Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo & Conjuring with Herbs (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Hoodoo began in folks' sheds, basements, and kitchens..." (more)
Key Phrases: cup orange blossom water, kananga water, vetiver essential oil, African American, Queen Elizabeth, John the Conqueror (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

2005 Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) Winner for Best General Interest Book!

Hoodoo is an eclectic blend of African traditions, Native American herbalism, Judeo-Christian ritual, and magical healing. Tracing Hoodoo's magical roots back to West Africa, Stephanie Rose Bird provides a fascinating history of this nature-based healing tradition and gives practical advice for applying Hoodoo magic to everyday life. Learn how sticks, stones, roots, and bones - the basic ingredients in a Hoodoo mojo bag - can be used to bless the home, find a mate, invoke wealth, offer protection, and improve your health and happiness.

About the Author

Stephanie Rose Bird is a hereditary intuitive, contemporary rootworker, solitary green witch and visionary.  She has been involved with mysticism, symbology, spiritualism and the occult for thirty years.  Bird is inspired by her ancestors, in particular her grandmothers, one of which was a psychic and the other a spiritualist minister and herbal healer.  Her uncle, a Santeria priest, Babalawo of Shango, taught her the Ifa traditions of the Yoruba people.  Bird studies healing, magical and divination traditions of indigenous people around the world with a focus on Africa.  Her passions include keeping the ancient traditions alive and updating them so that they evolve with us, suiting our current environment and lifestyles.  She is a member of the American Folklore Soceity, the Herb Research Foundation and the Handcrafted Soap Maker's Guild.

Bird holds a BFA cum laude from Temple University and an MFA from UC San Diego, and has received multiple academic awards.  Bird was an assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1986-2002.  Bird is active advising masters' and doctoral candidates, giving lectures, conducting goddess rituals, and writing for numerous publications.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738702757
• ISBN-13: 978-0738702759
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #87,665 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is not Hoodoo, November 27, 2007

By	D. Marshall "A Reviewer" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

After reading through Bird's second book, "Four Seasons of Mojo", and seeing how bad that one was I read through this book hoping it might be better; no such luck. This isn't real Hoodoo and any practitioner who is trained in the tradition would either be highly annoyed, or laugh themselves silly, by what is being passed off as Hoodoo.
The problems with the book start right at the beginning. Bird gives the reader the ingredients for a "Fast Luck" Mojo without explaining that "Fast Luck" isn't a generic term for luck. It is a term used in Hoodoo to describe a hand made for luck with money or love. I'll also add that the number of ingredients included don't work to strengthen the spell.
On the very next page the author gives the list of curios/ingredients for a "Stay Away From Me" mojo, but includes Senna Pods and Dragonsblood resin. Interesting, if illogical, choices considering the fact that in Hoodoo, Senna Pods and Dragonsblood resin are used to draw people to you! I didn't analyze all of her recipes, but I'm not hopeful that the book gets any better if it starts off this bad. The mistakes I found in the book are the type you might expect a novice student to make, but not those of someone who deems themselves knowledgeable enough to write a book on the topic.
SSRB reminds of Ray Malborough's Hoodoo Mysteries, and is just as full of misinformation and misdirection. If you are looking for real, authentic Hoodoo stick with Hyatt, if you can afford to collect Hyatt's work; Cat Yronwode, Jim Haskins, or even Henri Gamache. I also have a Listmania, "Hoodoo/Rootwork/Conjure and nothing but", which lists other reputable authors, but do yourself a big favor and pass on this one.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Written, but Wanted More Hoodoo., August 6, 2004

By	El Brujo "Brujo Hechisero" (Lowell, Ma) - See all my reviews

When we hear the words Hoodoo, or Voodoo, most people automatically think of Zombies and Voodoo Dolls. And while many people try to hide it, "Yes these things do exist" these things are not what Hoodoo or Voodoo is completely about. I have been initiated into Santeria. But all my life I was raised and grew up in Puerto Rican Brujeria and Espiritismo. There is one thing that is common with Brujeria and Hoodoo. The practitioners of both paths come from various religious traditions, but both Los Brujos and the Hoodooists are consulted on things both Good and Bad. This is one thing that is greatly missing in this book.

I enjoyed the book immensely, but I felt there was so much missing, when I saw who the publisher was, "LLewelyn" it all came clear. Stephanie Rose Bird is a good author, and the book read well. It is a combination of Luisah Tesh's great book Jambalaya and the various Ray Malbrough books,

I felt she could have taken the book some place else. The recipes for making oils, and Four Thieve Vinegar, have been published before. There is so much more to Hoodoo than just these typical things, which Llewelynn allows its authors to write about.

Although I am not giving the book five stars, because most of the stuff is written elsewhere, I have to give Stephanie some credit for being informative, and I learned a few things, that I had not known.

This book is defiantly not only about Hoodoo, it is a mixture of Vodou, Santeria, Candomble, Brujeria and so forth. But unlike other authors who have done a messy job in trying to put the four-mentioned together, Stephanie really places them together nicely. In a way that is Very Brujeria, and yes we can even say, "Modern Day-Hoodoo."

For those who are interested in adding some Hoodoo into their practices, and have little knowledge, this is a good start. But my advice to Stephanie.

"Girl the way you write, has an honest feel, and I know you have more to teach than what your Current Publishers allow. Go to Original Publications, or another company, where you can really let people know what Hoodoo is truly about."

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A call to rootwork, October 20, 2004

By	Julie McCord "estara" (Anaheim, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Stephanie's knowledge of her recipes and her herbs seems sound, and that's good. She gives a lot of them, and that's good. Her interpretations of European gods go a little queer in places, based on my own knowledge, but if you know about it it's not too bad - you can certainly, Gods preserve us, do worse in any number of Llewellyn publications, including many that purport to be mainly about European-style practice.

But what really sets this book above the cut, in my opinion, is that something about her style makes me actually want to get out all my herbs and oils and MAKE these things, and use them all over my house and my life. I have a slew of other herbals on my shelf, and not one of them has this power to infect me with the writer's enthusiasm. Stephanie does it. After years of having these things and theoretically knowing how to use them, it is only since reading this book that I have made a practice of concocting my own oils, leaving out scented water on my altar as an offering and anointing daily with it, taking herbal washes and using them on the floors.

Good stuff.