Interview with Dr. Snake
Legendary cult author interviewed by The X Factor magazine
Dr. Snake is a practitioner of voodoo conjure, the Afro-American system of folk magic, also known as Hoo Doo and found mostly in the southern states. He is also an author and guitar player. He grew up in London and – unusually for a voodooist – he is a white man. He came to the “conjure path,” as he terms it, due to playing in a blues/calypso band during the 1980s with a Trinidadian singer called Earl Marlowe, who instructed him in the “art of conjure.”
His book, Doktor Snake’s Voodoo Spellbook, is published worldwide by St. Martin’s Press and Connections. It is illustrated by UK artist Chris Daunt and has a voodoo doll attached to the spine. The book not only contains a wealth of spells and charms from the voodoo and Hoo Doo traditions, but also includes many colorful anecdotes from Doktor Snake’s life as a voodoo doctor, operating both in the U.K. and U.S.A.
The final chapter of the book, “Voodoo Spirits,” describes the shamanic-style hallucinogenic journey that led to Snake inheriting the voodoo doctor mantle from his mentor, Earl Marlowe.
THE X FACTOR caught up with him in East London and asked how he came by the name Doktor Snake?
DOKTOR SNAKE: I’d been called Doktor Snake for a long time – playing in bands, and so on. But, officially, it was after my mentor, Earl Marlowe, died. Many of his clients came to me asking for help. They either wanted divinations performed or spells cast. At first I was reluctant, being unconfident about my abilities. But then a friend of Earl’s, an old West Indian guy who ran a domino club, said to me, “Earl handed his magical mantle down to you. You might not know it, but he did.”
He then gave me a silver snake ring, telling me that Earl had entrusted it to him just before he left this world, with instructions that it should be given to me. After that, I spent two weeks in deep meditation, burning oils and incenses, and communing with the spirits. The result was I took the magical name Doktor Snake and became a professional witch doctor.
X FACTOR: What is the difference is between Voodoo and Hoodoo?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Well, Voodoo is a religion and is predominantly practiced in Haiti and in Louisiana, particularly New Orleans. It involves the worship of specific gods and goddesses, known as the Loa. Animal sacrifices are made to them and initiates often get “mounted”, or possessed, by these deities. Their ego-self is totally dissolved, or else has left their physical body, during the possession trance. They literally become the deity that has entered them.
It is amazing to see – and pretty damn scary. Hoodoo, on the other hand, is not a religion. It is a folk magic tradition practiced mainly in the Southern States of America. It does involve contact with spirits, but essentially revolves around the power of the individual sorcerer to get things accomplished. Both Voodoo and Hoodoo have their roots in Africa. And both have initiates from all walks of life. Many whites and mixed race people are involved too.
X FACTOR: In your book, you state that you are more involved with Hoodoo than Voodoo. Is this the case?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Although we had a level of involvement with Voodoo, particularly during the 1980s, neither Earl or I were religious. We were Hoodoo conjurers, or magicians, who were into getting things done. Way we saw it was if you needed money, then you put a job (spell) together and it comes your way. Might not make you a millionaire, but it’ll ease any financial problems. And if someone tries to fuck you over, then you hex ‘em. It’s as simple as that. But, you know, it’s the same in Voodoo; they don’t mess about either. It’s just that they are religious too.
X FACTOR: Many people see Voodoo and Hoodoo as very dark paths, particularly when hexing is mentioned. How do you respond to that?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Well, I’ve very rarely hexed anyone. Only when pushed to the limit; when someone has threatened me. Earl and I were forced to hex a music promoter once. Our band “Wildcat Bones” had played a gig in London and there had been a good sized crowd. But the promoter absconded without paying us.
We were not pleased.
The only problem was the promoter had some very heavy friends. He was a small time gangster, basically.Anyway, Earl told me to meet him at the promoter’s house which, as I recall, was in the Stoke Newington area of London. We knocked on his door and he went crazy when he saw us. Said he’d see to it that we were crushed in the car crusher at the scrap-yard he owned.
I was pretty nervous at that point. But Earl didn’t have any fear. He just stood there in his purple shades and started chewing on a root. He went into a trance and started doing his unknown tongues, spirit talk. Then he leapt at the promoter and let out this falsetto howl…which, believe you me, sounded inhuman, like he was of the elven race.
Anyway, the promoter fainted with fear; he was out cold. The very next day we were paid in full – he even gave us a bonus. Very occasionally, you have to do things like that.
X FACTOR: Are there any spiritual aspects to Hoodoo?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Definitely. It isn’t all practical magic. On occasion, for instance, I travel into the spirit world in my double or shadow body. At one time I used to use magic mushrooms to help me accomplish this. But I don’t anymore. I simply burn herbs and incenses and stare into a crystal ball. After about half-an-hour I’m usually out of my body and in some kind of spirit realm.
X FACTOR: What are these “spirit realms” like?
DOKTOR SNAKE: They take many forms. Some are kind of “underworld” in nature. Full of caverns and darkness and shades. Others are brighter, more “upperworld”. Recently, on one of my trips into the ether, I entered a middle world realm. There was a neat hedgerow in front of me, lots of ornate flower borders and a floral arch placed in the hedge row. Beyond that, in the distance, were blue mountains. It was a glorious day. It was like paradise. I can’t adequately describe the beauty of it all. Anyway, when I passed through the floral arch I came to a long winding path that led to the blue mountains. As I walked along it, I encountered various spirit animals who one way or another communed with me.
Finally, when I reached the foot of the mountains, I came across my main power animal – the Rattler, a rattle snake. He had a very definite message for me about the way the human race has an emphasis on separateness and that the prevailing emphasis must now be reconciliation, if we are to survive as a species. One day, he promised, the sky will melt and the desert dreamers will dream their dreams, together as one.
X FACTOR: In your “Voodoo Spellbook” you give spells to help with nearly every conceivable situation in life. Do they really work?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Believe me, they work…
X FACTOR: How much do you charge people to work spells for them?
DOKTOR SNAKE: It varies. At psychic fayres, and so on, I tend to charge anything from £10 upwards. If they want to bring love into their lives, for instance, I’ll make up a mojo hand which will do that. I fill a red draw-string bag with things like lavender flowers, chamomile, clover flowers, maybe throw in some rose buds and tonka beans, along with a few drops of Love Oil. While I’m filling the bag, I burn a red candle and Lovers’ Incense and whisper a charm in unknown tongues.
But sometimes I get called on to do more sophisticated jobs. Recently, for example, I was enjoying a day out with my family at Knebworth House and my mobile rang. A couple of my clients wouldn’t get on a plane because they were convinced it was going to crash. And they very much needed to take that flight. I agreed to drop everything and go and sort the problem out. Luckily, I had my conjure bag with me and so I was able to go directly to the airport. When I got there, I did a major blessing of the aircraft and my two clients.
In all that job cost them two grand. But they considered it worth it. And, after all, it was a Sunday and my day out with my family had been interrupted.
X FACTOR: As a musician, you’re influenced by the music of the 1930s bluesman Robert Johnson, who was supposed to have sold his soul to the devil for fame. Do you think there was any truth in the legend?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Yeah, I do. But it depends what you mean by the “devil”. Way I see it is Robert Johnson joined a Hoodoo cult, which hung out somewhere in the Mississippi Delta. Through them, he learnt all about Hoodoo magic; and in particular how, if you go to a deserted crossroads at midnight for seven nights, the devil comes and will teach you anything you need to know.
This idea actually has its roots in African sorcery. But for them the deity at the crossroads isn’t the devil, it’s a tutelary deity. It’s only the Christians who grafted the devil on to the crossroads deal. So Hoo Doo-ists call the crossroads spirit the devil, but really they see him as a teaching spirit. And that’s likely the way Johnson saw it; he went down to the crossroads and invoked the crossroad’s spirit – a big black man who taught him how to play some serious guitar.
That’s the way it was. Any old time black Southerner, worth their salt, will tell you that.
X FACTOR: You claim to have helped a number of rock musicians sell their souls for fame?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Yes, I’ve taken a few rock stars to the crossroads to make the devil’s pact. I can’t name them, though. Made hard promises I wouldn’t.
X FACTOR: So this is a professional service you offer?
DOKTOR SNAKE: Yes. You could see me as a consultant. I help rock musicians through the final stages of “rock school,” so they’re fully qualified to make the “devil’s music.” Someone’s got to do it. Otherwise rock would be a total commodity and have no edge left at all.
