Week One

The Hoodoo Workshop’s

“Hoodoo Magic Correspondence Course”Copyright @ 2009 The Hoodoo Workshop http://thehoodooworkshop.viviti.com

This course is copyrighted material, and I ask that you do not distribute this material free or paid in any form.

This is a 6 Week correspondence course that uses the Hoodoo Magic Course group located at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hoodoomagiccourse/ as our virtual class room. This course is meant to be interactive encouraging students to fully participate in group discussions and turn in homework.

Homework assignments are designed to help you learn the material. You must turn in your homework to graduate from this course and receive a certificate.

Everyone who signed up for the course will receive a Certificate of completion at the end of course that you can print and frame.

The bulk of the material in this course comes from the Hoodoo practices of my own family line not the work of “Hyatt”. You may see material that you have never seen before and some you may have. However, nothing introduced in this course is meant to deny the legitimacy of Hoodoo as it is practiced today rather to offer the student a glimpse into the practices of my own family along with some stuff I picked up along the way.

Course Structure

In the beginning of each lesson you will find the outline for that week’s lesson.

Homework questions will be located at the end of each lesson. Please turn them in before the next week’s lesson.

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Week 1 Subject Outline

Brief Look  Into the History of Hoodoo In America

Harry Middleton Hyatt & His Impact On Hoodoo Today

Ethics & The Law of Karma In Hoodoo

The Key To A Powerful Rootworker

About Spiritual Cleansing Work (Self)

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Brief Look into the History of Hoodoo in America

It is believed that Hoodoo originated in America around the end of the 18th century

and the beginning of the 19th century. It is difficult to say for sure either way

because Hoodoo was practiced in secrecy for a very long time. The term “Hoodoo”

is an American term used to describe the practice.

What is Hoodoo?

Hoodoo is a combination of African Folklore, Native American herbal practices,

and European folklore practice. Despite common beliefs, hoodoo is not a religion

rather it’s a magical system. It does rely heavily on the use of the Bible which may

lead many to believe Hoodoo is a religion which nothing could be further from the

truth.

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The rootworker & conjurer

People who practice Hoodoo are commonly called rootworkers and conjurers.

Until recently, Hoodoo was passed down through family lines like most folk

practices. The work of Harry Middleton Hyatt, which we will discuss next,

changed all that.

Harry Middleton Hyatt & His Impact on Hoodoo Today

Hyatt was not a Hoodoo rootworker himself rather an amateur folklorist. Amateur

meaning, Hyatt collected folklore as a hobby. He was not a professional folklorist,

in fact, it is believed many if not all of his ventures were funded by his beloved

wife Alma Hyatt. Nonetheless, his work is still of great importance to the face of

modern Hoodoo as it is practiced today. His two works that have the greatest

importance on the subject are Hoodoo is Folklore From Adams County Illinois

(published in 1935) and Hoodoo Conjuration Witchcraft Rootwork (published in

1970). Please note, when I say modern it does not mean some new age stuff. I

mean modern in the way of commonality among the practioners. You have to

understand before Hyatt folks practiced Hoodoo according to the way their

Momma did and her Momma etc: practicing along family lines. Therefore, today

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you will find a lot of commonality among how workers do their jobs (term for

Hoodoo magic).

Hyatt’s material, especially today, offers the opportunity for everyone to practice

Hoodoo. In the old days, before works like Hyatt’s material and others, this would

have been impossible. If you weren’t born into a rootworking family, your only

option was to depend on those that were for help. I’m sure some of you are old

enough to remember hearing of folks “ going to get work done”: basically visiting

a rootworker. However, today everyone has the chance to be a rootworker: times

have changed.

“The Good” “The Bad” “And the Ugly Concerning Hyatt’s Material”

Due to the secrecy surrounding the practices of old time rootworkers, Hyatt’s

material has become, for many, the last word in rootworking. Nothing could be

further from the truth; we should see Hyatt’s work for what it is “a sample of folk

practices”.

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Things that interested student should consider when studying from Hyatt’s work

are listed below:

The fact that participants were paid for interviews in most cases. This does

not in any way invalidate the work, but you have to consider those that

offered up information for money may not have been entirely honest during

the interview.

Some of his work was gathered without knowledge of the person. We all

know that spying or watching someone on the sly does not reflect the whole

picture in most cases.

Hyatt was not a rootworker himself. He would not have known if the

information was accurate or not. For example, if you shift through the

massive interviews and already had some knowledge of rootwork one could

easily notice some interviews contained ridiculous information.

Not every rootworker got in Hyatt’s interview line to give up the goods.

When we look at Hyatt’s work it should be considered that there are massive

amounts of folk Hoodoo practices that he did not discover. In many

instances this type of information may remain hidden to the world forever!

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Now considering everything above, Hyatt’s material still remains a valuable

tool of learning and understanding Hoodoo. His work without question has

earned him a place in history.

Ethics & The Law of Karma In Hoodoo

The Law of Karma in its simplest form states “that for every action there is a

reaction”. In other words according to the old folks, “you reap what you sow”. This

is a common thread that runs deep in many religions especially in the modern

Wicca movement. Aspiring students in this religion is introduced early to the

“Wiccan Reed and The Three Fold Law”. The underlining message is to “do what

you will but harm none”. According to this tradition, harming others will bring

down a punishment 3Xs the punch as the one cast against your victim.

Hoodoo does not embrace the law of Karma. In fact, this poses a problem for

many aspiring students that come from religions or traditions that do. The Hoodoo

view of the world is one of Justification. They believe that if you are “justified”

any act of punishment to your intended victim is okay. What’s justified? Well, this

is a matter of interpretation for the worker to decide.

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This does not mean that Hoodoo rootworkers don’t have morals or ethics. It simply

means that each worker will set their own standards. Those standards are expected

to be respected by other workers within the Hoodoo community. In other words,

we do not judge other workers ONLY ourselves. This is also something that is very

different from most practices.

The Hoodoo community is broken down into “specialties” in most cases this may

be driven by personal ethics but not always. Listed below are common areas

Hoodoo rootworkers may specialize in:

Love Work

Money Work

Revenge Work

Breakup Work

Death Work

Some will specialize in one or more of the above areas. It is rare that a rootworker

will do all of them, but it’s not impossible. Often when someone comes to a

rootworker for work, they will send them to other rootworkers if they don’t do that

type of work. This is called rootworker courtesy.

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The Key To A Powerful Rootworker

Any rootworker worth a grain of salt knows that your power comes from faith.

You must have faith in the promises of Jesus Christ and Our Lord. However, you

do not have to be a Christian to practice Hoodoo.

You do have to believe that the bible is a powerful tool.

Jesus is a man of his word.

The psalms are promises from God that will be kept. The 23rd psalm begins

with “The Lord is my Sheppard, and I shall not want”. So when a

rootworker reads this psalm they know that their desires will be met. This is

called FAITH OF THE ROOTWORKER.

You should understand the power of the CROSS &CRUCIFIX. The image

of Jesus being crucified on the cross has been interpreted to mean many

things (I will not get into its many interpretations in this course). It’s most

basic meaning of this sacrifice “Is the gift”. Jesus allowed himself to be

sacrificed to end our suffering. To give us eternal life, but also as a sign that

there is nothing that the Lord will not give to us. This includes his ONLY

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son Jesus Christ. When a rootworker lays a cross he/she opens a door to

receive these gifts. I was taught to always work with the sign of the cross to

manifest the things that I desired.

How to work with the sign of the cross

When incensing your house to cleanse it or bring in luck you should make a

cross in each corner of every room with the incense while praying your

intentions.

When spraying your house with a water bottle to bring in good luck you

should make a cross with the liquid in every corner of the house.

When anointing mojo bags you should make a cross with the oil.

When dressing name papers you should make a cross with the oil.

Most Catholic Hoodoo practitioners will make the sign of the cross on their

bodies after dressing themselves for protection or luck.

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About Spiritual Cleansings (Self)

Spiritual cleansing is very important and should never be overlooked. Hoodoo is

NOT for the lazy. You must keep up good spiritual housing cleaning of yourself

and home (we will deal with the home later in the course). Spiritual cleaning helps

to remove blocks, obstacles, delays, negative energy, evil spirits and entities. It can

also be a benefit to those suffering from both physical and spiritual illnesses.

However, I should warn you never to tell anyone that your services can cure any

type of illness. This is ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL at best. You should point

those in need of health care or legal advice to a doctor or legal counsel. Magic can

aid such things or be a benefit to some degree but it is not a cure. Unfortunately,

due to con-artist taking advantage of sick or desperate people we have to be very

careful not to get caught up in any legal troubles: so be sure to always make a point

of telling people that ONLY a doctor can truly deal with health issues, and ONLY

a good lawyer could truly deal with the law.

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Your Spiritual Hygiene

As a rootworker you should understand that the light (blessings) will NOT enter an

unclean vessel. Meaning, if you are spiritually weighed down with negative or

harmful energy it will be very difficult if not impossible to draw to yourself your

heart’s desire. In other words, you can burn a hundred money drawing candles and

if you’re spiritually blocked “it won’t work”. A blessed (spiritually clean person)

would only need to burn a few candles to get their heart’s desire. These are the

people that we call “lucky”. Things seem to always work out for them in the end. If

you practice good spiritual housekeeping, you will see a major improvement in all

your works. In many cases, simply cleaning yourself will bring the things that you

so desire. Listed below are signs that you or your client will need a spiritual

cleaning.

The 3 shots: I call this the 3 shots because when you are spiritually attacked

by an enemy the blows fall in 3’s. The first blow (jinx) is light, the second

causes confusion, and the third will be the full impact of the trick. Below is

an example of how this works. I will use a trick cast to put someone in jail

for illustration purposes.

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The 3 shots to put someone in Jail

Kelly is angry that her live in boyfriend John has left her after 7 years of

supporting him. To make things worse, John decides to go get a job and support

the new girlfriend although he never gave Kelly a dime. Kelly is made as “HELL”

and wants to punish him. In anger Kelly does a trick to put him in jail.

Shot 1

A few weeks after Kelly worked her Hoodoo; John is walking over a friend’s

house and noticed that about 6 police cars past him on his half miles walk.

Shot 2

John is at a house party the following Friday when a big fight broke out. The police

was called to the scene and question John about what happened. John did not go to

jail because he wasn’t in the fight, but the police was very rude to him.

Shot 3

The next night John goes out to a bar with his new girlfriend. They dance a bit and

grab a table. John leaves to go to the restroom and returns to find a guy chatting up

his girl. John politely notifies this guy that he talking to his girl. The guy, full of

alcohol or just a jerk hauls off and punches John. John ducks and tries to reason

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with the guy but he’s not having it. To defend himself John fights back. Both guys

are bounced from the bar and arrested.

People refuse to do you favors regardless of how harmless or little an effort

it would take. Often when you are a victim of spiritual attack people for no

reason will be rude and refuse to do you the smallest of favors. Don’t get me

wrong, some people are just rude anyway. However, all of a sudden

everyone you run into has a rude problem this is a sign of spiritual attack.

Confusion in your home : Constant arguments over the smallest of things are

a sign of spiritual attack.

Multiple blown light bulbs at the same time or within the same day.

The money drain: If all of a sudden things start going down to take every

penny you have this may be a sign that you’re under a spiritual attack.

Unexplained illness that the doctor cannot diagnose:

Problems within your marriage: If you were happy then all of a sudden all

hell break loose in your marriage this could be a sign of spiritual attack.

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Problems with your children: For whatever cruel reason, some enemies like

to cause harm to others children as a way to punish their target (enemy).

This is so sad, but in some case so true.

Problems at work: If you were doing well at work and getting along with

everyone then hell breaks loose this could be a sign of spiritual attack. In

cases such as these it’s best to lay low on the job because you could get

fired.

Your Cleaning Schedule

You should do a major cleaning on yourself at least once a month and a simple

cleaning before every working. If you work this way it will be very difficult for

others to jinx and cross your work. In lesson two we will discuss how to properly

cleanse yourself.

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Homework

1. What did Hyatt do for the way Hoodoo is practiced today? Please

explain

2. In your own words, what makes a powerful worker?

3. Why should we work using the cross?

4. What is the “3 shots”?

5. Does Hoodoo workers believe in Karma?

Please answer and turn in your questions before week 2. You may email me

your homework.

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