The role played by American Jews in promoting, preserving,
abetting, and also, to a certain extent, shaping the development of
modern urban hoodoo is
a subject that deserves scholarly study, preferably by
those who will not approach the subject from the Scylla of
racial prejudice or the Charybdis of identity politics.
In lieu of fuller documentation, at the present time
please accept this, my own modest contribution
to the subject, offered in a spirit of friendship and solidarity.
The picture shown here is the tombstone of LeRue Marx, for many years the chief chemist of the Lucky Heart Company in Memphis, Tennessee. He was buried in the city's Orthodox Jewish cemetery by the side of his wife, Rebecca Epstein Marx. The little white pebbles on the headstone of their grave are significators of the ancient Jewish custom of placing a small stone on the tombstone each time one visits. I am gratefully indebted to LeRue Marx for his generous transmission of several old-school hoodoo and conjure oil formulas which i use to this day in my own Lucky Mojo Curio Company formulary.
To begin to understand this subject, you should perhaps read the short section of the Hoodoo in Theory and Practice page titled Hoodoo History: Admixtures: European, Spiritist, and Kabbalist Influences on Hoodoo
Further descriptions of the influence of Jews and Judaism in hoodoo are found on these pages
Lucky Brown and Valmor cosmetics: Morton G. Neumann
Lucky Heart: Joseph Menke and Morris Shapiro
Lucky Mongol: Break-Up of the Menke-Shapiro family partnership
Clover Horn Company: Marcus Menke
Hoyt's Cologne: LeRue Marx
Joe Spitalnick Kay, Lewis de Claremont, Henri Gamache, and the Enduring Mystery of Mr. Young
Mikhail Strabo: A Pseudonym of Sydney J. R. Steiner
Shimmush Tehellim, Secrets of the Psalms: Gottfried Seelig
Hoodoo Bible Magic by Miss Michaele and Professor Charles Porterfield
This material has caused a bit of controversy, which, in turn, has given rise to public correspondences in which i tried to quell anger, present the historical record accurately and without either apology or condemnation, and open the way for further friendly research and dialogue.
Writing from the perspective of 2010, i can safely say that the next portion of this page -- my usenet posts of 1996 -- reflects some early thinking on the subject which has certainly evolved since these first casual comments, but i feel that the information is of archival value at least, and since it points the way to the need for further research, i am content to preserve the lot of it on the web.
USENET POSTS, 1996
The following texts were published to usenet in 1996:
catherine yronwode
Hello,
My name is catherine yronwode and i maintain an illustrated web
site (actually a book-in-progress) on lucky amulets and charms
from around the world and from all cultures and eras. (The URL is
in my sig line.)
Recently i have been begun e-mail correspondence with a woman
named Carolyn Long, who is writing a book on African-American
hoodoo from the perspective of the "religious supply companies"
that provide practitioners with candles, incense, floor washes,
anointing oils, and the like. We are sharing resources in the form
of old catalogues from the 1940s and such.
In our discussion of this, Ms. Long mentioned that she had noticed
that the 1930s-40s pioneers of the hoodoo and voodoo supply
industry were white, not black. She then speculated that perhaps
one reason these suppliers were (and are) so secretive about
themselves is that "most of the pioneers in the business were
white...they were also marketing hair straighteners, skin
lighteners, and tonics... and they didn't particularly want it
known that their money had been made from playing on the
insecurities and folk beliefs of their black customers."
Here is how i responded to her -- and by publishing this to the
net, i hope to open the topic up to discussion in general, seeking
more information from anyone who can contribute to my research for
the LUCKY W good luck amulet archives or Long's research on
African-American hoodoo:
This is an interesting idea, but i do not agree with it
entirely. That is, i agree that there were a lot of white
people involved in the practice of hoodoo (since the
mid-19th century, according to Jim Haskins' book "Voodoo and
Hoodoo") as well as in the manufacturing, sales, and distribution
end of things. But i do not agree that these pioneers of hoodoo
supply were secretive due to their somehow being ashamed to have
it known that they were preying on the superstitions of black
folks. I think they were secretive because the chemistry industry
is ALWAYS secretive when it comes to proprietary formulae.
Who were these white folks? Look at old ads and you will see
that there is a strong, strong, strong Jewish connection --
always. For instance, Clover Horn [a Baltimore hoodoo
supplier owned by the Menke family] in 1951 sold "Kosher Soap"
and mezzuzahs as well as magical items and cosmetic supplies
aimed at the African-American market. I have also seen
menorahs for sale in hoodoo shops. And let us not forget the
"6th and 7th books of Moses" and all the other Old Testament
adjuncts to hoodooism sold by King, Standard O&B, and others since
the 1930s.
Until Santeria entered the American picture in the 1970s,
the supposedly Christian element in hoodoo was drawn almost
exclusively from the Old Testament! Think of old brand names
like King David Floor Wash -- who but a Jew would take the
image of young David when he was a servant to cruel King
Saul, and apply it in allegorical fashion to a floor wash
designed to appeal to oppressed blacks whose chief
employment was as domestics and who might yet hope to come
into their kingship? Consciously or unconsciously, Jews
brought a wealth of Old testament symbolism to hoodoo
products.
Why Jews? Because soap-making, cosmetics-making, and other
small chemistry enterprises were traditional Jewish
occupations in German and Austria, and thus in America. This
Jewish connection to household chemicals did not only extend
into sales to the black community -- think of Dr. Bronner,
"Essene Rabbi and soap-maker," an immigrant German-Jew who
also markets a "spiritual" line of cleaning products and has
done so since the 1940s; his sales are almost entirely to
Jewish / white / hippie / New Age folks -- but my friend Fred
Burke says that he buys *his* Dr. Bronner products at the Ashby
BART Station Flea Market in Oakland, California -- from a black
woman. (For more on Dr. Bronner and his "All-One-God" philosophy,
see the usenet newsgroup news:alt.fan.dr-bronner or the Dr.
Bronner home page at http://www.healnet.com/drbonr.html .)
By the way, i ought to explain that the Jewish connection to
what i call the "household chemistry industry" (perfume, hair
straighteners, skin lighteners, cosmetics, cleaning
products, candles, incense) actually LEAPS OUT at me from
the pages of hoodoo sales catalogues because i am myself
culturally (not religiously) Jewish, from a German immigrant
background. The Jewish connection is obvious (and rather
touching, too) when i see menorah candles marketed as "altar
candles" and kabbala symbols like "the tree of life"
appearing on "Double Fast Luck Soap." Far from feeling that
blacks were preyed upon by unscrupulous whites, i see in
these old catalogues a bond (alas, now broken) between two
ghetto-ized "outsider" cultures.
The same is true in the herb supply industry: Joseph Meyer,
whose chatty and informative almanac-catalogues made him the
chief source for bulk herbs in America through the
1930s-60s, was German-Jewish. Look at his catalogues or his
book ("The Herbalist") and you will notice at once that in
addition to the regular lists of materia medica, both are
filled with accounts of "botanical curios," that is, herbs
used as magical rather than medical supplies. He pays
particular attention to "Southern customs" (i.e.
African-American customs) and lists page after page of
hoodoo herbal staples such as High John the Conqueror, Adam
and Eve Root, and Lucky Hand or Salep Root. In one early
1950s almanac-catalogue i have, he recounts his trip to the
Caribbean, where he bought voodoo artifacts and herbs for
resale in the United States -- and he tells of the emotional
effect some of these artifacts had on a "woman from Harlem"
who recognized in them her African heritage. Jews are like
that (i am like that): they are in a state of permanent
diaspora and they work hard to maintain their archaic
culture -- so they also take pleasure in helping other
people in diaspora maintain *their* unique cultures.
catherine yronwode -------------------- mailto:yronw...@sonic.net
Amanda Turner
It adds to the image of Jews as nothing more than stingy businessmen who
would sell their mother for a buck, as well as perpetrating the
"bloodsuckers" image by exploiting blacks.
So please explain more thoroughly if you would.
Thank you.
Amanda
catherine yronwode
Amanda Turner wrote:
I recommend that you look farther than the arena of small-time chemists
making household cleaning products. Let's stay in the same time period
-- the early 1930s -- but let's consider the movie "Big Boy," starring
Al Jolson [a Jewish singer and actor].
In it, Jolson -- in black face -- portrays a black jockey who
wants to win the Kentucky Derby. (Historical aside: the movie's premise
of a heroic black jockey was not far-fetched -- there was a strong
subculture of popular and wealthy black jockeys in the South at the post
Civil War time period in which the story is set, although it was
extirpated after WW I -- however, a black man would not have been
allowed to star in such a movie [for a major film company], hence
Jolson made himself up in blackface).
In any case, part way through "Big Boy," Jolson breaks for a musical
interlude with the Fisk Jubilee Singers -- a famed black choir. He, a
Jew in black face, leads them in a moving, slow, rendition of "Let My
People Go" against a backdrop of an old Southern plantation. It was not
lost upon reviewers of the time -- or viewers today -- that although the
song is considered to be a traditional black spiritual, the text begins,
"When Moses was in Egypt land..." and that the song's African-American
lyricist used the experience of Jews as a metaphor for his own
experience. Thus there is a certain piquancy in Al Jolson, a Jew,
singing about Moses with black people. One man's metaphor is another
man's history.
Times were more innocent then, of course. People of one cultural or
ethnic or racial group could identify with those of another and hope to
help them instead of feeling tribalistically driven to separatism from
them.
I have no doubt but that the Jewish chemist who named his floor wash
formula "King David," and illustrated the label with an image of young
David on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor, wanted to give blacks
a positive image -- because the metaphor, by extension, implies that
even from lowly beginnings, a man can rise to kingship.
How you managed to twist this into a slur on Jews i will never know.
Now it is my turn to question you:
Will you reread my original post and
admit that at no point did i mention "stingy businessmen who would sell
their mother for a buck" ? Will you admit that although you put the word
"bloodsuckers" in quotes, as if you were quoting me ('...perpetrating
the "bloodsuckers" image by exploiting blacks'), i never used such a
word and you have fabricated the quote? And will you admit that far
from accusing Jewish chemist of "exploiting blacks" (your term), i wrote
that i felt this to not be the case.
Here are the relevant portions of the post
I am looking for folks with first or second-hand knowledge of Jews who
worked in the religious supply and/or household chemical industries in
the United States from 1920-1970.
I think that should be obvious from what i wrote.
Thanks for your consideration.
catherine yronwode -------------------- mailto:yronw...@sonic.net
Amanda Turner did not reply, and the subject lay more or less dormant
in usenet, although i continued my research.
After i published an article on the Jewish American Kaye / Spitalnik
family to the web (under the title
"The Enduring Occult Mystery of
Lewis de Claremont, Louis de Clermont, Godfrey Spencer, Henri Gamache,
Joe Kay, Joseph Spitalnik,
Black Herman, Benjamin Rucker, and the elusive Mr. Young"), and a short
summary linking the pseudonym of the well-known hoodoo book author
Mikhail Strabo
to his actual, Jewish, name
Sydney J. R. Steiner, i received another comment, and published
the following text to usenet in reply, in 2000:
catherine yronwode
Omogun@aol.com wrote:
> (smile) were you serious about it [the marketing of spiritual supplies
If you don't know what i'm talking about, i can explain: A core belief
of that era, now past, could be summed up in something one of my older
internet customers told me over the phone recently: "Well, i always
thought that Jews are some kind of Negro -- they just light enough to
pass, that's all."
Obviously this belief worked both ways, with many Jews believing that
black people were "some kind of Jew" -- witness the large number of
Jews who marry black people, and who did so even in the past, at a
time when racial intermarriage was illegal in some states.
In any case, there was a closeness between those two groups that
resulted in mutual friendliness and cooperation. Also, i think that some
Jews liked the idea of working with customers who were looking for
magical, non-Christian articles -- Judaism has a long history of magical
practice, obviously, and although it monotheistic, the large rankings of
angels and demons found in older Jewish texts cause it to take on the
operative qualities of a de facto polytheistic practice, more similar
to African tribal religions than to the severe monotheism of most
Protestants and many Catholics (exempting the Latin American Catholics
who preserve vestiges of their own indigenous polytheistic religions, of
course). .
Before World War Two, German Jews were very assimilated into German
culture (my mom's family was, for instance) and that included being
integrated into the German chemical industry as a profession. In my own
family, my mom's uncle left Germany to work for the US branch of the
company that developed rayon and my mom's cousin studied to be a
chemist, an unusual occupation for a woman at that time
Jews were usually on the lower end of the German hierarchy, however,
so when they came to America in that late 19th century, they were not
usually wealthy enough to set up as pharmacists or chemists to the white
elite, and set up in the black community instead. There they worked out
formulas for specifically black beauty-care products -- and when asked
to, they prepared spiritual supplies for their root-working customers. A
few years ago i interviewed an 85 year old man named LeRue Marx whose
German-Jewish father had kept a pharmacy in the black district of
Memphis from the 1890s through the 1940s. LeRue Marx had in turn
trained as a lab chemist and by the 1930s he had landed a job at the
Lucky Heart company (owned by the Jewish Shapiro family) formulating and
manufacturing skin bleaches, hair straighteners, dark-tone face powders
-- and supervising the packing of curio boxes containing roots and
herbs for the hoodoo trade.
When the Nazis got too strong in Germany during the 1930s, a second large
wave of German Jewish chemists also entered the US.
For example, in addition to my mother's uncle being a chemist, my
mother's cousin Liesel, also a chemist, came to New York City in the 1930s
to escape from Hitler's regime, and went to work for a German
(non-Jewish) pharmacist because although he was born in the US he could
understand German and he helped to teach her English.
One of her first
experiences in this pharmacy was making up "Lucky Floor Wash" for the
black customers. She had never been exposed to this sort of product
before and found it very strange indeed. This pharmacy also sold roots
and special perfumes for luck, which she compounded.
When she acquired
enough English to get along in a better job, she left the pharmacy and
went back to work as a bench chemist in a lab.
Sorry if that was too much of a personal digression, but as i said, it's
kind of funny that this stuff runs in my family.
Maybe someone else can recommend a few good books on kabbalistic magic.
I hope you don't mind that i posted this letter to usenet, where our
conversation began -- these are subjects i'd like to see opened up for
discussion, if any others have an interest, plus i don't handle too much
email well. Okay?
cat yronwode
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice -- https://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoo.html
Eoghan Ballard
Cat is right. You are either old enough to remember it, or not. Since the
web seems perennially just outgrowing its diapers, I run up against this
kind of unawareness often. It still surprises me. This is in part because
this lack of knowledge of life a generation before one's birth was not a
part of life when I was growing up. We heard and knew a lot about what
life was like in quite a few decades before we were born. At least that
was certainly the case in my family and among quite a few of my friends.
Anyway, I also wanted to note that Cat was also right about the connection
between Jewish pharmacists and rootworking. Here in Philadelphia one of
the old rootworking stores was "Harry's Occult". when I was growing up it
was in the 1700 block of South Street. South Street was decimated by a
decades long plan to build a crosstown expressway which never got built.
In the early '60s South Street was a thriving center of business. Near the
Delaware River in the east of the City it was largely Jewish Merchants.
From Broad Street and west to the Schuylkill River it largely served a
black community. Many of the blacks at this time had come north only
recently from the Carolinas as well as from the Georgia Sea Isles.
Harry's grandfather had started the business in the early years of the past
century between the two world wars, as a pharmacy. Gradually, preparing
rootworking materials took over from all other parts of the business.
Harry was still in the business a few years ago, and I believe still is,
although he has basically shifted over to selling new age magical and
"Wiccan" supplies these days.
I don't recall Harry's last name although
about a dozen years ago there was a fairly lengthy article on his store in
the local paper. It is from my recollection of that article, as well as
from my own memory - I have been familiar with Harry's since 1962 or 1963.
If I can find a copy of that article, I will fill in any details, such as
the surname, that I may have forgotten.
Eoghan
E. C. Ballard
Debajo del Laurel yo tengo mi confianza
From the official web page of Harry's Occult Shop,
In speaking of my Ashkenazy German-Jewish family
in usenet in 1996 and 2000, i did not
mention this, but it is a curious fact that i have in my possession
five family trees or stammbaums of
my own Jewish ancestral family, and
that several of the surnames mentioned above, including Marx, Shapiro,
Seligman, and Turner, appear in these records.
Additionally, census records show that
Morton Neumann, founder of the Valmor company, was related to a woman
named Fannie Winkler, and there are people named Winkler and Neuman
in my ancestry as well. LeRue Marx's wife
was born Rebecca Epstein -- and there are Epsteins in my family tree.
It felt particularly odd to tussle
with the unhappy Amanda Turner over what she wrongly perceived to be
my prejudice against Jews, when it is possible that both she and i
are descendants of Mordechai Josef Levi who changed his name to Marx
Tuchmann in 1813 -- for it is a fact that some of the Tuchmann
descendants changed their surname to Turner when they emigrated to
America.
In other words, LeRue Marx, his wife Rebecca Epstein Marx, and
the Morris Shapiro family of Memphis;
Harry Seligman of Philadelphia; Morton Neumann and his cousin
Fannie Winkler of Chicago;
and the critical Ms. Turner of usenet
may very well all be my 4th or 5th cousins.
Furthermore, all of these surnames occur only in one branch of my
family, the Kohn-Tuchmann-Hopf branch, which also includes the surnames
Mayer [the present owner of Indio Products is Martin Mayer], Stein
[the name of a company that published pamphlets on magic that were
distributed in the African-American community in the 1940s] and
Steiner, which was the surname of the popular Jewish American author
Sydney J. R. Steiner (03 Apr 1894 - Jul 1971), who wrote hoodoo and
Spiritualist magic books under the pseudonym Mikhail Strabo.
Strange but true.
Here are some other LUCKY MOJO web sites you can visit:
OCCULTISM, MAGIC SPELLS, MYSTICISM, RELIGION, SYMBOLISM
POPULAR CULTURE
EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
ONLINE SHOPPING
PERSONAL SITES
ADMINISTRATIVE
OTHER SITES OF INTEREST
May 29 1996, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: alt.lucky.w, alt.religion.orisha, alt.fan.dr-bronner, soc.culture.jewish
Followup-To: alt.lucky.w, alt.religion.orisha, alt.fan.dr-bronner, soc.culture.jewish
From: catherine yronwode
Date: 1996/05/29
Subject: Jews as purveyors of hoodoo supplies
Dear Carolyn,
Your comments are welcome ... please post rather than e-mail and
please leave all follow-ups intact. (E-mail to me may be posted.)
news:alt.lucky.w -- discussion of folkloric amulets and talismans
LUCKY W Amulet Archive: http://www.sonic.net/yronwode/LuckyW.html
Jun 3 1996, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: alt.lucky.w, alt.religion.orisha, alt.fan.dr-bronner, soc.culture.jewish
From: atur...@tibco.com (Amanda Turner)
Date: 1996/06/03
Subject: Re: Jews as purveyors of hoodoo supplies
> who but a Jew would take the
Are you trying to be offensive? Maybe you meant that in a nice way since
you speak of yourself as (culturally) Jewish, but it offends me for one.
> image of young David when he was a servant to cruel King
> Saul, and apply it in allegorical fashion to a floor wash
> designed to appeal to oppressed blacks whose chief
> employment was as domestics and who might yet hope to come
> into their kingship?
Jun 3 1996, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: alt.lucky.w, alt.religion.orisha, alt.fan.dr-bronner, soc.culture.jewish
From: catherine yronwode
Date: 1996/06/03
Subject: Re: Jews as purveyors of hoodoo supplies
> [catherine yronwode wrote]
I am amazed that you took what i said EXACTLY the opposite of the way it
was intended. Let me try the "offensive" paragraph again, with some
further explanation:
> > who but a Jew would take the
> Are you trying to be offensive? Maybe you meant that in a nice way since
> > image of young David when he was a servant to cruel King
> > Saul, and apply it in allegorical fashion to a floor wash
> > designed to appeal to oppressed blacks whose chief
> > employment was as domestics and who might yet hope to come
> > into their kingship?
> you speak of yourself as (culturally) Jewish, but it offends me for one.
[because who but Jews understand the Old testament so well?]
> > who but a Jew would take the
> > image of young David when he was a servant to cruel King
> > Saul,
[because who but Jews could so identify with an oppressed people, having
suffered oppression themselves?]
> > and apply it in allegorical fashion to a floor wash
> > designed to appeal to oppressed blacks whose chief
> > employment was as domestics and who might yet hope to come
> > into their kingship?
> It adds to the image of Jews as nothing more than stingy businessmen who
Where you came up with the notion that i had in ANY way implied that
Jews were or are "stingy businessmen," is beyond me. I never mentioned
such a thing at all. I said that the small household chemicals industry
was a field in which a lot of immigrant Jews from Germany and Austria
worked. I did not comment on their business practices at all. I happen
to know about the Jewish link to the U. S. chemical industry because
one of my great-uncles was a Jewish chemist from Germany who went into
the textile business, working on formulae for rayon fiber.
> would sell their mother for a buck, as well as perpetrating the
> "bloodsuckers" image by exploiting blacks.
I hope we can continue this discussion on a fact-finding basis --
without delving into any further paranoid assumptions (systematized
delusions of persecution) about what i said or meant.
> > [...] Ms. Long mentioned that she had noticed
> > that the 1930s-40s pioneers of the hoodoo and voodoo supply
> > industry were white, not black. She then speculated that perhaps
> > one reason these suppliers were (and are) so secretive about
> > themselves is that "most of the pioneers in the business were
> > white...they were also marketing hair straighteners, skin
> > lighteners, and tonics... and they didn't particularly want it
> > known that their money had been made from playing on the
> > insecurities and folk beliefs of their black customers."
> >
> > Here is how i responded to her --
> >
> > [...]
> > This is an interesting idea, but i do not agree with it
> > entirely. That is, i agree that there were a lot of white
> > people involved in the practice of hoodoo (since the
> > mid-19th century, according to Jim Haskins' book "Voodoo and
> > Hoodoo") as well as in the manufacturing, sales, and distribution
> > end of things. But i do not agree that these pioneers of hoodoo
> > supply were secretive due to their somehow being ashamed to have
> > it known that they were preying on the superstitions of black
> > folks. I think they were secretive because the chemistry industry
> > is ALWAYS secretive when it comes to proprietary formulae.
news:alt.lucky.w -- discussion of folkloric amulets and talismans
LUCKY W Amulet Archive: http://www.sonic.net/yronwode/LuckyW.html
USENET POSTS, 2000
May 29, 2000
From: catherine yronwode
Subject: Hoodoo and Kabbalah
Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 18:12:09 GMT
> Greetings Cat:
Yes. That's just historical fact. It has roots in cultural issues that
are no longer as strong as they once were, but which most elders will
recall still. Before the racial separation and hostility engendered in
the late 1960s and early 1970s when many African-Americans became
Muslims and bought into the race-hating program of Elijah Muhammend and
the Nation of Islam, there was a certain closeness between Jews and
blacks that ... well, either you're old enough know what i'm talking
about or you aren't.
> to the black community in America] being a "Jew thing?". (smile)
> I read your biography and it's
(smile) Well, the funny thing about Jews is that they only count your
mother's lineage and there are no "halfway Jews." In other words, if
your mother was a Jew, you're a Jew, no matter who your father was. But
if your father was a Jew and your mother was not, you're not a Jew.
It's just an old tradition, 3,000 years old or so. And by that rule, i
am a Jew. Also, my father walked out on the family when i was 4 years
old, so i had little exposure to my Sicilian family.
> probably only a "1/2 Jew thing" (smile).
> Why this particular group,
Ah, that's easy to explain! In the 19th century, many if not most of the
pharmacies and labs developing new drugs, chemicals, and beauty products
were owned and operated by Germans. The state of chemistry in Germany at
the time was the highest in the world. The invention of rayon, clear
pohenol plastics, aniline dyes, and much more came out of German, Swiss
and Austrian labs. Many big pharmaceutical companaies are still owned
or heavily influenced by that era -- multi-national outfits like Bayer
(aspirin), Hoffman (LSD), and Pfizer (Viagra) have roots in the
German-Swiss-Austrian chemistry industry of the 1800s. In those days,
when pharmacists did most of their own compounding of formulas,
druggists were all trained as chemists, too, so the stereotype of the
German-owned drug-store as a RELIABLE drug store was something with
which all Americans of that time period were familiar.
> why not Catholic Germans or French Jews or Chinese
> Protestants, or some other religio-ethnic group?
> by the way I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of the
There are a number of different books that give various portions of this
knowledge. Certainly
Selig's "Secrets of the Psalms"
is a great place to
start, as the Psalms are well known enough, but the Jewish magical system
adds some special syllables (derived from gematric principles) to
potentiate them, much in the way that Hindu prayers contain bija (seed)
mantra syllables that encapsulate their essence.
> "practical Kabballah", the spells and incantations/prayers of
> the old Jewish mystical tradition.
Lucky W Amulet Archive --------- https://www.luckymojo.com/luckyw.html
Lucky Mojo Curio Co. https://www.luckymojo.com/luckymojocatalogue.html
Send e-mail with your street address to catalogue@luckymojo.com
and receive our free 32 page catalogue of hoodoo supplies and amulets
May 29, 2000
To: alt.religion.orisha,alt.magick.tyagi
From: eballard@sas.upenn.edu (Eoghan Ballard)
Subject: Re: Hoodoo and Kabbalah
Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 21:50:03 -0500
retrieved from the internet in May, 2009:
"Harry's Occult Shop was started by Harry Seligman in 1917.
Seligman is a Jewish surname.
He was a registered pharmacist and the business started as a pharmacy..."
FURTHER COMMENTS REGARDING MY FAMILY, 2010:
Search All Lucky Mojo and Affiliated Sites!
You can search our sites for a single word (like
archaeoastronomy, hoodoo, conjure, or clitoris),
an exact phrase contained within quote marks (like
"love spells", "spiritual supplies", "occult
shop", "gambling luck", "Lucky Mojo bag", or "guardian angel"), or a
name within quote marks (like "Blind
Willie McTell", "Black Hawk", "Hoyt's Cologne", or "Frank
Stokes"):
copyright ©
1994-2019 catherine yronwode. All rights reserved.
Send your comments to:
cat yronwode.
Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to catherine yronwode for the creation and maintenance of this site.
LUCKY MOJO is a large domain that is organized into a number of
interlinked web sites, each with its own distinctive theme and look.
You are currently reading
HOODOO IN THEORY AND PRACTICE by cat yronwode
.
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic by cat yronwode:a materia magica of African-American conjure
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy and sacred geometry
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
The Lucky Mojo Esoteric Archive: captured internet text files on occult and spiritual topics
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive:FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century occultist
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, and more
Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races
Hoodoo and Blues Lyrics: transcriptions of blues songs about African-American folk magic
EaRhEaD!'S Syd Barrett Lyrics Site: lyrics by the founder of the Pink Floyd Sound
The Lesser Book of the Vishanti: Dr. Strange Comics as a magical system, by cat yronwode
The Spirit Checklist: a 1940s newspaper comic book by Will Eisner, indexed by cat yronwode
Fit to Print: collected weekly columns about comics and pop culture by cat yronwode
Eclipse Comics Index: a list of all Eclipse comics, albums, and trading cards
Hoodoo Rootwork Correspondence Course with cat yronwode: 52 weekly lessons in book form
Hoodoo Conjure Training Workshops: hands-on rootwork classes, lectures, and seminars
Apprentice with catherine yronwode: personal 3-week training for qualified HRCC graduates
Lucky Mojo Community Forum: an online message board for our occult spiritual shop customers
Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Hour Radio Show: learn free magic spells via podcast download
Lucky Mojo Videos: see video tours of the Lucky Mojo shop and get a glimpse of the spirit train
Lucky Mojo Publishing: practical spell books on world-wide folk magic and divination
Lucky Mojo Newsletter Archive: subscribe and receive discount coupons and free magick spells
LMC Radio Network: magical news, information, education, and entertainment for all!
Follow Us on Facebook: get company news and product updates as a Lucky Mojo Facebook Fan
The Lucky Mojo Curio Co.: spiritual supplies for hoodoo, magick, witchcraft, and conjure
Herb Magic: complete line of Lucky Mojo Herbs, Minerals, and Zoological Curios, with sample spells
Mystic Tea Room Gift Shop: antique, vintage, and contemporary fortune telling tea cups
catherine
yronwode:
the eclectic and eccentric author of many of the above web pages
nagasiva yronwode: nigris (333), nocTifer, lorax666, boboroshi, Troll Towelhead, !
Garden of Joy Blues: former 80 acre hippie commune near Birch Tree in the Missouri Ozarks
Liselotte Erlanger Glozer: illustrated articles on collectible vintage postcards
Jackie Payne: Shades of Blues: a San Francisco Bay Area blues singer
Lucky Mojo Site Map: the home page for the whole Lucky Mojo electron-pile
All the Pages: descriptive named links to about 1,000 top-level Lucky Mojo web pages
How to Contact Us: we welcome feedback and suggestions regarding maintenance of this site
Make a Donation: please send us a small Paypal donation to keep us in bandwidth and macs!
Arcane Archive: thousands of archived Usenet posts on religion, magic, spell-casting, mysticism, and spirituality
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: psychic reading, conjure, and hoodoo root doctor services
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic, plus shopping
Crystal Silence League: a non-denominational site; post your prayers; pray for others; let others pray for you
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Hoodoo Psychics: connect online or call 1-888-4-HOODOO for instant readings now from a member of AIRR
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith; prayer-light services; Smallest Church in the World
Mystic Tea Room: tea leaf reading, teacup divination, and a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Satan Service: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including ex-slave narratives & interviews
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective, plus shopping
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Yronwode Institution: the Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology