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MOJO HAND and ROOT BAG

Everybody in America seems to have heard the word "mojo," but darned few white folks know what it means. Cecil Adams, author of "The Straight Dope" series that purports to give truthful answers to often-asked trivial questions, mumbled his way through theories that "mojo" means the sex act or a male sexual organ, even giving space to the drug-addled white singer Jim Morrison's self-applied sobriquet of "Mr. Mojo Risin'" as an indication that a mojo may be a penis. By the end of the 20th century, the second Austin Powers movie, steeped in white retro-culture, reinforced the idea of the mojo as a sex organ, but other white people took the idea in different directions, giving rise to a brand of mountain bike called a Mojo, a brand of cookies called Mojos, and numerous pets (especially cats) named "Mojo" by their loving owners.

For the record, "Mr. Mojo Risin'" is nothing more than an anagram for "Jim Morrison" and it came about because during the 1960s, Morrison apparently heard the word "mojo" on a recording by the Mississippi-born Chicag-style blues singer Muddy Waters [McKinley Morganfield], shown at right, one of whose most popular songs was "I Got My Mojo Working." Here are the lyrics which so impressed Mr. Morrison:

I GOT MY MOJO WORKING
by Preston Foster
Recorded by Ann Cole, Muddy Waters, et al

I got my mojo workin' but it just don't work on you
I got my mojo workin' but it just don't work on you
I wanna love you so bad, child, but i don't know what to do

I'm going down to Louisiana, gonna get me a mojo hand
Going down to Louisiana, gonna get me a mojo hand.
Gonna have all you women under my command.

Got my mojo workin'!
      (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin'!
     (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin'!
     (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin'!
     (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin', but it just don't work on you!

I got a Gypsy woman giving me advice.
I got a Gypsy woman giving me advice.
I got a whole lot of tricks keeping our love on ice

Got my mojo workin'!
     (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin'!
     (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin'!
     (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin'!
     (Got my mojo workin'!)
Got my mojo workin', but it just don't work on you!

How the failure of Morganfield's mojo was cast into the phantasy of a male sex organ is a tale only white musicians and newspaper columnists can unravel; after all, the first recording of "Got My Mojo Working" was made by Ann Cole, a woman, and the famous blues singer Robert Johnson had written about a woman's mojo in "Little Queen of Spades," way back in the 1930s. The truth is, the word has nothing to do with the sex organs of either gender and never has.

So what is a mojo? It is, in short, the staple amulet of African-American hoodoo practice, a flannel bag containing one or more magical items. The word is thought by some to be a corruption of the English word "magic" but it more likely is related to the West African word "mojuba," meaning a prayer of praise and homage. It is a "prayer in a bag" -- a spell you can carry.

Alternaive American names for the mojo bag include hand, mojo hand, conjure hand, lucky hand, conjure bag, trick bag, root bag, toby, jomo, and gris-gris bag. In the Memphis region, a special kind of mojo, worn only by women, is called a nation sack. A mojo used for divination, somehwat like a pendulum, is called a Jack, Jack bag, or Jack ball.

The word "gris-gris" looks French (and in French it would mean "grey-grey"), but it is simply a Frenchified spelling of the Central African word gree-gree (also sometimes seplled gri-gri). Gree-gree means "fetish" or "charm," thus a gris-gris or gree-gree bag is a charm bag. In the Caribbean, an almost-identical African-derived bag is called a wanga or oanga bag, from the African word wanga, which also means "charm" or "spell" -- but that word is uncommon in the USA.

The word "conjure" -- as in "conjure work" (casting spells) and "conjure woman" (a female herbalist-magician) -- is an old alternative to "hoodoo," thus a conjure hand is a hoodoo bag, one made by a conjure doctor or two-headed doctor. Likewise, the word trick derives from an African-American term for spell-casting -- "laying tricks" -- so a trick bag is a a bag that contains a spell. Similarly, "wanga" is a West African word meaning a spell, hence a wanga bag is a bag containing a spell.

The word "hand" in this context means a combination of ingredients. The term may derive from the use of finger and hand bones of the dead in mojo bags made for various purposes, from the use of a rare orchid root called Lucky Hand root as an ingredient in mojo bags for gamblers, or by an analogy between the mixed ingredients in the bag and the several cards that make up a "hand" in card games.

Although most "Southern Style" conjure bags are made of red flannel, some root doctors favour the colour-symbolism employed in hoodoo style candle-burning magic and thus use green flannel for a money mojo, white flannel for a baby-blessing mojo, red flannel for a love mojo, pale blue flannel for a peaceful home mojo, and so forth. Leather bags are also seen, but far less frequently than flannel; they are associated with West Indian obeah, another form of folk magic closely related to African-American hoodoo.

Mojos made for an individual are usually carried on the person, always out of sight. They are very rarely worn on a string around the neck, fairly commonly pinned inside a woman's brassiere, and much more commonly pinned to the clothes below the waist or caried in a pants pocket. Those who make conjure bags to carry as love spells sometimes specify that the mojo be worn next to the skin. Mojos intended to purify or protect a location are generally placed near the door, hidden in such a way that they cannot be seen by strangers.

Keeping the mojo from being seen is important because if another person touches it, the luck may be lost. This is sometimes called "killing the hand." The proscription against touching is far stronger in the case of the woman's nation sack than it is in any other kind of mojo.

A song lyric that describes the mojo touching taboo occurs in "Take Your Hands Off My Mojo," recorded in New York on February 17, 1932 by Leola B. Wilson and Wesley Wilson (a husband and wife duo also known as Coot Grant and Kid Wesley Wilson, Kid and Coot, and, singly, as Leola B. Pettigraw and Socks Wilson). This hokum blues number was a follow-up to the couple's double-entendre dance-hit "Get Off With Me," which explains the reference in the first line. It is sung in alternating line form, with a spoken introduction. (Thanks to Frank Sandoval for the recording date and to Bob Dunn for the picture.):

TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY MOJO
by Leola B. "Coot" Grant and "Kid" Welsey Wilson

Spoken:
(F) Ah, play that thing! Did you get off?
(M)              Come here, honey; I got something to tell you.
(F) Whaddaya want? Don't do THAT! Don't DO that!
      As long as you KNOW me, don't you put your hand on my mojo!
(M)              Why, honey?

Sung:
(F) Now, the Depression has made me do a lot of things
      That i never done befo'
      That's why I went to a fortune teller
      And got me this lucky mojo
(M)              Honey, I done seen your mojo
                    That thing ain't nothin' but a joke
(F) But if you keep your hands off a' my mojo,
      I'm one woman will never be broke

      Just keep your hands off a' my mojo, you can't cut off my luck
      Now, keep your hands off a' my mojo, if you ain't got a buck
      Time's is hard as hard can be
      I don't want no broken man messin' 'round with me
      Keep your hands off a' my mojo, you ain't got no time for me

(M)              Now, me put my hands on your mojo,
                    Honey, what harm would that do?
(F) Now, it ain't no tellin', red hot Papa,
      Mama may start lovin' you
(M)              Heh, if...if you EVER start to lovin' me
                    Baby, won't that be just fine?
(F) But who's got time to love a man
      Ain't got one thin dime?
(M)              Yeah, but looky here -- I can give you lots of lovin'
                    'Cause you know I'm a lovin' cat
(F) But times' so doggone hard now, Baby
      A woman can't live off a' that

      It's time to love, it's time to pray
      It's time to moan and shout
      It's a time a woman's got other things
      That she wants to think about

      Now, keep your hands off a' my mojo, 'cause it sure is lucky to me
      Now, keep your hands off a' my mojo, I wish i had two or three
      I wear my mojo above my knee
      To keep you from tryin to hoodoo me
      So keep your hands off a' my mojo, if you ain't got no stuff for me

The concealment of the mojo hand is what has led to confusion about the meaning of the word. Many acoustic rural blues songs of the 1920s-30s refer to mojos, among them a dozen that carry a floating verse about "keeping a mojo hid." Here is a sample of such a lyric, from "Scarey Day Blues" by the Georgia-born musician Blind Willie McTell. The reference in the third line to "Georgia Bill" is explained by the fact that Willie Samuel McTell recorded for several competing labels under an assortment of pseudomyms including Georgia Bill, Hot Shot Willie, Blind Sammie, and Barrelhouse Sammy. "Scarey Day Blues" was a "Georgia Bill" recording, cut in Atlanta in October, 1931 for the Okeh label.

SCAREY DAY BLUES
by Blind Willie McTell

My good gal got a mojo, she's tryin' to keep it hid
My gal got a mojo, she's tryin' to keep it hid
But Georgia Bill got something to find that mojo with
I said she got that mojo and she won't let me see
She got that mojo and she won't let me see
And every time i start to love her she's tried to put that jinx on me
Well, she shakes like the Central and she wobbles like the L & N
She shakes like the Central and she wobbles like the L & N
Well, she's a hot-shot mama and i'm scared to tell her where i been
Said my baby got something, she won't tell her daddy what it is
Said my baby got something, she won't tell her daddy what it is
But when i crawls into my bed, i just can't keep my black stuff still

Since the least conspicuous way for a woman to wear a hidden mojo is hanging from a string under her skirt -- or, as Coot Grant put it, above her knee -- a male blues singer is making a double entendre when he declares he's going to find that mojo. It's a sexual joke, but the mojo itself is not sexual.

And what is contained in the mojo hand? Well, that varies a lot, based on what the wearer hopes to accomplish by carrying the amulet and what the maker finds effective or customary to use in preparing it. A mojo carried for love-drawing will contain different ingredients than one for gambling luck or magical protection. Generally there are at least three items in a simple hand, and many root doctors try to ensure that the total number of ingredients comes to an odd number -- 3, 5, 7, 9, or 13 -- although sometimes mixed herbs are counted as one item.

Once prepared or "fixed," the mojo is "dressed" or "fed" with a liquid of some kind. It may also be "smoked" in incense fumes or the smoke from a candle, or breathed upon to bring it to life.

The most common liquids used to feed a hand are alcohol, such as whiskey; a perfume, such as Hoyt's Cologne or Florida Water; bodily fluids, such as spit or urine (or sexual fluids for a love-drawing hand); or with a specially-prepared condition oil. The bag is not generally soaked through, but simply dabbed with the liquid, although some old-time poker players i knew during in my youth, during the 1960s, used to say that to get a gambling hand to really work for you, you had to have your lover pee all over it out in the alley between rounds of play.

Here are a few representative mojo hand combinations, to which it would be customary to add a name-paper or wish-paper signifying the person for whom the work is being done:

To draw money:
A silver "Mercury" dime, a pinch of sugar, a lodestone, and a John the Conqueror root wrapped up in a $2.00 bill, fixed in a green flannel bag with a metal money bag charm and dressed with Van Van Oil.

To attract love:
A matched pair of lodestones covered with magnetic sand -- or the less traditional but equally effective pair of Magnetic Scotty Dogs -- fixed in a red flannel bag and dressed with red Fast Luck Oil or Love Me Oil. (For a variant of this conjure bag, created by a couple to preserve faithful love during absences, see the page of Love Spells.)

"Ole' Conjure Man's" Hand for luck and protection:
The advertisement shown above depicts a popular mojo bag consisting of two lodestones and two horseshoe nails in a red flannel bag that was sold nationally during the early 1930s by King Novelty Company (the occult supply branch of Famous Products, about which see below). The text reads in part: "An old Conjure Man or Trick Doctor of the South used this Curio Charm consisting of a Red Flannel Bag filled with Lodestone, Nails, and Hair. This has been claimed to ward off the Devil, to be a Good Luck Charm against HANDICAPPING and to PROTECT against other 'HANDS.' PROTECT aginst other 'HANDS' means, we believe, to ward off evil intended by someone else..." In place of the owner's hair, the use of this mojo for magical protection against witchcraft would also rendered quite powrful by the inclusion of a pinch of salt, which has a long history in this regard.

To remove a jinx, stop crossed conditions, or drive away evil:
A broken length of chain; a broken ring; a rat bone or toy plastic rat; a catseye shell; a miniature metal, bone, or plastic skull; a pinch of five finger grass; and a miniature dagger; fixed in a red flannel bag and dressed with Stop Evil Condition Oil, Jinx Removing Oil, or Uncrossing Oil.

For luck in gambling:
A Lucky Hand root, a pinch of five-finger grass, a miniature pair of dice, and a John the Conqueror root, fixed in a red flannel bag and anointed with red Fast Luck Oil or with the urine of your lover. An added dried bat heart and an alligator tooth or badger tooth is good here too, as are a rabbit foot or alligator foot.

For the return of an estranged lover:
A black cat bone wrapped in cotton wool, fixed in a red flannel bag and dressed with Follow Me Boy Oil or Reconciliation Oil.

For peace in the home:
An Angelica root, a hair-charm made of family members' hair, a metal dove-with-olive-branch charm, balm of Gilead buds, flax seeds, rosebuds, lavender flowers, and basil leaves, fixed in a pale blue flannel bag and dressed with Peaceful Home Oil.

For a wish to come true:
Seven wishing beans, a rabbit foot, and a piece of parchment upon which the wish has been written in Dragon's Blood ink (or other red ink), fixed in a red flannel bag and anointed with Van Van Oil. Some people write a different wish for each bean, seven wishes in total.

"Root Doctors' Hand" for good luck:
Another combination sold during the 1930s by King Novelty is shown in the above advertisement. It contained Sampson's snake roots, devil's shoestring roots, a piece of brimstone (sulphur), and a magnetic lodestone in a red flannel bag. As a bonus, the buyer received a good luck ring bearing the image of a horseshoe and a four-leaf clover, plus a copy of the then-popular "Witch's Dream Book," one of a number of similar dream books used by players to predict lucky numbers when betting on illegal lottery games such as policy. The text reads in part: "A HAND made by an old-time Conjure Man contained the following: One piece of Sampson Snake Root and a piece of 'Devil's Shoe Strings.' This was wrapped in a piece of Black Cloth folded always toward the maker and sewed with White Thread and then incased in a Red Flannel Bag. The Conjure Man said that the whole should be thoroughly wet with Whiskey or Camphor [camphorated oil] at regular intervals and should always be carried with you. It was said that such a Bag brings things to you and the twine-like roots of "Devil's Shoe Strings" ties them close and the folding of the cover towards you brings you GOOD LUCK in Gambling..."

For steady work:
A John the Conqueror root, a metal clock charm, devil's shoestring roots, gravel root, salt, and pyrite crystals, fixed in a green flannel bag and dressed with Steady Work Oil. A simpler version, employed by day laborours, consists of carrying salt and gravel root in one's pocket. A bit of the mixture is sprinkled inconspicuously where the hiring boss will step in it.

To keep a man at home:
A detailed desription of this form of woman's mojo hand appears in the page on nation sacks.

In addition to the ingredients named above, the objects most commonly found in mojo bags are roots and herbs, plus a variety of animal parts such as dyed feathers -- green for money, red for love, orange for anger, blue for spiritual peace -- rattlesnake rattles, dried frogs, swallow hearts, and bat wings. (Modern urban practitioners may substitute a toy plastic bat for the latter). Coins, metal lucky charms, crystals, good luck tokens, carved stones, and written papers may also be added for extra power. Finally, some root workers top off their mojo bags with parchments upon which are printed medieval European seals and sigils of talismanic import, partiicularly the seals from the Greater Key of Solomon and The 6th and 7th Books of Moses, both of which are sold as sets of seals printed on parchment paper, and are used without reference to the rituals given in the texts of the books.

These last items surprise many Caucasians, who are unaware that a strong vein of Germanic folklore runs through traditional African-American hoodoo. Still, however strange it may seem to cultural anthropologists in search of "African survivals" in hoodoo practice, it is a fact that John George Hohman's "Pow-Wows or the Long Lost Friend" -- first published in America in 1820 and translated into English in 1856 -- has long been a staple source of inspiration for conjure-workers in both the African-American and European-American Appalachian traditions, and many a black hoodoo practitioner can cite chapter and verse of "Albertus Magnus," "The Black Pullet," "Secrets of the Psalms," "The 6th and 7th Books of Moses," "8th, 9th, and 10th Books of Moses," and other occult books of European origin.

In the 1920s and 30s, as the manufacture and distribution of hoodoo spiritual supplies became a full-scale industry based in urban areas, the word "mojo" was adopted as a brand name for a variety of goods. The label shown here -- for "Mojo Brand Oil" -- was used for a dressing oil to feed the bag or anoint one's body. Mojo brand spiritual supplies were distributed by Famous Products, a Chicago mail-order firm that manufactured cosmetics like Lucky Brown hair dressing and Madame Jones skin brightener for the African-American market under the company-name Valmor Beauty Products, and distributed hoodoo supplies under the name King Novelty Company. Other "mojo" brand products from Famous Products / Valmor / King Novelty included Genuine Mo-Jo Brand lodestones, Lucky Mojo Jickey Toilet Water, a cheap knock-off of Jockey Club cologne, which was thought to bring luck to those who bet on horse races, and Lucky Mo-Jo Good Luck Perfume.

The turbaned Hindu who adorned the Mojo brand label represented cross-cultural "exoticism" to the African-American community. Some Mojo brand labels carried this idea even farther by incorporating the Hindu swastika on the label.

Order a Custom Made Mojo Hand from the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.

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