Whu''appenin deh Ras!
I think InI need to distinguish between the "New Age Obeah men" you a talk bout, and the original sources which they RIP OFF AND DISTORT their information.
Since you mention Obeah, I takin that as an example: Obeah is a descendant of ancient African spiritual and medicinal traditions, traditions which have served people well for many thousands of years. I agree with you that most Obeah man and woman nowadays are nothing but con artists... in Guyana they do a booming business getting people to pay them their life savings in exchange for a couple of eggs and some oils which are supposed to get them a visa to the U.S.... when if they really that desperate to get over here they would be much better off just bribing the guy at the U.S. Embassy... you know how we countries does run... I believe some of them do have real powers but often they are used for evil purposes... but leh we analyze why that is. Is it the ancient African tradition that is wrong, or the way that it has been diluted and distorted by slavery? When we was brought here, sometimes we might want a traditional healer... maybe on the plantation there isn't anyone fully trained and intitiated to be a healer/Obeah man/whatever yu waan call it, but there's someone who has a lil smattering of knowledge, he pretends he has more than he really does cos people goin pay he, so he now become looked at as the "obeah man" when really he has very little knowledge of the whole tradition. You sight? And as for it being used for evil, think of all the paranoia, animosity, crab-in-a-barrel syndrome that slavery (and neo-slavery) cause... well that is your explanation for that.

What I'm saying is obeah, voudoun, santeria, and all these traditions are just as capable of being distorted and used for wrong purposes as Judeo-Christian tradition... not more, not less. Don't let the distortions blind you to the TRUTH at the ROOT.
And yes, is the SAME root whether you talking about Judeo-Christian, Voudoun or Obeah... African roots. The brudda or sista who post the first thing on this thread say Egypt, I say you could look back further even than that.
Check this out though: The Lord's Prayer from the Bible is lifted almost word for word from the Egyptian Book Of the Dead. Check it for yourself.
If you already know all these things, sorry for belaboring the point, but your post led me to believe that you didn't.
Much Raspek Rastaman!