"What Is...?" Wednesday

Sweetening Jar

This form of hoodoo spell casting is employed when you want to set up a powerful sweetening spell in a small place and keep it working for as long as you wish. Sweetening Jars are extremely convenient and one reason for their continued popularity is that although they can be worked on an altar like other forms of bottle spell, they can also be literally hidden in plain sight in a kitchen cabinet.

Hoodoo consists of a large body of African folkloric practices and beliefs with a considerable mixture of American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. Although most of its adherents are black, contrary to popular opinion, it has always been practiced by both whites and blacks in America. 


Other regionally popular names for hoodoo in the black community include "conjuration," "conjure," "witchcraft," "rootwork," and "tricking." The first three are simply English words; the fourth is a recognition of the pre-eminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and the casting of spells, and the fifth is a special meaning for a common English word.

The  Sweetening Jar Spell (or Honey Jar) is one of the oldest forms of bottle spell in the world. There are so many variations that it can be classified as  a "spell family." Most of them consist of a jar of sweetener into which you place the personal concerns of the person you want to influence, along with spiritually powerful magical herbs, wrapped in a name-paper or petition packet, and then burning a candle on top of the jar after dressing it with an appropriate ritual or conjure oil.

Ingredients:

a glass jar 

honey

a piece of paper
a pen or pencil
optional herbs for the "sweetening" purpose
a candle (a color corresponding to intent)
a candle-dressing ritual or conjure oil

~ Rub your ritual or conjure oil in an upward motion on the candle and then roll it in the herbal mixture you have prepared.

~ Get a small container of  honey, karo syrup, home-made brown sugar syrup or molasses... Place your candle in the center of the  empty jar, adhered by a few drops of wax in the bottom. Pour the sweetening liquid of your choice into a jar and fill it three quarters of the way up.

Next, prepare your paper, any type of paper, preferably white but just suit the style of your intent. Write the name of your object (person or situation) to be sweetened three times. Around the name you have written three times, write your hopes and wishes for the situation in a circle without removing your pencil or pen from the paper.

Roll or fold the paper and with your fingers, push it into the honey or sweetening substance in your jar, licking your fingers when you are through. (this spell also benefits you as well) Recite this phrase as you do this ""As this honey [or syrup] is sweet to me, so will I become sweet to_______." ( a name or situation)  Light the candle (do not leave it unattended) and let it burn and cover the honey in the jar until the candle burns down to the surface. (You can add a new candle to the top, every so often, until your intent is realized.

You can make jars for each person  or situation you want to sweeten if you’re working more elaborate spells on them, or keep one jar with lots of names in it for general sweetening. You can also make vinegar or “souring” jars, which is a form of Hexing.

"What Is....?" Wednesday

Hoodoo

Briefly, "Hoodoo" is an Afro-derived mystical system of personal and psychological empowerment, through the specialized use of roots, herbs, minerals in a beneficial or sometimes not so benificial manner to obtain a desired result...for example, protection, healing, wealth, justice and  victory over enemies. Its extensive body of esoteric knowledge, spirit of the culture, native customs, and universal folk beliefs, are traditionally passed down (usually in families) from generation to generation.

Is Hoodoo a type of magic...?  Not how the term "magic" is defined and perceived in Western culture. However, "Hoodoo" is indeed an African mystical tradition, known by various names, that is practiced all over Africa, and has been for thousands of years. It is perhaps the first tangible application of the supernatural, based upon the Africans intimate relationship with the phenomena of Spirits who taught and assisted them in surviving the powerfully rich, but yet untamed environment in which they found themselves.

For example, in the West African  Diaspora Mami Wata Vodoun tradition, the forest spirits, known as "Azzizas," were the most evolved guardians of the forest, who first presented themselves to the African hunters, and planters. They taught them the esoteric, medicinal (ahame) use and alchemical properties inherent in the abundance of herbs, trees, roots, minerals and life forms thriving in their mists.

It was the Azzizas who also taught the African how to make poisons, potions, medicines, and Gbo, "ebo"" and "boicho/bo."( known today as "mojo, amulets, talisman, ouangas"). Joined with the Azzizas, was the divinity later to be identified as "Legba," the great messenger of the gods, who also taught the Africans the use of Gbo and transported their prepared requests to the respective divinities.

The first practical and most extensive use of herbs, amulets and talismans in the forest was for protection from accidents, tropical disease, dangerous animals, repairing injuries, as well as to assure success in their hunt. However, their esoteric use was mainly for protection from jealously, envy, and death by other hunters, as well as protection from the angry spirits of those animals which were killed for food, or by accident during the course of the hunt.

 From these primary ancestors, eventually evolved a group of specialized priests and priestess known in Dahomey as Bokonons, (geomancers), Azondoto, Zokas, Garbara, Akpases (socerers), and Botonons. It was this knowledge that the Africans brought to the New World with them, and later incorporated and adapted with the indigenous Indian, and some European folklore, which came to be known as "Hoodoo".