When you create a mojo hand or receive one from Bayou Root House, the first thing you will need to do is name it, baptize it and wake it up so it is ready to go to work for you. There are about as many ways to do this as there are practitioners creating mojo hands. The following is the way that we recommend you wake up a mojo hand.
To get started, you will need just a few things:
- A fresh cigar
- A small bottle of whiskey
- Your favorite spiritual cologne
- Condition oils that align with the purpose of the mojo hand
- Holy water from a church or water from a natural place like a spring, a river, a creek, etc.
Naming Your Mojo Hand
The first time you hold your new mojo hand, sit with it quietly for a while. You can do this for as long as you’d like but pay attention to how you feel in that moment and any names or words that come to mind while you are holding it. The constructed spirit inside the bag may just reveal to you what it would like to be called.
Alternatively, you can simply decide on a name that you like.
Waking up Your Mojo Hand
On a night when everything is calm in your home already, you will wake up your mojo hand for the very first time. Before you begin, it may help if you set the mood for this. I find that some ambient lighting, gentle music, airy scents, anything that helps you feel calm and relaxed is perfect for helping you get into the proper state of mind. You don’t have to go all out, this isn’t a big ceremony that requires a very specific setting, doing these things simply helps you to focus on what you are doing. You don’t want to wake up your mojo hand while you are stressed, angry, depressed, etc. We can very easily imprint our own energies onto our tools even when we are not trying to do that. Setting the mood of your immediate environment can help to mitigate that a bit.
Again, it is not absolutely necessary but it does help!
Hold the bag in your hands and begin to speak to it, asking the spirit inside to slowly wake up. Take a sip of whiskey into your mouth and spray it from your mouth, onto the mojo hand, 3 times. By doing so, you are getting the energy in it stirring around as the alcohol heats it up. You are also giving it a bit of life force via your saliva (DNA) and aligning it with your energy, directly.
Next, you will take the cigar, light it, place the tip just barely in the cloth that is open at the top of the mojo hand and place the burning end in your mouth and blow smoke through the cigar and into that top portion of cloth. As you do this, you will be mentally speaking the purpose of the mojo hand. This is you placing your prayers and purpose into the “head” of the spirit that has been formed within the mojo hand. Sort of like programming it in a way. When you are doing this, please know that this mojo hand is to never be untied, lest it dies and needs to be remade. So, the cigar does not need to go past the spot where it is all tied shut. The smoke is only going into the top-most “open” portion.
Baptizing Your Mojo Hand
Now, you will just take some holy water or fresh water from a spring, creek, river, etc. and you will dip a finger from your dominant hand into the water and make the sign of the cross across the mojo hand as you say something to the effect of “By the power of God and all the good spirits, I baptize you with the name of (name).”
You then sit and speak with it by name, welcoming it to life, telling it its purpose (protection around you), and just talk to it like you would with a close friend. Open up to it and let your emotions flow if you’d like. Speak to it of all the current problems and why you need protection now more than ever. Ask it for its help in doing this for you. Sit and speak with it for as long as you feel it is needed.
Lastly, touch it to your forehead, then to your heart and lastly to your lips. And that’s all there is to waking it up.
Taking Care of Your Mojo Hand
Now you just place it hidden somewhere in your home or simply place it on your altar. When not at home, your mojo hand should be with you. Preferably touching your skin in some way but if that is not possible, keeping it in your pocket is good enough. You can always move or carry the hand around as needed. This is medicine, so you apply it however and wherever it is needed the most. You can hide it away wherever you place it but it is okay for other people to see it but no one besides the people who woke it up should ever touch it, play with it, etc. Treat it as sacred because a mojo hand is not a “charm bag” that brings luck or whatnot. It is a spirit that lives in the cloth, constructed from the energies of the plants and other items placed inside. It is a living being.
Speak to it every so often to continue strengthening your relationship with it. And especially grab it, hold it and speak with it whenever tensions are high or you feel angry, depressed, etc. Let its protective energy wash over you especially in those moments.
At least once per month you need to feed it again. To do this, simply pick it up and either spray whiskey on it or blow cigar smoke on it. When you do this, if you feel like it had been working hard for you and has a lot of heavy energy now because of it, rub Florida Water all over it to lighten it up a bit.
If it ever stops working for you or needs to be remade for whatever reason just reach out to me and I will have you mail it to me so I can rework it again for you and send it back.