blog, and we’ll be posting about once a week with a spell, case study, information about some curio or even testimonials we’ve received from our clients. This site isn’t an official organization, we are just a collection of professional rootworkers, friends and contemporaries, all practicing hoodoo in some form.
What is Hoodoo?
Hoodoo is not voodoo. It is Southern Folk Magic, not a religion. It combines together the magical practices rooted in the Congo people who were enslaved and brought to the United States. Along with these powerful magical practices, rootworkers adopted the religion of their masters – primarily protestant Christianity in some form (usually Baptist Christianity). That’s why we pray the psalms when we’re working roots, and we’ll call upon the power of Jesus Christ in our magic. You don’t have to be a Christian to practice hoodoo, but typical hoodoo workings do use the bible and psalms when praying.
Hoodoo is a term used not only to describe the system of magic, but also the person practicing it. Some workers refer to themselves as “a hoodoo”. It can also be used as a verb: “to hoodoo someone” – usually used in a negative connotation.
Hoodoo magical practice is sometimes called rootwork. This comes out of the fact we use many roots in our magical spells. We prefer to use the roots of plants because we believe they hold the most powerful essence of that plant. We also use leafs, flowers, seeds, sticks, and we often use minerals as well including salt, sulphur, saltpeter, alum and many others. Each of these curios is seen to hold power, the magical essence of that item, that we can collect and use to conjure up an amulet or craft a spell.
Hoodoo is a Tool
Hoodoo is a tool like any other. It can be used constructively or destructively – it’s up to the rootworker and how she decides to wield that power. Some rootworkers refuse to do any attack magic, and occasionally self-identify as “lady hearted” workers. Other rootworkers will do curse or enemy work if it is justified. We don’t ascribe to any moral code like “harm none” – we let our divination and the relationship we have with our spirits, and the all-mighty God of justice determine what we are willing to do.
