The Crossroads Five – October

Hoodoo Heritage Month

October’s Crossroads Five allows you to choose any combination of five Community Jars from Health, Love, Protection, Money, and Sour. You decide where the weight of your work needs to fall. Choose all five conditions once, repeat a condition several times, or devote all five selections to one area of your life.

You might choose two Money jars, two Protection jars, and one Health jar. Someone working through a difficult relationship might choose two Love, two Protection, and one Sour. A business owner dealing with financial pressure and interference might choose three Money and two Sour. Someone whose primary concern is healing can place all five selections into Health. Your five choices determine how your portion of the October altar will be built.

Each selection will be prepared according to its traditional condition. Health will be worked with healing and strengthening roots and herbs beneath blue and white candles. Love will be worked with sweetening, attraction, reconciliation, and passion ingredients beneath pink and red. Protection will use guarding and defensive materials beneath red and white. Money will be worked with prosperity herbs and magnetic ingredients beneath green and gold. Sour will use vinegar, peppers, alum, sulfur, and other traditional enemy-work materials beneath black and red.

Every petition will be written by hand, dressed with its appropriate condition oil, and placed into the corresponding jar. Psalms and prayers will be chosen according to your five selections, and all five portions of your work will be tended throughout October as part of the Hoodoo Heritage Month community altar.

For Hoodoo Heritage Month, the Crossroads Five also reflects something important about traditional conjure: the work begins with the condition. People brought rootworkers the circumstances of their lives. Somebody was sick. Somebody needed a job. A lover had left. An enemy was causing trouble. A household needed protection. The worker selected the roots, herbs, prayers, curios, candles, and methods that suited the problem at hand.

The Crossroads Five carries that principle into this month’s community work. Your selections tell me where your needs are concentrated, and those conditions determine where the greatest weight will be placed. Five choices give you five places on the altar.

Suggested Alignment:
During Hoodoo Heritage Month, learn about one traditional Hoodoo practice connected to the conditions you selected. If you chose Money, learn the history of money-drawing roots or gambling hands. If you chose Protection, study traditional protective roots and household practices. If you chose Love, explore historical love and sweetening work. Health selections can lead you into Black Southern folk-healing traditions, while Sour selections offer an opportunity to learn about historical enemy, reversing, and justice work.

Keep a small notebook during October and record what you learn. Write down the names of roots, old practices, Psalms, historical workers, family customs, books, songs, interviews, and stories you want to remember. Hoodoo Heritage Month is an opportunity to help preserve the tradition by knowing more about the people, materials, history, and practices that shaped it.

To be included:
Send your full name, date of birth, and your five selections from Health, Love, Protection, Money, and Sour. Repeats are welcome, including choosing the same jar all five times. Include a short petition for each selection so I know exactly what you want worked. When another person is involved, include their full name and date of birth when known. Your five selections will determine how your portion of the October Hoodoo Heritage Month altar is worked.