The Spellcaster's Source Hoodoo and Voodoo Witchcraft Blog of Talia Felix

In magic, almost anything can become an omen.  From the speed of a candle's burn to the quantity of wax left behind, everything takes on significance in traditional spellcasting. I should mention here that while certain burn patterns have a "traditional" meaning, I do not actually find all of these to be reliable. In fact, the only thing I've found to have a consistent and reliable meaning of any sort in my own practice, is if a candle goes out prematurely -- that is always inauspicious and indicates the work is really having a hard time coming through. Unless you're dealing with a defective candle, it probably means that it will not come to pass. Some other common phenomena that are used to read omens are: Candle burns clean, with little to no residue or remaining wax . As I was taught, this is desirable and a sign that that spell has taken and that there is nothing "left behind" to create further obstacles or that needs more work. However,...

I own two feather pillows. Recently I was finding that both had grown resistant to all efforts to fluff them. It was obviously time to buy new ones after more than 10 years. It occurred to me that if I pulled the stuffing out from one and used it to refill the other, I'd only have to buy one new pillow instead of two. I'd read enough ancient household management guides that I knew how to replace feather filling, so I went for it. When I cut open the pillows, I found one of them had developed a strange rope-like quality to many of the feathers. They'd grown matted and stuck together in many places. Lafcadio Hearn in his "New Orleans Superstitions" article of 1886 wrote: It is believed that by secret spells a "Voudoo" can cause some monstrous kind of bird or nondescript animal to shape itself into being out of the pillow feathers--like the tupilek of the Esquimau iliseenek (witchcraft.) It grows very slowly, and by night only; but when ...

The hoodoo "Black Cat" spell is notorious. It was one of the most commonly reported hoodoo rituals I found described in historic reports when researching my book Conjurin' Ole Time  (now republished as Conjuration)  and even now, when few are still willing to deliberately harm animals in their magical workings, conjure products claiming to be Black Cat Bones and Black Cat Oil remain popular (even if most of these products no longer contain cats and serve as mere symbols of the tradition.) The original purpose of the black cat bone was to render the user invisible. Over time it acquired a reputation for being able to produce other feats such as making the user immune to witchcraft, returning lost lovers and bringing tireless success in games. The ritual is said to have become known through certain versions of the St. Cyprian grimoire. Though named for an ancient saint, Owen Davies indicates that this grimoire only appeared in the 19th century.  However, it seem...