name=whatkind>
Because rootwork is far more costly than fortune telling, now is the time to ask yourself another couple of questions:
Mojo handsgenerally come in two degrees of power — regular and triple strength. Average prices around the country run from $10.00 to $30.00 for regular and from $25.00 to $60.00 for triple strength. Anything higher than that ought to justified on the basis of containing rare ingredients — but could run up to $200.00.
Generally speaking, there are three types of work that a conjure doctor will perform on behalf of a client:setting lights (burning candles), making up amojo bag, andlaying tricks (performing spell-work). Some workers do only one or two of these things, others do all three.
Tea Leaf Readers and Coffee Ground Readers
Among the phrases you will hear in a canned cold reading are the following:
Can Your Reader Become Your Rootworker?
Black Gypsy Blues by Furry Lewis
The Canned Reading That Turns Dark
The ways in whichhoodoodoctors chose to limit their practice are idiosyncratic, to say the least.
Fake Santeros, Paleros, and Vooodoo Priests and Priestesses
Also, consider that readers who perform spell-casting are not under obligation to take everyone on as rootworking clients. Of those people who do perform spell-work on behalf of clients, some will only perform certain types of jobs, while others will be able to handle almost any situation — and some may be over-booked for rootwork and unable to fit you in to their schedules.
Educate Yourself About Psychic Reader FraudSPELLCASTING FRAUDS: THE PSYCHIC PROTECTION RACKET SCAM
Some fake psychic readeing sites may contain free spells or free powerfu
PLAYING CARD READING, TAROT CARD READING, ORACLE CARD READING
At this point in the scam, you can either walk out — or you can pay the extra fee. If you pay the additional charges, the Gypsy will promise to do more candle burning for you — and this will continue until you run out of patience or money, or both. A full program can cost from 40 to 900 dollars before the Gypsy turns you loose. And, needless to say, you have only the Gypsys word for it that ANY candles were burned on your behalf at all.
Although astrology, numerology, and feng shui have never been very prominent among African American psychic readers, they continue to gain wide acceptance among black clients, who may seek out white or Asian psychic readers for these services.
My Spell-Caster Died!BLACK GYPSIES, AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHENOMENON
If the Conjure Doctor or Root Worker Is a Reader, Will You Get a Free Preliminary Reading?
If you are receiving a canned cold reading and you are told unsettling things like, There is a dark spirit hovering over you… or there is a dark cloud over your left shoulder… it is generally a good idea to relax, listen, and enjoy the show. Because thats what it is, a show.
Tea leaf reading is an art that is particularly well known and practiced by Scottish, irish, and English people. It probably enteredhoodooduring the 19th century, as a result of social contacts and intermarriage between African Americans and Anglo-Celtic Americans.
Reading the future through the use of scrying mirrors, obsidian palm-stones, or the crystal ball developed independently among many cultures around the world — wherever obsidian stone, rock crystal, lead-crystal glass, or mirrors can be found. These methods of divination are found among European-American psychic readers as well as practitioners ofhoodoo.
Is the Conjure Doctor Is Also a Reader — and If So, What Kind?
You have had financial ups and downs in your life and you could use more money now. But dont worry — there will be a change in your financial situation within a year, and it will be for the better
A good reader will bring you answers to specific questions and will not stop you from asking further questions about your present situation. A lazy reader will not care much about your present situation, but will offer you generalizations that refer to your future life in a vague way. A really bad reader will give you what amounts to nothing more than a character analysis, telling you who you are but not telling you anything about the situation that brought you to the reader in the first place.
Additionally, you should know that although not all root doctors will make contracts with clients, if you are contemplating paying more than one or two days wages for root doctoring, you can make it a point to select a spiritual worker who will write such a contract with you. Conjure contracts do NOT include guarantees of success in the outcome of the work in your favour, but they may include a guarantee of photographs of altar work; the sending to you of spiritual supplies such as teas, baths, oils, powders, or candles with which you will back up the work at your end; the promise of a certain number of follow-up contacts by phone, text, or email; and a time-limit after which the job will be finished and a new job may be negotiated.
Black Gypsy Blues by Merline Johnson
What Kind of Job Will Be Performed?
Some African-American readers get their divinatory impressions through tea leaves or coffee grounds. The picture at the top of this page, painted by Harry Roseland around 1905, shows an older black woman reading tea leaves for her young white client.
The conventional way in which root doctors create a magical link between the client and the job to be done — either when they meet face-to-face or when the client lives in a distant place — is to ask for the clients (or the targets) personal concerns, name papers, and/or petitions. Next, it is customary to give or send the client some spiritual supplies (such ascrystal saltsto bathe in or afloor washfor the house or an herbal tea to drink) with instructions for their use. While the client uses these things, the actual job is being done. Finally, the worker reports back to the client on how the job went and when results can be expected. This sort of long-distancehoodoois not new; i have catalogues from the 1920s in which such services are offered through the mail. Clients often say of such long-distance work, He had me to start the job and he did the balance.
If the First Reading Is Not Free, What Does It Cost — Is It Fair or High Priced?
When you return, you will be told that the condition was worse than anticipated and that four (or more) candles were burned. You will be presented with a corresponding bill. Sometimes a burned-outglass-encased candlewill be doctored to make it sooty and this will be shown to you as proof of the bad situation.
I cannot change the past for those who have been ripped off or victimized, but i can change the future, if you take the time to read this page and learn how to tell the real, sincere, and compassionate fortune tellers and conjure workers from the false and parasitic ones.
Many root workers flatly refuse to do bad work or destructive spells against the clients enemies. They will only perform positive and helpful spells, such aslove drawing, enhancinggambling luck, or bringing about a clientspersonal success. Onehoodooi know limits his practice touncrossing, healing, andblessing, but — perhaps because he has so much sympathy for men — he wont work on behalf of women who want todominate their husbandsorcharm them into remaining sexually faithful. Such workers are sometimes called lady hearted, because of their morality.
Can your reader become your rootworker?
Prices forroot workcan range from $100.00 to $1,000.00 or more per job, depending on how complex or difficult the job is or how long-standing the condition is. An average range is $150.00 to $300.00.
Card readers come in two types: card cutters, who cut the cards and read the results, and regular card readers, who do layouts to obtain their divinations.
Beware Gypsy fortune tellers who start you off with a 10 dollar candle and then tell you it didnt work and you will need a special 50 dollar candle.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A PSYCHIC READER, ROOT WORKER, OR CONJURE DOCTOR
Finding the right conjure doctor for you is not only a matter of locating someone who is honest and fair, but also a matter of matching your needs to the doctors specialties.
If the First Reading Is Not Free, What Does It Cost — Is It Fair or High Priced?
If you didnt like the reading, you probably wont like the rootwork.
Seemingly unique to African-American reading is the employment of naturally marked rocks. These may be some sort of conglomerate stone, a flowered obsidian, or a matrix containing multiple small fossil inclusions — anything marked with dark and light areas in which images can be seen. They are used much like a scrying mirror or crystal ball.
If you are offered a free preliminary reading, ask yourself: Is it accurate or is it a canned cold reading? (For more on canned cold readings and the Gypsy fortune telling scam, see below.)
Beware of charismatic readers and rootworkers who seek to become personally involved in the lives of clients. The worst of these people may engage in emotional manipulation, religious authoritarianism, verbal domination, requests for financial loans, inappropriate touching under the guise of cleansing, suggestive conversations, or sexual intimacies promoted as a form of rootwork. Such charisma-scam abuses are rare, but they can ruin lives. Be careful.
A third way of reading the bones uses the bones of a number of species, each one being read for meanings based on the species of the animal and the part of the body from which the bone comes.
I sense that you are searching for true love but you have not yet found that special person.
If the Conjure Doctor or Root Worker Is a Reader, Will You Get a Free Preliminary Reading?
Sadly, as a reader and root doctor myself, i am all-too-frequently approached by clients who have been scammed by readers into believing false scenarios and dramatic stories designed to keep the client returning to the reader for long periods of time, as well as by clients who have been taken for hundreds or even thousands of dollars by spurious spell-casters who did nothing for them.
GIFTED READERS
PSYCHIC READING FRAUDS: THE SO-CALLED GYPSY FORTUNE TELLING SCAM
TABLE OF CONTENTSWHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A PSYCHIC READER, ROOT WORKER, OR CONJURE DOCTOR
How will it be made and how fair is the cost?
Finding a good psychic reader, card reader, or root doctor can be a hit-or-miss proposition on the net. One reason for this is that ads for fraudulent psychic tarot readers appear everywehere and its difficult to decide who is honest and who is not just by looking at their web sites. Another rerason is that at the present time some of the best root workers are older people in rural areas who are not online. But no matter how you locate a prospective root worker, psychic reader, or tarot card reader, there are a few basic concepts you need to understand in order to separate authentic diviners and traditional conjure doctors from the economic predators posing as seers and root workers:
NO CONTACT INFORMATION OR NAME; JUST A PAYPAL BUTTON
Several forms of physical body reading — such as by moles, freckles, birth-marks, head shape, and facial features — are primarily performed for the purpose of character analysis, but palm reading, also known as palmistry, can be used either character analysis and for predicting the future.
In any case, either upon diagnosis or after running the egg over the clients body to cleanse off the curse, the egg will be broken open and clots of blood and black hairs will be seen inside. Sometimes insects will be seen. This is a stage-magic or legerdemain trick. It takes good hand-eye coordination to pull off, and it is the result of quite a bit of training on the part of the scammer, so admire it for what it is, but do not be fooled.
Card cutters are considered a little old-fashioned these days, although some readers still like to start a reading by having their clients cut the deck and thus give them strong first impressions.
Will the Root Doctor Perform the Kind of Work You Want?
Spell WorkPSYCHIC READING FRAUDS: THE SO-CALLED GYPSY FORTUNE TELLING SCAM
Free Psychic Tarot Frauds, Fraudulent Spirit Mediums,
You can read more about black astrologers in the article Astrology for Rootworkers inThe Black Folder: Personal Communications on the Mastery of Hoodoo
An alternative to the candle scam is the egg reading or egg cleansing scam. Again, the client will have been told a tale about the dark spirit or the curse, but this time the Gypsy will offer a diagnosis or a cleansing with an egg. In some cases, three eggs may be employed, and the client will be asked to bring his or her own freshly purchased eggs. There are many variations of this scam, and each worker or family of workers has an individual variation on it.
Among African American spiritual workers and clients, palmistry is more commonly known as hand reading than palm reading, as evidenced in a number of oldblues song lyrics, includingHand Reader by Washboard Sam, recorded in Aurora, IL in 1938, andHand Reader Blues by Bill Jazz Gillum, recorded in Chicago in 1947.
Once you have been introduced to the dark spirit that threatens your happiness, the Gypsy offers to burn a blessed candle on your behalf to relieve the condition. The charge is typically 10 to 20 dollars per candle, paid in advance. Generally, no other forms ofconjurewill be offered at the first reading, but the Gypsy will make an appointment for you to return for a report on how the candle-burning went.
6632 Covey Road, Forestville, California 95436
However, if you engage their services, you will notice that all they will offer to do is burn a candle for you. They do not ask you meaningful questions that a real root worker or conjure doctor would ask, such as, Do you have anything personal of your lost lover, such as a hair, that i can use as a link in casting a spell? They dont ask this because they really have no intention of casting a magic spell — and they may not even be planning to actually burn a candle on your behalf.
I am often asked — especially by people who have grown up outside the cultural traditions ofAfrican American hoodoo and cojure– how to find an authentic psychic reader, tarot card reader, conjure doctor, or root worker. In addition, many people tell me that they hope to locate such a person through the internet.
Be on the look-out for sites which require payment via Paypal only, which give no street address or telephone number for contact, which show no pictures of a shop or reading room. They usually show no picture of the person you are conacting, either. At these scam sites, if the owners claim to be initiates in an African diasporic tradition, they do not present their lineage or the name of their house, the way legitimate prietsts and priestses in these services do. Some of these fraud psychic reading sites do not even give you an email address for contact purposes — you can only reach them via a blind form-mail online.
I know workers who set lights for prices ranging from the cost of candles anddressing oil(free service) on up to 10 dollars per dressed7-day vigil candle– anything more would strike me as high.
One of the most famous root doctors of the early to mid 20th century, Dr. Jim Jordan of Como, North Carolina, was particularly known for the crystal ball with which he read his clients.
The Other Woman Has Hired a Powerful Evil Witch
The key adjectives are generally negative, dark, and bad. The key locations are usually at birth, around you, or over your left shoulder. If you have any tendency toward self-doubt or depression, false readers will use these phrases to feed into your fears.
Before you move from hiring a person as a reader to hiring them as a conjure doctor or spell caster, take a moment to evaluate how appropriate the reading was and what you got out of it.
I Reunite Lost Lovers — Guaranteed
How will it be done and how fair is the cost?
You are a good, kind person, always helping others — but you never seem to get any help in return
TEA LEAF READERS AND COFFEE GROUND READERS
Geomancy, Feng Shui, and Dowsing
Card cutting itself usually involves having the client cut a card deck three times, using the left hand (the hand that is closest to the heart)). The top card on each stack is then turned and the cards are read as Past, Present, and Future on the query.
PLAGIARIZED POWERFUL FREE LOVE SPELLS AS A COME-ON
There are two parts to the Gypsy fortune telling scam — the canned cold reading and the candle scam. In addition, a confidence game may be worked, as described below.
Card readers usually employ regular playing cards and work according to one of the 19th century French or German methods of symbolism (such as Lenormands system ofcartomancy), but the use of tarot is growing rapidly among African-Americans.Hoodoocard readers should not be confused with so-called Free Psychic Tarot Readers, who may or may not be authentic.
No Contact Information or Name; Just a Paypal Button
Palmistry is equally popular among African American psychic readers and those of European or Asian descent. Both groups traditionally ascribe the origin of this art to the Gypsies — that is, Rom or Romany people whose original homeland was in India, many centuries ago — and such may well be the case. However, no matter where the art originated, by the end of the 19th century, it was practiced by people of almost all ethnic groups.
Many good root workers will set lights as a free service, just for their cost of supplies, but they will charge for spell work. — and this is especially true of those who are Spiritualists. In fact, some Spiritual workers keep an altar with lights set up at all times and charge nothing — not even the cost of a candle — to add your name and petition to the prayers they are making.
BLACK GYPSIESHow to Tell Genuine Psychic Readers and Rootworkers
If a conjure doctor asks nothing personal from you or sends nothing to you to work with, i would openly question how — and whether — the job is actually being done.
Scryers and Crystal Ball Readers
The canned cold reading is called cold because the person being read for is a cold prospect or a stranger. It is called canned because it follows a predetermined script — a particular piece of patter that consists of generalizations that will be true for most people, or which most people will agree are true about themselves.
How to Identify and Avoid Falling Prey to
Gifted readers — usually those born with a veil or caul — just read you. They may ask to touch your hand first or hold an item of yours in their hands, but on the whole, they do not use any tools to aid their prescience. In the early 20th century, female readers of this type were also known as fortune telling women — and many of them were also members of the Spiritual Church movement. One of the most famous of the old time fortune telling women wasAunt Caroline Dye.
Generally speaking, the negative suggestion of the dark spirit or dark cloud or bad energy or negative vibration is introduced during a clients first cold reading in an attempt to select out repeat customers for the candle scam.
Beware: Scam sites like these are little more than black holes down which you can pour your money.
Reading the bones was once common in Hoodoo, but there are only a few who do it these days. There are several styles and moths. You may read about them in my bookThrowing the Bones: How to Foretell the Future with Bones, Shells, and Nutswhich has its ownBone Readingweb page.
If you do not meet face-to-face with theroot workerwho is going to make you amojo or conjure hand, you should receive full instructions on what personal items and written-upon papers to place in the bag as you fix it up at home.
Note: Illustrations on this web page ofHarry Roselands paintings of African American Fortune Tellersare displayed here courtesy ofThe Mystic Tea Roomweb site, where the entire gallery of such images is located.
Gifted psychic readers and tarot card readers who are also two-headed doctors are the ones most likely to give a new client a free reading — however, you cannot expect to get a free reading. Instead, the reading may be bundled in a package deal that includes a preliminary reading, the rootwork, and a follow-up reading.
ASTROLOGERS, NUMEROLOGISTS, and FENG SHUI PRACTITIONERS
WILL THE ROOT DOCTOR PERFORM THE KIND OF WORK YOU WANT?
Fake Santeria Madrinas and Padrinos, Bogus Palero Tatas,
Plagiarized Powerful Free Love Spells As a Come-On
If you meet face-to-face with theroot workerwho is going to make you amojo or conjure hand, you will probably be asked for something personal of yours or to write something on paper. If you are not asked for such items, it is possible that theroot workeris simply selling pre-mademojospurchased in bulk from a supplier.
How much is the cost and how is it determined?
Was the Workers Reading a Divination or a Character Analysis?
For more on canned cold readings and the Gypsy fortune telling scam, see below.
Typically, fakes who promise to reunite lovers with a candle spell will soon tell the client that the loved one has another lover and that a simple candle wont work after all. At this point they substitute the more costly goal of promising to drive off the other lovers influences. They can claim that this will take time, and in this way they can string out clients who have suffered a love or marriage break-up for between $400.00 and $900.00 in candle-burning charges.
in the Hoodo and Conjure Tradition from Scammers and
The full performance can consist of three eggs being broken, with payments in between. In this case, the diagnosis egg is very bloody and hairy, the first cleaning egg shows a small amount of blood and hair, and the third egg is clean — if the scammer wants to let the client go. However, the third egg may still show blood and hair, and the client may be asked to return again on another day, or to have candles lit, or to bring in more money … depending on how greedy the scammer is and how vulnerable the scammer thinks the client is.
There are several kinds of readers in the African-American community, so next, you might wish to know what kind of reading will be perfomred. Here are some of the most popular forms: name=gifted>
In asking you to pose the above questions, i am NOT trying to reduce finding a conjure to a matter of cost guidelines, but merely hoping to remove some of the mystery and confusion surrounding havinghoodoowork done by a practitioner in another region, someone you do not know and more or less have to trust.
and Spurious Vodoo or Vodou Mambos and Houngans
The Gypsy psychic reader may use cards, a crystal ball, or palmistry as a prop, but these are only added for their decorative and authentic appearance. The reading may be conducted in person or over the telephone. In either case, the reading itself is canned and could just as well be spoken by a robot, regardless of what is revealed in the cards, the ball, or the clients hands.
Some Gypsy scam artists pose as spiritual doctors, spell casters, root workers, hexenmeisters, witch doctors, wizards, magicians, or witches. Those who follow this trade tend to advertise that they specialize in reuniting lost lovers and may claim they can bring back your lover in 24 hours. They may even say that their spells are absolutely guaranteed.
It is not necessary for a root doctor to be a psychic reader, but the better ones usually are. So the first things to ask are:
Other terms for people who work the Gypsy fortune teller scam are psychic fraud, fake psychic reader, and 900-number psychic line con artist. If the person falsely claims to contact the dead on your behalf, he or she is called a fraudulent medium. If the person falsely promises to cast magic spells, he or she is a fraudulent root doctor, fraudulent witch, or fraudulent witch doctor.
WAS THE WORKERS READING A DIVINATION OR A CHARACTER ANALYSIS?
You have always tried to do what is right — and sometimes that has gotten you into trouble.
Prices range from $30.00 to $100.00 for a half-hour pre-scheduled reading and from $60.00 to $200.00 for a one-hour pre-scheduled reading, depending on the region of the country and the reputation of the psychic reader. If the reader is very popular, you may need to schedule in advance, and some readers may be booked up to three months ahead. If you cannot wait and you want an instant reading through a psychic phone line service, you will expect to pay more, anywhere from $3.00 to $6.00 per minute, which translates to $180.00 to $360.00 per hour for an instant reading. However, the instant reading is by the minute, so you can say goodbye as soon as you get your answer; you do not need to stay on the line for a full hour!
I wish i did not have to warn folks about this, but there are quite a few fraudulent web sites advertising the services of so-called gifted psychics, astrologers, tarot card readers and / or root doctors, spell-casters, witches, sorcerors, and fake Santeria, Palo, or Voodoo priests or priestesses that exist for no purpose other than to rip off guillible clients. Keeping track of these scam sites is next to impossible, as they change their domain names regularly to avoid prosecution.
Some, but not all, African-American Gypsies (Black Gypsies) who are engaged in canned readings modify these phrases and mentioncrossed conditions,just like a real root worker would. European-style Gypsy psychic readers may instead say that you are cursed or bewitched.
One of the earliest 20th century black astrologers who also worked in thehoodootradition was Edward Lowe of Chicago, Illinois, whose Spiritualistic Dream Book was first published during the 1920s, and who also soldconjure oils.
A second way of reading the bones uses possum bones cast into a circle in the dirt or only a mat. This is fairly common in the South.
Is the Conjure Doctor Also a Reader — And If So, What Kind?
The first style uses chicken bones, and each bone has a special meaning — the wing bone for travel, the breast bone for love, and so forth. The bones are thrown on a table and they are read much as tea-leaves are, by the pattern made and by the directions they point.
Phony Wicca High Priests and Priestesses,
Popular variations of this routine include: You have a dark aura, You were born with negative energy, There are dark vibrations around you, You were born with bad karma, There are negative vibrations associated with your name, Dark forces attended your birth, You have a black hole in your aura, Your chakras are in a negative condition, You were born with bad energy, or I sense some very dark spirits swirling around you.
If a client is perceived as unintelligent and the Gypsy is a serious criminal, the candle scam or the egg cleaning scam can lead to true confidence game work, such as a special Gypsy variant of the pigeon drop, in which the client is told to close out her bank account and bring the cash money in to be blessed or to have the curse removed. As with the regular pigeon drop, the envelopes are switched, leaving the client with a wad of cut-up newspaper.
Those who work the Gypsy fortune telling scam are not always ethnically Romany (Gypsy) people, although many of them are. Rather, the word Gypsy here refers to the profession of being a Gypsy fortune teller, a career that is mostly practiced by women and which mostly preys upon female clients.
Even those conjure doctors who work both sides (good and evil) may only take jobs that relate to certain areas of human life. For instance, they may specialize inlove and sex spellsof all kinds, from bringing aboutreconciliationsand helping clients findquick sex, to grantingwomen domination over their menand working on a clients behalf to destroy love through a messy break up — but they will not makemojo handsforgambling. Other root doctors, equally proficient, may specialize inmoney-drawing and business prosperity spellsand also offerlucky charms for gambling– but steer clear of workinglove and sex spells. Such self-imposed limits to any given doctors repertoire are partially a matter of what the individual worker is gifted for and partially a matter of what he or she feels most comfortable providing to clients.