Customer Reviews

The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook

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If I were new to Hoodoo this book would lead me to believe a lot of things that aren't necessarily true, for instance, I might believe that I would have to practice Voodoo if I wanted to practice Hoodoo and vice-versa or, at least, include the Lwa. It could very well be that this is how New Orleanian practitioners of both work them together, but the practices outlined in this book should not be mistaken for practices in the broader tradition; in fact, I don't think they should be mistaken for the practices of all Rootworkers WITHIN New Orleans. It would make absolutely no sense for a strictly Catholic Rootworker to include the Lwa, Orisha, Nikisi or any other spirit found in an African Traditional Religion in their practice of Hoodoo. They would likely work with archangels, saints, and perhaps, Blackhawk, but not these spirits.
On the positive side, Alvarado does a great job of explaining that Voodoo and Hoodoo are two different practices and that Voodoo is a religion whereas Hoodoo is folk magic. It would have been nice if the author stated, for the sake of clarity, that this is how she practices the two together or that the book represents a very region-centric version of Hoodoo and Voodoo co-mingled that is unlikely to be found outside the State of Louisiana.

I strongly disagree with her assertion that in New Orleans the two are called "voodoo hoodoo" because they were melded together. They may be melded together in the author's practice or in the praxis of people who practice both, but, again, what is in this book doesn't represent all practitioners nor the broader Hoodoo Tradition. The number of people who practice Voodoo and Hoodoo together is smaller than the number of Catholics who practice Hoodoo, and the number of Catholic practitioners is very small; most practitioners are Protestant Christians. There is also plenty of documentation from Hyatt, Hurston, Lomax, and interviews done by members of the LWP during the Great Depression to prove Alvarado wrong or, at least, over-reaching in her statement.

Her explanation for why a gris-gris bag (a mojo) is called a gris-gris is straight out of fantasyland; I have to wonder if she made it up. The word "gris-gris" is French and does translate as "gray-gray", but it's just a Frenchified version of the Central African word "gree-gree" or "gri-gri" which means "charm" or "fetish" and fits what a mojo/gris-gris is, a charm/fetish bag.

The information on crossing/uncrossing, foot track magic, and floor washing is accurate, however, when it comes to floor washing or spiritual cleansing to remove something, you don't throw it out the front door or into your front yard as she states, which is about the worst thing you can do. This is spiritual junk you don't want anywhere on you or on your property. There are several things you can do with it: take it to the crossroads, take it to the street in front of the house and toss it, or as most practitioner do..let is go down the drain and then pour some ammonia down the drain to cleanse it. If you were using a spiritual bath to draw something to do you then you'd want to keep the water on your property. She also states under the same topic that, "hardcore Hoodoos" use their urine or the urine of a child in floor washing. I don't consider the use of personal concerns in any work to be "hardcore Hoodoo" I consider it the right, traditional, and most logical/effective way to connect myself to what I'm doing and increase the strength of the spell or to connect the target of the spell to the spell.

She says you can put powders in someone's drink or food. I've never heard of this, and ingesting talc is not a good idea. It contains carcinogens and has been related to the development of various cancers. New mothers are also being warned against using it on newborns because the dust particals are small enough to enter the lungs and can cause breathing problems. I was taught that you can place many, many things into a person's food or a drink, but never a powder.

Ihe information about the "Hoodoo altar" is way over the top. None of what she lists is absolutely necessary, for instance, unless you are a Catholic working with saints you don't need saint prayer cards. That isn't to say that there are no Rootworkers who keep elaborate altars only that not everyone does and neither way is right or wrong.

The author lists large quantity of stones, yet very few stones and minerals are used and can be counted on less than two hands. It doesn't mean you can't use Aventurine if you wanted to, but doing so is not Hoodoo. Back in the day most practitioners couldn't afford precious or semi-precious stones so they didn't use them.

Under the Assorted Objects and Curios couple of things caught my eye that I have a problem with: the inclusion of Bluestone and what she says about the Black Cat Bone. Bluestone is not a stone it's copper sulfate and is extremely, extremely toxic. If it is still used in industry today the people dealing with it are wearing haz-mat suits because touching it unprotected can poison a person through their skin. In Hoodoo, Bluestone was long, long ago replaced with Laundry Bluing and she doesn't even list Laundry Bluing. I can see some poor soul, who doesn't know any better, end up getting some of this stuff and killing themselves with it.
Likewise, next to the listing for a Black Cat Bone she tells the reader to get chicken bones painted black instead. Sorry, but this is a stupid, stupid statement; she should have just left the Black Cat Bone off the list. A chicken bone painted black isn't a substitute for a Black Cat Bone and never will be!! A Black Cat Bone can only be obtained through a very inhumane process that kills the cat. It is alleged to give the owner of the bone the same abilities the Toad Bone gives in English Folk Magic, including invisibility. A chicken bone painted black will never do these things. As far as I know dried chicken feet, black hen's feathers, and black hen's eggs can all be used for cleansing, but these two animals don't do the same thing, obviously. I really have to wonder if she just made up this nonsense.

Under Formulas she includes three known sources, Cat Yronwode, Ray Malbrough's "Charms, Spells, and Formula's, and Herman Slater's "Magical Formulary". Catherine Yronwode's recipes can be trusted as is, but I would check her book Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic before I used Malbrough's stuff just to make sure it was correct; I wouldn't waste my time with Slater's book. It's full of incorrect information and whatever is correct he plagiarized from someone else without giving credit where it was due. One recipe book I do recommend is The Conjure Cookbook by Talia Felix.

She states that ritual bathing is used when facing negative stuff; however, ritual/spiritual bathing can be done for any reason and is often included as part of spellwork. The instruction she gives for spiritual/ritual bath is severely lacking. Nowhere does she state that spiritual cleansing has to be done before sunrise, that if drawing good things the bath should also be taken at dawn, and if trying to get rid of something the bath should be done at twilight. She also doesn't mention directionality regarding the left over bath water. She includes baths with a few as one ingredient when few Rootworkers would make a bath with only one ingredient. As far as the rest of the baths: white, yellow etc. these have nothing to do with Hoodoo; they are used in Vodou/Voodoo in connection with the Lwa.

Alvarado writes that gris-gris can consist of a doll or a bag. Well, maybe in New Orleans or in Alvarado's practice they do, but you won't get that answer if you ask most Rootworkers. In Hoodoo a mojo/gris-gris is a mojo and a doll-baby/dollie is a doll-baby/dollie. The primary difference is that a doll-baby is used to influence a person because once it is named and baptized it becomes that person. A mojo doesn't represent a person, and is never treated the same way a doll-baby is.
She also writes: "You should only put an odd number of items into your gris-gris bag; never less than three and never more than thirteen." This is one of those unnecessary "musts/shoulds". You can use any number of ingredients you want to, some people count their ingredients and some people don't; neither way is wrong. Some people follow the "odd number" practice and some don't, neither way is wrong. There are no rules in Hoodoo concerning counting or the amount of ingredients, although, someone using more than 13 might signify someone who isn't quite sure of what they are doing. The most important aspect of ingredients is getting the most effective ones for the job not how many a person is using.

Here's another unnecessary must: "Color symbolism is important. Choose a color specific to your need." No, isn't not and no, you don't have to. Prior to the 1940's Hoodoo practitioners used only two colors: black for harmful work and white for beneficial work because colored candles where too expensive, and a few Rootworkers will still work like this. Likewise, some Rootworkers only use red flannel for mojo/gris-gris regardless of what its purpose is and some don't. Again, there are no rules regarding this.

The author tells the reader not to use Goofer Dust and only includes it because for historical value...give me a break. She is attempting to insert her own ethics into someone else's practice. If she isn't comfortable using Goofer Dust then she shouldn't, but few Rootworkers would appreciate being told what type of magic they should or shouldn't practice. Then she also claims that it can be used for protective purposes, yeah, good luck with that one. It sounds like she's taken a few lessons from the Stephanie Rose Bird School of Hoodoo. Despite what she claims, Goofer Dust has absolutely NO protective qualities to it; it is used to harm and only to harm. In some parts of the country "goofer dust" or "gopher dust" is another name for graveyard dirt, but this is a very region-centric term and is not common in the wider tradition. If you call a supplier and tell them you want this stuff thinking you are going to get graveyard dirt you're going to be in for a big, unpleasant surprise.
Graveyard dirt can be used to help or harm it all depends on the spirit of the dead you're working with, but graveyard/spirit work is not beginner's work as a lot can go wrong with frighteningly bad results.

The chapter on Talismans is so full of nonsense and misdirection I'm not even sure where to start other than to say that this chapter isn't Hoodoo or Voodoo. If anything, it's eclectic Neo-Pagan or Wiccan-style magic, and some inclusions are irresponsible: for instance, a veve is used to call the Lwa it belongs to, and if you don't know how to serve them I wouldn't suggest drawing one. She includes the veve for the Lwa Marinette yet Marinette has a reputation in Haitian Vodou for being dangerously aggressive and "does not suffer fools" as I was once told by a Haitian Vodou Mambo.

In the Spells chapter we have eclecticism run amok. I didn't look at each and every spell, but what I see in this chapter is the same thing I saw in Dorothy Morrison's Utterly Wicked and Stephanie Rose Bird's books: Neo-Pagan spells made with Hoodoo parts, and include everything but the kitchen-sink. The Neo-Paganism includes, but is not limited to: emphasis on the four directions when Hoodoo really only deals with east and west; emphasis on working on a specific day of the week (some do and some don't); following moon phases (some do and some don't); all those Blessed Be's; the use of a bind Rune, Sumerian symbolism, and creating "sacred space" when Rootworkers don't cast circles; nor do the Elements/Elementals play any kind of role in Hoodoo.

Likewise, her method of "consecrating" objects is purely Neo-Pagan and not used in Hoodoo. She also says to empower, which is unnecessary as far as most Rootworkers are concerned. Since Hoodoo is animistic and everything contains a spirit whatever curios/ingredients the Rootworker is using are already "empowered" to accomplish the task the Rootworker needs done. All the Rootworker has to do is focus and tell the spirits in the curios what needs to be done in the form of some type of recitation. She is really making things more complicated then they need to be.

Her statement that "crossing spells are a form of foot track magic" is wrong. Crossing spells can be accomplished in many, many different ways including using foot track magic, but the two are not the same thing and foot track magic can be used for other things besides crossing someone. She also separates crossing spells from curses, jinxes, and hexes when these are just other words for the same thing; however, the word "hex" is rarely used in Hoodoo. It's German and found more commonly in Pow-wow or English Folk Magic.

In the instances where she references Hurston's "Mules and Men" there is something more authentically Hoodoo, but even Hurston was known for using creative license and making things up so if you use anything that came out of Mules and Men check it out first even though it's probably legit. If you choose to use any of these spells do some research beforehand. Personally, I wouldn't trust anything she's written here without investigating it and if any of it "feels" Neo-Pagan you can rest assure it isn't Hoodoo or Voodoo.

Final Note from the Author section
Why, why, why do these authors or their publishers insist on including the Three-fold Law or Karma in books like this? Neither of these concepts have any place in Voodoo or Hoodoo. I would imagine that being a religion, Voodoo, has some type of code of conduct, but if it's anything like Haitian Vodou it sure isn't either of these.
Hoodoo doesn't have any type of built-in ethics so ethics vary from one person to the next and one's ethics are nobody else's business. If a practitioner wants to believe in things like TFL or Karma that is their choice, but most practitioner of Voodoo or Hoodoo don't subscribe to such beliefs.

Bibliography
I think it's strange that she includes Hyatt's "Folklore of Adams Cty, IL." in the book. There's no doubt that FACI is a great collection of folklore, but it's hardly southern folklore. She would have done better using Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro-1926 by Newbell Niles Puckett or Ozark Folk Magic and Superstition by Vance Randolph.
It's also sad that she referenced Malbrough's Hoodoo Mysteries for this book. Hoodoo Mysteries is junk unless you want Wiccanized pseudo-Hoodoo. Generally, most Rootworkers write off Hoodoo Mysteries as his worse book, and don't recommend it to anyone.

This book doesn't start off bad and does contain some good information; however, it falters in putting that information to use in an authentic manner. As far as quality, in some ways this book is better than Stephanie Rose Bird's books, Malbrough's "Hoodoo Mysteries", or Morrison's "Utterly Wicked" and in others it's just as bad as far as misinformation, a lack of correct basic information, eclecticism run amok, calling something Hoodoo or Voodoo when it clearly isn't, and in some cases inclusions that are just plain dangerous. Despite it's title it isn't about practicing New Orleans-style Voodoo or Hoodoo; it's Neo-Pagan magic with some Voodoo and Hoodoo thrown in much like other books published in this genre over the last several years. This doesn't mean that what she includes won't work only that it isn't what the author claims it is.

...Denise Alvarado beat me to it!

I bought this book from Denise's website "The Mystic Voodoo" along with the companion CD (which has extra occult texts and material not in the book), and couldn't be happier with my purchase. While the term "Voodoo Hoodoo" might throw off some viewers, the writer is clear in the proper definitions of both Voodoo AND Hoodoo early on in the book. This is chocked full of information regarding the Loa, Catholic saints, magic, folk remedies, superstitions, recipes for occult oils, rootwork and just about everything else. A great introduction to both New Orleans Voodoo and Hoodoo, a must-buy for those interested in these paths.

I would also recommend the following as companion purchases: Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic: A Materia Magica of African-American Conjure, Dr. Snake's Voodoo Spellbook and Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals.

I recently purchased this book, and I found it too be extremely informative. It's more than apparent that Ms. Alvarado is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to the arts of voodoo/hoodoo. I especially enjoyed her recipes for root work and oils.

I really like this book. I have already helped a friend in need for a court situation, with such details got very happy results. Thank you for sending this quickly.

This book (thanks to the author) gets you straight down to the business of learning and working some Hoodoo without asking for your mothers maiden name or asking you to drink a cup of chickens blood. The content of the book is enough to get you at least working well on yourself if not others, basically if you can't get some results from the tricks in this book - then Hoodoo is not for you. There are some very funny but true points about the work within the pages, which I won't spoil for you just buy a copy and see.

I really tried to like this book but its really hard to. I am just very dissapointed with this book it is like a summary of a bunch of other books. Content sources are Nora Hurston Mules and Men and some book they post on Luck mojo.com. Such a dissappointment really doesnt feel like any part of this book is original. Large excerps from other books not to mention Hurston"s books are fictional stories. Hyatts book could have simply been downloaded from lucky mojo for free. Huge chunks of other books fill up page space. The information content is kind of beginner.

This is a fantastic book! I really enjoyed reading this book. It is full of helpful and useful information on Voodoo and how you can apply it to your own life. I was literally addicted to reading this book and was sad when it was over. I wanted more! The only complaint I have is I wish Ms. Alvarado would have written another book to accompany this one. She gave a lot in the book however she states that she was holding back guarded "secrets" which only further made my thirst for Voodoo knowledge that much more unquinched. If you have the chance get this book! I have referred back to it repeatedly. The information is truly priceless. Happy reading!

Purchased this as a gift, and the recipient is delighted! Good info, clearly written, and the author has her own site where she teaches and shares more.

Very informative. Easy to read with lots of good material. I recommend this book to beginning practioners to seasoned practioners. Good book to always have on hand as reference too.

Denise Alvarado has got to be the most versed person in the art of voodoo hoodoo~! I love the book, it is smack full of background information, spells, ingredients, etc. Perfect book for anyone beginning to dig into the practice.

Thank you Denise, you are a very good teacher and give of your knowledge so freely. I can't wait to see the next book you write. Anyone who has anything bad to say in reference to Denise's knowledge must be very envious of the knowledge this young lady has acquired from years of study, research and living the life.

Thank you again!

Tzangel