Hoodoo Mysteries: Folk Magic, Mysticism & Rituals

by Ray T. Malbrough

Conjuring money and attracting love, reversing hexes and stopping slander-it's all in a day's work for the Hoodoo practitioner. This is true American folk magic, colorful and powerful, yet little-known outside of the bayous and backwoods of Louisiana.

Let Ray Malbrough take you deep inside the Hoodoo mysteries. You'll learn the secrets of root working and magical baths, the Head Pot and the Medium's necklace. You'll discover how to divine the future with playing cards and cowrie shells, and how to work with the spirits of the dead. Step inside a world of magic and intrigue you never knew existed-enter the hidden world of the Hoodoo.

Genres: Occult

216 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

Ray T. Malbrough was born in New Orleans and was raised in the "Pays des Cajuns" Region of southeastern Louisiana. He learned the basics of hoodoo in his early teens with the permission and encouragement of his mother. At age 19, he started working in a New Orleans tearoom as a reader/advisor, and has since earned a good reputation as a Hoodoo worker all over the region surrounding his hometown of Houma. He is a 1982 graduate of the Seax-Wica Seminary founded and directed by Dr. Raymond Buckland. The author is active in the parapsychology Association in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Today, Ray is a full time reader/advisor and hoodoo worker in his home in Houma.

Reviews

[Min · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is intensely idiosyncratic. Uniquely the author's own interpretation and usage of a blend of Kardec Spiritism, Kabbalah, Haitian Voodoo, Southern Hoodoo, Roman Catholicism, and various other sources.
I found the book weakly structured, highly repetitive, and confusing. The latter is ironic as the author constantly repeats a hope that the reader will better understand these Arts as different. I know the difference and found myself befuddled by his usages. Offers a few recipes for spiritual baths, a portion for shell, and card divination, after a bizarre usage of the Spheres on the Tree of Life to characterize the various Loa/Lwa, and their synchronized saints.

His previous works are general introductions to the ideas of Conjure, and Hoodoo's usage of Folk Catholicism. I wouldn't call them definitive, or in depth, by any means. As interest has risen in these subjects, better works are available with greater ease, from the scholarly, to the practical.
This book is more blatantly an advertisement for his own brand of practice, and, undoubtedly, a means to attract students.
I saw it at the library and was deeply curious what these 'hoodoo mysteries' could possibly be. I don't believe an answer is provided.

If this subject intrigues you, look further afield than this to seek your information.
Typically when I come across a book I so dislike, I don't even bother to read it, or review it. I felt this deserved to be known as a poor example of what is available.