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

We all know the scene from the 1989 film The Little Mermaid : Prince Eric, alone, is playing the flute by the seashore. He glances at Ariel's bedroom and throws the flute into the water, conveying to the audience that he's just about to go and declare his love for her... when suddenly, there appears on the beach another woman -- whom, by her possession of Ariel's voice and the golden seashell necklace, the audience likely recognizes as Ursula the sea witch in disguise. Getting Eric's attention with Ariel's voice, her mystic powers (represented as a tendril of golden fog) infiltrate his head, and he's mind controlled for the next 20 minutes or so into almost marrying Ursula, being saved only when the seashell charm is smashed thus breaking the treacherous mind control magic. And everyone in real life turning to voodoo or hoodoo or witchcraft for help seems to expect that . Fuck me, Amadeus. Yes, and surely with such powers as this, all the slaves from Africa just...

 

The other day I made a bath recipe for myself using some artificial myrrh oil (real myrrh essential oil being quite expensive -- about $160 a half ounce as of this writing.) Sniffing it, it called to mind so many other spells that I've done that I realized -- this is THE smell of hoodoo. American hoodoo magic, with its blend of African, Indigenous, and European traditions, has a long history of utilizing various herbs, roots, and materials to create potent spells and rituals. One such ingredient that holds a significant place is myrrh. It is not a native plant to the Americas: commiphora myrrha is native to the Arabian penninsula and Africa. It appears often in the Bible, and because of this was adopted into European high magical traditions. As I mention in my book Conjuration , incense wasn't much used in American hoodoo till the early 20th century, when the "catalogue culture" of De Laurence and others brought to it more high magical tradition and incorporated im...