The mojo hand is the characteristic charm of Hoodoo, the African American folk practice, a small flannel bag filled with a chosen combination of materials, and it is treated less as a static object than as a working thing that must be tended.
A bag made for a purpose
The mojo hand is typically a small flannel bag, often red, filled with a combination of roots, herbs, minerals, personal items and other materials chosen for the specific aim of the charm, for protection, luck, money, love, gambling or a court case, so that its contents are assembled to the purpose. It is made and fixed by the practitioner with ritual, then carried on the person, usually hidden, and its power is understood to depend on the correct making and the continued secrecy and care of the bag.
Kept alive
A distinctive feature of the mojo is that it is fed and worked: it is periodically dressed with a liquid such as whiskey or a scented oil to keep it active, spoken to, and kept from the sight and touch of others, so that maintaining it is an ongoing relationship rather than the mere possession of an object. Hoodoo itself is a body of African American folk magical practice that drew together West and Central African traditions, biblical and European folk elements, and Native American plant knowledge under the conditions of slavery and after, and the mojo hand is its signature working. The object thus carries a specific history and a living practice, and its power is held to reside in the making, the tending and the secrecy as much as in the materials within.