Long questions/exploring spirituality
I sent these to a divinity professor at howard but maybe yall would have some insight
As of late, I have been delving deeper into spirituality, religion, and similar practices. I am an African American who has always lived in the south and gone to modern mega churches with my parents. Throughout my exploration, I found that I feel most called to Hoodoo. However, having grown up with the idea that the Abrahamic god is the only one there is and that the only spirit I should be concerned about is the Holy Spirit, I find myself a bit lost in this new world of spirituality and African Traditional Religion. I have a few questions that I hope you can give me some insight on, because all of the books I've been recommended only talk about spells and crossroads. And the internet is a lot of things, but reliable and informative is not one of them.
There has been many mentions of Oya, Oludumare and other similar beings. Are these spirits? Deities? My understanding is that hoodoo is a practice that falls under the umbrella of Christianity, but these names are mentioned like gods. With that, my confusion arises. Would people who practice hoodoo not also believe in one god? Or are these not associated with hoodoo at all?
Everyone is always talking about spirits such as High John the Conqueror and Queen Annie Christmas, but where do saints fit into this equation? As I mentioned before, I was raised in mega churches. I was a Non-denominational Christian and the conversation of how saints work was nonexistent. How do saints, spirits, and archangels work? Do saints and archangels have a place in hoodoo?
I used to think that prayer was asking for stuff and getting it in return. Then, I did some more digging and found that most people say that prayer (in the Christian sense) was more about communicating with God and trying to align your will with his perfect plan. People say that only reason bad things happen is because we have free will and our actions aren't aligned with his will. I can see how more traditional Christians find spells evil then, because spells would be a way of taking control of the 'perfect plan' to get what you want. But spells, hexes, etc. are important in hoodoo because the point of it was to influence things to happen and work towards the freedom of the slaves and protection of their community. This feels like a conflict that I can't currently wrap my head around. What is the point of spells if we have prayer?
I'm not sure if you can answer this, but how would I know if I'm just playing around and none of this is real? There are some instances where I can "feel the spirit" of my ancestors, or God, or whoever it is, but am I really just supposed to trust and believe these things? Is there any evidence that Rosemary is an herb of protection or that a rusty train spike has the power of all the trains that traveled over it? Are my ancestors talking to me or do I have a screw loose?