Southern Rootwork is a living tradition currently practiced and passed along by word of mouth, imitation, and observation over time and space within groups, such as family, ethnic, social class, regional, and others. It evolved out of a conglomeration of African Traditional Religions (ATRs) brought to American shores with the slave trade. The word Hoodoo is often used interchangeably with rootwork to denote various forms of African-based ethnobotanical, folk magic systems, medicinal healing and hexing through the use of herbs, roots, bones, and stones. Southern rootwork as we know it today is largely influenced by Native American and Latino Diasporic traditions, as well as European folk magic. That said, it is African at its roots.

When it first arrived to these shores via the slave trade, Hoodoo was a very powerful system of ancestral-based magical, spiritual and herbal system of knowledge said to be directly connected to the African Vodou Spirits. It is said that Legba, the primary deity and intermediary, was given this system of knowledge by the forest spirits (Azizzas) and he along with the Vodou, in turn passed the knowledge on to the ancestors. The system provided the ancestors with a means of controlling and influencing the environment and was a primary way of coping with daily living. The African spirits were represented by crude wooden fetishes called boccio which were undoubtedly the forerunner of the American Voodoo doll; though, popular culture and the tourist trade have corrupted their original meaning and intent. According to the Mami Wata society:

"This system of knowledge was mastered by most Africans who lived on the Guinea Coast, all the way to Nigeria and the Bight of Benin (Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Angola, Senegal, etc.) It is from these African populations in particular (Fon, Ewe, Yoruba, Kongo-based groups) who carried this knowledge and tradition with them during their forced migration to the New World.

From the Dahomean perspective, if one were to substitute the word "Hunbonon" (familiar/mother) or Gbo/Gbokonan (medicine maker) for the popular New World term "Hoodoo", one would be placing this system of both magic, esoteric science, medicine and art, back in its historical mileu.”

For the term itself refers to a body of powerfully consecrated priests whose title literally translates as "producers or activators." Producers in the sense that it is they who not only possess the knowledge of all of the most sacred herbs, animals, metals, and other products of nature, used in magic, "hexing" and medicine, but are also its activators.

These priest are derived from all aspects of West African traditional spiritual practices, from our Bokonons,(geomancers), Azondoto, Zokas, Garbara, Akpases (socerers), Botonons (priest) and Mamaissiis (Mami Wata priests)."

Over time, the connection between the Vodou religion and the system of sacred knowledge of herbs, animals and minerals in magic and medicine was weakened as a result of colonization and the various traumatic events associated with colonization, i.e. religious persecution, forced separation of families, slavery, discrimination, Christianity and the Black Code (particularly in Louisiana). Now, Hoodoo is mostly considered to be the practice, study and use of roots, herbs, bones, stones, natural elements, and their magical, esoteric and medicinal use within a particular cultural context without the initiatory and religious practices of the Vodou religion or intervention of its pantheon of spirits. The connection between Legba, the Azzizas and the gift of knowledge of the healing properties of plants, herbs and roots has been forgotten by modern day rootworkers. Let us not forget from whence the “root” in rootwork came.

Article copyright 2013-2014 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved.

After being on 2 previous platforms, we have finally settled on the present one for course delivery for our full time students. We have been making a lot of changes behind the scenes for simplifying access to course materials and sign-up, and have had our curriculum reviewed by some members of our consulting board. We are in the process of transferring all of the information from the RCampus to this site, and though this will take some time, we are certain our students will appreciate the wait.

Among some of the changes we have made is limiting access to the full site to part-time students. This means, only full time students who have paid for their tuition in full will be able to access the entire site. We have long been offering our part-timers access to the same amount of information and in hindsight this doesn't make sense. While anyone can take any of the courses, only those pursuing the certification credential will gain access to the materials designed to support that particular education process.

I think our students will find this site to be much more user friendly than the previous sites. Furthermore, it is a more economical choice for us as it has more features available that were not available on previous platforms, and does not cost us an extra arm and a leg for these extra features. For example, we can embed videos, documents and music (yay!), photo galleries, polls, surveys, schedule appointments, and have forums!

We will still have our Facebook group as that seems to be the best way to continue communicating with students about chats and what-not. All students are still able to access the live class chats every week, though we will be limniting the types of chats we have open to everyone to more general topics. Our specialized topics will be open only to full-time students or students enrolled in a specific class. For example, Thunder Divination will only be open to those students enrolled in the Native American Conjure: Working with Black Hawk and Indian Spirit Guides in Southern Conjure class, or full-time students.

We are also in the process of setting up a Crossroads University store here as well, where students can purchase various things related to the courses if they need it. That said, we do not require anyone to purchase anything prior to enrolling in a class, unless it is a specialty class, such as the Obi Divination class offered by Baba Eli. In that case, we have shells prepared for you in a manner that is appropriate for the tradition. We also have a kit available for the Foundations in Southern Rootwork class for folks who are beginners and do not have the required roots and herbs on hand.

Again welcome to Crossroads University! Should you hae any questions about any of our courses, feel free to contact us.