Post
by catherineyronwode » Sun Apr 28, 2013 10:35 am
Khonsu Mes is correct! A female nature version is Angelica Root in WHiskey.
A protection tincture i was taught in Oakland in the 1960s is Devil's Shoe String Roots in Whiskey.
There are others.
Whiskey is the alcoholic vehicle in hoodoo, and the use of whiskey serves to distinguish down-home African American practices from those of other cultures, for the simple reason that the distillation of spirits in the USA has always centered on grain alcohol from locally-grown grain species such as corn, barley, and wheat. The distillation of fermented grain mash produces whiskey, which has a long history of use as a tincturing vehicle in American, English, and Scots-Irish folk-medicine and magic.
Hoodoo practitioners do not make use of distilled spirits of fermented sugarcane byproducts (e.g. rum, used in Afro-Cuban folk-medicine and folk-magic, or distilled spirits of fermented potatoes (e.g. vodka, used in Eastern European folk-medicine and folk-magic), or distilled spirits of fermented agaves (e.g. tequila, used in Mexican folk-medicine and folk-magic), for the simple reason that these regional forms of distilled alcohol are not part of the cultural inheritance of hoodoo.
The use of distilled spirits of fermented wine-grapes (e.g. brandy, used in central European folk-medicine and folk-magic) is found very rarely in hoodoo, but it did gain some traction due to the popularity of brandy as a sort of "nicer-tasting" substitute for whiskey in medicinal tinctures to be ingested by those who do not ordinarily consume alcohol.
catherine yronwode
teacher - author - LMCCo owner - HP and AIRR member - MISC pastor - forum admin