The Spellcaster's Source Hoodoo and Voodoo Witchcraft Blog of Talia Felix

One beginning in the tradition of hoodoo should know about the importance of baths. They are vital tools in hoodoo work and cannot be dispensed with.  Many people nowadays don't have bathtubs, and some adaptation can be achieved by way of showers. Other people use a large bowl or bucket of water to pour on themselves in place of a spiritual bath. In olden times, and also in some places today where water on tap isn't common, people will perform their spiritual baths in a river or pond outdoors.  A spiritual bath is similar to a regular bath, but with certain key differences. Spiritual baths are not meant primarily for physical cleansing and so washing items like soap might be taboo depending on the exact bath type. However there are some types of magical bath that do use the multitasking property of soap or other cleansers, and in those cases the cleaning aspect is appropriate to the work. There is some controversy around washing the hair in a spiritual bath. Many people don...

Walk into any spiritual supply shop that stocks dried herbs and ask for five-finger grass. You'll get a bag of something green and dried. Walk into three different shops, you might get three different plants. Ask what it actually is and you'll get answers ranging from "it's got five leaves" to "it's for protection" to a shrug and "it's what my supplier sends." The identification mess around five-finger grass illustrates a broader problem in rootwork: common names are folklore, not botany, and sometimes the folklore doesn't even agree with itself. The most common candidate sold as five-finger grass is Potentilla species: cinquefoils. The Latin name gives it away: potentilla means "little powerful one," and cinquefoil derives from the French cinq feuilles , five leaves. Most cinquefoils have palmately compound leaves divided into five leaflets, which makes the connection to "five-finger grass" obvious enough th...

 Myrrh The other day I made a bath recipe for myself using some artificial myrrh oil (real myrrh essential oil being quite expensive -- about $160 a half ounce as of this writing.) Sniffing it, it called to mind so many other spells that I've done that I realized -- this is THE smell of hoodoo. American hoodoo magic, with its blend of African, Indigenous, and European traditions, has a long history of utilizing various herbs, roots, and materials to create potent spells and rituals. One such ingredient that holds a significant place is myrrh. It is not a native plant to the Americas: commiphora myrrha is native to the Arabian penninsula and Africa. It appears often in the Bible, and because of this was adopted into European high magical traditions. As I mention in my book Conjuration , incense wasn't much used in American hoodoo till the early 20th century, when the "catalogue culture" of De Laurence and others brought to it more high magical tradition and incorpor...

Baptized candles have a tendency to display either current or to-be behaviors of their subjects. Skull candles, which are used for the purpose of magically controlling a person's thoughts, seem to "weep" with a certain frequency. Some of this is just due to the shape of the candle -- the eyes being one of the shallowest points, therefore make it likely that the liquid wax will pour out of that spot -- and one must be cautious with candle readings to comprehend what is normal burn behavior for a style of candle. Nonetheless, a weeping skull candle can indicate many things. I might suggest he subject is upset or will become upset by thing thing you're requesting, or it might indicate that he or she is already unhappy. If you get a sobby little skull candle as part of your work, consider whether your demands on the person might be too emotionally damaging to them!  Domination and control work requires careful judgment about how hard to push—this is one area where...

Hoodoo Style Magical Waters for Magic In hoodoo tradition, some of the oldest and most traditional ingredients are natural gathered waters. While cologne and perfume is sometimes classed as a water for conjure purposes, special waters are based on water, sometimes taken from a specific location. They can have additional ingredients added, but the magic is generally held to be in the water itself. They've become a little less common since the rise of commercial hoodoo, perhaps due to manufacturer's tendency to sell any old tap water as "alleged glory water" or whatever it's labeled; and also there is difficulty in shipping liquids like water that aren't inherent in somewhat thicker mixtures like soaps or oils. (For example, a bottle of oil won't evaporate if left out too long.)  Here's a list of some traditional hoodoo magical waters and how to make them: Glory Water Glory Water is a recipe I did not include in my Conjure Cookbook , as it's not ...

Finding the right materials for spellwork can be a challenge, especially when one is in a situation where traditional ingredients are unavailable. Whether it’s due to limited access, tight budgets, or time constraints, many practitioners face the question of how to adapt their tools without compromising the spell's effectiveness. Fortunately, magic has always been a practice of ingenuity and resourcefulness! Hoodoo in particular was practically founded upon adapting traditions to new cultures and landscapes where the old herbs, tools and licenses were no longer possible to employ. Adaptation is absolutely possible in witchcraft of this type. Yet there are limits. It is considered perfectly good practice to substitute certain items with certain things, but not others. For example, if one were to perform the Return a Lost Lover Spell from Homemade Hoodoo , but one didn't have any access to lavender oil, what would one use instead to substitute for it? The thought might be to use ...

  In the dimly lit corners of folklore and mysticism lies a realm where the ancient art of hoodoo witchcraft weaves its intricate web of magic. Rooted in the rich tapestry of American magical tradition, hoodoo offers a sanctuary for those seeking to navigate the currents of fate with intention and purpose. With this spell, we can unravel the mysteries of hoodoo and ignite the flames of transformation to emerge victorious in the face of adversity. Today, we stand on the threshold of a sacred rite, a spell crafted to reverse the tides of misfortune and safeguard against the malevolent forces that seek to undermine our path. With each ingredient carefully selected and every gesture imbued with significance, we shall embark on a journey of spiritual cleansing and protection. Note that those who are new to hoodoo are sometimes surprised to find out how many pre-made conjure formulas are utilized in the work. This doesn't mean it's a "fake spell" made "just to sell ing...

  The mysteriously named jews harp, also called in early texts a jews trump, is a musical instrument that dates back thousands of years. It appears all over Asia and Europe, as well as in the Americas -- in fact, some of the earliest mentions of the Jews harp in the English language make their appearances in accounts of trading them in South America to the local tribes, who found the strange foreign instruments to be highly desirable.  The elevated status this instrument once held can be inferred from the medieval images at the Bayeux cathedral of angels playing the jews harp. While to a modern ear its springy, high pitched rattle sounds odd, perhaps even comical (probably no thanks to its use in providing modern cartoon sound effects) it is nevertheless used in some shamanic traditions as a trance inducing instrument. The sound can be very like modern synthesizer tones, the main difference being that a jews harp is primarily a percussion instrument with a very limited musica...

The Queen Elizabeth Root used in hoodoo is usually nowadays an orris root. In older hoodoo it was taken from a plant called stillingia, or Queen's Root . I cannot find the exact point at which the new name was acquired, but it appears that the name "Queen Elizabeth" came to use coincidental with the time that it was being replaced in curio catalogues with orris root. In this instance, it was probably to evade accusations of fraud or mislabeling for selling queen's root from a different plant.   A similar thing happened with John the Conqueror root, where the easier to acquire jalap replaced the more traditional root, usually identified as either Solomon's Seal root or a Jack in the Pulpit root.  In hoodoo tradition, the John the Conqueror root is the symbol of masculinity; it's even (rarely) called "man root." Its properties include the ability to draw money, success, wit, virility, love, crossing, uncrossing, and luck. The female root is the Que...

  Once was a time when I was known for my Hoodoo Review blog, where I reviewed products from various occult shops and botanicas. Eventually I got rid of the blog because I was experiencing too much trouble with inconsistency in products -- that is to say, an item I had loved the first time I bought might not be made the same way when I ordered from the same manufacturer a year later. Sometimes this was due to certain occult shops or practitioners not following a set "recipe" and instead making the formulas however they felt like making them on that occasion. Other times the problem would be a decline in quality (especially from larger makers) as the search for cheapness and easiness overrode the tradition or effectiveness of older more expensive formulas. One example was the Ar-Jax brand of incense, which originally had some herbal matter in the mixture, but over time came to be made with the same plain, colored incense mixture that everything sold by Wisdom Products uses. In...

Let's start by acknowledging that the debate around cultural appropriation can be quite polarizing. Personally, I believe that some arguments against cultural appropriation can sometimes feel like a step backward toward segregation, albeit under the guise of "protecting cultural integrity." However, regardless of where you stand on the issue, it's important to address misconceptions that often arise. One such misconception involves smudging and smudge sticks. Some believe these practices are exclusive to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and that others using them is a form of appropriation.   Some people have therefore expressed outrage at the notion that witchcraft or herbalists have "appropriated" smudging from Native Americans. Yet, anyone who is concerned about the matter must know this: -- "Smudge" is an English word. It is not the native term in any of the tribal languages for the so-called smudge ceremony . Rather, it is how the English ...