go gadget goHere are some explanations of what Mojo means...
I remember a Mojo. It's one of the supervillians in the X-Men saga. Quite a while ago, if I recall. For those of you who used to watch Sat. morning cartoons, it is the episode where the Xmen get drawn into this other dimension where they are captured as "game pieces" and they must fight to stay alive. As usual, Wolverine (Logan, Patch, Weapon X, etc.) kicks major ass, but I digress. Mojowas the big fat ugly thing with the metallic, spider-like legs and green skin. Okaybye.
Actually, I believe Mojo has a sexual reference, but it is defined as a magic spell or charm. Also, in LA Woman by the doors, Jim says, "I got my MOJO risin'." Just food for thought.
This would fit pretty well with Muddy Water's famous "Got my MOJO workin'".
A mojo is a natural muslin bag tied with the appropriate color and number of knots, filled with herbs that are traditional for the purpose specified. They are made in the traditional times and anointed with the oil that corresponds with the intent. Each bag is made in the proper hour on the proper day. Stones may be added to greatly enhance the powers of the herbs i.e. when properly anointed and blessed, Smoky Quartz enhances the protection qualities of the mojo. There is a large variety of stones, each having its own specific quality. These bags are to be carried, worn or placed in the car or home.
Mojo bags are named for and made to assist in the following situations: Better Health, Gambling, Good Luck, Keep Away Evil, Love, Marry Me, Money, Power, Protection, Secret Desire, Spiritual Strength, and Wishing.
MOJO is actually a small bar/cafe on the corner of Houston and Allen St. in my neighborhood. It's also a small guitar shop on 6 or St. Marks between 1st and A.
I think all of the definitions of "Mojo" that we've heard have their truths. I mean, "Mojo" does have a direct link to hoodoo. Jim Morrison does sing about "Mr. Mojo Risin". Muddy Waters just can't seem to get his to work.
So how does it all fit into Jeff Buckley's kick-ass tune "Mojo Pin"? Well, I'd have to guess that the description of a mojo pin being slang for heroine could probably fit in rather nicely. Maybe that's what he's really singing about. When he lost his loved one, either in death or a bad break up, he may have turned to smack. The whole "If only you'd come back to me..." line clearly demonstrates that. "...the white horses flow" may also represent heroine flowing in a vein.
But we know all of that, don't we, loyal JB fans? What it comes down to is that, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, a "Mojo" can be anything that we can use in order to make us feel safe, or to use so that we feel nothing at all. Somebody said a Placebo. Very good way putting it. Whether it be drugs, magic herbs or stones, whatever. To some people it's chocolate. To some, like me, it's making music. To many many people, it's praying, including myself.
Mojo : Magic, as in Voodoo. He put a mojo on me. or, you need a strong mojo to avert that curse.
Pin : a magic pin ala voodoo doll
it seems like we came up with a consensus months ago that the reference is to Heroin. -------------- injected the white "horses" flow.
but not necessarily
Don't feel stupid for not knowing what a "mojo pin" is. I asked Mr. Buckley himself at a Tower in-store performance (the one where he said "Scorpios rule!") and he didn't make me feel stupid at all. He said it was either NY slang for smack or an inside term that he and friends had made up, he couldn't remember. So in other words, it's a "fix".
some more suggestions thanks to ben...
1 - a magic spell, hex, or charm used against someone else, either as a love spell, hex or charm or a bad luck spell, hex or charm. It's blues function as a sexual euphemism seems to have arisen with Blind Lemon Jefferson's 1928 song "Low-down Mojo". For the record, "Mr. Mojo Risin'" in the song L.A. Woman from The Doors album "L.A. Woman" is nothing more than an anagram for "Jim Morrison"!;
2 - charm; amulet; conjuring object; a good-luck charm used by gamblers and lovers;
3 - magical power;
4 - the staple amulet of African-American hoodoo practice, a flannel bag containing one or more magical items. They were made with great care and contained personal fragments and natural objects: hair from the armpits or pubic region, fingernail pairings, pieces of skin were considered especially effective in love charms, as were fragments of underclothing, of a menstrual cloth and other closely personal effects. Combined with parts of night creatures, bats or toads, and with ashes and feathers from sources selected for a symbolic significance relative to the purpose for which they had been prepared. They were all tied up into small conjure bags or put into an innocuous-looking receptacle and either carried to exert their power upon the victim when contact was made with him or buried beneath his doorstep, hidden in his bed or hearth. The word is thought to be a corruption of the English word "magic". Other names for it include conjure bag, hand, lucky hand, mojo bag, mojo hand, root bag, toby, juju and gris-gris bag. In the Memphis region, a special kind of mojo, worn only by women, is called a nation sack. The word "conjure", as in "conjure work" (casting spells) and "conjure woman" (a female herbalist-magician), is an old alternative to "hoodoo". The word "hand" in this context may derive from the use of a rare orchid root called Lucky Hand root as an ingredient in mojo bags for gamblers, or from the use of finger and hand bones of the dead in mojo bags made for various purposes;
5 - Steven Drahozal wrote: "To make a gris-gris bag, one uses different colors of bags for different affects. I know red is for love. One also uses different roots for different affects. To really make the mojo work, you need a personal item from the person and no one else can touch your bag. I got my mojo for love in New Orleans (way way way behind the sun)."
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