House of Roots and Bones: Prayer, Voice, and Spoken Conjure Department

XIV. PRAYER, VOICE & SPOKEN CONJURE
HORB PRY 501 — How to Pray Over Work
Teaches students to construct living prayer for real conditions rather than rely on scripts. Covers petition, invocation, naming, thanksgiving, command, confession, and closing. Students learn to pray with understanding because they know the work, not because they memorized someone else’s words.
HORB PRY 502 — Praying Scripture Into a Condition
Teaches students to find Biblical language that speaks directly to the actual nature of a case. Students learn to diagnose first, then select and apply Scripture with proper context. Emphasizes clarity, specificity, and correct use rather than relying on numerical associations.
HORB PRY 503 — The Black Church Prayer Tradition & Hoodoo
Studies Black church prayer as an oral tradition shaped by Scripture, testimony, and lived experience. Examines prayer meetings, altar prayer, deliverance language, and household devotion. Explores historical connections with Hoodoo without claiming all church prayer is conjure.
HORB PRY 504 — Calling a Person’s Name in Prayer
Examines the use of names to identify petitioners, adversaries, relatives, clients, and the dead. Covers full names, nicknames, maiden names, and repeated naming within prayer. Teaches how naming supports sympathetic linking, specificity, and purposeful work.
HORB PRY 505 — Speaking Over Water, Oil & Other Materia
Teaches students to integrate prayer directly into the preparation of oils, waters, washes, roots, powders, candles, and other materials. Covers when and how to pray during gathering, combining, dressing, fixing, applying, and maintaining. Emphasizes that the words spoken must match both the material and the condition.
HORB PRY 506 — Petition Papers: Language, Names & Commands
Studies petition papers as written statements of person, condition, intention, request, or command. Covers names, signatures, crossed names, paper choice, folding, and placement. Teaches students to construct clear, purposeful petitions integrated into the larger work.
HORB PRY 507 — Petition Grammar for Rootworkers
Trains students to remove contradiction, vagueness, and confused objectives from petitions. Students analyze requests, identify actor, action, object, condition, and desired result. Teaches when to bless, draw, remove, stop, expose, protect, reconcile, separate, or seek clarity.
HORB PRY 508 — Testimony as Spiritual Technology
Examines testimony as a means of declaring deliverance, preserving memory, and teaching through experience. Covers testimony within Black church culture, family stories, and worker reputation. Teaches responsible documentation without exploiting clients or exaggerating outcomes.
HORB PRY 509 — Prayer When the Worker Is Angry, Afraid or Grieving
Addresses prayer when the worker’s own emotions are involved in the condition. Uses Biblical prayers of lament, anger, refuge, and distress as models for honest, disciplined prayer. Teaches how to pray from the truth of emotion while retaining jurisdiction and clarity.
HORB PRY 510 — Advanced Prayer Practicum
Requires students to construct appropriate prayers for unfamiliar conditions. Students must select Scripture, identify parties, state the condition, formulate the desired action, and close coherently. Evaluated on judgment, theological comprehension, clarity, cultural grounding, and the ability to adapt rather than perform memorized language.