Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Things That Are Not Conjure

Thanks to certain well-known marketers and Wiccans/NeoWiccans/Neopagans, a lot of things are being confused with and blended into conjure. This includes:

-Voodoo/Vodou/Vodun. We do not work with the Lwa/Loa. We do not work with veves.
-Santaria. We do not work with the Orisha.
-Other ATRs. There is a trend of people reading up on Vodun/Voodoo, Santaria, as well as ATRs such as Lukumi, and thinking they can retrofit them to conjure/hoodoo. It doesn't work like that, conjure/hoodoo is not "just the magic minus the religion". It is a blend of mostly West African, Native American, and Scots Irish influences.
-Cuandarisimo, Brujeria, and other Latin American traditions. SANTA MUERTE IS NOT CONJURE/HOODOO. And by the way, she is NOT an Aztec goddess of fidelity. I used to live with someone who worked with her... just about all the mainstream ideas about her are wrong. Anima Sola, The Intranquel Spirit (UGH), La Chuparosa*, etc are not conjure.
-Gods and goddess are not conjure. This includes Ganesha and Buddha (Hotei). Just because "Lucky Buddha" good luck charms have been popular for a long time, that does not mean he was worshiped or prayed to!
-The Wiccan Rede/Three-fold Law/karma.
-Other neopagan concepts, such as the Watchtowers and the correspondences of the four directions.

There's so much more, those are just the big ones that really jump out that me. You can work with every single thing on this list for all I care, but don't call it conjure/hoodoo/rootwork because it isn't.

*Yes, I just mentioned Hummingbird in a recent post. Animal spirits are not the same as the Chuparosa/"Chuparrosa" that is being taught like it's a traditional thing in conjure.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for all your posts. There are very few active bloggers left on this topic.

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  2. Oh, well thank you for reading! I had wanted to create a blog a few years ago, so now I'm really making up for lost time.

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