The Hoodoo Oral Tradition was passed by words that tumbled out of the mouths of a people that told
their tales in many different places to many different dark peoples.
In African based speech patterns there is a tendency to change the way English words are spoken. There is
a sliding of the consonants one into another and a tendency to the re-arrangement of the vowels. This is somewhat due to the
tonal languages that Africans have in their genetic and cultual memory and also due to the innovative and creative use of
the language they found themselves forced to learn and to speak exclusively in the USA.
Many people have sought to find out the truth about the origins of High John the Conqueror. African American
folklore is sparse on this topic with the work of Zora Neale Hurston being a primary source of the recorded words
of the Old Folk of the Southern Tradition.
High John the Conqueror as it exists today appears to have at it's core the European concept
of domination . Was High John a Conquering Spirit? Did he have a hand in causing slavery
to end? If that is so then why is it that High John is pictured as a European King on a throne in the 1920's Hoodoo
products? Is the European imagery, marketing or packaging of this African Spirit in the America's a subtle attack
on the power of the Spirit? Is the name given to this Spirit the correct one?
John is a common English name. We have many archetypal Johns- Big John, John Doe, John Q. Public,
John as the ever returning client of the brothel, and bluesman Chuck Berry's mythic Johnny B. Good.
But Hoodoo's original Hi John was a Spirit that carried some of the traits that were
later identified with the patron of the Baptist Church -John the Baptister . John who came before Jesus.
A spirit much like Oannes, the water God of Sumer who instructed Men- Hi John was a Teaching Spirit.
The Orb of Djenra says: the full name of the Spirit we call Hi John is in
actuality John the Conjured. It was the Spirit of John who gave to Hoodoos the secrets
of CONJURATION. Hi John was the first African Spirit to answer the call from America and to cross
the water.
After slavery was abolished legend says the Spirit of *Hi John* went back to
Africa leaving his powers behind in a root, which might (or might not ) be found in the root we know
today as Ipomoea Jalapa.
