Hoodoo, Conjure, and Rootwork Studies Institute

Introduction to Hoodoo Allen Oswald

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Introduction to Hoodoo
The HCR Studies Institute is dedicated to educating and informing the occult public about real Hoodoo in its many forms. As Hoodoo has gained popularity in recent years so has the misinformation. All forms of magic tend to be personal arts and as such develop within a family structure and are passed on to family members. In Asia all magic systems are family systems and nothing is a general system used by others, even those systems tend to have similarities. My grandfather was a Conjurer and taught me Hoodoo as a teenager. My father was against me learning the old ways but, my interest was too great for him to stop me. As usual, with new generations, many are not interested in the old ways and are told they are evil and against God. My father refused to learn the Old Ways and stayed a traditional Southern Baptist. My grandfather was still alive at the time Harry Hyatt was conducting his research, he lived to the ripe old age of 110. He heard about the research but, being white was not invited to participate, not that he would have. No serious Conjurer wanted to speak with this Yankee priest nor share family secrets with outsiders. Hoodoo like all magic, is not shared freely outside the family, not even with other Conjurers. None of the Conjurers were happy with the research being done and that it only included Negros (the term used then). There are differences from Negro Hoodoo and White Hoodoo. But, this is common in Hoodoo practices no matter the race.

What is Hoodoo?

It is important to define Hoodoo and just what it is. Being a simple boy from the South, I like to use simple terms. There seems to be Yankees, making Hoodoo out to be all kinds of complicated things. Making up a history, a cultural connection and even stating it comes from a certain area in the world. Lots of fancy words me nor my grandfather have much use for. While there are lots of Southern slang terms for Conjurers or the practitioners of Hoodoo, it can be commonly called in modern times, Christian Spiritual Folk Practices or Christian Herb Craft. In occult terms it is plain old fashion witchcraft. While my grandfather would have shuttered at that terminology, he believed he was doing Gods work as detailed in the Bible. The Bible stated that God provided everything on the earth to heal the body and the soul of man. As such, using animal and earth provided products was doing Gods work. He never saw himself as a witch of any kind. The plain and simple fact known by anyone researching occultism is that, Folk Magic or Witchcraft is the oldest practiced belief known to mankind. Being practiced in the time of the cave men. Amulets, Herbs, Oils and Ritual tools have been found in graves all over the world dating back tens of thousands of years. I think Occult Traditions were best described by Dr. Thor Templar of IGOS, in his Magical Traditions booklet in the Successful Ritual series. Dr. Templar clearly defines witchcraft and all of its associated systems and practices, no matter the name it is called. The use of animal parts and herbals has been and is being practiced all over the world with shocking similarities from culture to culture no matter where people are living. The practices in South America, North America, Asia, Africa and the rest of the world, are very similar. The same goes for Southern Witchcraft practices commonly known as Hoodoo. Hoodoo is highly Christianized witchcraft. While Hoodoo is not a religion, 99% of Conjurers use Christian symbols and prayers in their practices, in the South, to be a Conjurer and stay alive you have to! While there is a huge Satanic underground in the South, making non-Christian beliefs public, is a sure way to a hanging! While there are all kinds of strange Christian cults in the Deep South, none of these cults nor main stream church tolerate witchcraft is any form or manner whatsoever. The Bible clearly states witches are to be slain! For this reason, no Conjurer would ever call themselves a witch nor think of themselves as witches. Conjurers truly believe they are in the service of God, doing Gods working in a particular fashion. While not a religion per se, it is a strong spiritual believe. Most Conjurers use prayers

and the Psalms in their practices. This does not change the fact that the practices are still what is considered basic witchcraft. Witchcraft around the world uses, herbs, incense, poppets, oils, roots and animal parts to produce energy for rituals. All kinds of folklore is also used in witchcraft practices like, running waters, wells, cross roads, moon phases and charms of all kinds. It is also important to note, that Hoodoo is not a Southern Negro Tradition. Hoodoo comes from European origins and adapted by Negro Slaves in the South. Just as the Voodoo Doll was. The Voodoo Doll we all think today as being a Voodoo tradition is not, it came from the European Witchcraft tradition. Hoodoo does not come from Western Africa just because those involved in Hoodoo in a particular area may come from a particular African country, just because that area of the South were sold slaves from West African and as such make up more of the population then other African countries or Caribbean countries. The core practice of witchcraft is universal as is the use of herbs etc. as detailed already. The actual practical use of particular herbs, animals etc. are all very different from Europe and Africa so, stating Hoodoo is African or European is a bad statement in general. Hoodoo is Southern American Witchcraft with family and cultural influences. The Southern Whites used more European based practices and the Blacks more African practices depending on where they originally came from. Those out there trying to make Hoodoo special for profit are misinforming the occult public. There are special Southern Witchcraft practices because of the location like, there are special practices in any witchcraft system because of the location You will not see Pineapples used in a European system but, there are Stone carving practices from Western Europe not seen in other Traditions. Even the word Hoodoo can be traced back to European roots. There is nothing culturally Black about witchcraft in any manner whatsoever. Like Jews, Blacks had a separate closed society and as such could practice the old ways with a few modifications that European society would not allow. After all, America is the country of the Pilgrims, they left Europe become of the liberal nature of 1600s English Christianity! The fact of the matter is, European witchcraft practices were used in America first and the formulas my grandfather gave me are similar and sometimes exactly

like the European formulas. Any new settlers like the Negros would need the help of local witches to correlate the old world herbs to the new world herbs. What American Southern herb had the same use as the old world herb? Certainly, slaves and later very poor southern blacks could never afford herbs coming from Africa, if these were available at all for any price. Hoodoo like all witchcraft is based on locally obtainable products with a few inexpensive charm items, like Load Stones being bought. There were a few supply houses offering Hoodoo products but, these were rarely used by black Hoodoo practitioners because of the cost of the products. Occultism has few standard practices. This requires a standardized training system, a Guild or Mystery School that has not been around for thousands of years. Ancient Greece. Rome and Egypt had these schools and the Druids did as well. But these have not existed for hundreds if not thousands of years, only a few Ritual magic traditions are similar in their practices. With the mass marketing of Wicca books, there are some basic practices that are the same. When we talk about Witchcraft, everything changes. Especially rural country witchcraft like Hoodoo. There is no reason to separate Hoodoo into a racial practice unless, you are trying to make it something it is not for personal profit. This also, is plain wrong! It is not the truth and those doing research that claim this are doing a terrible job of researching. This is nothing new in the occult community, the amount of wrong information, being sold as fact, is shocking. The occult public is lazy and lets others tell them what is Hoodoo, instead of finding out for themselves. The books, courses and products I have seen, being called Hoodoo are plain, terrible! Real Hoodoo products do not use all kinds of artificial ingredients. They are all natural made from what was in the area the Hoodoo was practiced in. Modern quality herbal oils are extremely pure and using artificial ingredients is not the Hoodoo way. The one reason there are more Blacks involved in Hoodoo is because it was exceptive at that time by the community and still is today. In a white community stating you practice witchcraft or Hoodoo will bring great trouble upon you, guaranteed! Hoodoo faded out in the white communities, while it grew in the black communities until the late sixties.

Harry Middleton Hyatt

I showed the Hyatt books to my grandfather before he died. While he found the books interesting fun, he found very little of value in the books. While the terms used seemed to Hoodoo based, the practices were not. My grandfather had talked to locals who spoke with Hyatt. He told me that they had a good laugh telling this Yankee stories of conjure and magic. They took his money and told him tales or changed things to make them worthless. He also stated that he was surprised with the large number of people Hyatt stated he spoke to, since only a small number of local Hoodoo men claimed to have spoken with him. The whole thing seemed very fishy to my grandfather, as no one shared secrets outside of their family as a general rule. Since this was kept in Negro Hoodoo circles, it is difficult to know how many Hoodoo practitioners were actually sharing real practices or just telling tales. In general, the books seems not to be a valid source of Hoodoo practices. But, I think this needs further research, there could be value in these books. We need to open the study to all Southern Witchcraft practices like Voodoo, Witchcraft and even some Santeria practices as these all blend together. While there are major differences in the practices of these Traditions, there are also lots of similarities. Looking to Hyatt as the only resource is a huge mistake. The Voodoo-Witchcraft tradition has all kinds of similar practices to reference and compare with the Hoodoo practices. Some of the practices in the Hyatt books are just plain WRONG! It is hard to believe that hundreds of poor alienated black folk would openly share with this Yankee Church of England Minister. While Hyatt was working with and through other blacks he paid for their help, it is hard to believe the information shared would have much value. It is not only giving away secrets but, giving away secrets to the competition. The slang and accent of the regions he did his interviews in, must have been extremely difficult to understand. Hyatt claimed to have had his recordings professionally transcribed, how was the transcriber able to understand the slang and accent?

The massive amount of data collected works against Hyatt because, none of it was properly gone through either to reference it or to look into it as being real Hoodoo by other practitioners. Hyatt was a Christian Minister of the Church of England and had no interest in or understanding of Hoodoo. After completing a few Folklore books that were well received, he was looking for something else to compile when he met a few black Old-timers involved in Hoodoo practices that offered to help him contact other black Hoodoo practitioners. He told Hyatt that Hoodoo practitioners would talk if they were paid for the information. It is unknown what these people were paid but, being so many in numbers it could not been a lot. Many transcription errors must have accursed, there are several that have been pointed out already by a few researchers, and how many more are there in this massive work? It would have been very interesting to hear all the actual interviews, to see the approach taken in the interview and the responses given. Knowing Hoodoo Conjurers and the secretive nature of the practices in general, how did Hyatt get so much information? How did he find 1600 Hoodoo practitioners willing to talk? I do not know of anyone in the modern occult world that could find that many people to talk and get that number of rituals from. The entire work is so large and there is so much information to go through, it is hard to understand how it was even gathered. Are there that many qualified Conjurers in those areas and how was he able to locate them and get them to talk? These are important questions that need some research. Sadly, as the time ticks away, fewer and fewer from that time period are still alive. It would be interesting to know the process of gathering this material before even looking at the content of the material. Who was considered a qualified person to be interviewed? It seems like just about anyone. One of the big problems with Herbal-Root practices it that they vary fantastically even in modern witchcraft practices. In one practice an herb is good for wealth and another it is used to curse! The actual name of the herb is usually slang as well. An herb in one part of the world could be called something completely different, in another part of the world, not to mention the use could be completely different. Herbal lore can be very complicated and confusing. Herbal lore seems to be based more on local availability than actual general international herb lore. Classic formulas like Florida Water and VanVan have different ingredients in them from region to region, all those there are some common

threads to the formulas. Herbal lore in general is so different from one practitioner to another, that it is almost worthless. Lots of research needs to be done in this area of occultism. Just what exact formulas work? I only know of one organization that has tested anything, all the rest are selling what they think works with nothing to back up their talk with. I seem some pretty silly stuff used in formulas and in rituals as well! There is a dark side to Hyatt as well. Why was a Christian minister researching witchcraft? Hyatt clearly states he believed it to be witchcraft. This is stated throughout his work. While Hyatt comments on Police harassment in a few cases, he is careful not condemn the Police in general. He does not make direct racist comments but, I am amazed that a book written about the black cultural and published in the 1970s has no comments on the racial prejudice. Why, in a time of great social growth and the integration of blacks with white cultural were there no statements about race? I believe Hyatt did not care, after all these were nothing but witches and uneducated black ones at that. A lot can be understood by what a person does not write as much as what they do. When he writes about Police abuse, he writes how terrible they are to him and not how terrible they were to the blacks. He writes about the fear of them hurting him but, not their general abuse of blacks. At a time when positive statements about Blacks were expected and popular, you find none of this in his writings. Hyatt comments on bad roads and the terrible education poor whites and blacks have and nothing more. Why? Hyatt was clearly over his head in this research project. The series of books are very poorly done, even disregarding the comment and whether they are true or not. He should have sought out help, from his numerous College associates, with organizing the research in some manner. Not knowing the subject matter whatsoever and not being an occultist of any level, terribly hurt the entire project and ruined any serious occultist from taking it seriously. The thrown together data from thousands of so-called Hoodoo practitioners, in terrible slang, makes the entire work extremely difficult to read through. The actual manuscripts that were published are typed out in a horrible font without much spacing or even chapter heads and proper paragraphing. I assume he was trying to keep this overdone, over detailed research down in page count. Not knowing Hoodoo he did not know how to edit it and could not even organize it in an easier to read fashion. He

should have spent his time compiling and organizing the data, instead of getting more and more data that he had no idea what it was. It is hard to understand why this Oxford University educated minister had not a clue how to do this type of research. Reading the books is like reading one long page with constant underlining, quotes and notes, included with the writing and not as footnotes. This shows a very poor writing abilities in general. It certainly makes his research look poor and difficult to use practically. Some of this was just his lack of understanding on how to do this type of writing and research. It is a unique area of writing that requires great skill to produce properly. Some of it was done deliberately, Hyatt did not want to produce a training book on how to do Hoodoo. Far from it, he did not want his books used by the common people, only researchers into black southern cultural. Hyatt wanted to show how ignorant and uneducated Negros of the south were. This is an indirect attack on the evil witchcraft practices. It must be clearly understood this man was a professional Minister all his life. Not just a practicing Christian but, a person who dedicated his life to Jesus and the Christian church. This is not just a job, it is a way of life. You can only survive in a Church if you fully agree with and practice the beliefs of that church. Hours a day are spent worshipping and praying to God. How could Hyatt respect those he interviewed? Why did he use the negative term informers for those that spoke with him? Informer is a term used to describe those that inform on other criminals. I would not be surprised if Hyatt consider these hoodoo-witches as a type of spiritual criminal. Hyatt tried to cover his research practices by including a letter in Volume two to his main contact with Hoodoo practitioners, Edward Bufford. Here he states he wants Bufford to find qualified practitioners, not just lots of people wanting to talk. He then shows his lack of research skills by stating that he want Bufford to tell the people that he will require half of to an hour of their time and not to bring Professional Hoodoo people to him. Hyatt states these will come to him if they are interested through hearing about him. How can you properly interview a person on such an odd topic as Hoodoo in an hour or less? I guess since he knew nothing about Hoodoo, one story was as good as another and he want to record thousands of stories, thinking this was the way to approach the subject. I just scratch my head at this type of thinking. This is real Yankee thinking at its

best! Hyatt wanted to limit it to 5-6 people a day, which makes some sense, if youre just collecting stories no matter of their value. In the past Hyatt had 50-100 people show up for interviews in places like Memphis where he had trouble with the Police. How did he interview all these people? While Bufford was a paid employee, there is little mention of Hyatt paying those being interviewed, even stating to Bufford to tell those being interviewed that they are not selling anything or asking for money? This implies that Hyatt was not paying for interviews either. Why would anyone show up for the interview if they were not paid? What did Bufford tell them? Hyatt also (to cover himself) stated in the letter to Bufford to test these people well and make sure they knew what they were talking about. I am sure by the publishing of the books and even while doing the research, lots of people questioned the value of the information and whom was giving it to him. The real person that needs to be interviewed is Bufford himself. What was his background in Hoodoo, and how did he get people to come for interviews? The key person to the entire research is Bufford, not Hyatt who knew nothing and had very poor researching skills. It appears Bufford and others that worked for Hyatt were able to get a few hundred qualified practitioners to come for interviews and they were not sure what the interview was for or if it involved money they had to pay? This is all very strange, indeed. There appears to be hundreds of people in a town that are qualified and interested in talking about witchcraft to Hyatt for free? I have already covered how totally unqualified Hyatt was as a researcher, writer and publisher. The last area I want to cover is his general attitude. While not hostile to the informers, he could only respect them to a very basic level. The fact that there are no comments about the terrible treatment of Blacks, and the fact that he totally believed that what he was researching was witchcraft and to a Christian minister, this certainly means evil practices against Christ. We need to see Hyatt for what he was, at the least, unsympathetic to blacks in general, if not racist on some level, and dealing with the devil to do gods work. He probably felt this research was important to the educated religious person to see the dangers and folly of pagans. This why he did want his books reprinted and serve as guides instead of research that condemns and shows the folly of evil witchcraft.

How would a professional career Minister, see the practice of witchcraft and those involved in it? You could not be openly hostile if you expect to conduct research. Nasty in one town will bring empty interview chairs in the next. He dealt with Negros because he had to, that was the research area that no one else had done. Interviewing Negros got him instant recognition and his own last shot at writing fame. If Hyatt was a great writer and thinker, he would have written about his main love, the Christian faith and not witchcraft. But, he was neither a great writer nor thinker, after getting some attention in the folklore field, he thought his star would shine brighter if he wrote about Evil Witchcraft from the southern Negros! What could be more scandalous at that time in history and who could get away with it more than a Christian Minister. Hyatt was nothing but, a poor compiler of information like so many modern occult writers of today. Compiling information they know little to nothing about and then claiming to be an expert in that field. What if the Head of the Church of Satan, the late Anton LeVay, decided to compiles facts on the Christian Church. How would he look at Christians and their silly beliefs while interviewing them? Here again, being openly hostile will not work. If he delegated the responsibility to someone else as to whom he would interview on the subject, would that be a credible study? Could we depend on Antons research as being something of value? In the case of Hyatt it is even worse since it is something he no knowledge whatsoever of. All Hyatt could do was be internally hostile while compiling story after story from people supplied to him. Not a very good picture when you look at this way. Hyatts work needs to be carefully reviewed by qualified occult researchers, preferably Hoodoo and Voodoo practitioners that understand the basic system. We need to compare modern written books on Hoodoo and Voodoo with what is stated in the Hyatt books and last but not least. We need to test and record the results of rituals offered in the books, like any good research is done. This is what HCR Studies Institute is all about. This research needs to be conducted by nonbusinesses and those solely interested in occult sciences without claiming a Tradition or having a hidden agenda like many occult businesses have today

If these books was offered to the public today, the author would be ridiculed to no end, he would be laughed at and called a rank amateur that had no knowledge of the subject matter. It is time for serious research by those that know the field.

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