Historical and Contemporary Hoodoo Root Doctors, Practitioners, Fortune Tellers, and Shop Owners

[Joseph Magnuson]

Good Day All,

My wife and I were hoping to get some information from you all great forum posters and readers!

We recently had the extreme good luck to have found an original Immortal Americans (MLK, JFK, RFK) portrait in the original metal frame...it even has the original working light! Breathtaking! A relic of past history that is still very relevant today.

Since I have seen the very same item overlooking the shop in Forestville, I was wondering if Miss Cat would be so graceful as to hip me to any information on the portrait. If anyone knows where they were made, who sold them, if they were mainly in shops (i.e. barbershops, candle shops, etc) or in private homes, year they were made???

I feel blessed to even have found this beautiful item (all the way from Georgia!) and am currently deciding to hang it in our supply/office room or in our working/altar room...

Thanks to anyone with any information! I am thrilled to have the "three wise men" looking out on my home and reminding me what really matters!

Here's a picture of the treasure!

[catherineyronwode]

Hey, that's the one!

Yes, we have this same portrait -- in the same metal frame -- in our shop... but i do not know who made them. They were found everywhere when i was young -- in barbershops, shoe shine parlors, candle and conjure shops, and also in private homes, to a lesser extent. They were, in their own way, a sort of coded announcement -- "We serve people of all races in this shop."

I can tell you a funny story about this picture that was told to me by a man who came to the shop and saw our picture. He was an African American French Creole man from central Louisiana. His uncle was a famous traiteur and root doctor. He was drafted into the army during the Vietnam war. He served in Viet Nam and after a while received a furlough to go home to see his folks in Louisiana. He overstayed his time and was late making a start back to California, where he was supposed to rejoin his army group for transport back to Viet Nam.

His folks found an old car to loan or give him, with the hope that it would hold up long enough to get him to Oakland, California, but the car broke down in Houston and he was stranded by the side of the road. He decided to hitch-hike, which was a dangerous mode of travel for a Black man back in the South in those days, but he had no choice.

The first vehicle that stopped was driven by a Mexican man who spoke almost no English. He had never met or seen a Mexican man before and was frightened when the man indicated that he should get in the car and that he would take him to his home for dinner and a bed and that they would fix the car in the morning. He really believed that this Mexican man might kill him, but he couldn't stay out on the road either, so he got in the vehicle.

When they got to the Mexican man's house, the man invited him into the living room and there was the "Immortal Americans" picture hanging over the mantel. The man gestured to the picture and said, "Kennedy and King."

"I knew i was safe, then," he said.

The man's wife cooked him dinner, the man helped fix his car, and he made it back to Oakland just in time to get shipped back to Viet Nam.

End of story.

[Joseph Magnuson]

That is a beautiful story and a wonderful reply! Thank you so much for taking the time to share that with us! We will treasure the portrait always!

Love and Luck,

-Joseph M

[Kaye007]

Hi everyone,

I found an interesting article about Miami Heat fans purchasing dolls and taking herbal baths "to give the home team a little edge" during the recent NBA finals series against Dallas.

I am NOT a Miami Heat fan. I worked with with Lucky Mojo Crown of Success and Fast Luck during the 4th quarter of games 3-5 and prayed for Dallas to win the finals, and they did!!!

This makes me wonder how common it is for sports fans to use hoodoo to support their team.

~ Kaye

[Miss Tammie Lee]

Game plus Lucky Mojo Products equals Success!!!

[Mama Micki]

Victory products would be a good choice to give your team a winning edge.

[Miss Bri]

Super common. I have several clients who are professional sport players and they have me do consistent work for them during the season. If you really want to see the intersection between magical traditions and sports look at Soccer. I had so many requests for services during the World Cup it wasn't even funny!
Blessings,
Bri

[DrXTheRebirth]

Maybe the Grizzlies should've done this when we played Dallas. Bunch of cheaters lol.

[ConjureMan]

I agree with Miss Bri. You'd be suprised how common this "stuff" is. Celebrities, professional athletes, police, and politicans all partake in this work--usually covertly. I've counted clients from all of these fields.

[owlsfoot]

Great story, Cat. And a wonderful find for you, Joseph! Pure Americana. Fantastic.

Best wishes,

[Joseph Magnuson]

Thank you Ellis! It gives me great comfort to see the portrait in the house each day! A real personal find for me.

-Joseph

[Zarzamora]

Thanks Joseph! I'm glad you liked it. I love the google news archive.

[AnddieUS]

Thanks for this Ms. Cat! Great information!

[catherineyronwode]

The Tater Box Cafe at 15 Hoodoo Road, Beechgrove, Tennessee is right at the four-way crossroads of Hoodoo Road, Noah Road, Gnat Hill Road, and Fredonia Road (Hail, Fredonia!).

Google view of the crossroads:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=w ... TN%2037018

Tater Box Cafe's web site
http://www.taterboxcafe.com/

The Tater Box Café is a family owned business with family recipes located in the Hoodoo Community in Coffee County. The Tater Box Café business was started in March of 2007 by Kenneth (Dad), June (Mom), Kenny (Brother), and Jenny (daughter). Kenneth is the resident handy man and he keeps everyone up on all the gossip in the area. June is the heart of the business and works harder than anyone to make sure everyone is happy. Kenny helped start the business with his background in the food and service industry and Jenny is the resident sauce inventor that has the creative art and interior design skills. This family is multi-talented and pride themselves on the history of the quaint restaurant and the good food they serve. Their family was raised on Hoodoo Road and they honor their heritage with the names of different menus items, such as our Hoodoo Homerun and their Oneida Special, a sandwich that was named in the memory of Oneida Phelps, the owner of Phelps Grocery. June and Jenny work hard to provide a good, home cooked meal for everyone to enjoy.

[jwmcclin]

Thanks cat for the view

[Miss Tammie Lee]

Love the address!

[Mama Micki]

If I were in Tennessee, I'd definitely go there for lunch!

[MissMichaele]

Hoodoo Road? Wonder who was living there when the road was named!

Miss Michaele

[Miss Bri]

This is AWESOME!
Bri

[Joseph Magnuson]

Best thing I've seen in weeks! Hooray for Hoodoo Crossroads in Tennessee!

[Sherry Lynn]

If I am ever in that part of the state, I will be sure to stop by! Thanks for sharing, Miss Cat.

[catherineyronwode]

Miss Michaele -- it's not just Hoodoo Road -- the web site for the restaurant (quoted above) says that they are "located in the Hoodoo Community"!!!

[ConjureMan]

Let's all move there--adding a new meaning to Hoodoo Community

[catherineyronwode]

"Let's all move there"!!! LOL!

[Mojomarie]

Hey,

Not sure if I'll get a response but have you had any luck finding out more about Hoodoo/ Gullah magic around S.C? I live in Charleston and am also learning to learn as much as possible.

Thank you~

MM

[ConjureMan]

I learned quite a bit of conjure from a Gullah woman back in the early 1990s--she taught me good root doctoring and was actually from Georgia but had family in South Carolina. She unfortunately passed in 2005.

[MissMichaele]

If you have access to Harry M. Hyatt's Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork, you will find plenty of material from South Carolina. I believe Lucky Mojo no longer has it for sale -- supplies are exhausted and there are no plans to reprint the books. But they do occasionally turn up on eBay at jaw-dropping prices, and they are DEFINITELY worth a look.

• "Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork" by Harry Middleton Hyatt
  http://www.luckymojo.com/hyatt.html

Hope this helps,

Miss Michaele

[candlemagician]

It is so helpful to read and understand in context the background , while we also study and work through the correspondence course. This is great even for those not taking the course.

Thanks Ms. Cat!

[Mama Micki]

My father was born and raised in Mississippi, in a small town on the Mississippi River. Does anyone here have any information on hoodoo practice there? I went on a family vacation to see my grandma when I was a child and remember her having a kitchen cabinet full of home remedies, but don't know if she was any kind of practitioner.

[MissMichaele]

Is your father still alive? You might ask him to reminisce about Grandma, and gradually lead the conversation around to the home remedies ... And then on to "Daddy, did she ever say a prayer while she was giving you your medicine, or anything like that?"


Hope this helps,

Miss Michaele

[Lee Canipe]

I find the regional variations in hoodoo really fascinating. Nearly all of my family are in North & South Carolina, but I had a great-uncle who married a creole lady from New Orleans and they raised their family in the city. When I was younger I went to visit and found the differences between New Orleans-style hoodoo and Carolina conjure striking (primarily due to influence of Catholicism in NOLA). If you discover some information about Mississippi hoodoo please let us know Mama Micki!

Lee Canipe #398 (G)
PS I discovered a few years ago that I have distant relatives I'd never met in Jefferson Co, MS. They moved from Kinston, NC to MS before the Civil War. I once had a reading with a palero and he kept telling me I had family in MS. I said No, that I did have family in New Orleans. But he was very adamant that I had "blood relatives across the river IN MISSISSIPPI". Imagine my surprise when at a family reunion I learned of my Jefferson Co, MS kin folk.

[Mama Micki]

My father died in 2006, before I started studying hoodoo. He was born and raised in Gunnison, Mississippi, in Bolivar County, now with a population of 633. Someday I'll make the trip and see his hometown again.

[catherineyronwode]

Newbell Niles Puckett interviewed and photographed hoodoo practitioners in Mississippi in the mid 1920s. Check his book out!

[ConjureMan]

I spent a few weeks in Mississippi when I was 14, 15, and 16 with a friend getting to know a couple roots people. My own practice is heavily influnced by South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia conjure, but from what I can remember of Mississippi conjure practices there was a strain of Catholic influence, heavy Spiritualist influence, and they was a penchant for animal curios. Almost every root doctor I met had bones hanging around in their homes, worked with animal parts and animal bones.

Lots of toads/frogs, bird bones, snake, and alligator curios.

For example, a man named Old Nick taught me to protect my money when I went gambling by putting a big silver coin in the claws of a gator and leave it on Saint Martin or Saint Expedite's altar for a week then feed it some Hoyts and go out gambling.

He also taught me the how to use a toad bone to make a person do what I want and to make a conjure bag with rattlesnake vertebrae to ward off witches and powders.

[Mama Micki]

Thank you to everyone who replied to this thread. Conjureman Ali, I always thought of Mississippi as thoroughly Protestant, but there is a Catholic Church in Bay St. Louis, St. Rose de Lima, with the most amazing wall mural, "Christ in the Oaks" by Auseklis Ozals. It depicts the resurrection/ascension of a dark-skinned Christ in a forest. I have a copy of the painting above my altar.

[ConjureMan]

I thought the exact same thing. I haven't been back to Mississippi, but I intend to someday. It had a unique culture and the folk lore was very interesting. My thinking is that the Catholic influence could be a crossover from Louisiana conjure with Mississippi conjurers picking things up from their counterparts. Of course Mississppi has its own pockets of Catholicism. It is certainly an interesting mix. Do let us know how your own research turns out.

[Doctor Hob]

I live in Somerville, Tennessee, just east of Memphis, and snuggled up pretty close to Mississippi. I did a survey of churches in something like a 50-75 mile radius when I was an anthropology student, and while the primary density is Protestant, there are a suprising number of Catholic churches. My guess is that it moved up from the port of New Orleans over time, though religion can be tenacious, and even a few faithful coming in from anywhere could have slowly built the Catholic tradition around here as time passed. New Orleans would still be my first bet.

[nagasiva]

On April 29, 2012, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat published an photo-feature article on the Lucky Mojo Curio Co. Among the photos are two of Heidi Simpson making a Jack ball, and pictures of our love and money altars, and products.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs. ... ef=PH&pl=1

Thanks, Beth Schlanker of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat!

[Papa Newt]

Very nice pictures.

[KhonsuMes]

Great Pictures. The photography is very rich and beautiful.
I love the one showing the lab and all the bottles and Heidi making up incense powder.
The crystal balls shot is a close second.

(What a great paper catalog those photos could make - I'd gladly pay to own a Super Lucky Mojo Product Catalog in paper format. I know it's a pipe dream, though. But the idea takes my mind back to the conjure catalog I used to look at as a 12 year old.. It had such a wonderful scent in the ink. .. Ahh the memories! And ahh how I wish I had not lost track of it).

[catherineyronwode]

An article on the use of menstrual blood in spell-craft quoted me and mentioned the Lucky Mojo Forum!

Here's a link:

"Jumiah, Maid In Singapore, Allegedly Put Menstrual Blood In Boss's Coffee"
by Timothy Stenovec
Huffington Post, 05/22/2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/2 ... 36860.html

Enjoy!

[catherineyronwode]

Here's another take on the article, from Starcasm.com

Period blood coffee: Singapore maid put menstrual blood in boss’s morning joe
May, 23, 2012 | AUTHOR: Starcasm Staff | Related : News, News of the Bizarre

http://starcasm.net/archives/157583

[Papa Newt]

Oh wow, thank you for sharing Miss Cat!

[Doctor Hob]

I caught this early this morning off of somebody's Twitter feed. It's interesting to find this sort of thing in the news, and great to see the news come looking in the right place for information!

[Miss Tammie Lee]

Wonderful news!!!

[Joseph Magnuson]

Thank you for sharing those links. I was following this story pretty early on. Nice to see the addition of the history of using Menstrual Blood included.

[LongIslandConjure]

Really cool. Thanks for posting the link. It's good to see a reporter doing a thorough research job.

[jwmcclin]

Sweet!

[Joseph Magnuson]

Big Hoodoo Commune similiar to Lilydale, NY or Cassadaga, FL!

[Doctor Hob]

I don't know when, but I'm going. It's only 3-4 hours away. Next time I go to Nashville, I'll have to plan for a detour.

[Sunnyafternoon]

I have been unsuccessful finding a copy of Harry Hyatt's works. The few scattered copies for sale cost a fortune.

1) Does anyone know a library or college who has an inter-library loan program for graduate students?

2) When I've told people in academia what these books were about they seemed either horrified or offended.

3) Has anyone any suggestions?

[catherineyronwode]

1) Hyatt printed 3,000 copies of each book. He gave most of Volumes 1 and 2 away to university libraries around the company and to large public libraries in the South. When he published volumes 3, 4, and 5 he thought the libraries would buy them, to complete their sets, after his generous gifts, but they did not. As a result, when he died there were more copies of volumes 3, 4, and 5 left unsold.

Lucky Mojo sold Hyatt sets for years -- hundreds of complete 5-volume sets -- and after copies the first two volumes ran out, we followed by selling hundreds of sets of the remaining 3 volumes. You are simply late for the party, my dear. I have two sets, my husband has a set.

Everyone who was around from the mid 1970s to the early 2000s has a set -- and, as i said, many libraries either have the Volume 1 and 2 "freebies" or the complete 5-volume sets.

When i was selling them in the 1990s, people complained because i charged $100.00 per volume and you had to buy all 5 volumes as a set. I used to have a whole back section of the office filled with these sets in unopened printers' boxes from the 1970s and i was lucky if i sold one set per week. Once the stock of remaining copies was depleted, the market set its own new value on the books.

Funny how the sudden explosion of interest in hoodoo suddenly drove the price through the roof.

2) Too long a story for this Forum. I can tell you a lot, but you will have to schedule a paid phone consultation (reading) with me for at least half an hour and i will tell you the story behind the story. In detail.

3) Inter-library loan -- all you need to do is get into your local inter-library loan system.

Please read these two pages for more information and for how you can help rebuild the Hyatt collection in the date-order and by the location the material was collected:

http://luckymojo.com/hyatt.html

http://luckymojo.com/hyattinformants.html

Also consider picking up a copy of "Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro" by Newbell Niles Puckett (1926; reprinted several times).

Good luck

[Mama Micki]

Provided that his estate consents, and the copyright issues are dealt with (although this book may now be in public domain), an ambitious person or company should look into reprinting the Hyatt books.

[Doctor Hob]

That would be wonderful. I managed to pick up volumes 3,4, and 5 a few months ago, but I despair at ever finding the first 2.

[Joseph Magnuson]

Make sure to take some pictures for us!

[calybug]

I was wondering if anyone can tell me where Valerie Fennell Boles (aka Minerva from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) is buried at? Internet searches have proved confusing. They all say she was buried at Jerusalem Cemetery but they all say different counties - either Colleton or Hampton. Does anyone know which one it is? I'm traveling to Savannah this weekend and I would love to pay my respects to her since it is so close to El Dia de Los Muertos/Samhain.

[rev.jordan]

Just thought I'd share this interesting piece of local history.

When I was growing up in Rockingham, a popular NC rootworker lived about half an hour from me in the town of Maxton. Although she passed recently, her fame was enough that she was featured in several local papers before and after her death.

Rootworker spends 60 years curing spells, jinxes, and bad luck.

[catherineyronwode]

Thanks -- that's a good one!

[Joseph Magnuson]

Thank you for the link, Obskultus!

[effinmetal]

That's awesome!! I'm in Nashville...this isn't too much of a drive. I'll have to check it out.