To: alt.magick,alt.lucky.w
From: catherine yronwode 
Subject: Rooted and Rootwork
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 21:22:09 GMT

HEY! HO! JUST BLO! wrote:
> 
> What do you mean when you say some one has been "rooted"? I get the
> jist of it; that some one has cast a spell on you using a root (or 
> did I miss the point?) but how is that different than any other 
> curse?

African-American folk-magic, often called hoodoo by practitioners, is
also called "conjure" (usually pronounced cunjure, and short for
"conjuration"), "witchcraft" (a term that is losing favour as the word
witchcraft now is being applied to more purely European traditions and
to neo-pagan teachings of some types), or "rootwork." For comparison,
note that another African-derived system of belief, the Conjo religion
of Nkisi-worship, is called "Palo" in Spanish-speaking Caribbean
nations, and palo means "stick" [wood of a tree]. Both terms -- palo and
rootwork -- refer to the extensive use of herbs, twigs, and roots in
religious rites and spell-casting among people of African -- especially
Congo -- descent. 

In the Americas under the system of slavery, African traditions of herb
and root use were adapted to local conditions, due to the absense of
many known African plants in the Americas. 

On the one hand, Africans mingled their customs and beliefs with Native
American plant-symbolism (religious, medical, and magical) to produce a
sort of hybrid scheme of belief and usage that incorporated both medical
and magical native plant herbology. On the other hand, European "wonder
books" of herbal lore (such as Agrippa and the pseudo-Albertus Magnus)
were consulted by African-Americans as they learned to employ
garden-herbs that had been imported by European-Americans for use in the
practice of traditional European medical and magical work. 

What distinguishes the African survival traits of hoodoo from either
Native American or European-American herbology and herb-magic are these
things:
    the prominence given to hot, spicy plants, which is a direct legacy
of Congo religious and magical coustom,
    the increased emphasis on carrying or working with whole roots or
chunks of them, especially in contrast to European herb-magic and lore,
which focuses proportionately more on green leaves and dried flowers, 
    the incorporation of mineral salts, metallic minerals in chunk form,
and powdered metallic minerals into combinations alongside herbal
ingredients. (Africa has a longer historical record of metal-work than
other continents; for instance, Africans were making steel while most of
Europe was in the bronze age; in addition, the conquest of parts of
Africa by Arabs during the height of Arab experiemntations with alchemy
and chemistry also affected certain African populations whose members
were later enslaved and transported to the Americas.) The use of
minerals gives rise to yet another term for casting a spell in the
hoodoo tradition, the obsolescent phrase "throwing for" -- in which what
is being thrown is a powdered or finely crystalline salt, mineral, or
the like. The phrase "throwed for" is always transitive and is highly
idiomatic in usage. Here are two samples of how it appears in speech: "I
knowed someone had throwed for me when i saw that yellow powder by my
car," and "He throwed for her to make her love him."

There is a lot more i could write on this subject, but, in short, beeing
rooted doesn't necessarily mean that a root was used per se, merely that
rootwork (African-American herb-based folk-magic) was used. 

If the topic of rootwork interests you, you might wish to read more
about it at my web site, where about a dozen sample chapters from my
forthcoming book "Hoodoo in Thjeory and Practice" are online. The URL
is"
           http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoo.html
You could also order a copy of my book "Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic,"
which gives specific spells for 300 herbs, roots, minerals, and
zoological curios. 

Cordially, 

cat yronwode 

     Lucky Mojo Curio Co. http://www.luckymojo.com/catalogue.html
   Send e-mail with your street address to catalogue@luckymojo.com
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