It also has a special place in my heart, being the ingredient that brought me into hoodoo during a search for camphor soap.
Nowadays much of the camphor you find is synthetic. It is made from turpentine and sometimes paraffin. If you're buying your camphor shaped in little blocks, it's probably this type. Natural camphor comes in a milky white crystal form, and is food-safe in small quantities. You can often find it at Indian groceries because it's used to flavor desserts, and is also burnt in puja offerings. (It is for one said to be a favorite fragrance of the goddess Kali.) The synthetic type evaporates when left out in unsealed containers.
There's little reason one needs to choose one or the other since synthetic fragrances are very commonly used in modern hoodoo, and many practitioners find it perfectly satisfactory. But some think it's better to use the natural version if it's available.
There are three main uses of camphor in hoodoo magical traditions:
cleansing and protection
This is the most common way to employ camphor in modern magic. It can be used on its own or combined with other things for uncrossing and purification. Putting a camphor square in each corner of the room is traditional cleansing and protection technique. Washing with camphor soap is good for uncrossing.
A suggested purification ritual for those who don't want to burn incense is to put out a dish of Florida Water with a little camphor in it, and let the scent clear harmful energies from the room. It is also an ingredient in traditional Four Thieves Vinegar. A recipe for a protective mojo is made from a white bag filled with parsley, spearmint, garlic and camphor, fed with holy water.
psychic work
In Wicca and other European traditions it is connected with the moon due to its bright white color, and is used for Moon magic and consecration. By extension it can be used to increase psychic ability and occult powers. One recipe for divination incense uses camphor, dittany, damiana, Solomon's seal root, and orris root mixed into incense base, burned in the room while performing such rites. This for enhancing ability.
It was also at one time considered a hallmark of New Orleans Voodoo practitioners to wear a square of camphor from a string around their necks. A recipe for a fortune telling jackball is recorded, made from camphor and lodestone.
domination work
Perhaps by extension of its psychic reputation, camphor is sometimes said to increase the mind-controlling power of incense blends such as Commanding or Bend Over when it is mixed into them. In like manner, a little bit of camphor oil mixed into a domination perfume like Bend Over when you wear it, will increase its power. A Hyatt informant advised mixing it with Chewing John for success in a job interview.
It's especially useful in combination with its purifying power as something to "clear away" undesirable thoughts from the target.