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Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

Mojo Hand

Also Known As mojo · conjure hand · toby · gris-gris bag · nation sack · mojo; conjure hand; toby; gris-gris bag; nation sack
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Origin 1800 to 1900

A mojo hand is the characteristic charm of Hoodoo, the African American folk practice: a small flannel bag, usually red, filled with a chosen combination of roots, herbs, minerals, coins, and personal concerns such as hair or a name written on paper, made and fixed for a specific purpose, to draw money, love or luck, to protect, or to gain the upper hand in a matter. The bag is dressed with oils, sometimes fed with whiskey and prayed over, and carried on the person, and it is understood to work through the powers of the ingredients and of prayer rather than through any deity. It is folk magic, not the instrument of an initiatory religion.

Facts
Use
Who May Handle It
Anyone; it is offered to the public 1
Consecration
Not consecrated; an instrument, not a consecrated object 1
Physical Form
Material
Flannel bag containing roots, herbs, minerals, personal items 1
Attributions
Tradition
Hoodoo (African American folk practice) 1
Origins
Origin Period
1800 to 1900 1
Learn More
The Charm That Is Fed and Worked

The mojo hand is the characteristic charm of Hoodoo, the African American folk practice, a small flannel bag filled with a chosen combination of materials, and it is treated less as a static object than as a working thing that must be tended.

A bag made for a purpose

The mojo hand is typically a small flannel bag, often red, filled with a combination of roots, herbs, minerals, personal items and other materials chosen for the specific aim of the charm, for protection, luck, money, love, gambling or a court case, so that its contents are assembled to the purpose. It is made and fixed by the practitioner with ritual, then carried on the person, usually hidden, and its power is understood to depend on the correct making and the continued secrecy and care of the bag.

Kept alive

A distinctive feature of the mojo is that it is fed and worked: it is periodically dressed with a liquid such as whiskey or a scented oil to keep it active, spoken to, and kept from the sight and touch of others, so that maintaining it is an ongoing relationship rather than the mere possession of an object. Hoodoo itself is a body of African American folk magical practice that drew together West and Central African traditions, biblical and European folk elements, and Native American plant knowledge under the conditions of slavery and after, and the mojo hand is its signature working. The object thus carries a specific history and a living practice, and its power is held to reside in the making, the tending and the secrecy as much as in the materials within.

A Flannel Bag Coded by Color, Fed Like a Living Thing

A mojo hand is built inside a flannel bag whose color is chosen to match its purpose, red for love work, green for money, among a broader folk color coding system, and packed with roots, High John the Conqueror root being a well known example, herbs, minerals such as lodestone, and curios matched to the specific working, then tied shut with a set number of knots.

Who makes it, and who may touch it after

A rootworker constructs a mojo hand, either for a client or for their own use, a craft passed down through apprenticeship and oral tradition rather than any formal ordination. Widespread practitioner custom holds that a mojo hand must be fed periodically, whiskey or a dressing oil applied to keep it working, and that it should not be touched by anyone other than its owner or seen by outsiders, handling by another person is commonly said to weaken or kill its power, a genuine and consistently reported handling rule rather than an occasional preference.

Retirement

When a working concludes or the bag wears out, disposal follows the logic of the original working, buried, burned, or left at a crossroads depending on what the mojo hand was made to do, rather than one universal method applying to every bag regardless of its purpose.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Hoodoo, Disciplines

The characteristic charm of Hoodoo, made and fixed for a stated purpose and understood to work through the powers of its ingredients and through prayer rather than through any deity. It is folk magic and not the instrument of an initiatory religion.

Source Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and PhilosophyRobert Farris Thompson

Belongs to Tradition

Hoodoo, Disciplines
Source Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and PhilosophyRobert Farris Thompson

Related To

Gris-gris, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items

Gris-gris bag is one of the names a mojo hand goes under, and in Louisiana the two terms overlap almost entirely. The West African gris-gris packet is the older object standing behind both.

Source Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and PhilosophyRobert Farris Thompson
Sources
1. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy
Robert Farris Thompson, Random House, 1983on the mojo hand and HoodooView the Source
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005on African American folk practiceView the Source
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