God Status by John Bertrum Ford

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

So lately I've been posting a lot around here for those who are still active and poking around and looking at what I am posting, sometimes you may like it other times you won't. But to be honest there really isn't much activity around here so that's why I am posting so much. Its also to help learn and experience things that perhaps you have never used before.

 

So a couple of things I've noticed, and want to clarify, is the spellings of your words regarding hoodoo. Hoodoo isn't a religion, a place or a name, so its always spelled hoodoo (not Hoodoo, or HooDoo), the next thing is rootwork it is one word and not two so its spelled rootwork or rootworking. Its like someone who is non-pagan writing WitchCraft to me they are one word, so its spelled witchcraft for the practice and Witchcraft for the religion (or religion tying say Wicca).

 

Straight to it than. God.

 

People often ask me, if hoodoo is Christian oriented than how can I practice it? Woa, woa! Who said that hoodoo belongs to the Christians? Whoever said that doesn't know hoodoo. Yes, Christian elements play a BIG BIG part in hoodoo, but hoodoo can easily be adapted in any of your magical practices. And so lets talk about God here.

 

Hoodoo, because it incorporates many cultures, beliefs and practices, embodies many, many Gods and also Goddesses, but how they approach it is very different. In hoodoo, for those who are christian, they view Deity kind of like this:

 

GOD HEAD- I use the term God Head because there really wasn't a defining point, but it is the Christian God we are speaking.

 

THAN you have Lesser Deities, these lesser deities have nothing to do with God (the Christian God) and are seen as separate entities but are still divine in nature because they are sometimes seen as offsprings of God. Its a very cruel thing to think about especially when it comes to Christian hoodoos, because they view these deities are tainted and disgusting creatures. But as hoodoo practitioners we can call on them.

 

Hoodoo practitioners go the Old Ways when it comes to approaching these Deities, or Lesser Gods, such as Hecate, her domain is the THREE PATHS CROSSROAD and you could never summon her at a 4 way crossroad, that would be very disrespectful to her but also other entities who rule that Crossroad such as the Devil, Papa Legba and so forth. At her crossroads, gifts and also sacrifices are sometimes made.

 

Another good Goddess to mention here is Veritas the Roman Goddess of Truth, in hoodoo she is summoned to make people tell the truth. How do we as rootworkers do so? Not in the most pleasant of ways, but you would use a cat's skull, seeds of paradise and also devil's shoe string to summon yourself the Veritas.

 

Due to popular TV show of Supernatural who portray somethings very accurately as possible while keeping the show fun, if you watch the episode The Hammer of the Gods you can kind of get the feel of what the Gods are like in hoodoo and how some hoodoo workers approach and feel for them. This isn't Wicca, and I CANNOT stress that enough. The Gods are both feared and love.

 

However, what I strongly disagree with in the show Supernatural was that Lucifer could destroy the Gods. Gods are above angels and always will be, they are not Gods or they would have their names in it. There is a chain of hierarchy that kind of follows this:

 

GOD HEAD

God/Goddess

Demi-God

Devil

Saints/Loa/Ancestors

Angel/Demon

Nature Spirits

 

There is more in there obviously, but that is a rough estimate. So hope this was an eye opener a bit. Although Christian authority did majorly influence hoodoo, remember you can combine all elements at your disposal.