What Hoodoo Really Is

Manny Dejesus

Picture of 7 colorful Voodoo dolls on display.

Crazy dancing, hexes, curses, abductions, oils and Voodoo dolls. All the necessities to create "Voodoo" we have heard so much about. Hoodoo  can be called a religion, healing tradition, an art form, or even magic (Chireau). Hoodoo does not have to have one title but can actually be all sorts of things in one. Hoodoo has been going on for Centuries and has been a practice that started in Africa and was brought to the Americas by slaves, and the knowledge was intertwined with that of the Native Americans and Jews (Yronwode). The “religion” made its way to the United States and is practiced primarily in the southern half of the states like New Orleans. Hoodoo in itself is used in many different ways, in fact it can be used as a verb, noun and adjective. Different researchers say different things but Yvonne Chireau Ph.D. a professor from Swarthmore College that studies African American religions says it best, “Hoodoo African based tradition that makes use of the natural and supernatural to make change in the human experience”. What Chireau is saying is that Hoodoo by itself is not evil nor is it good but just a neutral practice that can change human experience for the better or for the worst.

So What is Hoodoo exactly?
Hoodoo is a spiritual practice but is actually a very general term that can include anything and everything from love spells to protection magic (Yronwode).  Catherine Yronwode is a Folk magic practitioner who wrote, different words pertaining to Hoodoo such as witchcraft had different meanings. Yronwode goes on to explain that witchcraft is basically saying it’s the evil form of Hoodoo meant to curse somebody and while Hoodoo is meant to boost your luck and increase your happiness. What makes Hoodoo different from other “religions” is that it does not have a central power and “places emphasis on personal magical power, there are no priests or priestesses”.

Sculpture of Grandma Hoodoo.

Works Cited:
7 Colorful Voodoo Dolls. 1997. Voodoo Authentica, New Orleans. Voodoo.com. Voodoo Authentica. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Chireau, Yvonne. "What is Hoodoo." Academichoodoo.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 October 2015.

Kuebler, Thomas. Grandma Hoodoo. N.D. Sculptor of the Bizarre. Tskuebler.com. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

Yronwode, Catherine. "African American Folk Magic." Luckymojo.com. N.p. n.d. Web. 7 October 2015.

Mystery of Stull: Is It Real or Not?

Author: Brianni Foxworth

Image from Ghost Hauntings

           
There are no more than twenty residents in the town of Stull. The cemetery located there is said to be a ground where the devil and his followers join to hold court.  In the small town of Stull Kansas, it is said to hold one of the seven gates of hell. Freaky, yes; the legend is the devil himself comes out on the night of Spring Equinox and on Halloween night. There are also rumors that say  “...glass will not break if  you throw it against the stones of the church,” (Faircloth). They also say, not only is the devil being seen in the cemetery, it is other spirits in the cemetery that have died in horrific ways. In the  1800s there is said to have been a practice of black magic, and other demonic rituals. There used to be a church that sat beside the cemetery; it mysteriously burned to the ground. It is said that if it rains, the rain will never touch the spot where the church was once held. The residents of Stull, say all of the legends are just rumors (Taylor).

           
The people that believe this is indeed true about Stull cemetery are the ones who have encountered strange activities here. After the story of the devil being seen in the cemetery over a hundred people came from all over to witness the devil for themselves. Another rumor that was going around about the cemetery is that all of the bodies that have been buried in the cemetery, the ones who have died a horrific death come out also. All of the people that showed up on the two nights the devil would appear were sadly disappointed because there were not sights of the devil that night. The stories about the hauntings on Stull did not stop because of this( Taylor).      

           
Now after all of the disappointment of not seeing the devil, more people came out and told their encounter with strange events that they claimed to have went on while they were visiting. Years after the first gather of witnessing the devil and his worshipers, two college students went to visit the cemetery and came back and told their encounter of the spirits in Stull. “ ...two young men were visiting Stull Cemetery  one night, and became frightened when a strong wind began blowing out of nowhere. They ran back to their car, only  to find that the vehicle had been moved to the other side of the highway, and was now facing in the opposite direction” (Taylor).

There are  more encounters that people have had and you can go to http://www.prairieghosts.com/stull.html read more about this cemetery. in the end there are two opinions about Stull Kansas, some say it is haunted and it is in fact one of the seven gates to hell. Then there are those who live in Stull, and they say it is nothing supernatural there. Stull Cemetery is it real or not?

Works Cited

Faircloth, Cynthia. “The devil and Stull Kansas” Darkendofthestreet.net.2011.Web. 10 October, 2013

 Taylor, Troy. “ STULL CEMETERY - GATEWAY TO HELL?” Prairieghost.com. 2002. Web. 10 October 

2013.

“The Legend of Stull, Kansas” Ghosthaunting.org. 2013.Web.10 October,2013

links for further research:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/stull.html You will be able to get more information on the legend of the cemetery and more background information of Stull, Kansas.

http://www.ghosthauntings.org/Stull__Kansas.html This is another article on the legend, but it give more detailed stories.

http://darkendofthestreet.net/author/degravelle/ This is an opinion article on the legend of Stull Cemetery.