Oh My! Let’s Talk Conjure/Root Doctor

For sure there is more than one way to do the work it depends on where you are from. This little blog post is not so much about the work as it is how folks perceive what a conjure worker does. This is just my opinion and we know what they say about opinions. It seems that most workers now day’s focus on the work only; meaning love work, money work, and so on and so on. So folks who have never been around a traditional worker are under the misconception that this is all there is to being a conjure worker or root doctor as some are called. It is much more than that. This is where you can tell the difference between an old worker and someone who was self -taught or learned from books and such.

The first thing is that you want find many old workers on-line period. I was bullied into putting up my website, conned might be a better term; by a few of my students, my children and my grandchildren.  Since I started learning at the age of 18 I never advertised my work. I worked by word of mouth only. I never hid what I did my house was full of my altars. When we were growing up our Mama had some funny ways, “so we thought”. We had to take our shoe’s off at the door, you couldn’t play with the broom, we cleaned the graves of our dead folks, you learned your Bible and you learned to pray, the photos of our dead were never allowed with the living; my Grandma said it’s because it would make the dead hunger for their blood, we have always taken photos of our dead, my Mama doctored us or treated us as some call it. The list goes on and on. Then at 18 I was taught how to do hands on cleansing and healings working with candles and prayers.

I was taught healing before I was ever taught to do any of the work. I think and from what I have seen and been taught most conjure workers are truly healers first and foremost; the work just goes along with it. There are customs that are carried through the family. It comes natural because we have lived it every day of our lives. We have a New Year’s Eve custom that I was taught as a child, my whole family does it every New Year’s Eve. The house is cleaned; the porch and the stoops are cleaned a new broom is bought and left on the front stoop. Right before midnight everyone gathers at the front door, if you are in the house then you go out the back door. Right at midnight one of the male family members takes the new broom into the house. It has to be a male or the home will have bad luck all year. I always wanted to be the one who carried the broom. Why do we do this? I don’t know it is something my family has always done. The point is that most folks from the south do some of these same things in their families. It is more to being a conjure worker than just doing love work and such; it is a way of life in everything you do. Some folks will never understand that. It takes more to being a Traditional Conjure worker than being about to put some roots and herbs together for a job. Momma Starr