For example, do we have to be African to practice Hoodoo, or Mexican to practice Brujeria? I ask because as a filipino from United States, there’s almost no resources/instructional books found online that teach kulam (Philippines’ magic).
On the other hand, Hoodoo and Brujeria have numerous instructional books online. Therefore, it would be more convenient to turn to them instead. So the question is, does our ethnicity matter when it comes to practicing these types of magic? Hopefully it doesn’t… Because even if I’m not African, I can still learn how to speak Swahili, or even if I’m not Mexican I can still learn Spanish… but correct me if I’m wrong.
Spirits do not care for your race, ethnicity or who you are. In their eyes your are energy, an individual who is spiritual and wishes to connect with them. In the end we are all part of the source/the universe/existence whatever you want to call it.
There are practices that are culturally tied, and respecting boundaries is important. My own culture has been bastardized, colonized, and stolen, and trying to find resources untainted by outsiders is hard.
With latino and African practices, usually they are fairly open through learning from someone if you don’t come from that background, especially when black people’s magic in the US was adapted from what was left of African magic for the purpose of fighting off oppressors, slave owners, and racists to begin with.
Brujería is just witchcraft, it just happens to have slightly more Catholic flavor and Latin folk belief. Anyone can be a witch, the only thing is being latino would mean you have an understanding of how to incorporate Latin culture into witchcraft. Otherwise, indigenous mexica magic is more tight lipped and passed down from family, not really something you can learn unless you go through proper channels. Anyone can learn curanderismo, too, it’s just considered proper to be taught formally by a mentor.
If you’re wondering about indigenous practices that aren’t widespread probably the answer is yes. You do have to be indoctrinated into some systems. But if you can find the information with harassing people, go for it and have fun!
As far as hoodoo, you should probably ask some African American hoodoo practitioners. There are quite a few on YouTube. Check out Crescent City Conjure, Magickal Lady Duchess, and Afrikan Witch Bitch.
There is no deffinitive answer to that.
I tend to consider that “cosmic” entities such as most of gods and demons does not care for your ethnicity. And that’s logic, for beings coming from a different plan of existence, or even sometimes other galaxies (thinking about Lovecraftian lore here, the Great Old Ones, the Outer Gods or the "Shadows mentionned by Castaneda). We must pretty much looks similar, in the same way ants all looks similar to us.
That being said, their is also spirits that were once humans and still feel a grudge against the enemies they might had in their physical lifes. Time passed differently in their plan of existence. For some it must feels like an eternity, for others it should feel like yesterday.
The Immortals of my tradition are mainly from central European and germanic descent, but in modern era, magicians form Iran and China have been able to successfully evoke them. That being said, these were cultures that they probably never interacted with during their human lifes.
The difference seem to be whether what you want to join is a religion, order or cult, which has human gatekeepers who won’t teach you unless you meet their requirements, or, are simply practicing on your own.
If you are doing your own work alone, then I think that’s between you and the spirits. Personally, I rarely work with spirts that consider themselves still human related, and I see them as a form of lesser entity, to be treated with as much caution as any human. These must come to me and prove themselves worthy of my attention, not the other way around. This list includes ghosts, ascended masters/Taoist immortals/ entities claiming to be Jesus etc.
No, you can be any type of race and do magic that your ancestors have never touched before. For example i am African but i do western system type of magic and honestly is an area that i have much more knowledge comparing to voodoo in which my ancestors practiced.
Though i agree with N.D Blackwood there are some spirits that are not friendly with certain type of races. And this sometimes is not only about a spirit of the dead/connected with the dead/he has been a human being back in time NO but i saw the spirits who are much more connected with the world/another example you can say the ones that were discovered by certain ethnicity to be their saviours while they were oppressed by others/ also i came across sometimes spirits were discovered by a group to undermine others etc.
And i am not talking about servitors/something like that No a good example is like when EA was channeling and he came across the army of azazel and now we have BOA. So ASSUME EA wanted to attack certain individuals that he didnt like, he channeled and got BOA he send them to a task and they finished the job.
300 years later, among from the generation of the attacked, called a spirit from BOA what do you think the spirit will do? Most of times they wont attack you INSTEAD they will fulfil your desire as you will command but YOU WILL NEVER BE THEIR FAVOURATE they will have kind of dislike towards you and it will be very obvious.
My point is not to scare you BUT if you work on a path that is not of your ancestral origin and you feel negative vibes with certain type of entities you can petition them to ask if anything can be done so you can be cool with each other/leave them aside and work with only ones that gives you positive vibrations.
Just not far from my place there is first world war memorial cemetery(it was a burial for germany soldiers), there was a day when i did go there and wanted to do my thing on this huge cemetary there were more like 300 german soldiers buried within, and those germany guys were not happy to see me
But i learned something from that, you can work with the dead of a different race but ensure you have done enough divination/research that the dead wont cause any issues with you/ at the time when these people died did not have any problem with people of your race.
I would also point out that often the reasons cultural practices are closed vs open are because some were forced to be closed due to atrocities committed to them compared to ones that actively spread their beliefs. Using European mythologies as examples of being open to people from a different race or ethnicity I think is silly when most of them have always been open. Leaving the closed ones alone or going through the right channels helps them heal.
