What exactly is a mojo bone?

Question

In this country music song, the singer goes....

Down in Louisiana, where the black trees grow
Lives a voodoo lady named Marie Laveau
Got a black cat's tooth and a Mojo bone
And anyone who wouldn't leave her alone
She'd go (yeeraaar) another man done gone.

What is a mojo bone?/

Answer 1

Mojo means:
1.A magic charm or spell.
2.An amulet, often a small flannel bag containing one or more magic items, worn by adherents of hoodoo or voodoo.
3.Personal magnetism; Charm.

A 1946 account from New Orleans said that the mojo was "the leg bone of a black cat that's been killed in a graveyard at midnight." So, probably that is where the word mojo bone originated.

If your mojo is working, you lead a charmed life. That's because mojo, in its original sense, is a charm, kept in a cloth bag. Depending on which conjure doctor you go to, the charm can be roots, rats, snakes, lizards, pumpkin seeds, dirt, clay, or steel wool or bones. Those were ingredients mentioned in North Carolina in 1962. Back in the late 1930s, in Memphis, Tennessee, to make a mojo one expert said you would sew a red flannel bag with these ingredients: High John de Conker (a plant known also as Solomon's seal), black lodestone, Adam and Eve root, and violet incense powders.

If your mojo is working, you have sex appeal. But if someone else touches or even sees your mojo, it can lose its power. That's the explanation of the lyrics in the 1928 blues song: "My rider's got a mojo and she won't let me see.... She's got to fool her daddy, she's got to keep that mojo hid; But papa's got something for to find that mojo with. " Written evidence for the word goes back to 1926 in the song title, "My Daddy's Got the Mojo, But I Got The Say-So." Nowadays the word is widely used, often with no reference to a magical cloth bag but simply meaning power, influence, or advantage.

The word is African American. Its origin is uncertain, but it seems probable that mojo ultimately came from Africa. If it did, a good candidate for the source is moco'o, meaning a conjure doctor or person who works magic.

Answer 2

Mojo Bones

Answer 3

Mojo (pronounced: 'mO-"jO) is a term commonly encountered in the African-American folk belief called hoodoo. A mojo is a small bag, a type of magic charm, often of red flannel cloth and tied with a drawstring, containing botanical, zoological, and/or mineral curios, petition papers, and the like. It is typically worn by a person under the clothes.

So it's a bone - probably chicken that has powers.

Answer 4

Mostly as a follow-up to Mary's great answer--it's more commonly a chicken bone these days, but traditionally it's the bone of a black cat, usually with some sort of condition attached to the cat itself, depending on the tradition; for example, the cat must have been killed at a crossroads, or it could never have been allowed to see sunlight, that sort of thing.

Answer 5

Your Penis, your Mojo is your arousal, your Ora, that thing you have to attract the opposite sex, your Magic. Mojo bone is the male penis. If its' gone, then the man done gone

Answer 6

Try Machine Head for a start. they're an amazing metal band that makes u want to just start shedding. lamb of god seems to work for me. if u want something classier try songs like painkller by judas priest. if you are in for a laugh try songs like death to all but metal by steel panther. MQ: Metallica - Ride the Lightning i dont know much about folk metal. epic drawings though hope this helps, LONG LIVE METAL

Answer 7

Black cat bone, a live black cat is thrown into a boiling pot after it dies it sinks to the bottom and it boils a while the first bone that floats to the top is your black cat bone.

Answer 8

I think it is a black cat bone