Closed & living traditions.

Open, closed, initiatory.

Open practices are freely available to anyone: most modern witchcraft, tarot, much of rune work, candle magic. Closed practices belong to a specific people or culture and are passed on within that community. Initiatory practices require training and initiation from an existing elder or house. Many traditions are a mix, and the people who live them get to say which is which.

Haitian Vodou

Vodou is a living religion rooted in Haiti, built by enslaved West and Central Africans (Fon, Yoruba, Kongo and others) blended with elements of Catholicism. It has priests (houngan) and priestesses (manbo), a community structure, and spirits called lwa who are served through initiation and lineage. Vodou is also not the same as New Orleans Voodoo, a related but distinct Louisiana tradition. Hollywood's "voodoo doll" is mostly invention, and has been used to demonise Black spirituality for centuries.

Hoodoo

Hoodoo (also called rootwork or conjure) is an African American folk magic tradition, born in the American South from African practice under slavery, mixed with Indigenous plant knowledge and Protestant Bible use. It is not a religion with initiation, but it is a cultural inheritance of Black Americans, carried through families. Many Hoodoo practitioners ask that non-Black people not call themselves rootworkers or sell "Hoodoo" products.

What not to take

• Don't call yourself a Vodou priest, manbo or houngan without initiation.
• Don't serve the lwa from a TikTok tutorial; they're served within a house.
• Don't brand or sell products as "Hoodoo" or "Voodoo" if it's not your heritage.
• Don't use the word "voodoo" as a joke or shorthand for evil magic.
• Also closed: white sage smudging and Native American ceremonies, Santería/Lucumí, Palo Mayombe and Candomblé initiations.

How to learn respectfully

1. Read history first. Start with books by practitioners from the culture, like works by Black Hoodoo authors and Haitian scholars.
2. Learn from people of the culture. Buy from Black-owned spiritual shops and Haitian artisans, take their paid classes, credit them.
3. Respect "no." If a community says a practice is closed, that's the answer.
4. Look to your own roots. Every lineage has folk magic. For many of us, that might be runes and Norse lore.
5. Use open equivalents. Rosemary instead of white sage; your own iron and salt wards instead of borrowed formulas.