the.com/hoodoo
a rock spire balancing impossibly, or rootwork that bends luck — depends who you ask
means A tall, thin spire of rock that rises from the floor of an arid basin or badland (a geological feature shaped by erosion), or — in another sense — a body of African American folk magic and the bad luck or curse it can bring.
from The folk-magic sense came first, recorded in 19th-century American English and almost certainly carried over from West African spiritual traditions by enslaved peoples — it's often linked to the same roots as 'voodoo,' though the two are distinct practices. From the idea of a jinx or an object that brings misfortune, 'hoodoo' stretched to mean anyone or anything that seemed to attract bad luck. The rock-spire sense is later American slang: the eerie, otherworldly stone columns of the western badlands looked so uncanny and ominous that frontier folk borrowed the curse-word to name them.
- twin meaning
- Both a stone column and a folk-magic tradition
- bryce canyon
- Holds the densest hoodoo forest on Earth
- paiute legend
- Said to be people turned to stone
- capstone king
- A hard rock cap keeps the spire standing
- root work
- African-American folk magic blending herbs and spirits
bryce canyon hoodoos — utah national park with over 60,000 red rock spires formed by erosion
writer's block hoodoo — famous rock formation in alberta, canada along the red rock parkway