#rootdoctor

Elder Flower (Sambucus Canadensis / Sambucus nigra)

Medicinal: The Elder Flower is an amazing plant, due to every bit of it being usable; the bark from its tree, the berries, the leaves, and even the roots have a special place. It's also thought to be 'the entire medicine cabinet' for a lot of country folk for years and years because of its healing properties and medicinal uses. To name just a few, it helps with boosting your immune system, fight off infection, helping to combat allergies, reducing inflammation in the mucous membranes in the sinuses, and can even be made into a tea to provide calming relief for severe cold systems.

Precautions: The raw fruit contains sambunigrin and could cause severe vomiting and diarrhea if taken internally. We highly recommend that you consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner before using or ingesting herbal products, particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, or on any medications.

Spiritual Practice: Elderflower has been deeply established in folklore for hundreds of years. It is commonly used for uncrossing, protection, prosperity and abundance, and healing. It is also said to be used in spellwork related to removing negativity, negative spirits, and protection from witches. The elder tree is also associated with the goddess and feminine energy.

Russian culture has a long and rich history believing it gives protection from evil spirits, whereas the Bohemians believed that it is used in a spell to take away fever in a person. All in all, every part of this wonderful plant can be used in your work including the leaves, flowers, and berries. Even the stems are well known to make very nice wands. 

In Hoodoo: I use elder more as a banishing and cleansing herb, but that's just me. I have however used every part of the elderflower in protection and healing work, and even to help with uncrossing and prosperity. You can mix the leaves and berries with a few other herbs to make a mixture and scatter this around your house or business for protection from intruders, both in spirit and body. Add it to a small cloth bag and wear it to protect yourself from evil or bring good luck.

Discuss all of your new ideas about hoodoo in private ! As this tradition is fully going back into the hands of our people be mindful of the information you put out that will fall into the hands of colonizers who love to appropriate and make a profit off of your sacred practice.

hoodoo is liberation magick carried in the DNA of African Descended people

you can do the recipes, you can learn from books or teachers, but unless you got that diaspora blood flowin, you’re just doing folk magick (tho you can appropriate recipes that are directly associated with hoodoo)

this isn’t anything I’ve been told, this is just what I keep feeling in my bones when I meet with my ancestors, when I think of recipes, when I recall my genetic memory. I’m not the definitive expert, but I’ve been learning a lot from my ancestors, from sensations I get when I work recipes or talk to the wind. Hoodoo has European & Indigenous influences, it has variances all over the regions & families in which it’s been practiced, but what makes it hoodoo and not some other form of folk magick, is the African Ancestral link. As a biracial black person, I was led to hoodoo after years of feeling out of place in pagan (European centric) magick practices. I was extremely uncertain of my ability to practice it, being the child of one white parent, but during the time of uncertainty, my connection to my black ancestors strengthened. They started talking to me louder and louder. I feel these experiences to be my truth.