Hoodoo

What's the difference between hoodoo and voodoo? Quite a lot, actually. “Hoodoo,” also known as “conjure” or “root work,” is a unique American tradition of folk magic based on a mixture of African practices with Protestant beliefs and European sorcery. Hoodoo is an intensely eclectic tradition, but it is mostly African-American. It is a system of magic, not a religion, although there are elements of African religious ideas in the hoodoo system. For instance, the West African crossroads god was supposed to be able to grant skill at any craft or trade. This combined with European legends of “meeting the Devil at the crossroads” to become a belief that you could meet the Devil at the crossroads to gain special skills of various kinds- such as the ability to be a great musician.

Despite these elements of religious concepts, hoodoo is fundamentally a system of spell-craft. Voodoo, on the other hand, is the name of a religion. It also goes by the names Vodun, Vodou and various other spellings. Voodoo in Africa is a traditional set of religious traditions with an emphasis on spirit possession. In the Caribbean, these traditions combined with Catholicism to form several distinct Afro-Caribbean religions: Haitian Vodou, Santeria, Candomble, and Louisiana Voodoo.

 

Louisiana Voodoo flourishes in some of the same areas as hoodoo, so there is a certain amount of overlap. Nevertheless, Louisiana Voodoo is a religion based on spirit possession, just like all of the other branches of the voodoo tradition. Hoodoo is not.