The Hoodoo Truth: Bone Reading B.S.

Isn't it amazing that so many Internet workers read the bones? I find it very interesting since so many real-life workers do not.

The purpose of this blog is to help educate new practitioners with regard to bone readings and why one should steer clear of the Internet workers who claim to read the bones for you, often at high prices.

Bone readings are a traditional part of hoodoo/rootwork/conjure. The problem is that very few real-life and old-school workers use them. I'm going to be real honest here folks. I do not read the bones. I've never been taught. I've never met anyone who reads the bones per the tradition of hoodoo/rootwork/conjure but I have met several phonies over the years. You see, the thing is that even though I don't read the bones I know enough about them to tell whether or not a person is a phony, a fake, a charlatan. Unfortunately I have to date not conversed with a person who claims to read the bones who wasn't a fake.

Some say the tradition of reading the bones is dying out. I don't know about that and can't say if it's true or not. I will go more into depth regarding that later. For now, let me give you, the new practitioner, some advice on how to spot the fakes.

Warning Signs That A Bone Reader Is A Fake

- If the person uses chicken bones. Every old-school worker I know has told me that only possum bones are used. Possums are supposedly connected to the spirits, possibly because of their weird appearance and the fact that they are nocturnal. In Louisiana Voodoo, they use chicken bones, but Louisiana Voodoo is not Hoodoo.


- If the person "makes their own" bones out of clay or another material they are outright fakes. I'm not referring to including extra items in with the bones, but rather people who claim to fashion their own bones themselves, i.e. no real bones are used at all.


- If the person is Wiccan, Neopagan, or a "Traditional Witch", then it is a generally a good sign they are fake.


- If the person learned to read the bones from a book.


- If the person learned to read the bones online.


- If the person learned to read the bones from a class or seminar.


- If the person is charging an huge amount of money for a bone reading then the person is likely a fake. I've seen practitioners charge anywhere from $300.00 to over a $1,000.00 for an alleged "traditional bone reading". Be warned.


- If the person just recently claimed to learn the bones and then is now selling the secrets for profit.


- If the person travelled to Africa to learn how to read the bones or claims to have been taught by someone who went to Africa to learn how to read the bones.

These are good warning signs that a bone reader is a fake, a fraud, a phony.

Now, let me explain how fakes are operating today. There is a false belief by people who build themselves up as experts or master hoodoos that the actual tradition of hoodoo bone reading is now extinct. They don't know this. I don't even know if it is extinct or not. So these self-professed experts and masters proclaim that hoodoo bone readings are extinct so that they can go to Africa and learn to read the bones there and "reintroduce" it here. Of course this all serves the purpose of making sure they can maintain control over people and continue to be perceived as master hoodoos. There's a huge problem with this.

If hoodoo bone readings are not extinct, if in fact the tradition is still alive, then these power and money-hungry Internet, so-called master hoodoos are acting to destroy the tradition by teaching and promoting false things. Let me go further.

Just how arrogant and pompous are these Internet "experts"? Let me set my readers straight, fast. Just because someone wants to learn to read the bones doesn't mean they are entitled to learn. A person may not be called to read the bones and a person who truly knows how to read the bones may decide not to teach someone. So these arrogant Internet "experts" have the audacity to proclaim that hoodoo bone readings is dead as a tradition and so they go to Africa to learn how to read the bones. Is Santeria the same as the traditional religions of the Yoruba? Is Haitian Voodou the same thing as Voodou on the continent? The answer to both of these questions is of course, no. They have evolved with time. One cannot simply go back to Africa, motivated by arrogance and profit, and claim to reintroduce something that may not be a dead practice.

Unfortunately I've only just touched on the dark and out-right disgusting practices of the marketers/manufacturers with regards to raping the tradition and turning it into a money-maker. Don't be a sucker.