Weight Loss and Smoking: Yes We Can Actually Help

I really feel sorry for people who are trying to lose weight and/or quit smoking.  It's tough, your whole body and mind are basically sabotaging your efforts because our body chemistry is loopy, and even well meaning people tend to make you feel rubbish about it.  So it's no wonder that people turn everywhere they can for help, and one of the places that they turn to is hoodoo/conjure/rootwork or ATR/ADR forums and groups.

I applaud them for that.  It isn't easy to ask for help, and these people literally reach out to strangers on the internet who ought to have the expertise to help them within their particular religion/field.  But what these people actually get is a lot of unwanted health advice, and stories about how other people quit using such and such a method and how it worked amazingly for them.

I guarantee you, everyone who has tried to lose wight or quit smoking has heard every crash diet, hypnosis theory, quack medical treatment, exercise regime, visualisation technique, and 'detox' regimen.  They've probably tried at least half.  The people who come to a hoodoo or ATR group for advice do not want to hear the experiences of others quitting smoking cold turkey in two weeks, or dropping weight using cider vinegar and cinnamon.  They have tried that stuff.  They want the advice they actually asked for: how to use hoodoo or the ATRs to help them quit smoking/ or lose weight.

It can be a bit of a tricky one, because both hoodoo and the ADRs came together as traditions way back before we knew that smoking was bad, and obesity was worse.  Considering that these traditions sprung from slavery, the use of tobacco and being able to have enough food to put on extra weight was seen as a good thing, signs of wealth and status.  When you take that into account, there are no traditional workings that you can do to make weight loss happen or to make someone quit smoking, because they are modern problems.

You have to break it down more holistically, and look at the whole problem.  Smoking is essentially a bad habit and addiction.  Hoodoo has plenty of different kinds of work that can be done to break bad habits and addictions.  Often those works focus on breaking a gambling addiction, but there is no reason the same roots can't be repurposed to help break a smoking addiction.  Similarly with weight loss: you can break the bad eating habits.

If you approach someone in one of the ADRs for help, you're most likely going to be prescribed a bath.  Hoodoo does baths too, and taking a bath to cleanse away any negative thoughts and habits is probably the absolute best thing you can do to help quit smoking or lose weight.  The next thing you need to do is to clean out your house.  Chinese Wash is brilliant for that, as it removes any negativity from the home.  Then all you need to do is replace the negative habits which have been cleansed away with good ones.

As I said, there are no traditional formulas for losing weight or quitting smoking.  The closest we come is an old method for gaining weight, whereby you buy it from someone else in a monetary transaction.  If you can find someone skinny who is willing to buy a few kilos off you, then great.  Otherwise, you need to look at building up good health.  For weight loss, you could be prescribed a bath for good health, you could carry a mojo hand designed to help you make good food choices, you could work a large candle to help your weight slowly melt away.  You could carry a mojo to give you the mental strength to overcome your addiction to smoking, or a root like Master Root or High John the Conqueror wrapped in a petition to give you the strength and self control to quit.

There is a lot you can do within our traditions, even if we have to create new ways of working within those traditions to deal with modern problems.  If we can do things within these traditions, then there really is no excuse to offer unsolicited health advice to people who are asking for an entirely different kind of help.  Yes, hoodoo/conjure/rootwork or Vodou or one of the other ADRs or ATRs can help you.  Yes, you can ask for help from a rootworker or a member of the priesthoods of one of those religions, and you should receive the help that you ask for.

Let's stop judging, let's stop telling people to 'visualise' or 'detox' or whatever, and let's start actually helping.  Our traditions have moved into the modern age, and it's time we shared our knowledge with those who are dealing with modern problems and give them they help they are actually asking for.

*We actually make and sell a weight loss mojo hand in the Kiwi Mojo webstore.

Egg Cleansing in Hoodoo

The internet has had a detrimental effect on many traditional aspects of hoodoo, I'm sad to say.  On the one hand, it has helped spread the traditions and kept them alive for a whole new generation, and I certainly wouldn't have been able to learn even half of what I know without it.  On the other, it has become very easy to spread misinformation, which is then copied and passed off as 'ancient' or 'traditional'.  One aspect of the tradition where I see this a great deal is with egg cleansing.

I often see the practice referred to as 'limpia' or 'egg limpia', which is not the corretc term at all.  The word 'limpia' is simply the Spanish word for cleansing.  Hoodoo isn't a Latin American tradition, Spanish is not the language in which we talk and pray and practice, so we should stick to the term 'egg cleansing'.  It's simple, uncomplicated, and sums up exactly what is happening.  No mystery, no fancy foreign name, jut plain and simple rootwork.

Egg cleansing in hoodoo is incredibly simple.  It's very practical, very easy to do, and once it's done it's done.  Egg cleansing in other traditions can be more complex, and some of this had leaked into and been passed off as hoodoo.  Some people fel the need to invent whole new backgrounds for the tradition, particularly in the case of a book claiming egg cleansings originate in Mesoamerican shamanism.  Uh...  No.

The practice of egg cleansing in hoodoo derives, as far as I can tell, from two different traditions.  One is the grimoire known as 'The Black Pullet', a European book which was very popular in the hoodoo/conjure/rootwork tradition, and contributed greatly to the hoodoo ideal of the magical black hen.  The second is the African practie of using a surrogate to take in all the negativity of a person, and destroying that surrogate.

In hoodoo, the egg used for cleansing should come from a black hen.  The egg is taken and rubbed down the body from head to foot, while prayers for cleansing and purification are recited.  Psalm 51 is commonly used for cleansing in hoodoo.  After the egg had been rolled down the body, it is thrown into a crossroads or at a tree.

People are talking a lot about divining the egg yolk at this point, but thats not a thing in hoodoo.  Some African Dispora Religions do divine the yolk, but that is not a part of the hoodoo/conjure/rootwork tradition at all.  There is one yolk divination performed in hoodoo.  Once the egg is thrown at the tree or into the crossroads, it is examined to see if there's any crap inside it.  If there are hairs, blood, black stuff, bits of baby chicken, or other grossness then teh cleansing is not complete.  In which case, you grab another egg and go again.  If the cracked egg looks normal, the cleansing has been successful.

Here are the steps again:
1. Take a fresh egg from a black hen
2. Roll it dwn the body of the person beaing cleansed from head to foot, while praying Psalm 51 or similar cleansing prayer
3. Throw the egg hard and far away, at a tree or into a crossroads
4. Check to see if the cracked egg is clear or dirty.
5. If the egg doesn't look normal and has gross stuff in it, repeat the process until the egg is clear.

And that's it.  It's very, very simple.  A lot of hoodoo is very simple, very practical, and very accessible.  I understant why people would want to make things complicated: sometimes it's just hard to accept that something could be so simple and yet so effective, so we feel like there must be more to it.  Well, there's a lot more to cleansing in hoodoo, and there's a lot more regarding black chickens, but that's your basic egg cleansing.

Don't go buy the book, don't go find a teacher or egg limpia guru, just grab some black hen eggs and get to it.

"Just Burn Some Sage" ... Spiritual Hygeine Part II

From watching the various groups on Facebook, and the various comments I get on my instagram account, it is clear to me that most people are not well educated on maintaining their own personal spiritual hygiene.  Perhaps that is why this subject is so close to my heart, and why I feel the need to speak on it so often.  It certainly comes up in my day-to-day life enough to keep me inspired to talk about it, and as long as the spirits keep putting this subject in front of me, I guess I will keep talking about it.

In most online communities that I belong to, I see people asking for advice on spiritual cleansing.  People say that they feel they are cursed, that someone has claimed to have cursed them, they just feel unlucky, like there is a spirit in their home, negative energy, that their home is not peaceful, that they are surrounded by arguments, etc.  It does not seem to matter what the belief in the cause is, the answer on most groups seems to be the same: "smudge yourself", or "smudge your home" or "smudge everything".  It would appear that the idea of "smudging" with sage has become a cure all for even the most difficult problem.  The dead have been sent to torment you...  No problem, you can just smudge them!  

This idea of being able to smudge away all of one's problems is not found in Native American theology.  While the very act of smudging with sage as a form of purification certainly does stem from certain tribes, it is not a "cure all" and nor should it be treated as such.  To do so is worse than cultural misappropriation, because instead of just taking a piece of their culture and using it according to ones own ends, in this case it has been completely stripped of the spiritual foundation on which it was created and given power beyond any that the tribes that use smudging ever attributed to it.

From the Native American Pow Wow @ JSU, http://www.jsu.edu/news/july_dec2004/powwow.html

The act of smudging is a spiritual ritual in and of itself, and the ritual begins when the white sage is harvested.  During the act of harvest, offerings are made to the white sage bush, and it's task explained to it.  It may then be mixed with other ingredients such as cedar and sweetgrass, or it may remain by itself; but you honour the sage by making it into the bundle that will be used for the smudging, either in silence, or with certain sacred songs.  Once that bundle is prepared and prayed over, it is given to the medicine man or woman (or an elder who has been trained), along with a sacred fan which is prepared with many beads.  This sage bundle is then lit and through sacred breath it is brought to a ember which can then be smudged.  

The act of smudging is not a solo affair.  There is the person to be smudged, the one that will do the smudging, and at least one drummer.  The smudge is placed into an earthern bowl, or a bowl made of wood, and the fan moved to circulate the smoke.  As this is done the medicine man or elder will sing the chants to Mother Earth, the various beings on the planet, the four legged and the six legged and eight legged, those with tails and fins, the stone people, and the ancestors.  The drums will play, their sacred songs assisting to cleanse away all that is not a direct blessing from the Great Spirit.  

As the smudge of the person is finished, the medicine man begins his sacred dance around the lodging, cleansing the space around and thanking Mother Earth for his time to stomp.  With his smoke and his chant and his drum and his prayer bundles which he ties to the roof he makes the space anew, and he brings in the many blessings of the Great Spirit.  With tiny medicine bundles he transforms old into new, and as he pours his final libations to Mother Earth and the spirits he does so knowing that the medicine is taking effect and change has occured.

What's certain here, is that even for the cultures where smudging originated, it is not as simple as taking some white sage, or purchasing a premade "smudge stick" from your local new age store and wafting it around.  As you know from reading my other blogs on this subject, even if you do manage to clear away whatever you are clearing, you still need to fill that space, that energy, with something new and beneficial. 

The act of smudging is not limited to sage, nor is is limited to Native American culture.  Certainly in Native American culture sage is not the only herb to be used when smudging.  Different tribes have different formulae, although the most common I've heard of is sage with cedargrass or sweet grass.  This combination is also excellent for welcoming back the beneficial spirits, or the good medicine, once the negative has been driven out.  In hispanic cultures the act of smudging has continued with tobacco or cigars.  A priest or priestess of one of the ATR's, or an espiritista (a gifted medium) will take a cigar, light it, and once it is going they will reverse the cigar, place it it their mouths lit end first, and blow the smoke out of the clipped end.  This smoke can be blown over an entire person, statue, or even room or home.  This form of smudging can have many purposes, to cleanse, to protect, to empower, to bless and to heal. 

Ogou Feray in possession of Houngan Liam using Tobacco Smudging as a form of healing.

What empowers this work, or this kind of smudging, is the spiritual force of the one performing the work.  It's not as simple as just blowing on a cigar.  One must have absolute control of their spiritual force, what in Haitian Vodou we call Fos, and they must direct that force in accordance with the goal they are seeking to achieve.  That is why this kind of treatment is performed by the spirits themselves when they come in possession.

The message I am trying to get across here is that cleansing and spiritual hygiene take work.  They are not things to be taken for granted, and nor are they simple.  A quick waft around of sage will not keep you spiritually clean.  It will not remove negativity from you or your home, nor will it get rid of ghosts or other nasties...  Sorry to burst that bubble.  Combined with prayer, fasting, songs, and a strong will it may help, but that will very much depend on the skill of the practitioner.

So, having been so mean to the idea of a smudge fixing everything...  What can I suggest to help you keep your home and environment spiritually clean?  Well, the first step is for things to be physically clean.  You can not be spiritually clean when you are surrounded by mess and clutter.  It is very important that your home and environment be clean and well cared for.  You can make the work of spiritual hygiene a part of your regular cleaning schedule.  When you wash your floors, throw in some pine needles and lemon juice with the water and detergent.  You can use a product like Chinese Floor Wash...  I have to admit we use this in our house for everything.  We have it diluted in spray bottles that we use for dusting and cleaning surfaces, we have it in it's original form for cleaning stainless steel, and we put it in buckets of hot water for mopping floors.  We will even spray it lightly on the carpets before vacuuming.  The great thing about it is that it smells divine, and as soon as it's cleaned out all the nasties it brings in good luck.  It's combination of Asian grasses is designed to bring luck and prosperity.  Chinese Floor Wash is available from Kiwi Mojo...  We believe in this product so much that we use it ourselves: we make it right here, with a lot of prayer.

If you don't have the money to purchase products or herbs, another option is to head right to your pantry, pour a handful of salt into a bucket and get to cleaning...  If you have a lemon tree add a couple of lemons as well, and your house will smell fresh.   Just remember that while you're cleaning you need to be focused on the cleansing...  You need to get that mess out, and you need to be praying.  A great prayer is to recite while you're cleaning is the 51st Psalm.  You can create your own prayer, or even a song.  Just get in there, stay focused, use your force, build up a sweet and you'll find your home spiritually clean and happy.

Remember if there is something you want me to write about, I'll be happy to do so, just leave a comment and I'll get right back to you.

Lape Bondye avek nou,

Houngan Liam

Spiritual Baths... What?

Cleansing Bath on the Point of Milocan

Ayibobo la Sosyete!

One of the most common ways in which a Houngan or Mambo (a Preist or Priestess) of Vodou will perform treatments, healings, clear away ill luck, bring good luck, or perform many other works of magic will be through the performance of spiritual baths.  These baths are so second nature to us, that sometimes we forget that they are new to other people.  What we take for everyday knowledge is in fact not something that is that well known down here at the bottom of the world.  So, although we already have a page on the website which talks a little about spiritual baths, I thought it might be better to get into some of the practicalities of the bath, the hows and whys, so that those who are hearing about this form of magic for the first time can get some idea of what to expect.
I guess the place to begin is to explain what a bath is.  A bath is a mixture of herbs, waters, perfumes, colognes, flowers, fruits, and other items that are brought together to be administered to achieve a goal.  The goal of the bath may be cleansing, or the goal might be to bring luck, it might be to instill confidence, strength, or to wash away emotional issues, such as comittment phobias, it can be to bring love, or to help with a current love life situation, or it can be for healing.  There are other purposes as well, but this is a simple introduction.  Each bath is made from appropriate ingredients, sometimes recipes have been passed down through the Vodou family for generations.  We are lucky at Hounfo Racine Deesse Dereyale to have inherited many recipies from our spiritual mothers that have been used for Vodou for well over 200 years, and these recipes are still powerful and work well to achieve the end.

Contrary to the name though, a bath might not always be liquid.  There are two main kinds of baths.  The first is "dry baths" or those that do not involve water or liquid, but instead are made by using dry ingredients.  These may include putting certain ingredients, such as coins, various cuts of meat and other ingrediants into a brown paper bag and rubbing this over the body, there are baths where individual fruits are rubbed up the body starting at the feet and ending at the head, baths that involve various kinds of nuts and items such as toasted corn, and many others.  There are of course the baths made of waters and colognes, which are the "wet" baths.  Wet baths are the ones which will contain colognes, perfumes, alcohols, the juices of various fruits, often times various herbs, and oils.  These are administered over the body, however most do not require the recipient to be naked.  They are generally welcome to wear some light coloured clothing while the bath is administered.  They then remove those clothes, allow themselves to air dry and then dress in fresh new clothes of an appropriate colour.  There are exceptions to this rule, but they would be discussed in advance.
So, what can you expect when you come for a bath?  No matter what the bath is for, generally we will begin with some kind of ceremony.  A veve [ritual drawing to invoke the lwa] will be drawn on the floor, and opening prayers will be sung.  The Houngan or Mambo that is running the ceremony will welcome certain lwa, and then the bath itself will be created.  in some circumstances, such as if the Houngan or Mambo is coming to you, this will have been done in advance and the Priest will just bring the required bath that they have already made with them.  During the ceremony itself the bath will be created, with the various ingredients being added and mixed together.  This can sometimes take some time, as certain numbers of songs for various spirits must be sung to ensure that the bath has what we call "heat" or "fos" which is another word for spiritual power.  The herbs are crushed by hand, and waters and perfumes are added, altough some may have been partially prepared if the ingredients need to sit.  Typically we will ensure that the bath is warm as there is no need to take a cold bath.

Once the bath is prepared, the recipients of the bath will generally be seated outdoors weather permitting, in a private area.  The Houngan or Mambo administering the bath will then come with the bath mixture and say various prayers.  They will then administer the bath.  There are times when it is best that the lwa [spirits that we serve in Haitian Vodou] administer the bath themselves.  When this is required the lwa will possess the Houngan or Mambo and will then perform the bath.

Healing Bath on the Point of Erzulie Freda

So how is a bath administered?

Very few Vodou baths actually involve soaking in a tub.  You may be standing or sitting in a chair, and using a large white enamel cup, we will pour the bath over you, either begining at your head or shoulders, and going down to your feet, or beginning at your feet and moving up to your head.  The bath will be administered with a great deal of prayer and singing typically, and in some cases you may be given bunches of herbs to scrup with, or in the case of a dry bath, you may need to rub these into your body.  You will most likely to asked to focus on something particular while the bath is being administered as well.

When the bath is done, you will generally be shown to a private area where you can undress.  We then encourage you to air dry if this has been a "wet bath" before putting on the fresh new clothes.  There may be other instructions, but the Houngan or Mambo will give these out according to the bath.

Generally we will end the ceremony when you return with more singing.  Then the remains of the bath are collected up into a bag.

What happens with the remains?

This is very important.  In some cases, such as cleansing baths, you will be instructed to take the remains to a certain location and dispose of them in a certain way, other baths may require disposal in any number of ways, at a river, a crossroads, the beach, a forested area, or even burying in your back or front yard.  Sometimes the Houngan will dispose of the bath for you, but sometimes you must do it yourself to take full advantage of the bath.

What if I can't come to a ceremony?

Some Houngan and Mambo will prepare baths for you that you can take yourself at home.  These are bottled and sent to you wth instructions on exactly how to take the bath, how to dispose of the remains, and any other instructions that might be relevant.  These baths are very good, although not as good as receiving the baths in person from a Houngan or Mambo.  If you are in a situation where you would like to take a bath, but can't be present, then please let us know and we can discuss the options with you.

Some baths, such as cleansing baths, should be taken regularly.  For example, some people take a cleansing bath every month, or even more often, a Houngan or Mambo may teach you a recipe for this if you are a member of their house, or you can purchase regular cleansing baths from them.  Just remember that some baths require follow up baths, so a cleansing bath should always be followed up with the luck bath, to fill the areas you have cleaned out with luck.

Baths are a great way to maintain our spiritual and physical health, but, like our general physical health, they are not one off events.  A single cleansing bath is not going to keep you clean forever, because we are living being, interacting with the world.  A single luck bath won't bring luck forever, because we collect ill luck from our environment.  In Vodou we combat this with our annual Christmas Baths.  Vodouwizan typically gather together on Christmas Day to undergo a series of cleansing baths that wash away all hindrance from the year gone.  Every ill thought, every negative emotion directed at us consciously or unconsciously, every negative experience, every bad thought, we wash them away, preparing for the new year.  On the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th we typically get together for our annual good luck baths which sets us up for a year of success.  Of course, according to our encounters in life we would top these up ... if I've worked with a particularly negative client, or if my husband has had an argument with his boss, then a quick cleansing bath might be in order, followed by a simple 3 or 7 ingredient luck bath ... these top ups, like going to the doctor when you feel a cough coming, keep us spiritually happy and well and keep things running smoothly in our lives. 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask us in the comments.


Lape Bondye avek nou
Houngan Liam