I don't see a sticky for this board yet, but can anyone give me a run-down or something of what vodoo or hodoo is? I have a vague idea but you know, might as well know nothing about it.
This might be a silly request but I rather have someone from these forums answer than a random website to whom I don't know at all.
Hoodoo is an African American spiritual practice similar to witchcraft. It mixed with European folk magic (witchcraft), Native American spirituality, Kabballah, and Christian mysticism. The practice has survived and changed since its origins in Africa by the slave trade and life for African American society.
Voodoo is a creolized version of Vodou from Haiti. It evolved slightly alongside Vodou (refugees post Haitian Revolution came to New Orleans), so the major differences reside in the culture of Haiti and New Orleans. Vodou is a Haitian religion with a history of syncretism, mixing several African religions with some Christian symbolism. It brought together a nation.
For further reading about the origins and history of Hoodoo, read Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition by Dr. Yvonne Chireau, Conjure in African American Society by Dr. Jeffery Anderson, Mules and Men by Zora Neal Hurston to start.
Starr Casas's and Catherine Yronwode's works are good place to start looking at hoodoo in practice but not an end all be all.
I find that Vodou is a connection with something greater than you. During the centuries it has evolved and become less distinctive than what it was. The overall concept remain the same communication with the loas to connect with God. Loas act as the intermediaries a sort of buffer to the one God. Similar to angels, demi Gods, and saints. The rituals that is often seen in pictures and movies are people connection to loas. In most ceremonies the connection to the loas are to allow them to mount the human body to perform supernatural acts, grant clarity, provide insight or self-serving idealism. Each loa brings different, each way to connect to them is different. The very subject of Vodou stems onto many different factors and is a very old religion, some say even as old as Christianity. To explain its old world roots, new age approach and even just the relation to Hoodo would take hours or even days to explain. Its a bit more than just salts, symbols, pins in dolls, and reading animal bones.
Sim if one person says person x is wrong it's usually a perosn with an axe to grind now if 5- 10 unrelated people say it about person x then you have to start wondering.
I was just helping someone to avoid the money spent and troubles. People know how bad those two actually are, as I have had personal experiance with their shop and their false information.
If you think there are people out there that are so informed on the subject, in reality there are very few. Because, of all the misinformation people like Cat and Starr give out. Making it a cespool of misinformation for their own financial gain. Their reputation is quite sour.
