Also called money mojo, lodestone bag, John the Conqueror hand
A small flannel bag holding a lodestone fed with magnetic sand and a John the Conqueror root, carried to draw money, work and luck. It is a classic charm of African American Hoodoo.
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Take care: John the Conqueror root (Ipomoea purga, jalap) is a strong purgative; never eat it or make tea from it, and keep it away from children and pets. Magnetic sand is fine iron grit; do not inhale it.
Single large lodestones draw money; matched pairs, one pointed and one rounded, are named for two people and fed together for lasting love. Tiny lodestones also go into oils such as Fast Luck or Van Van.
Uses: matched lodestone pair
Before he was a root, High John was a trickster hero of enslaved people, a spirit of hope and laughter who outwitted the master. Hurston wrote that his power stayed on in the root. Carrying the root draws on that story of overcoming.
Uses: John the Conqueror root
In Mexico and across Latin America lodestones (piedra imán) are sold dressed in colored sand and packaged with saints' prints and seeds as amulets for money and love, kept in shops or by the cash register.
Uses: piedra imán, colored magnetic sand
Hoodoo grew among enslaved Africans and their descendants in the American South, blending Central and West African practice with European and Native American herb lore and the Bible. The mojo bag, or hand, is one of its oldest tools. Between 1936 and 1940 Harry Middleton Hyatt interviewed more than 1,600 workers and clients, and lodestones and roots turn up across those accounts as charms for money, luck and love.
John the Conqueror is both root and hero. Zora Neale Hurston's 1943 essay High John de Conquer in The American Mercury tells of a trickster spirit who gave enslaved people hope, and whose strength lived on in the root. During the Great Migration, mail-order spiritual supply companies in Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans sold lodestones and roots nationwide. Learn from Black rootworkers and their history when you take up this charm.
A small jar of honey, sugar or syrup holding a written name, worked with candles over days or weeks so that a person or situation turns sweet toward you. In Hoodoo it is used for love and also for bosses, judges and family peace.
On the first day of each month, stand outside your front door and blow a pinch of ground cinnamon into the house to invite money and opportunity. This is a modern social-media custom from the early 2020s, loosely echoing older Hoodoo and Caribbean powder-blowing.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
