Aleesha22, you are a spiritual being. God, the Divine, the Goddess, Jesus, Kali, Quan Yin, Buddha, or whomever you venerate has given those of your religion some moral rules to live by. Jews and Christians live by the rules set forth in the Bible. Most practitioners of hoodoo are Christians, as hoodoo is the folk magic of African Americans.
Now, just because you may practice magic to help yourself, that is no reason to break God's rules. You may become angry, you may even have a justified anger of great degree is you have been wronged. But your God -- my God -- says that it is not right to kill, not right to cheat, not right to steal -- and that to know God and be right with God, we must always do right in God's eyes.
So, what if a great wrong has been done to you or is being done to you? Perhaps you will pray or work roots or cast a spell to be rid of your tormentor, to send the enemy away, even unto death.
This sort of prayer and magical work has been done for millennia -- and you can read many prayers in the Bible, especially among the Psalms written by David before he became king, in which he asks God to destroy his enemies.
Be cautious if you do so, however. You are not Omniscient God. You do not know everything about your enemy or why he or she is besetting your or those you love. You do not even know in every case who is really at fault -- you may be accusing an innocent person. Therefore, with respect, if you must curse someone, tell God the truth -- that you do not know all, but you wish for thus-and-so to happen -- if your case is justified. God will know what is best.
But ... and here is what David and others were thinking ... what if when you ask for the death of someone, or to send them away, or even just for them to break up with a lover so you can have a chance with that lover ... what if what you ask is not right with God? Maybe you got too dramatic, maybe your temper is out of control, maybe you accused and cursed the wrong person, someone who is entirely innocent!
Well, the Jews (and the Christians who adopted their ways) had a method to work around this problem, a solution for it. In the very ancient times, God told the Jews to take Hyssop and slaughter a lamb, and, using the Hyssop as a brush, to daub their doorposts with the blood of the lamb, and the angel of Death, of retribution and plague and woe, would pass over them.
Later, against lesser issues, they just used the Hyssop, without an animal sacrifice. Thus, in Psalms 51 it says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Foolish people recite those words and toss a cup of Hyssop-water over themselves and think they have done right. Even if they have committed a crime of violence and drawn blood or prayed for blood to flow, committing a sin as scarlet as blood, they think that Hyssop alone will wash that away and they will again find favour in God's eyes.
But there is more to it than that. Let us look a bit more deeply into this Psalm. It begins:
1 Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to thy lovingkindness:
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions:
And my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in thy sight:
That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
And in sin did my mother conceive me.
King David wrote this Psalm after he had done some really bad things. He had caused the death of his friend so that he could have sex with his friend's wife. He is basically apologizing for his entire life of selfishness and the drive he had to harm others.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Therefore, upon doing an evil deed or praying for even the justified suffering of another being, we ask God to reunite with us, by performing the Hyssop bath and, for some people, by drinking a small amount of Hyssop tea, to cleanse the "inward part" of our bodies.
So, you ask "What can happen if you don't cleanse, apart from all the negative energies and working? Can anything else happen?"
The answer is, if you do an evil deed or wish ill upon someone in error, you will stay in a state of sin, a state of moral dirtiness, a state of separation from God. You will not be Divinely favoured. You will be bereft of God's blessings.
It's not worth the risk. So we do as King David did, after a truly horrific deed, and hope that we too will be shown mercy.
Why Hyssop? Because that is the tradition among Jews and Christians. This is folk magic, centuries old, and we work in accord with the ways we have been taught.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
There is more to this Psalm, but that will give you the idea, i think. We cleanse ourselves so as not to remain spiritually dirty.
The magical qualities of this product are described in this book, with folkloric hoodoo spells for use in practical conjure,
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Hoodoo Herb & Root Magic Paperback by catherine yronwode
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