#rootwork

moonlight 🕯️🌕

since october is gullah geechee heritage month, hoodoo heritage month, and halloween season, i figured i’d paint something to represent them all!

you can find prints and other merch of this piece on my printful! (indigokra.printful.me)

alt text + desc under the cut

Easy Homemade Florida Water Recipe No.1 Enchant your herbs using the following tags.

Lavender/Lavanda - for cleansing, protection and peace of home, mind, body and spirit

Orange/Naranja - for spiritual cleansing, to attract good fortune and luck, removal of stagnant energy.

Rosemary/Romero- for cleansing, protection

Cinnamon/Canela - for speed, to attract good luck and fortune

Cloves/Clavo - for domination of adverse conditions, to attract good luck and fortune, to remove negativity and purify spiritual vibrations

Mint/Mentha - for purification of energy, cleansing, protection and the attraction of good luck and fortune

Tangerine/Mandarina - for purification, to attract positive energy, uplift and bring abundance, to clear away negative influences

Lemon/Limon - to purify, cleanse and promote clarity

Mix together in a decent sized bottle, using distilled water and one cup of cheap high proof Vodka or Rum as a preservative, charge on your altar, in the moonlight or using your prayers.

Babyyy, Hoodoo ain't no aesthetic. It ain't no trend. It ain't somethin' you pick up 'cause it look cute on Pinterest. 🤎

Hoodoo is an African American folk spiritual tradition that was built by our ancestors using faith, prayer, roots, herbs, Psalms, and resilience. It was born outta survival, protection, healing, justice, and keeping hope alive through generations.

Around here, we pray just as much as we work our roots. 🕯️🌿 One hand on the Bible, the other hand fixin' what need to be fixed.

Hoodoo can include things like: 🍃 Spiritual baths 🕯️ Candle work 📜 Petition papers 🌿 Roots & herbs 📖 Psalms & prayer 🧿 Protection work 💰 Blessing & prosperity work 👵🏾 Honoring our ancestors

At the end of the day, Hoodoo is about relationship; relationship with God, with your ancestors (if that's part of your practice), and with the wisdom passed down through generations.

So before you worry 'bout buyin' every herb and every candle... start with respect. Learn the history. Pray. Read. Listen. Let the roots teach you. 🤎🌾

a white candle, a cup of water and 15 mins is really all you need.

place your white candle and glass of water on your altar. your altar can be anything: the top of a dresser or nightstand, a mantle, a small table, a window sill, anything.

light your candle and call on your ancestors. if you know their names, call them out if you want. or just say “to my ancestors, known and unknown, i welcome you here now. i look forward to getting to know you.”

then take a couple minutes and just listen. you may notice a change in the temperature, or a song stuck in your head. maybe you don’t hear or feel anything at all. that’s okay. it takes time to get to know someone in the physical, so it makes sense that it take some time in the spiritual as well.

spend a couple minutes once a week, talking to and listening for your ancestors. start with 2 minutes, then 5 etc. refresh the water once a week. increase the number of times you’re at your altar slowly. you don’t have to go all out all at once, trust me.

after a while you can start giving different offerings like: coffee, tea, likka, tobacco, dragons blood, food ect. again, don’t go all out all at once.

personally, since i’ve started over, i only give big offerings on first sunday. i make a nice sunday dinner complete with dessert for my ancestors the first sunday of every month. i struggle with my mental health and having low energy and this works for both me and my ancestors. figure out what works for you and yours.

also, remember your ancestors are more understanding than we think. you may think they don’t understand queerness, mental illness, disability etc but i promise you they do. you are not the first and you won’t be the last.

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

How the actual fuck do you think slavery was abolished? Not with attitudes like that! It was brought through violence. Through murdering our oppressors. It was brought through fucking bloodshed.

(Slavery hasn't truly been abolished it just looks different but that's a whole different conversation).

"Abuse from any party is bad."

No, no you're totally right! These black slaves with zero rights or autonomy were abusing their white slave owners! Won't somebody think of the poor, poor slave owners? /sar

DO YOU FUCKING HEAR YOURSELF?! DO YOU ACTUALLY FUCKING HEAR YOURSELF?! ARE YOU (general you) ACTUALLY HEARING THE WORDS COMING OUT OF YOUR RACIST, PRIVILEGED FUCKING MOUTH RIGHT NOW?!

Get the fuck away from me of you think this way. Genuinely. Get the fuck away from me. Those are MY people you're shit talking. That's MY culture you're demonizing. I am genuinely crying from rage right now...