06/02/2026
BOOK REVIEW OF MISS AIDA’S "TRADITIONAL HOODOO & CONJURE" BOOK
By Rev. Dr. Aaron Davis
I had the pleasure of receiving a copy of Aida’s Traditional Hoodoo & Conjure by Crossed Crow Press, in exchange for writing this review. I will say off the bat that it is a very ambitious endeavor to write a single-volume book on the art of Hoodoo and adequately contain the immensity of Rootwork in its pages. Aida does a fair job at it! She begins, naturally, in exploring the tumultuous American and (secondarily) Caribbean historical landscape that birthed traditions like Hoodoo. I appreciate that she a gave broad strokes about the numerous Traditional and Derived African Traditions that developed outside of continental Africa because of the Slave Trade. There are still people, including occult practitioners, unaware of this history, let alone how the forced migration patterns spread indigenous African and Islander practices. The one aspect of American folk practice that I wished was given more treatment was the history of the Gullah-Geechee people. Their particular form of Hoodoo survived with stronger African elements comparable to Louisiana Hoodoo/Voodoo. Exploring this more would have reshaped the narrative that Hoodoo cultural expression is monolithic—because it is not and never has been.
The rituals and practices Miss Aida sets forth in her chapters on ancestor veneration and altars will give new practitioners a firm foundation in their rootwork. What she presents is relatively simple and easy to grasp. Aside from this being her own practice that she is sharing with us, as an espiritista myself, I see the strong influence of espiritismo on what she taught in this book. Her language of phrases like “spiritual court” is the language of espiritismo. I would have appreciated a clearer disclaimer of that, as well as where she was drawing from within the espiritismo tradition to inform her created practice of ancestor veneration. This would help her readers have a deeper respect for her elders and Aida’s wisdom, as well as to make sure people do not assume that Hoodoo and espiritismo are one and the same.
There were some places where I was in disagreement. The most prominent was around the identity of the Black Man of the Crossroads. I do not understand the Black Man to be Orisha Elegua. That would have made more sense to me if the earliest wave of enslaved Africans came from Nigeria. We know from slave narratives and records kept, however, that the majority of the enslaved came from other nations like Ghana, Benin, the Congo, and Dahomey. In most of the global African diaspora, Nigerian slaves came much later. Some of the tribes, such as the Dahomey, worshipped Eshu/Elegua, but most did not. To me, it is far more likely that the Black Man would be Lucero/Nkuyo, the Congo Nkisi revered in Palo Mayombe– but in his original, non-diasporic form. The book Slave Religion that Aida quotes from indirectly touches on this issue when Dr. Raboteau shares reports of slaves talking about another slave who owned an “inkus,” which is a corruption of the word “nkisi.” As a Santero, I am also aware that the energy of a spirit like Elegua is tricky to work with and call upon. It takes a skilled Orisha priest to properly guide an outsider to the tradition on working with him. I do not recommend any practitioner outside of those traditions to try to work with Elegua or Lucero without the guidance of an Orisha or Palo priest.
Aida’s sections on her formulary and the chapter on various Hoodoo spells and workings were solid and will equip readers with a lot of options to begin practicing rootwork. There were times when I read some of the workings where I wished there was more teaching around how to think as a rootworker and how to jailbreak her own spells so that people learn to think outside the box and not be bound only by what is written on the page for their own practice. This would have given Aida’s book even more utility and value.
The practical applications of the book end with selected psalms for various spiritual conditions and problems. I was happy to see this, as many Hoodoo writers omit the Psalms in introductory books and cut new rootworkers off from a potent power source. Aida restored some of that missing link. The thing readers may find challenging, however, is that her writing on the psalms are not explicitly connected to rootwork like it should be. We are only told the condition it can address. Readers can nevertheless extrapolate this by closely studying the workings she wrote earlier in her book, some of which do include psalm recitations in their ritual recipe.
In conclusion, I believe Traditional Hoodoo & Conjure to be an adequate introductory text for those interested in Hoodoo as their practice. It gives new practitioners ample information to begin their journey in rootwork. If they have the guidance of an elder or more seasoned rootworker alongside Traditional Hoodoo, they will do well.
