HOODOOU

✦ CRT 400 · Capstone ✦

THE CAPSTONE

Sixteen weeks. One body of work.

The capstone is the most demanding thing we ask of a student. You will read the record — Hurston, Hyatt, Lindsey Stewart, Hazzard-Donald, Chireau, Long — collect your own field testimony, document your materia, run and record a full working cycle, write an ethics covenant, and defend a thesis before faculty.

Enroll · $99.99/moPrerequisite courses

Included with membership, or purchase CRT 400 outright for $333.

Admission to the capstone

Before you may sit CRT 400

The sixteen weeks

Phases & deliverables

Weeks 1–3

Lineage & Literature Review

Situate your practice inside the documented record of the tradition: where it comes from, who carried it, and how it was written down — by insiders and by outsiders.

Deliverable · A 1,500-word annotated literature review citing at least six primary or scholarly sources from the required list, with a paragraph on the limits and bias of each source.

Required reading

  • — Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (1935) — Part II, Hoodoo
  • — Zora Neale Hurston, "Hoodoo in America," Journal of American Folklore (1931)
  • — Yvonne P. Chireau, Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition
  • — Katrina Hazzard-Donald, Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System
  • — Lindsey Stewart, The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic (2025)

Weeks 4–5

Field Record & the Hyatt Method

Study how the tradition was collected in the field, then collect responsibly yourself — interviewing an elder, family member, or community practitioner with consent and care.

Deliverable · One recorded and transcribed oral-history interview (minimum 30 minutes) with a signed consent form, plus a 750-word reflection on what the interview corrects or complicates in the written record.

Required reading

  • — Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo–Conjuration–Witchcraft–Rootwork (5 vols.) — selected informant transcripts
  • — Newbell Niles Puckett, Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro (1926) — read critically, as an outsider account
  • — Zora Neale Hurston, Every Tongue Got to Confess

Weeks 6–8

Materia & the Green Cabinet

Document your working materia with the discipline of a herbarium: identification, sourcing, ethical harvest, substitution, contraindications, and safe handling.

Deliverable · A materia portfolio of 25 entries — botanical or common name, traditional use, documented source citation, sourcing notes, and safety notes.

Required reading

  • — Carolyn Morrow Long, Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce
  • — Michele Elizabeth Lee, Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing
  • — Sharla M. Fett, Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations
  • — Stephanie Y. Mitchem, African American Folk Healing

Weeks 9–12

Applied Working Cycle

Run one sustained working from petition to disposal, keeping a ledger that records timing, materials, conditions, outcomes, and everything that did not go as planned.

Deliverable · A working ledger covering a full cycle (minimum four weeks of entries) with an honest outcomes assessment — no retroactive editing.

Required reading

  • — Jeffrey E. Anderson, Conjure in African American Society
  • — Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South

Weeks 13–14

Ethics, Joy & Refusal

Examine the ethics of reading and working for others, payment, consent, refusal, and the politics of Black joy and self-determination inside the tradition.

Deliverable · A written ethics statement (1,000 words) and your personal practice covenant: what you will do, what you will not do, how you refer out, and how you handle client material.

Required reading

  • — Lindsey Stewart, The Politics of Black Joy: Zora Neale Hurston and Neo-Abolitionism
  • — Luisah Teish, Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals
  • — Tayannah Lee McQuillar, Rootwork: Using the Folk Magick of Black America

Weeks 15–16

Capstone Thesis & Faculty Review

Bring the whole body of work together into one defensible document and present it for faculty review.

Deliverable · A 5,000-word capstone thesis with full citations, plus a 20-minute oral defense before faculty covering methodology, sources, ethics, and practice.

Required reading

  • — Your own field record, materia portfolio, working ledger, and ethics statement
Checking your seat…

After the Capstone

What alumni receive

Complete the CRT 400 Capstone and earn your Certificate of Completion. That makes you alumni — and here is what you carry with you.

Root Directory listing

Completion earns you a listing in the Root Directory.

One annual Congo Square lecture

Each alumnus may give one lecture a year to fellow alumni.

Lifetime access

Lifetime access to completed course materials and future updates.

Alumni discount

10% off new courses and the herbalism certificate.

Live Q&As

Alumni-only live Q&As and a quarterly “Sit With Auntie” session.

Certificate and digital badge

For your website and social profiles.

Alumni directory

Connect with other practitioners.

Teaching and guest spots

Lecture presenter and podcast guest opportunities.

Practitioner listing

A listing on HoodooUniversity.com so you can promote your own services.

Annual alumni gathering

Virtual or in person.

Alumni-only ancestor altar

Confirmation of certification earns each alumnus “white light.” The altar shown will be shipped to alumni to install in their own home, bringing them into the HU family circle.

Original white-light ancestor altar viewed from the front, with four arched openings and glowing candlesOriginal white-light ancestor altar viewed from the left sideOriginal white-light ancestor altar viewed from the right side

Alumni-only

The Alumni Ancestor Altar

Confirmation of certification earns each alumnus “white light.” The altar shown will be shipped to alumni to install in their own home, bringing them into the HU family circle.

Alumni practitioner directories

After earning your Capstone certificate, submit your practice name, services, location, and website for faculty approval. Your approved listing helps people find your services in the Root Directory and connects you with fellow practitioners on the alumni page.

Root DirectoryAlumni practitioners & listing submission

Faculty review

Grading rubric

Capstone completion requires a weighted score of 80 or higher, with no single criterion below 60. Work may be returned once for revision.

25%

Source rigor & citation

Claims are traced to primary accounts, field collections, or peer-reviewed scholarship. Outsider sources are read critically, not repeated uncritically.

20%

Field record & original research

Interview quality, consent and care, transcription accuracy, and depth of reflection.

15%

Materia knowledge & safety

Correct identification, honest sourcing, substitutions, and contraindication notes.

20%

Applied practice & ledger honesty

A complete working cycle, recorded as it happened — including what failed.

20%

Ethics & cultural accountability

A clear covenant, respect for lineage and community, and a defensible stance on payment, consent, and refusal.

The reading room

Core bibliography

Every claim in your thesis must be traceable to one of these sources, to your own field record, or to another source you can defend. Outsider collections are read critically.

Zora Neale Hurston

Mules and Men (1935); "Hoodoo in America" (1931); Every Tongue Got to Confess

Anthropologist and initiate; the foundational insider field record of Gulf Coast and New Orleans hoodoo.

Harry Middleton Hyatt

Hoodoo–Conjuration–Witchcraft–Rootwork, 5 vols. (1970–78)

Roughly 1,600 interviews with practitioners; the largest surviving body of first-person testimony.

Lindsey Stewart

The Politics of Black Joy (2021)

Philosophy of Hurston's conjure ethics — joy, refusal, and Black self-determination in the tradition.

Lindsey Stewart

The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic (2025)

A cultural history of conjure as practiced by Black women from slavery to today — read it for its argument about their medicine, craft, and influence on American life, and weigh its claims against the primary record.

Katrina Hazzard-Donald

Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System (2013)

Distinguishes the old system from commercialized "marketeered" hoodoo.

Yvonne P. Chireau

Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition (2003)

Conjure and Black Christianity as intertwined, not opposed.

Carolyn Morrow Long

Spiritual Merchants (2001)

How commerce, supply houses, and manufactured goods reshaped practice.

Jeffrey E. Anderson

Conjure in African American Society (2005); Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook

Historical survey of conjure across slavery, emancipation, and migration.

Albert J. Raboteau

Slave Religion (1978)

The religious world conjure lived inside during enslavement.

Sharla M. Fett

Working Cures (2002)

Healing, health, and power on Southern plantations — the medical side of the work.

Michele Elizabeth Lee

Working the Roots (2014)

Oral-history-based record of African American healing and materia.

Stephanie Y. Mitchem

African American Folk Healing (2007)

Folk healing as a living, contemporary Black practice.

Luisah Teish

Jambalaya (1985)

Practitioner-scholar text on ritual, ancestor work, and personal charms.

Tayannah Lee McQuillar

Rootwork: Using the Folk Magick of Black America (2003)

Practical rootwork situated in African American cultural context.

Newbell Niles Puckett

Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro (1926)

Early outsider collection — assigned for critical reading of bias, not as authority.

A note on the Capstone

Hoodoo University certification recognizes completion of this course of study within our school. It is not a license, a clinical credential, or an initiation into any lineage, house, or religious tradition. Nothing taught here substitutes for medical, legal, financial, or mental-health care.